Cleaned Hydrophone Array Logging Data Aids Identification of Wellbore Leaks

Leaks in wellbore tubulars emit acoustic waves in the borehole that can be captured by a hydrophone array. Processing the array data yields location and energy level of the wellbore leaks; however, the hydrophones also may capture other coherent noise propagating as guided waves along the borehole. The complete paper describes an approach to estimate and subsequently remove the guided-wave noise from the hydrophone array data to improve the accuracy of leak-source locations. Estimating the propagation direction and amplitude of leak-induced guided waves aids logging operations to locate a leak source efficiently.

Noise Logging and Well Integrity

Well integrity has become a focused area for most operators given the long life cycle and complex structure of a wellbore.