The present invention relates generally to fluid collection or flow systems. In some embodiments, the present invention relates to restricting fluid flow with the use of at least one swellable member.
In various operations involving fluid collection or flow, it is often desirable to restrict or stop the flow of fluids at certain locations. In subsurface hydrocarbon recovery operations, for example, it is sometimes preferable to stop the inflow of fluids from the formation into a production tubing string at locations when water is present in the recovered formation fluids. For another example, certain hydrocarbon production operations often warrant the restriction of formation fluid inflow at particular locations, such as to promote an even pressure drawdown across a long production zone.
Many existing and proposed techniques for restricting or blocking the inflow of fluids are believed to require the manufacturing and assembly of various components, use of positive mechanical action, costly interruption of operations or other requirements.
It should be understood that the above-described examples, features and/or disadvantages are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope or subject matter of the claims of this patent application, any patents granted hereon or any patent or patent application claiming priority hereto. Thus, none of the appended claims or claims of any related application or patent should be limited by the above discussion or construed to address, include or exclude the cited examples, features and/or disadvantages, except and only to the extent as may be expressly stated in a particular claim.
Accordingly, there exists a need for apparatus and methods useful with fluid collection or flow systems having one or more of the following attributes, capabilities or features: includes at least one swellable member that restricts the flow of fluid into a tubular member upon an external influence to the swellable member; includes at least one swellable member that restricts the flow of fluid into a tubular member upon contact with hydrocarbons; includes at least one swellable member that stops the flow of fluid into a tubular member upon an external influence to the swellable member; includes at least one swellable member that stops the flow of fluid into a tubular member upon contact with water; automatically at least partially restricts the flow of fluid into an underground tubular member upon the introduction of one or more particular activating agents; provides one or more of the aforementioned features as part of an inflow control device or multi-screen assembly; does not require mechanical action to at least partially restrict the flow of fluid into a base pipe; does not require interruption of operations to at least partially restrict the flow of fluids into a base pipe; is simple to assemble and use; operates reliably; may be easily applied to existing equipment by retrofitting; involves low manufacturing costs because of its simple construction; or any combination thereof.
In some embodiments, the present invention involves apparatus useful for shutting off the recovery of fluid from an earthen formation through a tubular member. The tubular member includes at least one interior space and at least one port that allows fluid flow into the at least one interior space from the earthen formation. A fluid flow passageway fluidly connects the earthen formation and the interior space of the tubular member. At least one swellable member is expandable into the fluid flow passageway. The swellable member is disposed between the port of the tubular member and the earthen formation. Upon swelling of the swellable member, the swellable member shuts off the flow of fluid into the at least one interior space of the tubular member from the earthen formation.
In various embodiments, the present invention involves an inflow control device for use in a production pipe for producing oil or gas from an oil and/or gas reservoir. A base pipe includes a bore and at least one port into the bore. An outer pipe extends around the port and forms an annulus around the base pipe. The annulus is in fluid communication with the port of the base pipe and the reservoir. Fluid from the reservoir must flow through the annulus to enter the bore of the base pipe. At least one swellable member is expandable into the annulus. The swellable member is disposed between the port of the base pipe and the reservoir. Upon swelling of the swellable member, the swellable member at least partially restricts the flow of fluid into the bore of the base pipe from the reservoir.
There are embodiments of the present invention that involve an apparatus for restricting the flow of fluid into or out of an interior space of a base pipe useful in a hydrocarbon production or completion system. The base pipe includes at least one port that allows fluid flow into or out of the interior space. A housing is disposed around the port of the base pipe. At least one passageway is disposed within the housing and fluidly connects the interior space of the base pipe and the exterior of the base pipe. Fluid flow between the interior space and exterior of the base pipe must pass through the at least one passageway. At least one swellable member is expandable into the passageway between the port(s) and the exterior of the base pipe. The swellable member includes at least one swelling elastomer. Upon activation of the swelling elastomer by at least one activating agent provided into the passageway, the swellable member at least partially restricts the flow of fluid through the passageway.
Some embodiments of the present invention involve a method of restricting the flow of fluid from an earthen formation into an interior space of a tubular member. The tubular member includes at least one port into the interior space to allow fluid flow into the interior space. The method includes forming a fluid flow passageway around the tubular member and fluidly connecting the fluid flow passageway with the earthen formation and the interior space of the tubular member. Fluid entering the interior space of the tubular member from the earthen formation must flow through the fluid flow passageway. At least one swellable member is positioned in the fluid flow passageway between the at least one port and the earthen formation. Fluid is allowed to flow into the fluid flow passageway from the earthen formation. The swellable member expands into the fluid flow passageway upon contact with at least one activating agent, at least partially restricting the flow of fluid through the passageway and into the interior space of the tubular member from the earthen formation.
Accordingly, the present invention includes features and advantages which are believed to enable it to advance fluid flow/collection technology. Characteristics and advantages of the present invention described above and additional features and benefits will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of various embodiments and referring to the accompanying drawings.
The following figures are part of the present specification, included to demonstrate certain aspects of various embodiments of the invention and referenced in the detailed description herein.
Characteristics and advantages of the present invention and additional features and benefits will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the claimed invention and referring to the accompanying figures. It should be understood that the description herein and appended drawings, being of example embodiments, are not intended to limit the claims of this patent application, any patent granted hereon or any patent or patent application claiming priority hereto. On the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the claims. Many changes may be made to the particular embodiments and details disclosed herein without departing from such spirit and scope.
In showing and describing preferred embodiments, like or identical reference numerals are used to identify common or similar elements. The figures are not necessarily to scale and certain features and certain views of the figures may be shown exaggerated in scale or in schematic in the interest of clarity and conciseness.
As used herein and throughout various portions (and headings) of this patent application, the terms “invention”, “present invention” and variations thereof are not intended to mean the invention of every possible embodiment of the invention or any particular claim or claims. Thus, the subject matter of each such reference should not be considered as necessary for, or part of, every embodiment of the invention or any particular claim(s) merely because of such reference. Also, it should be noted that reference herein and in the appended claims to components and aspects in a singular tense does not necessarily limit the present invention to only one such component or aspect, but should be interpreted generally to mean one or more, as may be suitable and desirable in each particular instance.
Referring initially to the example of
The swellable member 30 may have any suitable form, construction and configuration, as long as it is capable of swelling or expanding due to one or more external influences upon it. As used herein and in the appended claims, the term “swellable member” means at least one item capable of increasing in volume size in reaction to one or more external influences upon it. For example, the swellable member 30 may be designed to increase in volume upon its exposure to a particular temperature or pressure, as is and/or becomes known. For other examples, as in the present embodiment, the swellable member 30 may be at least partially constructed of at least one swelling elastomer 32 capable of increasing in volume size in reaction to (when activated by) one or more activating agents. The activating agent(s) may be any desired agent, such as, for example, water, hydrocarbons, drilling fluid or other fluids or chemicals.
Further information on the composition, behavior and use of various swelling elastomers is available in publicly accessible documents. Some examples of documents and sources of documents that may provide information on swelling elastomers include the web pages at www.swellfix.com and www.tamintl.com and other documents relating to the use of swellable elastomers in downhole packers by Swellfix, Tam International, Halliburton and other companies, U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,227 to Nakamura et al., entitled “Water-Swellable Elastomer Composition” and issued on May 20, 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 6,169,058 to Le et al., entitled “Compositions and Methods for Hydraulic Fracturing” and issued on Jan. 2, 2001, U.S. Pat. No. 6,358,580 to Mang et al., entitled “Sealing Material Which Swells When Treated with Water” and issued on Mar. 19, 2002, U.S. Pat. No. 6,834,725 to Whanger et al., entitled “Reinforced Swelling Elastomer Seal Element on Expandable Tubular” and issued Dec. 28, 2004 (including, without limitation, Column 6, line 34—Column 7, line 47), U.S. Pat. No. 6,907,937 to Whanger et al., entitled “Expandable Sealing Apparatus” and issued on Jun. 21, 2005 (including, without limitation, Column 5, line 47—Column 7, line 30 and figures referenced therein), U.S. Pat. No. 6,976,542 to Henriksen et al., entitled “Mud Flow Back Valve” and issued on Dec. 20, 2005 (including, without limitation, Column 3, lines 11-39), U.S. Pat. No. 7,026,272 to Reddy et al., entitled “Methods and Compositions for Sealing Oil Containing Subterranean Zones” and issued on Apr. 11, 2006 (including, without limitation, Column 4, lines 39-55), all of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. However, the present invention is not limited to the aforementioned types of swellable members and swelling elastomers.
Still referring to the embodiment of
Still referring to
The swellable member 30 may be designed to partially or fully block the flow of fluid through the passageway 36, as desired. For example, in the embodiment of
When the swellable member 30 expands to fully block the passageway 36 and it is desirous to later re-open the passageway 36 or otherwise allow fluid into the interior space 16 of the tubular member 12, any suitable technique may be used. For example, a sliding sleeve (not shown) located between the earthen formation 24 and the swellable member 30 may be opened to allow access to the interior space 16 of the base pipe 12. For another example, an external influence, such as a chemical solvent, may be provided into the passageway 36, such as from the bore 16 of the base pipe 12, to dissolve or reduce the size of the swellable member 30. For yet another example, a tool may be inserted into the passageway 36 or bore 16 to move, extract or form openings in the swellable member 30.
Still referring to the embodiment of
Referring back to the embodiment of
Still referring to
Referring again to
For another example, the swellable member 30 may be used in devices commonly known as inflow control devices, fluid flow control devices, flow restriction devices and the like. These devices are collectively referred to herein and in the appended claims as “inflow control devices”. Inflow control devices (ICD) are sometimes used to control formation fluid flow into a hydrocarbon production pipe string. For example, in long production zones (e.g. 1,000 meters or more of open hole section), it is often difficult to recover hydrocarbons across the entire span, as most of the hydrocarbons flow in at the heel of the well. In highly permeable geological formations, the pressure in the pipe may increase exponentially in the upstream direction as a result of the flow friction in the pipe. ICDs may be used at certain locations in the pipe string to restrict, or effectively choke, the inflow into the drainage pipe according to the pressure profile in the reservoir. In such instances, the ICDs may allow a more even pressure drawdown across the entire formation to evenly distributing the inflow of fluids from the reservoir to the production pipe, improving hydrocarbon production.
Further information about ICDs and their construction and operation may be found in publicly available documents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,393 to Brekke et al., entitled “Procedure and Production Pipe for Production of Oil or Gas Fran an Oil or Gas Reservoir” and issued on Jul. 25, 1995, U.S. Pat. No. 5,896,928 to Conn, entitled “Flow Restriction Device for Use in Production Wells” and issued on Apr. 27, 1999, U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,815 to Boe et al., entitled “Inflow Regulation Device for a Production Pipe for Production of Oil or Gas From an Oil and/or Gas Reservoir” and issued on Sep. 5, 2006, the Aramco ICD Specifications for Equalizer Type Completion dated Oct. 4, 2006 and entitled “Technical Parameters for ICD (Equalizer) Production System”, and the article entitled “New, Simple Completion Methods for Horizontal Wells Improve Production Performance in High-Permeability This Oil Zones” by Kristian Brekke and S. C. Lien published in the September 1994 issue of SPE Drilling and Completion, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
Referring to the example of
In some known ICD arrangements, formation fluid enters the inflow control device through a tortuous path, such as through a labyrinth structure or spiral or helical channels, to create a pressure drop before the fluid enters the pipe interior. Sand/debris filters are also often included. In the example of
Inflow control devices may also or instead include adjustable throttling or valve devices, such as a remotely controllable sleeve assembly, to assist in adjusting the flow characteristics of the ICD. In accordance with certain embodiments of the present invention, one or more swellable member 30, as previously described, may be used in an ICD that includes a valve arrangement (not shown).
If desired, the swellable member(s) 30 may be used in an ICD to provide the added capability of entirely shutting off a section of pipe. In the inflow control device 64 of
For another example, the swellable member(s) 30 may be used in a multiple screen arrangement, such as shown in
Preferred embodiments of the present invention thus offer advantages over the prior art and are well adapted to carry out one or more of the objects of the invention. However, the present invention does not require each of the components and acts described above and is in no way limited to the above-described embodiments, methods of operation, variables, values or value ranges. Any one or more of the above components, features and processes may be employed in any suitable configuration without inclusion of other such components, features and processes. Moreover, the present invention includes additional features, capabilities, functions, methods, uses and applications that have not been specifically addressed herein but are, or will become, apparent from the description herein, the appended drawings and claims.
The methods that may be described above or claimed herein and any other methods which may fall within the scope of the appended claims can be performed in any desired suitable order and are not necessarily limited to any sequence described herein or as may be listed in the appended claims. Further, the methods of the present invention do not necessarily require use of the particular embodiments shown and described herein, but are equally applicable with any other suitable structure, form and configuration of components.
While exemplary embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, many variations, modifications and/or changes of the system, apparatus and methods of the present invention, such as in the components, details of construction and operation, arrangement of parts and/or methods of use, are possible, contemplated by the patent applicant(s), within the scope of the appended claims, and may be made and used by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit or teachings of the invention and scope of appended claims. Thus, all matter herein set forth or shown in the accompanying drawings should be interpreted as illustrative, and the scope of the invention and the appended claims should not be limited to the embodiments described and shown herein.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/873,245 filed Dec. 6, 2006 and entitled “Flow Restriction Apparatus and Methods”, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60873245 | Dec 2006 | US |