Schlumberger announced today the release of the SonicScope* multipole sonic-while-drilling service for wells with large boreholes. The SonicScope service provides high fidelity measurements to determine formation pore pressure and breakout limits to improve drilling risk management.

“When drilling in challenging environments such as deepwater, operators are often faced with mud weight selection and wellbore instability issues that can be a result of uncertainties of pore pressures in geological layers,” said Steve Kaufmann, president, Drilling & Measurements, Schlumberger. “The SonicScope service is a key component of a real-time workflow aimed at drilling wells more safely by estimating pore pressures in various geological layers and enable operators to adjust mud weight windows accordingly.”

To increase operator confidence in sonic measurements and improve decision making, a comprehensive quality control process—consisting of a series of unique control plots—is applied to confirm the data is unaffected by external factors. Additionally, the SonicScope service features a fast-logging multimode capability that enables top of cement identification with consistency and repeatability while tripping.

The SonicScope service has been field tested globally, including multiple deepwater locations such as the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, East Africa, Brazil, the North Sea and Australia. More than 150 runs have been successfully conducted in well boreholes ranging from 10 ½-in to 17 ½-in for exploration and development projects. Data obtained with the multipole sonic-while-drilling service has proven to be a valuable component of a real-time workflow that identifies geological layers and adjusts the mud weight window accordingly to improve drilling risk management.

Recently, an operator in Malaysia acquired high-quality compressional and slow shear data in a very soft formation to reduce uncertainty related to surface seismic information. For the four wells drilled, the SonicScope service provided reliable data, enabling correction of the time-depth conversion, which allowed the operator to accurately identify geological layers and potential drilling hazards.

Press Release, October 30, 2013