Patent Application
20180038221
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for locating and setting a tool such as a bottom hole assembly or intervention tool within a downhole tool and within a blank pipe.
Downhole oil and gas production operations, and particularly those in multi-stage horizontal wells, require the stimulation and production of one or more zones of a hydrocarbon bearing formation. In many cases this is done by running a liner or casing string downhole, in which the casing string comprises one or more downhole tools, including but not limited to perforating devices, ported sleeves or collars, at spaced intervals along the wellbore. The location of the downhole tools is commonly set to align with the formation zones to be stimulated or produced. The tools must be manipulated in order to be opened or closed as required. In some instances, this is achieved by running a bottom hole assembly, also known as an intervention tool, down through the casing string, locating the downhole tool to be manipulated and manipulating the tool by any number of means including use of mechanical force on the intervention tool, or by hydraulic pressure.
The bottom hole assembly (BHA), or intervention tool, also known by any number of other names, is typically run on a tubing string that can be coil tubing or other tubing. The intervention tool is sent down inside the casing string for the purposes of locating inside and interacting with the downhole tool adjacent the formation zone to be treated or produced. Once located near or inside the downhole tool, the intervention tool typically engages against the downhole tool or against the casing near the downhole tool, and then the intervention tool is either mechanically manipulated or hydraulic pressure is used to manipulate the downhole tool as required to stimulate the oil-bearing formation, or to produce hydrocarbons from the formation. After treatment, it may also be desirable to again manipulate the downhole tool. In many cases, it is also desirable to locate and set an intervention tool in a casing string or a section of blank pipe.
A key goal in using an intervention tool is to accurately locate the intervention tool inside the downhole tool or inside section of casing or blank pipe before going through the process of setting the intervention tool and trying to manipulate any downhole tools. Since there can be miles and miles of casing string with any number of downhole tools and lengths of blank pipe along it, this can be difficult.
Furthermore, due to reaction time commonly seen in coil tubing deployment, there is a tendency for the tubing on which the intervention tool is run downhole to travel downhole even after it has been located in the desired downhole tool. This extra travel causes the intervention tool to ‘jump’ out of its proper location in the downhole tool.
In some prior art, intervention tools use drag blocks and locator blocks to locate the intervention tool in the downhole tool. However, in many of these cases, extra length is required to account for coil tubing travel, leading to larger, less flexible sleeves and downhole tools. These have also been proven less successful in operation. Also, this type of prior art system does not ensure that any slips and packers on the intervention tool won't set before the locator blocks are located.
Other locating means that have been used in the past include locating dogs, latching mechanisms or by estimating the location of the downhole tool in the wellbore and feeding a predetermined length of deployment string to reach the frac sleeve.
There is therefore still a need for intervention tool and downhole tool systems that can positively locate an intervention tool inside a downhole tool or inside casing string, and for systems that ensures that slips and packing elements cannot be set before locating.
An intervention tool is provided having one or more packing elements; said device being moveable between a first position in which the device is positively locatable within a profile, and a second position wherein the device is settable in a blank casing that lacks a profile, wherein movement between the first position and the second position is controlled by axial movement of the intervention tool.
A device is further provided for positively locating within a profile, wherein said device comprises one or more locator mechanisms; one or more slips; one or more packing elements; and a stopping mechanism; wherein said one or more locator mechanisms are locatable within said profile and wherein said stopping mechanism prevents engagement of said one or more slips and said one or more packing elements unit said one or more locator mechanisms are located in the profile.
A method is provided for applying downhole isolation, said method comprising the steps of running an intervention tool downhole, said intervention tool comprising one or more packing elements; locating one or more locating mechanisms on the device into one or more profiles by shifting said device axially; engaging the one or more packing elements by shifting said device axially after the locating mechanisms are located within the profiles; disengaging said one or more packing elements by shifting said device axially; and moving said device to another downhole location.
It is to be understood that other aspects of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, wherein various embodiments of the invention are shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the invention is capable for other and different embodiments and its several details are capable of modification in various other respects, all without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly the drawings and detailed description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.
A further, detailed, description of the invention, briefly described above, will follow by reference to the following drawings of specific embodiments of the invention. The drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope. In the drawings:
The drawing is not necessarily to scale and in some instances proportions may have been exaggerated in order more clearly to depict certain features.
The description that follows and the embodiments described therein are provided by way of illustration of an example, or examples, of particular embodiments of the principles of various aspects of the present invention. These examples are provided for the purposes of explanation, and not of limitation, of those principles and of the invention in its various aspects.
The present invention provides a device for positively locating an intervention tool in a profile. The profile can be on a downhole tool or on a casing. The present intervention tool is also capable of setting in a blank section of casing or pipe.
The present invention more specifically provides a locator mechanism and locator support arrangement that positively locates the intervention tool within a profile. The locator support ensures that the locator mechanism cannot dislocate once located. Furthermore, the locator mechanism and locator support arrangement vis a vis slips and packing element of the intervention tool prevents the slips and packing element from setting until the intervention tool is positively located in the profile. This not only ensures a positive locate, but also ensure no setting until there is a positive locate.
Although some embodiments of the present intervention tool are described and illustrated in the context of use with a ported sleeve, it would be well understood by a person of skill in the art that the present intervention tool could be used with any number of types of downhole tools that require locating and activation of some kind, including tools used in straddle perforation applications, any downhole tool in which a packer is required to set to create a pressure differential, or any downhole tool in which manipulation of the tool requires that a profile on the tool be engaged and mechanically manipulated. And the present tool can be shifted from locating in a downhole tool or casing having a profile, to setting inside a section of blank casing, wherein said shifting is accomplished merely be axial movement of the present tool.
With reference to
With reference to
The mandrel 4 houses on its outer surface a packing element 14 and a slip setting cone 16. Preferably a locator support 18 is either integrally part of, or separate to but supported on, the outer surface of the mandrel 4. In a preferred embodiment, the locator support 18 is in the form of a collet support lug ring having one or more collet support lugs, however it would be understood by a person of skill in the art that any number of support devices and configurations to support the locator mechanism are possible and are included within the scope of this invention.
A bypass 20 is preferably moveably located within the inner bore 6 of the mandrel 4 and is moveable between a closed position which blocks fluid flow through the inner bore 6 to an open position which allows flow through the inner bore 6. The locator support 18 together with the mandrel 4 is moveable and rotatable relative to the locator mechanism 10 on the drag assembly 8, such that the locator support 18 may be able to pass under and beyond the locator mechanism 10 when the locator mechanism is in a collapsed position, sit directly under the locator mechanism 10 to support it in an extended position or abut an uphole or downhole end of the locator mechanism 10.
The locator support 18, seen in
With reference to
In the embodiment of
It would also be understood by a person of skill in the art that the downhole tool 22 can be a production sleeve in which case, hydrocarbon product can flow from the formation, through the port 26 and back up to surface through the tubing on which the intervention tool 2 is run, or through the casing 36 on which the downhole tool 22 is run. Such embodiments are also covered by the scope of the present invention.
The downhole tool 22 further comprises a profile 32 on an inner surface thereof, for receiving the locator mechanism 10, which can expand radially into profile 32, to positively locate the intervention tool 2 inside the downhole tool 22, prior to setting any slips 12 or packing elements 14.
With reference to
As the intervention tool 2 is moved downhole, the mandrel 4 will move downhole relative to the drag assembly 8 until it hits a stopping mechanism in the form of the J-pin and J-slot arrangement 30 between the mandrel 4 and drag assembly 8. The mandrel 4 is unable to travel down far enough to contact the cone 16; therefore, the packing element 14 cannot set while running downhole.
With reference to
In a next step of the method, illustrated by
In a next step, illustrated in
As illustrated in
Once located in the profile 32 and with the locator support 18 positioned underneath, the locator mechanism 10 further serves to lock the intervention tool 2 into place and prevent it from jumping out of position due to any downhole travel that can occur with coil tubing or other piping reaction time from being deployed downhole. The locator mechanism 10 supported by the locator support 18 serves to absorb any such downhole travel energy and ensures that once located, the intervention tool 2 stays located.
With reference to
The locator mechanism 10 of the drag assembly 8 acts to generate drag between the drag assembly 8 and inner surface of the wellbore casing 36 or downhole tool 22 when collapsed. This allows the mandrel 4 to rotatably and axially move relative to the drag assembly 8, preferably with the J-pin and J-slot arrangement 30 guiding this movement. The locator mechanism 10 further serves to prevent the slips 12 and packing elements 14 from setting prior to the locator mechanism 10 expanding into the matching profile 32 in the downhole tool 22, since the J-pin and J-slot arrangement 30 and the locator support 18 prevent sufficient movement of the mandrel 4 vis a vis the drag assembly 8 until the locator support 18 can be positioned under the locator mechanism 10.
This arrangement ensures that the intervention tool 2 is positively located in the profile 32, so that the slips 12 and packing element 14 are set at the correct location in the downhole tool 22.
As illustrated in
In the case of an exposed valve 24, it is also possible to open the valve 24 by physically engaging the valve 24 and the use of mechanical force to move the valve 24 from a port-closed to a port-opened position. In such cases the intervention tool 2 can incorporate a mechanical shifting mechanism (not shown) to engage the profile 32 and mechanically manipulate the downhole tool 22.
To remove the intervention tool 2 from inside the downhole tool 22 or the casing 36, the intervention tool 2 can be pulled into tension to release the packed off packing element 14 and pull the cone 16 away from the slips 12, thereby releasing engagement of the packing element 14 and slips 12 from the inner surface of either the downhole tool 22 or the casing 36. Design of the J-pin and J-slot arrangement 30 causes the mandrel 4 and locator support 18 to rotate relative to the drag assembly 8, to allow the intervention tool 2 to be pulled into a section of blank casing 36.
There are a number of steps and positions in the running in, locating and setting of the intervention tool 2, and each position of the intervention tool 2 during operation is preferably set or guided by the J-pin and J-slot arrangement 30, that ensure that the intervention tool 2 stays in the desired position until a compression or tension forces it to move to the next J-pin/J-slot position.
In some cases, it is desirable to set the present intervention tool in a section of casing 36 either uphole or downhole from the downhole tool 22. Such arrangement is desirable when pressure testing the casing string and/or the downhole tool above the other downhole tools that have already been opened, it is also useful when it is necessary to sand jet perforate between downhole tools.
In setting the present intervention tool 2 inside a blank section of casing 36, the collapsed locator mechanism 10 of the drag assembly 8 again act as a drag mechanism between the intervention tool 2 and the inner surface of the blank section of casing 36, to allow relative movement of these two components for subsequent operations.
Once the intervention tool has been pulled uphole into the blank section of casing 36, with reference to
To release the intervention tool 2, it is pulled into tension to release the compression from the packed off packing element 14 and to pull the cone 16 out from under the slips 12. The mandrel 4 and locator support 18 rotate and move axially relative to the locator mechanism 10 of the drag assembly 8 to position the locator support 18 out from under the locator mechanism 10 and uphole of the locator mechanism 10. The packer 14 is unset and the intervention tool 2 can be moved uphole. The collapsed locator mechanism 10 of the drag assembly 8 act as the drag mechanism for subsequent operations.
In a final step, with reference to
With further reference to Figure and 12, there are preferably 6 positions of the J-pin and J-slot arrangement 30 used to control each position of the present intervention tool 2:
1. Compression neutral.
2. Tension to prepare to set at a profile.
3. Compression to set slips and pack-off the element.
4. Tension to prepare to set in blank pipe.
5. Compression to set slips and pack-off the element in blank pipe.
6. Tension neutral.
In the present arrangement, the room for tubing travel is provided by two movements: movement of the locator mechanism 10 into the matching profile 32; and movement of the locator support 18 under the locator mechanism 10 to hold the locator mechanism 10 in the extended position. This way there is always a positive locate without the intervention tool 2 ‘jumping’ forward or out of alignment
The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to those embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistent with the claims, wherein reference to an element in the singular, such as by use of the article “a” or “an” is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specifically so stated, but rather “one or more”. All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the various embodiments described throughout the disclosure that are known or later come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are intended to be encompassed by the elements of the claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element is to be construed under the provisions of 35 USC 112, sixth paragraph, unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for” or “step for”.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62350069 | Jun 2016 | US |
