Patent Grant
7640965
The invention relates to a method of creating a well abandonment plug.
It is standard practice to cast cement linings around well casings to create a fluid tight seal between the well interior and surrounding formation
A disadvantage of this and many other in-situ casting techniques is that the cement or other solidifying substance shrinks during solidification or curing as a result of higher atomic packing due to hydration and/or phase changes.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method of creating a reliable and strong seal in a hydrocarbon fluid well.
In accordance with the invention there is provided a method of creating a well abandonment plug, the method comprising the steps of:
In an embodiment, an expanding alloy is used, which expands upon solidification and which has a melting temperature that is higher than the maximum anticipated well temperature, which alloy is placed within a cavity in the well and held at a temperature above the melting point of the alloy, whereupon the alloy is cooled down to the ambient well temperature and thereby solidifies and expands within the cavity.
Preferably the expanding alloy comprises Bismuth. Alternatively the expanding alloy comprises Gallium or Antimony.
It is observed that it is known to use Bismuth compositions with a low melting point and which expand during cooling down from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,137,283; 4,873,895; 4,487,432; 4,484,750; 3,765,486; 3,578,084; 3,333,635 and 3,273,641, all of which are herein incorporated by reference.
However, in technologies known from these prior art references no well equipment made up of a Bismuth alloy is cast in-situ.
In various embodiments of the invention, it is preferred that the alloy is lowered through the well within a container in which the temperature is maintained above the melting temperature of the alloy and an exit of the container is brought in fluid communication with the cavity whereupon the molten alloy is induced to flow through the exit from the container into the cavity.
In other embodiments, the alloy is placed in a solid state in or adjacent to the cavity and heated downhole to a temperature above the melting temperature of the alloy whereupon the heating is terminated and the alloy is permitted to solidify and expand within the cavity.
Thus, the special expanding properties of Bismuth, Gallium or Antimony and/or alloys thereof may be utilized to create a well abandonment plug. Optionally, the plug may also seal cavities within well tubulars, including any small gap or orifice within the well or surrounding formation such as threads, leaks, pore openings, gravel packs, fractures or perforations
The invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
The invention provides a method for in-situ casting of well equipment. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of in-situ casting of well equipment wherein a metal is used which expands upon solidification, the method comprising the steps of:
In an embodiment, an expanding alloy is used, which expands upon solidification and which has a melting temperature that is higher than the maximum anticipated well temperature, which alloy is placed within a cavity in the well and held at a temperature above the melting point of the alloy, whereupon the alloy is cooled down to the ambient well temperature and thereby solidifies and expands within the cavity.
Optionally, the cavity is an annular cavity between a pair of co-axial well tubulars. Such cavity suitably has near a lower end thereof a bottom or flow restriction that inhibits leakage of molten alloy from the cavity into other parts of the wellbore.
Suitably, the annular cavity is formed by an annular space between overlapping sections of an outer well tubular and an expanded inner well tubular. The flow restriction can, for example, be formed by a flexible sealing ring located near a lower end of the annular space.
In such case it is preferred that a ring of an expanding alloy is positioned above a pre-expanded section of an expandable well tubular and around the outer surface of said tubular and that the ring of expanding alloy comprises an array of staggered non-tangential slots or openings which open up in response to radial expansion of the tubular. Alternatively the ring may be a split ring with overlapping ends. Upon or as a result of the heat generated by expansion of the tubular the ring will melt and solidify again and provide an annular seal.
To create a very strong seal in the annular cavity it is preferred that said body is a first body, the first body being axially restrained in the cavity by a second body of metal which expands upon solidification, and wherein the metal of the second body solidifies at a higher temperature than the metal of the first body, the method further comprising:
Thus, the special expanding properties of Bismuth, Gallium or Antimony and/or alloys thereof may be utilized to seal the cavities within well tubulars, the annuli between co-axial well tubulars, or the annulus between a well casing and the formation, or any small gap or orifice within the well or surrounding formation such as threads, leaks, pore openings, gravel packs, fractures or perforations.
Referring to
The metal Bismuth, Atomic No. 83 and its alloys containing at least 55% by weight Bismuth expand whilst transiting from the molten into the solid phase.
Pure Bismuth (MP=271° C.) expands by 3.32 vol. % on solidification in ambient conditions, whilst its typical eutectic alloys such as e.g. Bi60Cd40 (MP=144° C.) typically expand by 1.5 vol. %.
The special expanding properties of Bismuth (and its alloys) may be utilized to seal the small annular space between an outer well tubular 7 and an inner expanded tubular 1 as shown in
A ring 5 of Bismuth or Bismuth-alloy material is positioned on an upset shoulder 2 of a pre-expanded. expandable tubular 1. The ring 5 may be continuous or slotted to permit expansion. The shoulder 2 can be perpendicular to the pipe axis, or tilted at an angle to permit sealing in a deviated well.
An additional upper ring 6 of Bismuth or Bismuth-alloy material with a melting point that is higher than ring 5 and with a density which is less than ring 5 is placed inside a flexible, temperature-resisting plastic or rubber bag (e.g. oven-safe plastic wrap) 8 and the combination of bag and ring 6 are placed on top of ring 5, such that the tubular 1, when vertical has from top to bottom: ring 6, ring 5 and then the upset shoulder 2. Rings 5 and 6 may also be continuous or slotted to permit expansion.
The Bismuth rings 5 and 6 and pre-expanded tubular 1 are run into the well in a normal manner. The casing is expanded using known pipe expansion techniques until the shoulder 2, O-ring 4 or additional seal sections are made to be in contact with the outer tubular 7. Additional seal sections may be included as part of the tubular, in the form of a lip or upset, or as an additional part, such as an elastomeric O-ring 4.
Once the tubular 1 is expanded so that the outer diameter of the expanded tubular 1 is in contact with the outer tubular 7, or any other external sealing mechanisms of the tubular 1 are in contact with the outer tubular 7, heat is applied. Heat is applied from the inside of the tubular 1 using a chemical source of heat, electric (resistive or inductive) heater, or through conductions of a hot liquid inside the tubular 1. This heat will increase the temperature of both Bismuth or Bismuth alloy rings until eventually both rings will melt and sag to the lowest point in the annulus by gravity.
The metal from ring 5 will take the lowest portion of the annular space, followed by the metal from ring 6, though the latter will remain contained by the plastic bag 8.
The heat source will be removed, or heating will cease and the temperature in the wellbore will slowly lower to its original temperature. Ring 6 will be the first to freeze and will expand (mostly in the vertical direction), however, some outward force on the tubular 1 will help provide a frictional resistance to the expansion of ring 6. This may be aided by roughness or ledges being machined into either the outer or inner tubular 7 or 1 before running in hole. Ring 5 will solidify and expand following the solidification of ring 6, and being constrained will expand with a great sealing force in all directions, providing a tight metal-to-metal seal between the tubulars 1 and 7 as is illustrated in
The Bismuth-alloy may be lowered into the well in a solid or liquid phase or may be created in-situ through an exothermic reaction.
The latter method may include the following steps. Bi2O3 and a highly reactive metal species, such as Al, are combined in a powdered form in a 1:1 ratio, such that they have a very high surface area per volume. This powder is deposited into the desired location via a coiled tubing or dump-bailer assembly. Subsequently, the powder (which could be pelletised or carefully sintered) is “ignited” by the discharge of a capacitor or other suitable electric or chemical method. The Al will react with the oxygen in the Bi2O3, forming nearly pure Bi, which will be molten due to the exothermic nature of this reaction and an Al2O3 low density solid slag will float (harmlessly) on the surface of the Bi pool.
Alternatively, if the Bismuth-alloy material is lowered in a solid phase into a well then the Bismuth-alloy material may form part of the completion or casing assembly (in the case of an annular sealing ring) or be positioned into the well through coiled tubing in the form of pellets or small pieces. In either case, surface cleaning of any pipe-sections to be sealed by the expanding Bismuth-alloy may be done through jetting or chemical means.
Subsequent to placement, heat is applied through for example electric resistive and/or induction heating, super-heated steam injection, and/or an exothermic chemical reaction. The generated heat will melt the alloy, allowing a liquid column to form, whereupon the liquid column is allowed to cool down and the Bismuth-alloy will solidify and expand.
If the Bismuth-alloy is lowered in a substantially liquid phase into the well then the alloy may be melted on surface and carried to the desired downhole location via a double-walled insulated and/or electrically heated coiled tubing.
If certain low-melting point alloys are used, such as Bi—Hg alloys, it is possible to create additions (e.g. Cu) to these alloys which act as “hardeners”. In this embodiment, liquid alloys with melting points lower than the well temperature are deposited in situ via coiled tubing. This could be achieved by gravity or with the aid of pressure facilitated through the action of a piston, or surface provider (pump). Subsequently, solid pellets of an alloying element can be added to the “pool”—well selected, these can create a solid Bismuth-alloy.
A number of suitable downhole applications of expandable Bismuth-alloys is summarized below:
A more detailed description of a number of suitable Bismuth, Gallium or other expandable alloys will be provided below.
A wide selection of the expandable Bismuth, Gallium alloys may be used for each of the downhole applications described above. In addition to pure Bismuth the following binary alloys as detailed in paragraphs a)-f) below are considered to be the most likely building blocks from which ternary, quaternary and higher order alloys could be derived.
Lead (Pb) is often included according to Bi100-x-ySnxPby (where x+y<45—generally y<6). This results in an alloy with a lower melting point than binary Bi—Sn. Examples of commercial alloys include: Cerrobase 5684-2, or 5742-3; Ostalloy 250277, or 262271.
Additional alloying additions can be made, which produce a multiphased, but very low melting point alloy, such as “Wood's Metal” (typically: Bi50Pb25Sn12.5Cd12.5); there is a wide variety of these metals. However, the majority of these alloys have melting points too low (e.g. Dalton Metal: Bi60Pb25Sn15 has a melting point of 92° C., Indalloy 117 has a melting point of 47° C.) to be of interest in well applications, with the exception noted above regarding cool liquid placement.
Thus, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that a variety of Bismuth, Gallium and other expandable alloys are suitable for in-situ casting of seals and/or other components for use in well construction, workover, treatment and abandonment operations.
While these illustrative embodiments have been described with particularity, it will be understood that various other modifications will be readily apparent to, and can be easily made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention Accordingly, it is not intended that the scope of the following claims can be limited to the examples and descriptions set forth herein but rather that the claims be construed as encompassing features which would be treated as equivalents thereof by those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01202121 | Jun 2001 | EP | regional |
This is a divisional application of application Ser. No. 10/479,728, filed 5 Dec. 2003 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,152,657.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20070137826 A1 | Jun 2007 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 10479728 | Dec 2003 | US |
| Child | 11557411 | US |
