This invention relates to downhole excavations in a wellbore. More particularly, this invention relates to a method and apparatus for downhole excavations in a wellbore suitable for creating a kick-off for a multi-lateral well.
In order to enhance the recovery of subterranean fluids, such as oil and gas, it is sometimes desirable to orient the direction of the wellbore or borehole. In an oil producing formation or strata which has limited vertical depth and relatively greater horizontal extent with respect to the surface of the earth, a wellbore which extends horizontally through the oil producing formation may be more productive than one extending vertically. In order to create an inclined, highly deviated or horizontal borehole, it is necessary to steer the drilling bit at the end of the drill string from a generally vertical orientation to a lateral or horizontal orientation.
In steering a drill bit and drill string from a vertical orientation to a horizontal or other non-vertical orientation, it is necessary to deflect or side-track the drill bit from the generally vertical borehole to a drilling direction inclined to the wall of the borehole. This initial step is also known as “kicking off” or a kick-off of the drill bit and drill string. It is typical to first drill a vertical wellbore and then attempt to deflect the drill bit and drill string by some means thereby causing it to drill through the wall of the existing wellbore.
When drilling a deviated wellbore from a cased well, a section of the casing must first be cut and removed. Once the casing is removed, an opening is provided for the drill bit to pass through the casing into the cement surrounding the casing and then through the formation.
The development of techniques for drilling relatively high angle deviated wells from a generally vertical wellbore has provided several advantages in recovering oil and gas from subterranean formations. One or more deviated or generally horizontal wellbores may be drilled from single generally vertical wellbore to provide wellbores which: (a) reach irregular reservoirs without additional wells being drilled from the surface, (b) limit the invasion of unwanted formation fluids, (c) penetrate natural vertical fractures (d) improve production from various types of formations or reservoirs and (e) provide new conduits for hydrocarbons to flow to the surface.
The creation of multi-lateral wells from either new or existing wellbores usually involves some sort of sidetracking process that utilizes whipstocks and/or section mills to create an exit point in the casing to allow a drilling assembly to “kick-off” from the main wellbore. During such procedures, communication is often severed with the main wellbore below the point of kick-off, thus eliminating the use of the lower portion of the main wellbore for the continued production of hydrocarbons. Also, these multi-lateral construction procedures result in wellbore diameters that are the same size or smaller than the existing wellbore.
For multi-lateral well drilling, section mills are generally not used since they result in complete severing of the main wellbore, which makes re-locating the main wellbore below the casing exit point difficult, if not impossible. Nonetheless, section mills offer the potential to improve multi-lateral well juncture construction due to the greater available space for creating a sealed hydraulic juncture while maintaining full-bore accessibility.
Downhole excavation would facilitate construction of multi-lateral wells in several ways. First, downhole excavation would allow creation of a large downhole cavity while maintaining access to the existing wellbore below the excavation point. Second, downhole excavation would provide an alternative method for “kicking off” the lateral from the main well bore in multi-lateral well drilling. Third, downhole excavation would provide a large area to facilitate construction of a hydraulically sealed juncture that maintains full-bore accessibility. Fourth, downhole excavation would provide a large excavated location where multiple laterals could be kicked-off from the same location in the parent casing bore.
A significant amount of technology has been developed in the area of multi-lateral wells and section milling to enlarge boreholes. However, no examples are available demonstrating the use of section mills to create large downhole cavities for multi-lateral well construction and permit access to parent casing bore below the kick-off.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus to provide an excavation suitable for a multi-lateral well while maintaining full bore access below the excavation. This invention satisfies that need.
An apparatus for excavating in a wellbore is disclosed. The apparatus comprises means for isolating a wellbore at a determined location, means for excavating a downhole cavity in a wellbore, and means for removing the means for isolating the wellbore and means to excavate the downhole cavity in the wellbore thereby providing full access to the wellbore and the excavation.
A second apparatus embodiment for excavating a wellbore is disclosed. This embodiment comprises a whipstock packer capable of isolating the wellbore below the whipstock packer and a drillpipe stringer above the whipstock packer comprising, a hollow washover ported-stub, means for the ports on the drillpipe stinger to direct drilling fluid flow to the annulus between the drillstring and casing, and a tapered top capable of receiving an overshot section milling assembly.
A method for excavating in a wellbore is disclosed. This embodiment comprises isolating a wellbore at a determined location, providing means for excavating a downhole cavity in a wellbore, excavating a downhole cavity in a wellbore above the determined location, and removing the means for isolating the wellbore and means for excavating the downhole cavity from the wellbore to provide full access to the wellbore and the excavation cavity.
A second method embodiment for excavating in a wellbore is disclosed. This embodiment comprises: (a) providing a whipstock packer in a wellbore at a desired orientation, (b) attaching a drillpipe stinger on top of the whipstock packer, the drillpipe stinger comprising a tapered top capable of attaching to an overshot section milling assembly on top of the drillpipe stinger and a hollow washover ported-stub, means for the drillpipe stinger ports to direct flow of drilling fluids to the annulus between the drillstring and casing wherein the circulation of drilling fluids removes drill cuttings, (c) attaching an overshot section milling assembly to the tapered top on the drillpipe stinger, (d) initiating the drillstring rotation to extend the section-mill retractable arm to cut a cavity in the casing, (e) initiating pumping operations to lift the cutting debris out of the well, (f) repeating steps (d) and (e) until the cavity has the desired size.
a) is a side view illustration of an external overshot whipstock assembly;
b) is a top view illustration of an external overshot whipstock assembly;
a) is a side view illustration of an internal overshot whipstock assembly;
b) is a top view illustration of an internal overshot whipstock assembly;
In the following detailed description and example, the invention will be described in connection with its preferred embodiments. However, to the extent that the following description is specific to a particular embodiment or a particular use of the invention, this is intended to be illustrative only. Accordingly, the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described below, but rather, the invention includes all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents falling within the true scope of the appended claims.
This invention provides a method and apparatus for excavating a wellbore. The excavations are suitable for creating multilateral wells through kick-offs. The apparatus requires means for isolating a wellbore at a determined location and means for excavating a downhole cavity in the wellbore. One method embodiment comprises isolating the wellbore, then excavating a cavity and finally removing the means for isolating and excavating the wellbore from the wellbore to provide full access to the wellbore and excavation cavity. This method embodiment can create large cavities having a diameter on the order of two to ten times the diameter of the original borehole.
Preferred devices to provide the means for isolating the wellbore at a determined location and for cutting a large downhole cavity include: whipstock packer, drillpipe stinger, overshot section-milling assembly, and an overshot whipstock assembly for lateral drilling. Persons skilled in the art may recognize other devices that are equivalent and can accomplish the same tasks. Therefore, the list of devices are not intended to be limiting but rather to provide specific examples of equipment than can be utilized to practice this invention.
While this patent specifically discusses the drillpipe stinger assembly in order to maintain contact with the lower wellbore, persons skilled in the art will recognize other methods to maintain connectivity including cable or wireline guide ropes. A variety of materials could be utilized to temporarily bridge the gap between the existing upper and lower casing strings including specialized pipe or tubing.
While this patent specifically discusses the use of a mechanical cutting tool (such as an overshot section milling assembly) persons skilled in the art would recognize other methods that could be utilized to create a large downhole cavity. These methods include but are not limited to chemical cutting, water-jet cutting, laser cutting, explosive cutting, and shaped-charge cutting.
a) shows an illustration of an overshot whipstock assembly 31. As illustrated in
b) is a top view of the overshot whipstock assembly 31 in which the like elements to
Both internal and external overshot whipstock assemblies could be utilized.
The preferred use of this invention is specifically to excavate a large downhole cavity for the creation of multi-lateral wells. However, persons skilled in the art will recognize other uses of an excavated cavity including downhole equipment storage areas and construction zones for downhole structures or pieces of equipment.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Upon completion of cavity, the overshot section-milling assembly is removed from the wellbore.
At this point, one of several operations could be performed to prepare the cavity for multi-lateral well juncture creation or lateral drilling.
At the conclusion of lateral drilling procedures, a lateral liner may be installed in the wellbore using conventional methods 75, including cementing the liner. After running the liner, the liner stub protruding from the lateral, the overshot whipstock assembly, and the drillpipe stinger assembly can all be retrieved using conventional washover procedures 76.
This application is the National Stage of International Application No. PCT/US2004/01744, filed Jan. 22, 2004, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/453,440, filed Mar. 10, 2003.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/US2004/001744 | 1/22/2004 | WO | 00 | 8/25/2006 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2004/081333 | 9/23/2004 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
4397360 | Schmidt | Aug 1983 | A |
4573540 | Dellinger et al. | Mar 1986 | A |
4697651 | Dellinger | Oct 1987 | A |
4699224 | Burton | Oct 1987 | A |
4719977 | Dellinger | Jan 1988 | A |
4807704 | Hsu et al. | Feb 1989 | A |
5301760 | Graham | Apr 1994 | A |
5431219 | Leising et al. | Jul 1995 | A |
5431223 | Konopczynski | Jul 1995 | A |
5474126 | Lynde et al. | Dec 1995 | A |
5488989 | Leising et al. | Feb 1996 | A |
5697445 | Graham | Dec 1997 | A |
5715891 | Graham | Feb 1998 | A |
5857531 | Estep et al. | Jan 1999 | A |
5960873 | Alexander et al. | Oct 1999 | A |
5992524 | Graham | Nov 1999 | A |
6047774 | Allen | Apr 2000 | A |
6279658 | Donovan et al. | Aug 2001 | B1 |
6457525 | Scott | Oct 2002 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20070034409 A1 | Feb 2007 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
60453440 | Mar 2003 | US |