Initial attempts to provide M/LWD date back to the 1920s, and attempts were made prior to WW2 with Mud Pulse, Wired Pipe, Acoustic and Electromagnetics. JJ Arps produced a working directional and resistivity system in the 1960s.3 Competing work supported by Mobil, Standard Oil and others in the late 1960s and early 1970s lead to multiple viable systems by the early 1970s, with the MWD of Teleco Industries, systems from Schlumberger (Mobil) Halliburton and BakerHughes. However, the main impetus to development was a decision by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate to mandate the taking of a directional survey in wells offshore Norway every 100 meters. (Norsok D-010, 5.7.4.2 (b)). This decision created an environment where MWD technology had an economic advantage over conventional mechanical TOTCO devices, and lead to rapid developments, including LWD, to add Gamma and Resistivity, by the early 1980s.45
LWD technology was originally developed to guarantee at least a basic data set in case high cost exploration wells could not be logged with wireline. Although the aspiration was to partially or completely replace wireline logging, that was not the driver for early deployments, such as in the limited drilling season offshore in the Arctic summer in the early 1980s. Over the years, more of the measurements have been made available in LWD. Certain new measurements are also development in LWD only. The following is an incomplete list of available measurement in LWD technology.
"logging while drilling - Schlumberger Oilfield Glossary". Archived from the original on 2016-01-31. https://web.archive.org/web/20160131212828/http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/Terms/l/logging_while_drilling.aspx ↩
Gravem, Trond; Hughes, Baker (November 2006). "Demonstrating Capability" (PDF). GEO ExPro. pp. 24 to 26. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20070928175718/http://www.geo365.no/sfiles/5/11/6/file/LoggingDemonstratingCapability_24-26.pdf ↩
Arps, J.J.; Arps, J.L. (1 May 1964). "The Subsurface Telemetry Problem-A Practical Solution". Journal of Petroleum Technology. 16 (05): 487–493. doi:10.2118/710-PA. https://doi.org/10.2118%2F710-PA ↩
"StackPath". http://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-90/issue-7/in-this-issue/general-interest/advances-in-mwd-technology-improve-real-time-data.html ↩
Gearhart, Marvin; Ziemer, Kelly A.; Knight, Orien M. (1981). "Mud Pulse MWD Systems Report". Journal of Petroleum Technology. 33 (12): 2301–2306. doi:10.2118/10053-PA. https://www.onepetro.org/journal-paper/SPE-10053-PA ↩