Abstract
Drilling microchips are millimeter-size sensing devices, capable of measuring in-situ downhole temperature, and at the same time, withstanding harsh downhole conditions. In this work, 140 microchips were dropped from the drill pipe during the connections. The devices travel through the bottomhole assembly (BHA), drill bit, annulus, and eventually get recovered at the shale shaker. A total of 80 microchips were recovered at the shaker, which resulted in a physical recovery rate of 57%. The microchip recorded the dynamic temperature profile of the entire wellbore including a long openhole section only a few hours before the well turned into total loss. The data downloaded from the microchip shows an excellent consistency throughout the three tests. The measured dynamic bottomhole temperature provides a correction of 10 deg F to the best practice of the industry in terms of downhole thermal simulation, offering valuable measured input for the optimization of thermal activated LCMs or cementing job. To our best knowledge, it is the industry's first successful attempt in logging an openhole section in a highly loss zone. The microchip recorded the dynamic temperature profile of a long open hole only a few hours before the well turned into a total loss. Due to the lack of industrial solutions for downhole temperature measurement under such conditions, the microchip technology showed unique advantage for critical applications, especially in operations with highly valued assets.
