IP Library Granted Patent US 12680442
Granted Patent B2
US 12680442 · App. 18/693,459 · Granted Jul 14, 2026

Processing and joint interpretation using multiple borehole acoustic waves for through tubing cement evaluation

Inventors: Yao Ge (Singapore, SG); Ruijia Wang (Singapore, SG); Brenno Caetano Troca Cabella (Rio de Janeiro, BR); Xiang Wu (Singapore, SG); Chung Chang (Houston, TX); Ho Yin Ma (Houston, TX); Jing Jin (Singapore, SG); Marco Aurelio Luzio (Rio de Janeiro, BR); Otto Fanini (Houston, TX); Gary Wayne Kainer (Houston, TX)
Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
E21B47/005E21B47/085E21B2200/22
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12680442
App. No.
18/693,459
Granted
Jul 14, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

A method of through tubing cement evaluation includes obtaining acoustic cement bond evaluation data relating to a property of a cement bond of a cased-borehole for each of a plurality of acoustic methods, wherein the acoustic cement bond evaluation data comprises a quality control (QC) value indicative of a confidence level of cement bonding condition, determining an eccentricity value of a tubing relative to a casing in the borehole, determining an output of each acoustic method by combining the eccentricity value and the acoustic cement evaluation data associated with each acoustic method, combining the output of each acoustic method to generate an optimized cement bonding index log of the cement bond, and employing the optimized cement bonding index log to provide an interpretation of an overall cement bonding condition.

Claims (48)

1 . A method of through tubing cement evaluation, comprising:

deploying an acoustic logging tool within a tubing located inside a casing in a cased-borehole;

broadcasting, by a transmitter of the acoustic logging tool, acoustic wave signals such that the acoustic wave signals interact with the cased-borehole;

receiving, by a receiver of the acoustic logging tool, the acoustic wave signals;

obtaining acoustic cement bond evaluation data relating to a property of a cement bond of the cased-borehole for each of a plurality of acoustic methods by processing the received acoustic wave signals, wherein the acoustic cement bond evaluation data comprises a quality control (QC) value indicative of a confidence level of cement bonding condition;

determining an eccentricity value of the tubing relative to the casing, wherein the eccentricity value provides a direction and a magnitude of the tubing relative to the casing, wherein the eccentricity value varies between 0% to 100%, wherein the eccentricity value 0% indicates that the tubing is centered in the casing, and wherein the eccentricity value 100% indicates that the tubing is touching a wall of the casing;

determining an output of each of the acoustic methods by combining the eccentricity value and the acoustic cement bond evaluation data associated with each of the acoustic methods;

combining the output of each of the acoustic methods to generate an optimized cement bonding index log of the cement bond; and

employing the optimized cement bonding index log to provide an interpretation of an overall cement bonding condition.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the acoustic methods comprise an adjacent differential method, a polar differential method, a resonance-based method, or a casing guided wave based method.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the cement bonding condition is characterized based on a bond index (BI) value and/or a bond index two-dimensional (2D) map, wherein the BI value 1 represents that the tubing is bound to cement, and wherein the BI value 0 represents that the tubing is free of bonding to the cement.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising combining the output of each acoustic method using an empirical formula to generate the optimized cement bonding index log.

5 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising calculating the empirical formula by performing a weighted summation of weighted BI values of each of the acoustic methods.

6 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising calculating the empirical formula by comparing QC values of at least two acoustic methods, altering a weight of the QC value based on the comparison, and using an optimized weight in the weighted summation.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising combining the output of each acoustic method employing a machine learning system to generate the optimized cement bonding index log, wherein the machine learning system implements supervised learning or unsupervised learning, wherein the supervised learning comprises random forests, gradient boosting, or support vector machines (SVM), and wherein the unsupervised learning comprises clustering and principal component analysis (PCA).

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the cement bonding condition depends on a plurality of cement bonding parameters, a configuration of the tubing, a configuration of the casing, a property of material behind the casing, a channel size, a channel direction, and/or a channel thickness.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the configuration of the tubing comprises tubing outer diameter or tubing thickness, and wherein the configuration of the casing comprises casing outer diameter or casing thickness.

10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining whether a difference between the overall cement bonding condition and a previously determined cement bonding condition is greater than a threshold; and

in response to the determination, using the overall cement bonding condition as a reference input to each acoustic method to reevaluate the cement bonding condition.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein an output of a first acoustic method is used as an input of a second acoustic method.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the QC value is represented by multi-dimensional equations, a combination of the multi-dimensional equations and a matrix, or a discretized representation, and wherein the QC value is predicted by simulation data, experimental data, or field data.

13 . A system comprising:

an acoustic logging tool disposed within a tubing located inside a casing in a cased-borehole and comprising:

a transmitter configured to broadcast acoustic wave signals such that the acoustic wave signals interact with the cased-borehole; and a receiver configured to receive the acoustic wave signals;

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by the processor to cause the system to:

obtain acoustic cement bond evaluation data relating to a property of a cement bond of the cased-borehole for each of a plurality of acoustic methods by processing the received acoustic wave signals, wherein the acoustic cement bond evaluation data comprises a quality control (QC) value indicative of a confidence level of cement bonding conditions;

determine an eccentricity value of the tubing relative to the casing in a borehole, wherein the eccentricity value provides a direction and a magnitude of the tubing relative to the casing, wherein the eccentricity value varies between 0% to 100%, wherein the eccentricity value 0% indicates that the tubing is centered in the casing, and wherein the eccentricity value 100% indicates that the tubing is touching a wall of the casing;

determine an output of each acoustic method by combining the eccentricity value and the acoustic cement bond evaluation data associated with each of the acoustic methods;

combine the output of each of the acoustic methods to generate an optimized cement bonding index log; and

employ the optimized cement bonding index log to provide an interpretation of an overall cement bonding condition.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the acoustic methods comprise an adjacent differential method, a polar differential method, a resonance-based method, or a casing guided wave based method.

15 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the cement bonding condition is characterized based on a bond index (BI) value and/or a bond index two-dimensional (2D) map, wherein the BI value 1 represents the tubing is bound to cement, and wherein the BI value 0 represents the tubing is free of bonding to the cement.

16 . A well measurement system, comprising:

an acoustic logging tool deployed in a cased-borehole in which a production tubing is installed within cement and casing, wherein the acoustic logging tool comprises:

at least one transmitter configured to broadcast acoustic wave signals such that the acoustic wave signals interact with the cased-borehole; and

at least one receiver configured to receive the acoustic wave signals; and

an information handling system configured to:

obtain acoustic cement bond evaluation data relating to a property of a cement bond for each of a plurality of acoustic methods by processing the received acoustic wave signals, wherein the acoustic cement bond evaluation data comprises a quality control (QC) value indicative of a confidence level of cement bonding conditions;

determine an eccentricity value of the production tubing relative to the casing in the cased-borehole, wherein the eccentricity value provides a direction and a magnitude of the production tubing relative to the casing, wherein the eccentricity value varies between 0% to 100%, wherein the eccentricity value 0% indicates that the tubing is centered in the casing, and wherein the eccentricity value 100% indicates that the tubing is touching a wall of the casing;

determine an output of each acoustic method by combining the eccentricity value and the acoustic cement bond evaluation data associated with each of the acoustic methods;

combine the output of each of the acoustic methods to generate an optimized cement bonding index log; and

employ the optimized cement bonding index log to provide an interpretation of an overall cement bonding condition.

17 . The well measurement system of claim 16 , wherein the transmitter is a monopole, a dipole, a quadrupole, a higher azimuthal order source, or a source with an asymmetrical radiation pattern.

18 . The well measurement system of claim 16 , wherein the information handling system comprises a processor at a surface of the cased-borehole.

19 . The well measurement system of claim 16 , wherein the acoustic wave signals are transmitted and received at one or more depths with the cased-borehole.

20 . The well measurement system of claim 16 , wherein the acoustic methods comprise an adjacent differential method, a polar differential method, a resonance-based method, or a casing guided wave based method.