The present invention relates to the field of oil and gas wellbore construction, particularly to an expandable liner hanger.
Liner hangers have been widely utilized as petroleum exploitation is continued and deep wells and ultra-deep wells become more and more. Compared with traditional well construction methods, liner hangers have the following advantages. Firstly, the cost of tubular is reduced; specifically, since the liner is hung from the upper tubular, all tubulars above the hanger are omitted. Secondly, because liner weight is less than the whole casing string in a deep well, less horsepower rig may be used to drill a deeper well, rather than a large horsepower rig is needed, hence service cost of drilling rig may be reduced. In addition, the success rate and operating efficiency of well cementation are improved.
The standard liner hangers with top packers usually utilize a cone and slip combination to hang the liner to the upper tubular. Numerous field cases showed that they sometime may fail in a proper setting/sealing, resulting in severely compromised effort and poor cement due to restricted flow passages area across the liner hanger after slips are activated, that may create a backpressure and even induce downhole losses while cementing.
In the last decade or so expandable liner hanger technology has been developed to address these problems with the advantages of much improved hanging success together with a much better pressure zonal isolation because of multiple reliable hanging/sealing elements. Expandable liner hanger is essentially a short section of expandable tubular with several bands of elastomer seals, that is expanded by a solid expansion cone driven by a high hydraulic pressure. The expansion cone moves typically from top down, so that the expansion tool assembly could be easily retrieved if encountering any major problem, such as a lack of available room potentially due to a significant solid accumulation between expandable liner hanger and previous casing post liner cementing operation, particularly in a highly deviated or horizontal section of a well. If that happens, it may prevent further expansion and even leads possibly to stuck cone, ending up with a partially or poorly expanded liner hanger, which may not meet the operational requirements of liner hanger for the well.
To address the above mentioned problem, the present invention discloses a new expandable liner hanger system, with a bottom up hydraulic expansion process that allows optional ball seating for pressure isolation in case of normal cement plug failure, as well as mechanical over-pull (if required) to overcome a tight-hole situation (due to potential solids behind the hanger) and releasable cone in event of stuck cone, in addition to enhanced liner hanger seal elements consisting of both elastomer bands and metal rings, ultimately offering an assured chance of successfully delivering a reliable liner hanger.
To attain the object described above, in an aspect, the present invention provides an expandable liner hanger system, comprising a central pipe and an expandable pipe outside the central pipe, with an expansion cone provided between the central pipe and the expandable pipe in a way that the expansion cone is movable along the central pipe, so that the expandable pipe is expanded;
Wherein, the expansion cone comprises an expansion cone seat that can move along the central pipe, and an expansion cone sleeve fitted over the expansion cone seat, the connection between the expansion cone seat and the expansion cone sleeve is configured in a way that the expansion cone sleeve can move upward together with the expansion cone seat along the central pipe so that the expandable pipe is expanded, and the central pipe can drive the expansion cone seat to disengage from the expansion cone sleeve.
Preferably, the expansion cone seat is connected with the expansion cone sleeve via a threaded connection, the central pipe can drive the expansion cone seat to rotate such that the expansion cone seat can screwed out from the expansion cone sleeve.
Preferably, a step is formed on the external surface of the central pipe, the expansion cone seat is at the upper end of the step and the expansion cone seat is fitted and connected with the central pipe via a spline so as to transmit rotating torque from the central pipe.
Preferably, the expansion cone seat is connected with the expansion cone sleeve via at least one shear pin, the central pipe is configured such that the shear pin can be broken and the expansion cone seat can disengage from the expansion sleeve when rotating, pulling or pushing the expansion cone seat by the central pipe.
Preferably, a fluid-filled cavity is formed between the central pipe and the expandable pipe at the side of the lower end of the expansion cone, the side wall of the central pipe has an aperture that communicates with the fluid-filled cavity, and the fluid flowing into the central pipe can enter into the fluid-filled cavity via the aperture and push the lower end of the expansion cone to move upward.
Preferably, the expandable liner hanger system further comprising a well cementing accessory and a rubber plug, the well cementing accessory is connected to the lower end of the central pipe and has a center hole, and the rubber plug is used to be placed in the central pipe and can move to the well cementing accessory under the action of the pressurized fluid in the central pipe so as to be stopped by the well cementing accessory;
Wherein, the well cementing accessory is connected to the central pipe via a shear pin, which can be sheared off when the rubber plug and the well cementing accessory are pushed to move under the pressure effect of the fluid above the rubber plug.
Preferably, the central pipe comprises a main pipe body and a carrying sleeve connected to the lower end of the main pipe body, and the well cementing accessory is connected to the carrying sleeve via the shear pin.
Preferably, the lower end of the expandable pipe is connected with a connecting sleeve configured to connect a liner, the lower end of the carrying sleeve is divided along the circumferential direction to form a plurality of collet fingers, and a collet finger head configured to stop at the lower end face of the connecting sleeve is provided on the outer surface of at least one of the collet fingers;
When the central pipe moves upward after the well cementing accessory disengages downward from the carrying sleeve, the collet fingers can deform inward so that the collet finger heads move upward out of the lower end of the double pin thread connecting sleeve.
Preferably, the carrying sleeve is connected with the main pipe body through a threaded connection; or,
the connecting sleeve is connected with the expandable pipe through a threaded connection.
Preferably, the expandable liner hanger system further comprising a tripping ball to be placed in the central pipe, and the central pipe is provided with a stop structure therein, which is configured to stop the tripping ball below the aperture, and the internal flow passage in the central pipe can be blocked when the tripping ball is fitted with the stop structure.
Preferably, the central pipe comprises a main pipe body and a carrying sleeve connected to the lower end of the main pipe body, and the stop structure is a tapered hole section that is tapered in the downward direction in the carrying sleeve.
Preferably, a dual-purpose sleeve that supports between the central pipe and the expandable pipe is provided at a side of the upper end of the expansion cone, the dual-purpose sleeve acts as a centralizer and also a debris catcher to prevent any solids falling into the critical expandable interval.
Preferably, the central pipe further comprises a connecting pipe configured to connect a drill rod, the connecting pipe is provided at the upper end of the central pipe.
In the expandable liner hanger system provided in the present invention, the expandable pipe can be expanded as the expansion cone moves along the central pipe, so that the expandable pipe is tightly fixed to the inner wall of the external casing in the well. If the expansion cone can't move further due to any unexpected obstruction behind the expandable pipe, the central pipe may be rotated so that the expansion cone seat is driven by the central pipe to disengage from the expansion cone sleeve and is lifted out of the well together with the central pipe, while the expansion cone sleeve is left in the well. Thus, additional milling tools may be inserted into the well for clean-out and a sufficient wellbore pass-through diameter is ensured, so that the well construction can be continued. The technical scheme provided in the present invention can ensure wellbore accessibility in case that the expandable pipe fails to expand.
Hereunder some embodiments of the present invention will be detailed with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the embodiments described here are only provided to describe and explain the present invention rather than constitute any limitation to the present invention.
It should be noted that the embodiments and the features in the embodiments can be combined freely, provided that there is no confliction among them.
In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the orientation or position relations indicated by terms “center”, “longitudinal”, “transverse”, “length”, “width”, “thickness”, “above”, “below”, “left”, “right”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, “top”, “bottom”, “axial”, “radial”, or “circumferential”, etc., are based on the orientation or position relations indicated in the accompanying drawings. They are used only to ease and simplify the description of the present invention, rather than indicate or imply that the involved device or component must have a specific orientation or must be constructed and operated in a specific orientation. Therefore, the use of these terms shall not be deemed as constituting any limitation to the present invention. In addition, “inside” and “outside” usually refer to inside and outside with respect to the outlines of the components.
The present invention provides an expandable liner hanger system, which, as shown in
Wherein, the expansion cone 3 comprises an expansion cone seat 31 that can move along the central pipe 1, and an expansion cone sleeve 32 fitted over the expansion cone seat 31, the connection between the expansion cone seat 31 and the expansion cone sleeve 32 is configured in a way that the expansion cone sleeve 32 can move upward together with the expansion cone seat 31 along the central pipe 1 so that the expandable pipe 2 is expanded, and the central pipe 1 can drive the expansion cone seat 31 to disengage from the expansion cone sleeve 32.
Preferably, the expansion cone seat 31 is connected with the expansion cone sleeve 32 via a threaded connection, the central pipe 1 can drive the expansion cone seat 31 to rotate such that the expansion cone seat 31 can screwed out from the expansion cone sleeve 32.
Specifically, a step 112 is formed on the external surface of the central pipe 1, the expansion cone seat 31 is at the upper end of the step 112 and the expansion cone seat 31 is fitted and connected with the central pipe 1 via a spline so a rotating torque can be transmitted across it. when the central pipe 1 drives the expansion cone seat 31 to rotate via the spline, the threaded connection between the expansion cone seat 31 and the expansion cone sleeve 32 can be unscrewed.
Of course, those skilled in the art can understand that the connection structure in which the expansion cone seat 31 can disengage from the expansion cone sleeve 32 is not limited to threaded connection. For example, a connecting component, such as at least one shear pin may be provided between the expansion cone seat 31 and the expansion cone sleeve 32, and may be broken when rotating, pulling or pushing the expansion cone seat 31 by the central pipe, so that the expansion cone seat 31 can disengage from the expansion cone sleeve 32. Other embodiments may also be possible.
In the expandable liner hanger system provided in the present invention, the expandable pipe 2 can be expanded as the expansion cone 3 moves along the central pipe 1, so that the expandable pipe 2 is tightly fitted and fixed to the inner wall of the external casing 40 in the well. If the expansion cone 3 can't move further and expand the expandable pipe 2 in any emergency, e.g., sand and gravel, solids or even metal junks, etc. are entrained between the central pipe 1 and the expandable pipe 2, the central pipe 1 may be rotated so that the expansion cone seat 31 is driven by the central pipe 1 to rotate and thereby disengage from the expansion cone sleeve 32 and is lifted out of the well together with the central pipe 1, while the expansion cone sleeve 32 is left in the well. Then, additional milling tools may be inserted into the well to ensure a sufficient wellbore pass-through diameter, so that the well construction can be continued. Therefore, the technical scheme provided in the present invention can ensure wellbore accessibility in case that the expandable pipe fails to expand.
Hereunder the technical scheme provided in the present invention will be further detailed in embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in
There is a dual-purpose sleeve 10 that acts as a centralizer between the central pipe 1 and the expandable pipe 2 at the upper elastic seal ring end of the expansion pipe 2. The sleeve 10 can also function as a debris catcher to prevent any solids falling into the critical expansion interval. When the expansion cone 3 moves upward and expands and the central pipe 1 is lifted upward, the sleeve 10 can move upward together with the expansion cone 3 (as shown in
In this embodiment, the expandable liner hanger system further comprises a well cementing accessory 5 that is connected to the lower end of the central pipe 1 and has a center hole, and a rubber plug 6 that is to be placed in the central pipe 1 and can move to the well cementing accessory 5 under the action of the fluid in the central pipe 1 and is stopped at the entry point by the well cementing accessory 5 because of a restricted passage diameter that is smaller than the rubber plug 6 nominal out-diameter. Wherein, the well cementing accessory 5 is connected to the central pipe 1 via a shear pin 7, which can be sheared off when the rubber plug 6 and the well cementing accessory 5 are pushed to move downward under the pressure effect of the fluid above the rubber plug 6.
Specifically, as shown in
In addition, the central pipe 1 further comprises a connecting pipe 13 configured to connect a drill rod at the upper end of the central pipe 1. The inner wall of the connecting pipe 13 at the upper end has a female or box thread form, and the drill rod may be connected by means of a male or pin thread form.
In this embodiment, the lower end of the expandable pipe 2 is connected with a connecting sleeve 4 configured to connect a liner 20; preferably, the expandable pipe 2 is connected with the connecting sleeve 4 through a threaded connection. Via the connecting sleeve 4, the expandable pipe 2 may be connected with a liner 20 conveniently.
Preferably, as shown in
During well cementing operation, as shown in
After the rubber plug 6 is fitted with the well cementing accessory 5, water or displacement mud is pumped further into the central pipe 1, and the hydraulic pressure above the rubber plug 6 starts to increase, indicating the rubber plug sealing is successful. As the pressure is further increased, the shear pin 7 between the well cementing accessory 5 and the central pipe 1 is sheared off, the well cementing accessory 5 and the rubber plug 6 together are pushed into the bottom of the well, the cement slurry 40 at the lower end of the well cementing accessory 5 is pushed out of the liner, so that the liner 20 in the well is cemented to the rock formation 50 outside the liner 20, and thereby the well cementation is accomplished.
After the well cementing operation is finished, the liner hanging process of the hanger is executed. As shown in
In the technical scheme provided in the present invention, as shown in
Preferably, the stop structure is a tapered hole section 123 that is tapered in the downward direction in the carrying sleeve 12 at the lower end of the central pipe 1.
If wellbore pressure integrity fails post cement displacement and the expansion can not be initiated, the tripping ball 8 may be deployed into the central pipe 1. The tripping ball 8 is seized by the tapered hole section 123 when it moves downward to the tapered hole section 123 in the central pipe 1, and thereby blocks the channel in the central pipe 1. As water or mud is injected into the central pipe 1, the hydraulic pressure above the tripping ball 8 is increased continuously, and the fluid flows through the aperture 111 of the central pipe 1 into the fluid-filled cavity 9, so that the pressure in the cavity 9 is increased and reached to the expansion pressure, and the expansion cone 3 is pushed to move upward and thereby the expandable pipe 2 is expanded. Likewise, the central pipe 1 may be lifted upward so as to accelerate the expansion process.
If the expansion cone 3 can't move further and the expandable pipe 2 can't expand owing to any obstruction (e.g., sand and gravel are entrained between the expandable pipe 2 and the central pipe 1) or the expansion cone 3 is stuck. As shown in
Now, the expansion cone seat 31 and the central pipe 1 may be lifted out of the well, while the expansion cone sleeve 32 is left in the well, as shown in
While the present invention is described above in detail in some preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, the present invention is not limited to those embodiments. Various simple variations may be made to the technical scheme in the present invention, including combinations of the specific technical features in any appropriate form, within the scope of the technical ideal of the present invention. To avoid unnecessary repetition, the possible combinations are not described specifically in the present invention. However, such simple variations and combinations shall also be deemed as having been disclosed and falling in the scope of protection of the present invention.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2812025 | Doherty | Nov 1957 | A |
6012523 | Campbell | Jan 2000 | A |
20040011534 | Simonds | Jan 2004 | A1 |
20140054047 | Zhou | Feb 2014 | A1 |
20180119527 | Jabs | May 2018 | A1 |
20180202267 | Xu | Jul 2018 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20200332629 A1 | Oct 2020 | US |