Method to measure drilling pauses earns patent for Memorial man

A Memorial man received a U.S. patent last week for a method of determining if drilling has stopped in a borehole being dug for oil or natural gas production.

Teams digging boreholes often use pauses in drilling to take measurements or make needed changes but for that to work, they need to know if drilling has actually come to a halt. The invention described in the patent accomplishes this by measuring changes in noise signals, which indicate whether the drill's mud pumps have been turned off.

The inventors named in the patent are Jean-Marc Follini, who lives in the Memorial area of Houston, and Remi Hutin of New Ulm, Texas. The patent's official number is 7,877,211 and it was originally filed on June 29, 2007. The patent is owned by the Sugar Land offices of the Schlumberger Technology Corp.

Schlumberger is an oilfield services company with operations in approximately 80 countries. Though incorporated in the Dutch Antilles, its principal offices are located in Houston, Paris and The Hague in the Netherlands.