Embodiments described relate to tools and techniques for delivering treatment fluids to downhole well locations. In particular, embodiments are described of tools and techniques for delivering treatment fluids to downhole locations of low pressure bottom hole wells. The tools and techniques are directed at achieving a degree of precision with respect to treatment fluid delivery to such downhole locations.
Exploring, drilling and completing hydrocarbon and other wells are generally complicated, time consuming, and ultimately very expensive endeavors. As a result, over the years, a tremendous amount of added emphasis has been placed on monitoring and maintaining wells throughout their productive lives. Well monitoring and maintenance may be directed at maximizing production as well as extending well life. In the case of well monitoring, logging and other applications may be utilized which provide temperature, pressure and other production related information. In the case of well maintenance, a host of interventional applications may come into play. For example, perforations may be induced in the wall of the well, regions of the well closed off, debris or tools and equipment removed that have become stuck downhole, etc. Additionally, in some cases the well may be repaired or treated by the introduction of downhole treatment fluids such as cement for plugging a region of the well or perforations thereof.
With respect to the delivery of downhole treatment fluid, several thousand feet of coiled tubing or other tubular equipment may be brought to the well site at an oilfield. This may be achieved by appropriate positioning of a coiled tubing reel near the well, for example with a coiled tubing truck and delivery equipment. Generally, a downhole end of the coiled tubing may be preloaded with the treatment fluid whereas a more inert driving fluid such as water is located immediately uphole of the treatment fluid. A spot valve may be located at the downhole end of the coiled tubing so as to help ensure that the loaded fluids do not prematurely leak back out of the downhole end of the coiled tubing.
The loaded coiled tubing may be deployed from the reel at the surface of the oilfield and into the well. With the downhole end of the coiled tubing being first to reach the region of the well for treatment, advancement of the coiled tubing may be stopped. In theory, pressure within the coiled tubing may then be driven up by a surface pump in order to overcome the retaining capacity of the spot valve. Thus, the treatment fluid may be delivered to the noted well region.
Unfortunately, while a conventional spot valve is particularly adept at ensuring proper filling of the downhole end of the coiled tubing with the noted treatment fluids, it is generally limited in the amount of fluid pressure which it may ultimately retain. For example, a conventional spot valve may be rated to sufficiently hold back about 500 psi in the downhole end of the coiled tubing. This may be more than enough capacity to hold back a column of cement for a standard cementing treatment application. However, as noted above, the coiled tubing is loaded with treatment fluid in the downhole end with an additional driving fluid occupying the coiled tubing immediately above the treatment fluid. Thus, the spot valve is ultimately relied upon to hold back the treatment fluid as well as perhaps several thousand additional columnar feet of driving fluid upon full deployment of the coiled tubing. Thus, depending on the differential pressure between the well and the column of fluid in the coiled tubing, the likelihood of the spot valve failing may be quite significant.
Considering the ever increasing well depths and corresponding larger fluid columns of the coiled tubing, the likelihood of premature spot valve failure is quite significant, particularly where low bottom hole pressure wells are concerned. For example, where the treatment region of the well is located 15,000 to 20,000 feet below surface, the ability of a 500 psi rated spot valve to hold back a fluid column of such a depth is highly dependent upon the surrounding pressure in the well. That is, pressure at the interior of the spot valve is likely to be close to say about 2,000 psi in such a circumstance. Thus, so long as the pressure in the well remains above 1,500 psi, premature leaking of the spot valve may be avoided. In a low bottom hole pressure well, however, say a 1,000 psi well in the present spot valve example, the differential pressure would be insufficient to prevent failure of the valve. Rather, the spot valve would fail uphole of the treatment region, once 1,500 psi had built up interior thereof (e.g. overcoming the 500 psi of the spot valve plus the 1,000 psi of well pressure).
Such a failure of the spot valve as noted may have extremely negative consequences which go beyond the mere time lost in running an ineffective fluid treatment application. For example, release of a treatment fluid such as cement uphole of the targeted region may leave productive well regions contaminated or clogged with cement. Thus, in addition to re-running the application, additional time may be lost in first cleaning out the unintentionally cemented areas of the well. Ultimately, premature failure of the spot valve may cost up to a day or more of lost time at a cost of potentially several hundred thousand dollars.
Given the potential consequences of premature spot valve failure, attempts have been made to load the coiled tubing with treatment fluid from surface only once the coiled tubing reaches the targeted well region. In theory this would avoid the possibility of valve failure and premature treatment fluid delivery. Unfortunately, this means that a harsh treatment fluid such as cement needs to be pumped through several thousand feet of narrow coiled tubing. This adds a significant amount of time to the application and raises the possibility of the treatment fluid becoming contaminated with driving fluid. Thus, even in the case of low bottom hole pressure wells, the technique of preloading the downhole end of the coiled tubing with treatment fluid and hoping for the best out of the spot valve is generally considered the most practical option available to the operator.
A tubular assembly is provided for controlling delivery of a downhole treatment fluid. The assembly includes a tubular body to accommodate the fluid. A spot valve is disposed at the downhole end of the tubular body in order to manage the manner in which the fluid is accommodated by the body. Additionally, a backpressure valve is coupled to the downhole end of the spot valve so as to adequately manage the controlling of the delivery of the fluid.
Embodiments are described with reference to certain downhole applications. For example, in the embodiments depicted herein, a downhole cementing application is depicted in detail via coiled tubing delivery. However, a variety of other application types may employ embodiments of treatment fluid assemblies and techniques as described herein. For example, precision delivery of alternative treatment fluids through coiled tubing and/or other tubular devices may be achieved through practice of embodiments described herein. Regardless, the embodiments may include the unique combination of spot and backpressure valves disposed at the downhole end of a tubular for its respective filling and dispensing of treatment fluid.
Referring now to
Continuing with reference to
Continuing with added reference to
In the embodiment of
As shown in
Returning now to
Given the potential depth of the targeted location within the well 180 for delivery of the treatment fluid 150, the naturally escalating column of fluid and pressure within the assembly 100 may exceed the tolerances of the spot valve 130. Therefore, to ensure that the treatment fluid 150 is held in place until the assembly 100 is positioned at the treatment location as depicted in
The above noted spring 146 may be set to a wide range of pressure tolerances, generally far exceeding those of the spot valve 130. For example, in one embodiment, the spring 146 may have a threshold of about 3,000 psi whereas the spot valve 130 is set at closer to about 500 psi. Thus, in a low pressure well 180 of say about 1,000 psi, over 4,500 psi may be induced at the assembly 100 through a combination of surface pumping and the natural column of fluid pressure through the coiled tubing 160 so as to deliver the treatment fluid 150 as shown. That is, at about 4,500 psi, the resistance of the spring 146 (3,000 psi), the spot valve 130 (500 psi) and the well 180 (1,000 psi) may start to be overcome. By the same token, however, barring such induced pressure, the treatment fluid 150 may remain securely within the assembly 100 until the targeted location is reached.
The depiction of the assembly 100 of
Continuing with reference to
Similar to the uphole pig 113, the downhole pig 112 may be of a conventional compressible polymer or other suitable material and of a diameter similar to that of the uphole pig 113. Additionally, non-porous ends of the downhole pig 112 may be employed (particularly at the downhole end of the pig 112). However, with reference to
In the embodiment shown, a guiding ball 115 may be disposed between the pigs 112, 113. As treatment fluid 150 is loaded into the coiled tubing 160 and delivery assembly 100, the pig assemblage 110 may be slidably shifted uphole whereas dispensing of the treatment fluid 150 may result in a downhole shift of the pig assemblage 110. In one embodiment the guiding ball 115 is of stainless steel. However, other suitable materials may be employed. Additionally, as detailed with respect to
The assembly 100 is also equipped with the noted spot valve 130 which is configured to allow an influx of treatment fluid 150 into the assembly 100. Thus, as shown in
Continuing with reference to
Continuing now with reference to
The addition of the backpressure valve 140 following loading of the assembly 100 as depicted in
In an exemplary operation as alluded to above, a 500 psi rating for the spot valve 130 may be factored in along with 1,000 psi of pressure in the well 180, and a fluid column of 3,000 psi at the assembly 100 when positioned at the downhole delivery location. Thus, the operator is faced with an expected pressure differential of about 1,500 psi and may select a backpressure valve 140 having a rating of at least about 1,500 psi. In one such embodiment, the operator may select a backpressure valve 140 having a rating that exceeds the pressure differential by at least about 500 psi (e.g. 2,000 psi rated backpressure valve 140 in the example described here).
In certain operations, the expected pressure differential may exceed standard readily available backpressure valve pressure ratings. However, in these circumstances, multiple backpressure valves may be employed in series following treatment fluid loading. For example, in a circumstance where a differential of about 7,000 psi is expected, two 4,000 psi rated backpressure valves may be linked to one another at the downhole end of the spot valve 130. Thus, upon reaching the delivery site, 1,000 psi of pressure may be induced from surface to initiate delivery of treatment fluid 150. In this manner, additional benefits of on-site customization of the assembly 100 may be realized.
Continuing now with reference to
Referring now to
The assembly may then be deployed by way of coiled tubing or other availably tubular delivery mechanism. Once deployed as indicated at 575, sufficient pressure to overcome the backpressure valve(s) may be imparted on the assembly via surface equipment at the oilfield. As such, treatment fluid may be delivered to the proper downhole location as noted at 590 while substantially avoiding premature treatment fluid release. With added reference to
Embodiments described hereinabove include assemblies and techniques that substantially eliminate the possibility of premature release to treatment fluid within a well. This is the case in spite of ever increasing well depths and treatment locations which place added pressure on delivery assemblies, particularly in the case of low bottom hole pressure wells. Furthermore, these assemblies and techniques avoid loading of tubulars with treatment fluids from the surface end at an oilfield, only to require that the fluids traverse several thousand tubular feet in order to reach a downhole delivery location. Thus, the integrity of the treatment fluids as well as the tubulars remain substantially uncompromised. Furthermore, no significant additional time or risk is presented to the operator in employing embodiments of delivery assemblies and techniques as detailed herein. In fact, the operator is even afforded a degree of user friendliness heretofore unavailable in terms of allowing on-site customization of the delivery assembly to be employed.
The preceding description has been presented with reference to presently preferred embodiments. Persons skilled in the art and technology to which these embodiments pertain will appreciate that alterations and changes in the described structures and methods of operation may be practiced without meaningfully departing from the principle, and scope of these embodiments. For example, embodiments depicted herein reveal particular coiled tubing cementing applications. However, other types of treatment fluid applications may employ embodiments and techniques as detailed herein. Indeed, tubulars other than coiled tubing may be employed in delivering the treatment fluid. Furthermore, the foregoing description should not be read as pertaining only to the precise structures described and shown in the accompanying drawings, but rather should be read as consistent with and as support for the following claims, which are to have their fullest and fairest scope.
This Patent Document claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/148,240, entitled Precision Placement of a Treatment Fluid in Low Bottom Hole Pressure Wells, filed on Jan. 29, 2009, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61148240 | Jan 2009 | US |