Borehole geological assessment

A method and apparatus are provided for performing geological assessments of a formation located along a borehole, which includes a boring tool that bores a pair of holes into the walls of the borehole and into the surrounding strata, and a pair of probes installed in the holes. One of the probes applies an input such as a current or pressured fluid, and the other probe senses a corresponding input which it receives from the strata. The boring tool can include a series of rigid bore segments that can be easily installed in a housing that lies in the borehole, and apparatus for connecting the bore segments in series while also advancing them into the strata surrounding the borehole, so that a straight hole can be bored in the strata.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
A variety of techniques are utilized to assess the potential oil recovery 
from existing boreholes, by making measurements in the borehole indicating 
the characteristics of the surrounding strata. These techniques include 
sonic, resistivity, radioactivity (neutron), gravimetry and dielectric 
constant logging, as well as detailed studies of core samples removed in 
drilling the borehole and flow rate tests. However, these techniques all 
have shortcomings since they are affected by the fact that the walls of 
the borehole have been disturbed by drilling so they have undergone 
changes such as in internal pressures, and are caked by drilling mud, all 
of which can lead to inaccurate assessments. Techniques which enabled the 
measurement of formation characteristics by probes brought to the 
formation by way of a borehole, while minimizing the effects on the 
measurements of localized changes caused by the drilling of the borehole, 
would enable the making of more accurate geological assessments. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a method and 
apparatus is provided for enabling more accurate geological assessments of 
the strata surrounding a borehole. This is accomplished by boring a deep 
hole of a length of many borehole diameters away from the borehole and 
placing a probe thereat, so that the probe can take measurements at a 
relatively undisturbed location. A pair of such holes can be formed to 
position two probes at closely spaced locations within the formation, and 
an input such as a current or pressured fluid, can be applied through one 
probe and sensed through the other to obtain an indication of the 
formation characteristics. Before a fluid is pumped out of the end of the 
probe, the probe can be sealed to the hole in which it lies, as by an 
inflatable seal, to prevent fluid from gathering in the portions of the 
hole other than the ends. 
One way of boring a deep side hole for a probe or for obtaining a core 
sample, by means of a device lowered down a narrow borehole, includes the 
connection of a series of rigid bore segments progressively together as 
the bore segments are advanced into the surrounding strata. This provides 
a relatively rigid boring tool to assure that the side hole extends 
substantially along a straight line, and enables such a rigid boring tool 
to be accommodated in a relatively narrow housing that can pass down the 
borehole. 
The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the 
appended claims. The invention will be best understood from the following 
description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
FIG. 1 illustrates a geological assessment device 10 which has been lowered 
into a previously drilled borehole 12, down to the level of a porous 
sandstone structure 14 that contains oil and that underlies a shale 
capstone layer 16. When the assessment device 10 has been lowered as by a 
winch 18, to a desired depth along the borehole, the device installs a 
pair of probes 20, 22 into side holes 24, 26 that have been bored into the 
side wall of the borehole 12 and deeply into the surrounding strata. One 
of the probes 20 delivers an input in the form of a tagged fluid into the 
strata 14, while the other probe 22 is constructed to sense the flow of 
that input into its hole 26, to provide an indication of the nature of the 
strata, and particularly the amount and rate at which oil may be obtained 
therefrom, as for example by an enhanced oil recovery process. 
The probes in FIG. 1 are vertically spaced, but it is possible to space 
them in any other manner. FIG. 2 illustrates a pair of probes 28, 30 lying 
at the same height, but extending from the borehole 12 in directions 
angularly spaced about the axis of the borehole. One of the probes 28 may 
apply an input such as a current, which is returned by the other probe 30. 
Any one of a number of conventional well logging devices may be similarly 
placed, but the present method is especially useful where the log benefits 
from the transmission of an input through the undisturbed formation for 
some distance. 
FIG. 3 illustrates end portions of the probes 20, 22 of FIG. 1. The probe 
20 has an end portion 20e with holes that emit pressured fluid, while the 
other probe has an end portion 22e that can receive fluids. In order to 
prevent the fluid from accumulating in the rest of the side holes 24 or 
26, packers 32 are placed around a significant length of the probes to 
seal them to the walls of the side holes. The packer 32 includes an 
inflatable elastomeric member which can be inflated as by a C0.sup.2 
cartridge to expand the member against the walls of the side hole. With 
fluid pumped under pressure into the probe 20, and with a relative vacuum 
applied to the other probe 22 to draw out fluid, an indication of the 
permeability of the strata can be obtained. The side holes 24, 26 should 
be long enough so that the probe end portions are located a plurality of 
bore hole diameters D away from the borehole so that the mud caking on the 
borehole walls, the mechanical disturbance of the borehole walls, the 
empty space formed by the borehole, and the stress relief immediately 
about the borehole all have minimal effect upon the measurements. 
FIG. 4 illustrates a simplified geological assessment device 10, which must 
bore holes into the strata surrounding the borehole and emplace a pair of 
probes therein. The device includes a narrow housing 40 for fitting down 
the borehole 12 which may have a diameter such as six inches. A group of 
clamps 42 hold the housing firmly at a particular position within the 
borehole to which the device has been lowered by a cable 43. A boring tool 
44 is shown as including a flexible fluid-carrying member 46 which is 
originally wound in reel 48, and which is supplied with pressured fluid 
that flows out through an end 50 of the tool as it is unwound from the 
reel, to bore a deep hole into a soft strata 14 surrounding the borehole. 
A pump 51 pumps fluid lying in the borehole or formation into the tool. In 
this connection, it should be noted that packers can be utilized instead 
of clamps 42, to seal out drilling mud and allow formation fluids to enter 
the apparatus to be used for boring or as a drilling fluid. The boring 
tool has already bored one hole 52 and is now boring a second hole 54 
whose end will be closely spaced from the first hole. After each boring, 
the reel 48 is rewound to withdraw the boring tool from the hole. After 
the first hole 52 was formed, a stepping motor 56 that drives a gear 
engaging a rack 57, advanced a frame 58 to the position at which the next 
hole 54 was to be formed. After the second hole has been formed and the 
boring tool retracted, the frame 58 is raised until probe deploying means 
59, 61 and a pair of probes 60, 62 are moved into positions previously 
occupied by the bore tool deploying means formed by tool guides 63, so 
that the probes are aligned with the holes 52, 54. The probes 60, 62 are 
then extended into the holes. The probes may include, for example, a 
flexible, inflatable tube, wound on a reel and having a current carrying 
electrode at its end. An electrical cable 64 extends from the frame 58 up 
to the surface of the earth, where technicians control the operation of 
the device and measure the input and output of the probes. Instead of 
moving the boring tool and probes vertically, they could be turned about 
the axis of the borehole by utilizing a ring gear instead of rack 57. 
In the boring of side holes, it is normally desirable to form the holes by 
mechanical drilling, to provide minimum disturbance of the strata and to 
enable boring into the strata of a variety of hardnesses. A simple rigid 
drill rod could be used for drilling a sidehole, except that a typical 
borehole has a small diameter such as six inches, so that such a drill 
could be only 6 inches long if it drilled perpendicular to the axis of the 
borehole, and only about 8 inches long even if it drilled at a 45.degree. 
angle to the borehole axis. A flexible shaft could be used to drill a long 
sidehole, since such a shaft could be stored in a coil or along the length 
of the borehole. However, a flexible shaft could not be relied upon to 
drill a straight hole, and wound tend to drill in a circle. Electronic 
controls could be utilized to sense the direction of drilling and cause 
drilling to occur along a straight line, but this would add considerably 
to the complexity and cost of the apparatus. FIG. 5 illustrates a boring 
tool 70, which lies within a geological assessment apparatus 72 that has 
been lowered down along a borehole 12, and which can mechanically drill a 
straight sidehole. 
The boring tool 70 of FIG. 5 includes a group of substantially rigid bore 
section or segment members 74 that can be connected in series with one 
another and with a foremost member 76 that carries a drill head 78. The 
bore members are rotated by a motor 80 whose output shaft is connected 
through a pinion 82 to a large gear 84 which has a splined hole 86. Each 
of the bore members, including the leading member 76, has a splined outer 
surface that matches the splined hole 86 of the larger gear, so that as 
the gear 84 turns it turns the bore member lying therewithin. The bore 
members are also connected to one another by means of splined key portions 
88 at the front of each section 74, that fit into a splined hole 90 at the 
rear of each bore member, to cause all bore members to turn together. This 
engagement of the bore members also assures that they will all lie along 
substantially a straight line when they are connected together, so that 
the hole that they drill into the strata is substantially straight, and 
therefore the probes can be accurately positioned. 
The bore section members 74 are held in a cartridge 92 that permits one 
bore member at a time to fall into a cradle guide 94. When a bore member 
74 falls into the cradle guide, its key portion 88 is pushed into the bore 
member ahead of it by an actuator 96. The actuator not only pushes 
successive bore members into one another, but also maintains presusre 
against the string of bore members to keep the drill head 78 pressed 
firmly against the strata as it turns. The mechanism for advancing the 
actuator and maintaining forward pressure on it while it advances each 
bore member, can include a screw 100 turned by a motor 102. The screw 
engages a coupling 104 connected to an end of the actuator 96 to move the 
coupling. As each bore member passes an end of the cradle, a switch 106 
senses the bore member to cause the motor to retract the actuator. The 
boring tool 70 is not retractable, and therefore the probe must be placed 
in the head portion of the tool, as by providing holes near the drill head 
88 through which pressured water can be pumped out into the strata. 
FIGS. 6-9 illustrate a boring tool 110 composed of segments 112 with 
sperically rounded ends, one end 114 being convex and the adjacent end 116 
of the next member being concave. The curved ends of the members allow 
them to be contained within a curved tube so that a long string of the 
members 112 can be contained in a narrow housing. When the members 112 are 
aligned with one another, a key 118 of one member is urged by a spring 120 
into a socket 122 of the next member, with the socket 122 being formed to 
closely receive the key 118. This causes the members to remain aligned so 
that a straight side hole can be drilled, and also permits the members to 
transmit torque through one another so that the drill head 124 of the 
foremost member 126 can be turned to drill a hole. The bore members 122 
are held in spring loaded contact by a steel cable 128 that runs the full 
length of the series of members. In order to maintain the cable under 
tension, a helical compression spring 130 is located in the drill head 
bore member 126, and the rearward end of the cable is anchored to the last 
bore member 132 (FIG. 8). 
After the side hole has been drilled into the strata surrounding the bore 
hole, the string of bore members can be retracted by pulling on the cable 
128. In order to permit retraction of the string of bore members into the 
narrow housing that fits in the borehole, provisions are made for the 
string of drill members to bend so as to turn from the horizontal to the 
vertical to fit into the narrow housing. This is accomplished by providing 
a series of spherical lugs 132 that are swaged onto the cable 128, with 
the lugs spaced apart by distances equal to the spacing of the bore 
members 112 along the cable. When a large tensile force is applied to the 
cable and to the last bore member 132, the lugs on the cable will 
overpower the springs 120 within the bore members to retract each key 118 
of a bore member from the socket 122 of the next bore member. The drill 
assembly formed by the string of bore members can then be retracted into a 
curved tube or other storage areas extending along the length of the 
housing that lies in the bore hole. 
The drill string formed by the bore members 112 can be turned by providing 
splines on the outside of the members which are driven by a mechanism 
similar to that shown in FIG. 5. Although rotation can be utilized, an 
oscillating motion is preferred, since only the aligned bore members are 
keyed together to rotate, and there is danger of twisting the rearward 
portion of the cable which extends through non-aligned bore members. 
FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate a system utilizing the drill string 110 of FIG. 
6 which includes a spiral tube 140 which holds a series of bore members 
112 out of alignment, and a motor 144 which turns the drill string. A pair 
of rubber rollers 148 advance the drill string along a straight guideway 
149 out of the housing 150 and into the surrounding strata. A drum 152 
unwinds the cable 128 as the drill string advances into the surrounding 
strata. A motor 154 thereafter turns the drum 152 to rewind the cable 128 
so as to withdraw the drill string back into the tube 140. After the drill 
string has been withdrawn, a housing portion 156 which includes the drill 
string, is lifted up by a pair of motor driven gears 160, to bring the 
drill head 124 into a position to bore a second hole in the surrounding 
strata. After the second hole has been bored and the drill string is 
retracted, the housing portion 156 is again lifted, to bring a pair of 
probes 162, 164 into alignment with the two holes that have been drilled. 
The probes 162, 164 can be unwound from reels and pushed into the holes. 
The probes can apply a variety of inputs to the surrounding strata and 
sense a variety of corresponding outputs, including currents, fluids, 
radioactive emissions, etc. Also, the boring apparatus can be of a hollow 
type for producing core samples. 
Thus, the invention provides a method and apparatus for providing 
geological assessments of the formation surrounding a borehole. This can 
be accomplished by installing a pair of probes in the formation at 
locations that are spaced with respect to the borehole, to minimize the 
effect of the borehole and the drilling mud utilized in forming the 
borehole, on the measurements taken on the strata. A variety of boring 
devices can be utilized, including a device that emits a boring fluid, and 
a variety of drilling devices. 
Although particular embodiments of the invention have been described and 
illustrated herein it is recognized that modifications and variations may 
readily occur to those skilled in the art, and consequently, it is 
intended that the claims be interpreted to cover such modifications and 
equivalents.