Embodiments described relate to a bridge plug configured for use in cased well operations. More specifically, embodiments of the plug are described wherein metal-based anchoring and support features may be dissolvable in a well environment, particularly following fracturing applications.
Exploring, drilling and completing hydrocarbon and other wells are generally complicated, time consuming and ultimately very expensive endeavors. In recognition of these expenses, added emphasis has been placed on efficiencies associated with well completions and maintenance over the life of the well. Over the years, ever increasing well depths and sophisticated architecture have made reductions in time and effort spent in completions and maintenance operations of even greater focus.
Perforating and fracturing applications in a cased well, generally during well completion, constitute one such area where significant amounts of time and effort are spent, particularly as increases in well depths and sophisticated architecture are encountered. These applications involve the positioning of a bridge plug downhole of a well section to be perforated and fractured. Positioning of the bridge plug may be aided by pumping a driving fluid through the well. This may be particularly helpful where the plug is being advanced through a horizontal section of the well.
Once in place, equipment at the oilfield surface may communicate with the plug assembly over conventional wireline so as to direct setting of the plug. Such setting may include expanding slips and a seal of the assembly for anchoring and sealing of the plug respectively. Once anchored and sealed, a perforation application may take place above the bridge plug so as to provide perforations through the casing in the well section. Similarly, a fracturing application directing fracture fluid through the casing perforations and into the adjacent formation may follow. This process may be repeated, generally starting from the terminal end of the well and moving uphole section by section, until the casing and formation have been configured and treated as desired.
The presence of the set bridge plug in below the well section as indicated above keeps the high pressure perforating and fracturing applications from affecting well sections below the plug. Indeed, even though the noted applications are likely to generate well over 5,000 psi, the well section below the plug is kept isolated from the section thereabove. This degree of isolation is achieved largely due to the use of durable metal features of the plug, including the above noted slips, as well as a central mandrel.
Unfortunately, unlike setting of the bridge plug, wireline communication is unavailable for releasing the plug. Rather, due to the high pressure nature of the applications and the degree of anchoring required of the plug, it is generally configured for near permanent placement once set. As a result, removal of a bridge plug requires follow on drilling out of the plug. Once more, where the plug is set in a horizontal section of the well, removal of the plug may be particularly challenging. Unlike the initial positioning of the bridge plug, which may be aided by pumping fluid through the well, no significant tool or technique is readily available to aid in drillably removing the plug. Indeed, due to the physical orientation of the plug relative the oilfield surface equipment, each drill-out of a plug in a horizontal well section may require hours of dedicated manpower and drilling equipment.
Depending on the particular architecture of the well, several horizontal bridge plug drill-outs, as well as dozens of vertical drill-outs may take place over the course of conventional perforating and fracturing operations for a given cased well. All in all, this may add up to several days and several hundred thousand dollars in added manpower and equipment expenses, solely dedicated to bridge plug drill-out. Furthermore, even with such expenses incurred, the most terminal or downhole horizontal plugs are often left in place, with the drill-out application unable to achieve complete plug removal, thus cutting off access to the last several hundred feet of the well.
Efforts have been made to reduce expenses associated with time, manpower, and equipment that are dedicated to bridge plug drill-outs as described above. For example, many bridge plugs today include parts made up of fiberglass based materials which readily degrade during drill-out. However, use of such materials for the above noted slips and/or mandrel may risk plug failure during high pressure perforating or fracturing. Such failure would likely require an additional clean out application and subsequent positioning and setting of an entirely new bridge plug, all at considerable time and expense. Thus, in order to avoid such risks, conventional bridge plugs generally continue to require time consuming and labor intensive drill-out for removal, particularly in the case of horizontally positioned plugs.
A bridge plug is disclosed for use in a cased well during a pressure generating application. The plug provides effective isolation during the application. However, the plug is also configured of a solid structure that is dissolvable in the well.
Embodiments are described with reference to certain downhole operations employing a bridge plug for well isolation. For example, embodiments herein focus on perforating and fracturing applications. However, a variety of applications may be employed that take advantage of embodiments of a dissolvable bridge plug as detailed herein. For example, any number of temporary isolations, for example to run an isolated clean-out or other application, may take advantage of bridge plug embodiments described below. Regardless, embodiments described herein include a bridge plug configured for securably anchoring in a cased well for a high-pressure application. This may be followed by a substantial dissolve of metal-based parts of the plug so as to allow for a more efficient removal thereof.
Referring now to
In the embodiment of
In spite of the high strength and hardness characteristics of the slips 110 and mandrel 120, their degradable or dissolvable nature allows for subsequent drill-out or other plug removal techniques to be carried out in an efficient and time-saving manner (see
Continuing with reference to
Unlike the slips 110 and mandrel 120, none of the body portions 160, the seal 150, or the head 175 is responsible for anchoring or maintaining structural integrity of the plug 100 during a perforating, fracturing or other high pressure applications in the well 280. Thus, at the very outset material choices for these features 150, 160, 175 may be selected based on other operational parameters. For example, the polymer seal material of the seal 150 may be an elastomer selected based on factors such as radial expansiveness and likely well conditions. Similarly, the body portions 160 of the plug 100 may be a conventional polymer or fiberglass composite that is selected based on its ease of drill-out removal following a high pressure application (see
In the embodiment shown, a rig 210 is provided at the oilfield surface over a well head 220 with various lines 230, 240 coupled thereto for hydraulic access to the well 280. More specifically, a high pressure line 230 is depicted along with a production line 240. The production line 240 may be provided for recovery of hydrocarbons following completion of the well 280. However, more immediately, this line 240 may be utilized in recovering fracturing fluids. That is, the high pressure line 230 may be coupled to large scale surface equipment including fracturing pumps for generating at least about 5,000 psi for a fracturing application. Thus, fracturing fluid, primarily water, may be driven downhole for stimulation of a production region 260.
In the embodiment of
As to deployment and setting of the bridge plug 100, a variety of techniques may be utilized. For example, as noted above, wireline coupled to the head 175 may be used to drop the plug 100 down the vertical portion of the well 280. Upon reaching the lateral leg 285, hydraulic pressure may be employed to position the plug 100 therein. Once in place, the slips 110 may be wireline actuated for anchoring as described below. Similarly, the seal 150 may be compressibly actuated for sealing. In other embodiments slickline, jointed pipe, or coiled tubing may be used in deployment of the plug 100. In such embodiments, setting may be actuated hydraulically or though the use of a separate setting tool which acts compressibly upon the plug 100 for radial expansion of the slips 110 and seal 150.
Continuing with reference to
Continuing with reference to
Referring now to
The dissolve rate of the plug 100 may be tailored by the particular material choices selected for the reactive metals and alloying elements described above. That is, material choices selected in constructing the slips 110 and mandrel 120 of
Continuing with reference to
While material choices may be selected based on induced downhole conditions such as fracturing operations, such operations may also be modulated based on the characteristics of the materials selected. So, for example, where the duration of the fracturing application is to be extended, effective isolation through the plug 100 may similarly be extended through the use of low temperature fracturing fluid (e.g. below about 25° C. upon entry into the well head 220 of
Compositions or material choices for the slips 110 and mandrel 120 are detailed at great length in the noted '233 Application. As described, these may include a reactive metal, which itself may be an alloy with structure of crystalline, amorphous or both. The metal may also be of powder-metallurgy like structure or even a hybrid structure of one or more reactive metals in a woven matrix. Generally, the reactive metal is selected from elements in columns I and II of the Periodic Table and combined with an alloying element. Thus, a high-strength structure may be formed that is nevertheless degradable.
In most cases, the reactive metal is one of calcium, magnesium and aluminum, preferably aluminum. Further, the alloying element is generally one of lithium, gallium, indium, zinc, or bismuth. Also, calcium, magnesium and/or aluminum may serve as the alloying element if not already selected as the reactive metal. For example, a reactive metal of aluminum may be effectively combined with an alloying element of magnesium in forming a slip 110 or mandrel 120.
In other embodiments, the materials selected for construction of the slips 110 and mandrel 120 may be reinforced with ceramic particulates or fibers which may have affect on the rate of degradation. Alternatively, the slips 110 and mandrel 120 may be coated with a variety of compositions which may be metallic, ceramic, or polymeric in nature. Such coatings may be selected so as to affect or delay the onset of dissolve. For example, in one embodiment, a coating is selected that is itself configured to degrade only upon the introduction of a high temperature fracturing fluid. Thus, the dissolve period for the underlying structure of the slips 110 and mandrel 120 is delayed until fracturing has actually begun.
The particular combinations of reactive metal and alloying elements which may be employed based on the desired dissolve rate and downhole conditions are detailed at great length in the noted '233 Application. Factors such as melting points of the materials, corrosion potential and/or the dissolvability in the presence of water, brine or hydrogen may all be accounted for in determining the makeup of the slips 110 and mandrel 120.
In one embodiment, the dissolve apparent in
Referring now to
Referring now to
Embodiments described hereinabove provide a bridge plug and techniques that allow for effective isolation and follow on removal irrespective of the particular architecture of the well. That is, in spite of the depths involved or the lateral orientation of plug orientation, drill-out or other removal techniques may effectively and expediently follow an isolated application uphole of the set plug. The degree of time savings involved may be quite significant when considering the fact that completions in a given well may involve several bridge plug installations and subsequent removals. This may amount to several days worth of time savings and hundreds of thousands of dollars, particularly in cases where such installations and removals involve a host of horizontally oriented plugs.
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. 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.
The present document Ser. No. 11/427,233 is a continuation in part of U.S. Pat. No. 8,211,247, entitled “Degradable Compositions, Apparatus Comprising Same, and Method of Use,” which was filed on Jun. 28, 2006, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/771,627, which was filed on Feb. 9, 2006, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
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20110048743 A1 | Mar 2011 | US |
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Parent | 11427233 | Jun 2006 | US |
Child | 12855503 | US |