Granted Patent B2

US 12,540,518 · App. 17/587,057 · Granted Feb 3, 2026

Inventor: Andrew Clarke (Haslingfield, GB)

Assignee: Schlumberger Technology Corporation

E21B21/062E21B2200/20

Abstract

Claims (51)

1 . A method for managing a drilling fluid composition, comprising:

receiving an inversion of a multi-dimensional drilling additive model, wherein the multi- dimensional drilling additive model correlates an addition of a plurality of additives to a drilling fluid to an effect on a plurality of drilling fluid properties, wherein the multi-dimensional drilling additive model has a variable quantity of variables that is equal to an additive quantity of the plurality of additives, wherein the inversion generates an additive recommendation based on a measurement of the plurality of drilling fluid properties;

drilling for a first period of time;

circulating the drilling fluid from a surface location to a wellbore bottom for the first period of time until at least a portion of the drilling fluid is returned to the surface location;

after the portion of the drilling fluid is returned to the surface location, receiving a plurality of measurements of the plurality of drilling fluid properties, wherein a measurement quantity of the plurality of measurements is equal to or greater than the variable quantity;

determining a difference in the measurement of the plurality of drilling fluid properties from predetermined setpoint fluid properties, wherein the predetermined setpoint fluid properties include the drilling fluid composition for use during operation;

applying the inversion to the plurality of measurements and the difference to determine an amount of the plurality of additives to return the plurality of drilling fluid properties to within a threshold of the predetermined setpoint fluid properties based on the inversion and the difference; and

adding the amount of the plurality of additives to the drilling fluid.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the measurement is a first measurement, the difference is a first difference, and the amount is a first amount, and further comprising:

receiving a second measurement of the plurality of drilling fluid properties;

determining a second difference in the second measurement of the plurality of drilling fluid properties and the predetermined setpoint fluid properties; and

determining a second amount of the plurality of additives to return the plurality of drilling fluid properties to within the threshold of the predetermined setpoint fluid properties based on the inversion and the second difference.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising refining the inversion based on the first amount and the second measurement.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

drilling for a second period of time after adding the amount of the plurality of additives;

circulating the drilling fluid from the surface location to the wellbore bottom for the second period of time until at least a second portion of the drilling fluid including the amount of the plurality of additives is returned to the surface location; and

receiving a second measurement of the plurality of drilling fluid properties after the second portion of the drilling fluid is returned to the surface location.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising optimizing the amount of the plurality of additives with at least one of a Monte Carlo simulation or a steepest descent model.

6 . A system, comprising:

a processor; and

memory, the memory including instructions which, when accessed by the processor, cause the processor to:

receive an inversion of a multi-dimensional drilling additive model, wherein the multi-dimensional drilling additive model correlates an addition of a plurality of additives to a drilling fluid to an effect on a plurality of drilling fluid properties, wherein the multi- dimensional drilling additive model has a variable quantity of variables that is equal to an additive quantity of the plurality of additives, wherein the inversion generates an additive recommendation based on a measurement of the plurality of drilling fluid properties;

drill for a first period of time;

circulate the drilling fluid from a surface location to a wellbore bottom for the first period of time until at least a portion of the drilling fluid is returned to the surface location;

after the portion of the drilling fluid is returned to the surface location, receive a plurality of measurements of the plurality of drilling fluid properties, wherein a measurement quantity of the plurality of measurements is equal to or greater than the variable quantity;

determine a difference in the measurement of the plurality of drilling fluid properties from predetermined setpoint fluid properties, wherein the predetermined setpoint fluid properties include a drilling fluid composition for use during operation;

apply the inversion to the plurality of measurements and the difference to determine an amount of the plurality of additives to return the plurality of drilling fluid properties to within a threshold of the predetermined setpoint fluid properties based on the inversion and the difference; and

add the amount of the plurality of additives to the drilling fluid.

7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the measurement is a first measurement, the difference is a first difference, and the amount is a first amount, and the memory includes further instructions which, when accessed by the processor, further cause the processor to:

receive a second measurement of the plurality of drilling fluid properties;

determine a second difference in the second measurement of the plurality of drilling fluid properties and the predetermined setpoint fluid properties; and

determine a second amount of the plurality of additives to return the plurality of drilling fluid properties to within the threshold of the predetermined setpoint fluid properties based on the inversion and the second difference.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the memory includes further instructions which, when accessed by the processor, further cause the processor to refine the inversion based on the first amount and the second measurement.

9 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the memory includes further instructions which, when accessed by the processor, further cause the processor to:

drill for a second period of time after adding the amount of the plurality of additives;

circulate the drilling fluid from the surface location to the wellbore bottom for the second period of time until at least a second portion of the drilling fluid including the amount of the plurality of additives is returned to the surface location; and

receive a second measurement of the plurality of drilling fluid properties after the second portion of the drilling fluid is returned to the surface location.

10 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the memory includes further instructions which, when accessed by the processor, further cause the processor to optimize the amount of the plurality of additives with at least one of a Monte Carlo simulation or a steepest descent model.

11 . A method for managing a drilling fluid composition of a drilling fluid, comprising:

creating a multi-dimensional drilling additive model of an effect of a plurality of additives on a plurality of drilling fluid properties, wherein the multi-dimensional drilling additive model has a variable quantity of variables that is equal to an additive quantity of the plurality of additives;

inverting the multi-dimensional drilling additive model resulting in an inversion, wherein the inversion generates an additive recommendation based on a measurement of the plurality of drilling fluid properties;

after circulating the drilling fluid from a surface location to a wellbore bottom for a first period of time, measuring a plurality of measurements of the plurality of drilling fluid properties of the drilling fluid, wherein a measurement quantity of the plurality of measurements is equal to or greater than the variable quantity;

determining a difference between the plurality of measurements and predetermined setpoint fluid properties, wherein the predetermined setpoint fluid properties include the drilling fluid composition for use during operation;

applying the inversion to the plurality of measurements and the difference to determine an additive amount for each of the plurality of additives; and

adding the additive amount of each of the plurality of additives to the drilling fluid to return the plurality of drilling fluid properties to within a threshold of the predetermined setpoint fluid properties.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein creating the multi-dimensional drilling additive model includes generating a design of experiment matrix.

13 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising performing an optimization of the multi-dimensional drilling additive model to determine the additive amount of each of the plurality of additives.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the performing the optimization includes accounting for one or more external constraints.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein performing the optimization includes performing one or more of a Monte Carlo simulation or steepest descent method.

16 . The method of claim 11 , wherein measuring the plurality of measurements includes measuring a property number of the plurality of drilling fluid properties that is greater than an additive number of the plurality of additives.

17 . The method of claim 11 , wherein creating the multi-dimensional drilling additive model includes creating the multi-dimensional drilling additive model with no knowledge of a base drilling fluid formulation.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (52)