Patent Grant
12091925
In the oil and gas industry, hydrocarbons are located in porous formations far beneath the Earth's surface. Wells are drilled into these formations to access and extract these hydrocarbons.
Oftentimes, during drilling of the well or throughout the life of the well, equipment or junk becomes lost or lodged in the well. This equipment or junk, once lost or lodged in the well, is called a fish. A “fishing job” involves removing the fish from the well, or otherwise clearing the well of the fish.
Common fishing procedures may include using fishing tools to latch onto the fish in order to pull the fish out of the well, or using milling tools to mill (i.e., drill through) the fish to clear the well.
This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in limiting the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Embodiments and disclosed, generally relating to a welding tool consisting of a tubular body having a lateral end and a pin end, wherein the pin end has external threads disposed around an external circumferential surface of the pin end and the lateral end comprises an inner wall defining an orifice. Additionally, a heat proof shell is disposed circumferentially around the lateral end. The welding tool further includes a battery housing, wherein the battery housing encloses a plurality of batteries which store energy. The welding tool further includes a welding element disposed on an inner surface of the orifice and an electric line. The electric line is coiled within the tubular body and physically contacts the welding element and is electrically connected to the plurality of batteries. The welding tool further includes a controller, wherein the controller is capable of receiving and parsing mud pulse signals and controlling the release of stored energy from the batteries to the electric line.
Embodiments and disclosed, generally relating to a method for performing a fishing operation. The method includes providing a welding tool which consists of a tubular body having a lateral end and a pin end, wherein the tubular body defines an orifice. The welding tool further includes a battery housing, wherein the battery housing encloses a plurality of batteries. Additionally, the welding tool has a welding element disposed on an inner surface of the orifice, and an electric line coiled within the tubular body and in direct contact with the welding element. The method further includes connecting the welding tool to a deployment device and lowering the welding tool into the well and onto a fish in the well such that the welding tool at least partially envelopes the fish. The method further includes activating the electric line to generate heat which welds the fish to the welding element of the welding tool. The method further includes raising the welding tool and removing the fish attached via weld to the welding tool from the well.
Embodiments and disclosed, generally relating to a system composed of a deployment device, a welding tool, and a controller. The welding tool consists of a tubular body having a lateral end and a pin end, wherein the tubular body defines an orifice. The welding tool further includes a battery housing, wherein the battery housing encloses a plurality of batteries. The welding tool further includes a welding element disposed on an inner surface of the orifice, and an electric line coiled within the tubular body and in direct contact with the welding element. The controller can receive and parse mud pulse signals and activate the electric line of the welding tool.
Other aspects and advantages of the claimed subject matter will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims.
Specific embodiments of the disclosed technology will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying figures. Like elements in the various figures are denoted by like reference numerals for consistency. The size and relative positions of elements in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the shapes of various elements and angles are not necessarily drawn to scale, and some of these elements may be arbitrarily enlarged and positioned to improve drawing legibility. Further, the particular shapes of the elements as drawn are not necessarily intended to convey any information regarding the actual shape of the particular elements and have been solely selected for ease of recognition in the drawings.
In the following detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily complicating the description.
Throughout the application, ordinal numbers (e.g., first, second, third, etc.) may be used as an adjective for an element (i.e., any noun in the application). The use of ordinal numbers is not to imply or create any particular ordering of the elements nor to limit any element to being only a single element unless expressly disclosed, such as using the terms “before”, “after”, “single”, and other such terminology. Rather, the use of ordinal numbers is to distinguish between the elements. By way of an example, a first element is distinct from a second element, and the first element may encompass more than one element and succeed (or precede) the second element in an ordering of elements.
Embodiments disclosed herein relate to a fishing welding tool intended to catch fish. The tool provides the ability to engage the top of the fish properly regardless of how the top of the fish is shaped, i.e., fish that may not be uniformly shaped at the top. Such a tool saves rig time by applying a unique procedure and tool that ensures engagement with the fish on the first attempt to retrieve the fish.
The drill string (108) may include one or more drill pipes (109) connected to form conduit and a bottom hole assembly (BHA) (110) disposed at the distal end of the conduit. The BHA (110) may include a drill bit (112) to cut into the subsurface rock. The BHA (110) may include measurement tools, such as a measurement-while-drilling (MWD) tool (114) and logging-while-drilling (LWD) tool 116. Measurement tools (114, 116) may include sensors and hardware to measure downhole drilling parameters, and these measurements may be transmitted to the surface using any suitable telemetry system known in the art. The BHA (110) and the drill string (108) may include other drilling tools known in the art but not specifically shown.
The drill string (108) may be suspended in the wellbore (102) by a derrick (118). A crown block (120) may be mounted at the top of the derrick (118), and a traveling block (122) may hang down from the crown block (120) by means of a cable or drilling line (124). One end of the cable (124) may be connected to a drawworks (126), which is a reeling device that may be used to adjust the length of the cable (124) so that the traveling block (122) may move up or down the derrick (118). The traveling block (122) may include a hook (128) on which a top drive (130) is supported.
The top drive (130) is coupled to the top of the drill string (108) and is operable to rotate the drill string (108). Alternatively, the drill string (108) may be rotated by means of a rotary table (not shown) on the drilling floor (131). Drilling fluid (commonly called mud) may be stored in a mud pit (132), and at least one pump (134) may pump the mud from the mud pit (132) into the drill string (108). The mud may flow into the drill string (108) through appropriate flow paths in the top drive (130) (or a rotary swivel if a rotary table is used instead of a top drive to rotate the drill string (108)).
In one implementation, a system (199) may be disposed at or communicate with the well site (100). System (199) may control at least a portion of a drilling operation at the well site (100) by providing controls to various components of the drilling operation. In one or more embodiments, the system (199) may receive data from one or more sensors (160) arranged to measure controllable parameters of the drilling operation. As a nonlimiting example, sensors (160) may be arranged to measure WOB (weight on bit), RPM (drill string rotational speed), GPM (flow rate of the mud pumps), and ROP (rate of penetration of the drilling operation).
Sensors (160) may be positioned to measure parameter(s) related to the rotation of the drill string (108), parameter(s) related to travel of the traveling block (122), which may be used to determine ROP of the drilling operation, and parameter(s) related to flow rate of the pump (134). For illustration purposes, sensors (160) are shown on drill string (108) and proximate mud pump (134). The illustrated locations of sensors (160) are not intended to be limiting, and sensors (160) could be disposed wherever drilling parameters need to be measured. Moreover, there may be many more sensors (160) than shown in
During a drilling operation at a well site (100), the drill string (108) is rotated relative to the wellbore (102), and weight is applied to the drill bit (112) to enable the drill bit (112) to break rock as the drill string (108) is rotated. In some cases, the drill bit (112) may be rotated independently with a drilling motor (not shown). In other embodiments, the drill bit (112) may be rotated using a combination of the drilling motor and the top drive (130) (or a rotary swivel if a rotary table is used instead of a top drive to rotate the drill string (108)). While cutting rock with the drill bit (112), mud is pumped into the drill string (108).
The mud flows down the drill string (108) and exits into the bottom of the wellbore (102) through nozzles in the drill bit (112). The mud in the wellbore (102) then flows back up to the surface in an annular space between the drill string (108) and the wellbore (102) with entrained cuttings. The mud with the cuttings is returned to the mud pit (132) to be circulated back again into the drill string (108). Typically, the cuttings are removed from the mud, and the mud is reconditioned as necessary, before pumping the mud again into the drill string (108). In one or more embodiments, the drilling operation may be controlled by the system (199).
While drilling the wellbore (102), as described above, various pieces of equipment such as the drill bit (112) or a portion of the drill string (108) may be disconnected from the surface portion of the well site (100) (surface portion being on or above the surface of the Earth) and be lost to the downhole portion of the well site (100) (downhole portion being anywhere beneath the surface of the Earth). The downhole portion of the well site (100) is hereafter referred to as the well. Equipment or junk that is lost or lodged in the well is called a fish. A fish may come from a drilling operation as described above, or a fish may come from any other operation without departing from the scope of this disclosure.
The fish may be fished or drilled out to clear the well for production and/or continuing operations. For a fishing job to be successful, the fishing tool must engage the top of the fish, or the accessible portion of the fish, with enough force to pull the fish out of the well. However, in many instances, the top of the fish is non-uniform, or otherwise shaped, such that engaging the fish is difficult, time-consuming, and oftentimes unfeasible. With respect to drilling the fish out of the well, a mill is used in place of a conventional drill bit (112). A mill is designed to drill through tougher materials, such as steel, when compared to a conventional drill bit (112). Mills are available in a plurality of different mill shapes depending on the shape of the fish. However, because it is difficult to know the shape of the fish and its orientation while the fish is downhole, the wrong mill shape may be selected resulting in a failed fishing job and additional costs, in both time and money, to select and try a different mill shape. Therefore, a fishing tool that can successfully remove, or otherwise clear the well of, the fish regardless of the shape and orientation of the fish is beneficial. As such, embodiments disclosed herein present systems and methods for a welding tool used for fishing operations that is agnostic to the shape and orientation of the downhole fish.
Because the lateral end (204) and pin end (206) have a tubular shape, the lateral end (204) has an inner wall (208) defining an orifice (209). The pin end (206) has external threads (210) disposed around an external circumferential surface of the pin end (206). The external threads (210) may be any type of thread known in the art, such as box threads, tapered threads, etc.
As shown in
The controller (220) may be disposed within the tubular body (202) of the welding tool (200). In accordance with one or more embodiments,
Further,
The welding element (216) is waterproof and is able to operate in hyperbaric conditions such that contact with drilling fluid (drilling mud) does not inhibit its function. In one or more embodiments, the welding element (216) makes physical contact with the electric line (218). Because the electric line (218) and welding element (216) directly contact each other, when stored energy is discharged to the electric line (218), the welding element (216) is temporarily heated and melted. Additionally, external items encompassed by the orifice (209) and therefore proximate to the welding element (216), such as a fish or portions of a fish, may be temporarily heated and melted. The temporarily melted portions of the welding element (216) and nearby fish, once solidified, form a strong, fixed, welded connection between the welding tool (200) and the fish. In other words, once the electric line (218) is activated, by receiving stored energy from the plurality of batteries, as directed by the controller (220) upon reception of an indicative mud pulse signal, the welding tool (200) and any proximate fish become fixedly connected via a weld formed between the welding element (216) and the fish.
As shown in
In accordance with one or more embodiments, and as shown in
The deployment demonstrated in
With at least a portion of the fish (402) enclosed by the orifice (209) of the welding tool (200), the controller (220) may receive a mud pulse signal to discharge the stored energy from the batteries to the electric line (218) to heat and melt the welding element (216). The process results in the welding of the fish (402) to the welding tool (200). Once the welding tool (200) is fixedly attached to the fish (402), the welding tool (200) and fish (402) may be raised (409) from the well (400) as depicted in
While the various blocks in
Initially, as shown in block 502, a welding tool (200) as described in
The welding tool (200) is lowered into the well (400) using the deployment device according to block 506. The welding tool (200) is further lowered into the well (400) such that the welding tool (200) at least partially envelopes the fish (402), as depicted in block 508.
As illustrated in block 510, the electric line (218) is activated by discharging stored energy from the batteries in order to weld the fish (402) to the welding element (216) as directed by the controller (220) upon reception of a mud pulse signal by the controller (220) wherein the mud pulse signal indicates the activation of the electric line (218).
As shown in block 512, the welding tool (200) and the attached fish (402), where the fish (402) is fixedly attached to the welding tool (200) via a weld, or bond, between the fish (402) and the welding element (216), are raised from the well (400). Note that during the fishing operation a drilling fluid (410) may be pumped from the drill string (108) to the welding tool (200), through at least one nozzle (222), and into the external environment. The environment may be the well (400). In other embodiments, the drilling fluid (410) may carry pieces of the fish (402) to the surface of the Earth. In other embodiments, a junk basket, located in the BHA (406), may catch and carry pieces of the fish (402) to the surface of the Earth.
Although only a few example embodiments have been described in detail above, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in the example embodiments without materially departing from this invention. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this disclosure as defined in the following claims. In the claims, means-plus-function clauses are intended to cover the structures described herein as performing the recited function and not only structural equivalents, but also equivalent structures. Thus, although a nail and a screw may not be structural equivalents in that a nail employs a cylindrical surface to secure wooden parts together, whereas a screw employs a helical surface, in the environment of fastening wooden parts, a nail and a screw may be equivalent structures. It is the express intention of the applicant not to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) for any limitations of any of the claims herein, except for those in which the claim expressly uses the words ‘means for’ together with an associated function.
This Application is a Division of application Ser. No. 17/652,430 filed on Feb. 24, 2022. The entire contents of these applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1567109 | Boynton | Dec 1925 | A |
| 2154654 | Armentrout | Apr 1939 | A |
| 2789004 | Foster | Apr 1957 | A |
| 4488747 | Austin | Dec 1984 | A |
| 6041860 | Nazzal | Mar 2000 | A |
| 10807189 | Huang | Oct 2020 | B2 |
| 11624252 | Al-Mousa | Apr 2023 | B1 |
| 20180038171 | Hall | Feb 2018 | A1 |
| 20210254420 | Skjeie | Aug 2021 | A1 |
| 20210270103 | Greci | Sep 2021 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20230417117 A1 | Dec 2023 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 17652430 | Feb 2022 | US |
| Child | 18465943 | US |
