METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR A MID-INFRARED (MIR) SYSTEM FOR REAL TIME DETECTION OF PETROLEUM IN COLLOIDAL SUSPENSIONS OF SEDIMENTS AND DRILLING MUDS DURING DRILLING, LOGGING, AND PRODUCTION OPERATIONS

摘要

A first waveguide has a top face positioned in an oil well borehole forwettingby returning drilling mud from a drill bit as drilling progresses. A secondwaveguide ispositioned in the borehole for wetting by new drilling mud being pumped to thedrillbit. MIR light rays are fed from an MIR light source into the first and secondwaveguides for causing evanescent waves to be generated by each waveguide forreacting with the molecules of the associated drilling mud, respectfully,whereby amodulated optical signal representative of spectra of components and particlesin theassociated drilling mud, respectively, are emitted from each waveguide. Themodulated optical signals are converted to electrical signals, subtracted fromoneanother to remove common mode signals, and passed into a processor programmedforextracting the spectra hydrocarbon components contained in the returningdrilling mudas the result of the drilling activity.