Patent Application
20240254840
The present disclosure relates to monitoring and control of subsurface installations located in one or more reservoirs of fluids such as hydrocarbons, and more particularly to methods and installations for providing wireless transmission of power and communication signals to, and receiving communication signals from, those subsurface installations.
Reservoir monitoring includes the process of acquiring reservoir data for purposes of reservoir management. Permanent monitoring techniques are frequently used for long-term reservoir management. In permanent monitoring, sensors are often permanently implanted in direct contact with the reservoir to be managed. Permanent installations have the benefit of allowing continuous monitoring of the reservoir without interrupting production from the reservoir and providing data when well re-entry is difficult, e.g. subsea completions.
Permanent downhole sensors are used in the oil industry for several applications. For example, in one application, sensors are permanently situated inside the casing to measure phenomenon inside the well such as fluid flow rates or pressure.
Another application is in combination with so-called smart or instrumented wells with downhole flow control. An exemplary smart or instrumented well system combines downhole pressure gauges, flow rate sensors and flow controlling devices placed within the casing to measure and record pressure and flow rate inside the well and adjust fluid flow rate to optimize well performance and reservoir behavior.
Other applications call for using sensors permanently situated in the cement annulus surrounding the well casing. In these applications, formation pressure is measured using cemented pressure gauges; distribution of water saturation away from the well using resistivity sensors in the cement annulus; and seismic or acoustic earth properties using cemented geophones. Appropriate instrumentation allows other parameters to be measured.
These systems utilize cables to provide power and/or signal connection between the downhole devices and the surface. The use of a cable extending from the surface to provide a direct to connection to the downhole devices presents a number of well known advantages.
There are however, a number of disadvantages associated with the use of a cable in the cement annulus connecting the downhole devices to the surface including: a cable outside the casing complicates casing installation; reliability problems are associated with connectors currently in use; there is a risk of the cable breaking; the cable needs to be regularly anchored to the casing with cable protectors; the presence of a cable in the cement annulus may increase the risk of an inadequate hydraulic seal between zones that must be isolated; added expense of modifications to the wellhead to accommodate the feed-through of large diameter multi-conductor cables; the cables can be damaged if they pass through a zone that is perforated and it is difficult to pass the cable across the connection of two casings of different diameters.
In efforts to alleviate these and other disadvantages of downhole cable use, so-called “wireless systems” have been developed.
The present disclosure provides wireless power and telemetry systems for multi-stage completions and various configurations for electro-magnetic couplers used in such systems.
In some configurations, a wireless transmission system for a multi-stage completion includes a surface power and telemetry system; an upper completion comprising a casing, a production tubing disposed within the casing, a tubing hanger supporting the production tubing, and an upper coupler; a lower completion comprising a production liner, a liner hanger disposed within the casing and supporting the production liner, a lower coupler, and one or more downhole devices; a first cable extending from the surface power and telemetry system to the upper coupler; and a second cable extending from the lower coupler to the one or more downhole devices. In use, power and telemetry signals flow from the surface power and telemetry system along the first cable to the upper coupler, thereby inducing a current in the production tubing such that the power and telemetry signals flow along the production tubing downhole to the lower coupler, the power and telemetry signals flow from the lower coupler along the second cable to the one or more downhole devices, and return telemetry signals flow from the lower completion along the casing to the surface power and telemetry system.
The lower coupler can be disposed around the production liner and positioned above the liner hanger. The lower coupler can be disposed within the production liner and positioned below the liner hanger. The one or more downhole devices can include one or more downhole gauges and/or one or more flow control valves.
In some configurations, a wireless transmission system for a multi-stage completion includes a surface power and telemetry system; an upper completion comprising a casing, a production tubing disposed within the casing, and a tubing hanger supporting the production tubing, wherein the tubing hanger has a first portion, a second portion, and an insulating gap between the first portion and the second portion; a lower completion comprising a production liner, a liner hanger disposed within the casing and supporting the production liner, a coupler, and one or more downhole devices; a first cable extending from the surface power and telemetry system to the first portion of the tubing hanger; a second cable extending from the coupler to the one or more downhole devices; and a third cable extending from the second portion of the tubing hanger to the surface power and telemetry system. In use, power and telemetry signals flow from the surface power and telemetry system along the first cable to the first portion of the tubing hanger, then along the production tubing downhole to the coupler, the power and telemetry signals flow from the coupler along the second cable to the one or more downhole devices, and return telemetry signals flow from the lower completion along the casing to the second portion of the tubing hanger and then along the third cable to the surface power and telemetry system.
In some configurations, a multi-stage completion includes an upper completion comprising a casing, a production tubing disposed within the casing, a tubing hanger supporting the production tubing, and an upper coupler; and a lower completion comprising a production liner, a liner hanger disposed within the casing and supporting the production liner, a lower coupler, and one or more downhole devices. In use, power and telemetry signals flow from a surface power and/or telemetry system to the upper coupler, thereby inducing a current in the production tubing such that the power and telemetry signals flow along the production tubing downhole to the lower coupler, the power and telemetry signals flow from the lower coupler to the one or more downhole devices, and return telemetry signals flow from the lower completion along the casing to the surface power and telemetry system.
The lower coupler can be disposed around the production liner and positioned above the liner hanger. The lower coupler can be disposed within the production liner and positioned below the liner hanger. The one or more downhole devices can include one or more downhole gauges and/or one or more flow control valves.
Couplers for wireless power and telemetry transmission systems and/or for multi-stage completions can have various configurations. A coupler can include an outer housing and a plurality of toroidal transformers disposed about a tubing mandrel and within the housing.
The housing can be made of steel. The housing can include an insulating sleeve.
A space within the housing and surrounding the transformers can be filled with an inert gas at atmospheric pressure. A space within the housing and surrounding the transformers can be filled with an insulating material.
The tubing mandrel can be made of metal. The tubing mandrel can be an insulating sleeve.
Certain embodiments, features, aspects, and advantages of the disclosure will hereafter be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals denote like elements. It should be understood that the accompanying figures illustrate the various implementations described herein and are not meant to limit the scope of various technologies described herein.
In the following description, numerous details are set forth to provide an understanding of some embodiments of the present disclosure. It is to be understood that the following disclosure provides many different embodiments, or examples, for implementing different features of various embodiments. Specific examples of components and arrangements are described below to simplify the disclosure. These are, of course, merely examples and are not intended to be limiting. However, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the system and/or methodology may be practiced without these details and that numerous variations or modifications from the described embodiments are possible. This description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but rather made merely for the purpose of describing general principles of the implementations. The scope of the described implementations should be ascertained with reference to the issued claims.
As used herein, the terms “connect”, “connection”, “connected”, “in connection with”, and “connecting” are used to mean “in direct connection with” or “in connection with via one or more elements”; and the term “set” is used to mean “one element” or “more than one element”. Further, the terms “couple”, “coupling”, “coupled”, “coupled together”, and “coupled with” are used to mean “directly coupled together” or “coupled together via one or more elements”. As used herein, the terms “up” and “down”; “upper” and “lower”; “top” and “bottom”; and other like terms indicating relative positions to a given point or element are utilized to more clearly describe some elements. Commonly, these terms relate to a reference point at the surface from which drilling operations are initiated as being the top point and the total depth being the lowest point, wherein the well (e.g., wellbore, borehole) is vertical, horizontal or slanted relative to the surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,592, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, also describes methods and systems for power and/or signal transmission for permanent downhole installations. In some systems and methods described therein, an electrically conductive conduit is disposed in the well, and a section of the conduit is electrically insulated by encapsulating the section with an insulating layer and insulating the encapsulated section from an adjoining section of the conduit by using a conduit gap. At least one downhole device is connected or coupled to the insulated section. In use, an electrical signal is introduced within the insulated section of the conduit, travels to the at least one downhole device, and returns via a return path. The electrical signal can be introduced to the conduit directly or via inductive coupling. The return path can be provided through, for example, the earth formation surrounding the well, a cement annulus, or an outer conductive layer of the conductive conduit.
An upper coupler (e.g., electro-magnetic coupler) 23 is linked to a surface modem and power supply 24 by a cable 60. In use, current is injected into upper coupler 23 via or from source 24 through the cable 60, thereby inducing a current in tubing 18. The induced current flows along current paths 12 through the tubing to a lower coupler (e.g., electro-magnetic coupler) 26. The induced current flowing through the tubing 18 inductively generates a voltage in the lower coupler 26 that is used to provide power and/or communication to the downhole device 28. Communication signals from the downhole device 28 induce a second voltage in the lower coupler 26, which creates a second current. The second current flows along current paths 12 from the lower coupler 26, through the tubing 18, through the conductive packer 71, and along the return path through the casing 22 to a surface electronic detector 25 to be recorded, stored, and/or processed.
The present disclosure provides wireless transmission systems and methods for providing power to and/or communication with one or more downhole devices 28 in multi-stage completions. In some such systems and methods, the casing 22 is deployed in the well, then the tubing 18 is deployed within the casing 22 in separated runs, leading to a multi-stage completion. Similar to the system 200 of
As shown, the tubing 18 can be at least partially coated with an insulating coating (e.g., a polyamide material (Rilsan type)) 20, an insulating fluid 19 can be disposed in the annular space, and/or non-conductive or insulating centralizers 21 can be disposed about the tubing 18. Couplers 23, 26 provide electrical coupling between the tubing-casing transmission line and the surface and/or downhole device(s). The couplers 23, 26 can be or include toroidal transformers electrically coupled to the tubing-casing line for receiving and/or transmitting power and/or telemetry signals.
In the illustrated configuration, the multi-stage wireless transmission system includes an upper coupler 23 and a lower coupler 26. The upper coupler 23 is driven by surface electronics (e.g., AC power supply and control electronics, such as source 24 and detector 25). The upper coupler 23 can transmit and detect low frequency signals (e.g., AC current) propagating along the pipe to the lower coupler 26. The lower coupler 26 is connected to downhole electronics, e.g., downhole device(s) 28, for detection of telemetry signals, recovery of electrical power, and/or uplink data transmission. The lower completion can also include a battery or any type of energy storage device. Such a storage device can store power transmitted from the surface (e.g., the source 24) along the pipe. Any type(s) of modulation/demodulation technique(s) (e.g., FSK, PSK, ASK) can be used for communication between the upper 23 and lower 26 couplers. Multi-stage wireless transmission systems and methods according to the present disclosure therefore establish wireless communication between lower and upper sections of the production string.
In some configurations, a multi-stage wireless transmission system, for example, any multi-stage wireless transmission system shown and/or described herein and/or otherwise according to the present disclosure, includes an electrically insulated tubing hanger. As shown in
The surface power and telemetry system 29 is connected directly to each of the two separate conductors or pathways at the surface/subsurface (e.g., subsea) interface 75. In the illustrated configuration, the surface system 29 is connected to the tubing 18 pathway via cable 80 and to the casing 22 pathway via cable 82. Such an arrangement allows AC current to be driven directly from the surface into the tubing 18 pathway and returned via the casing 22 pathway. In some configurations, an antenna or coupler 27 is positioned at or near the bottom of the upper completion 70 or at or near a junction between the upper completion 70 and the lower completion 72. When a current is injected into the tubing 18 from surface system 29, the antenna 27 creates a voltage in the lower completion 72. A telemetry signal can be superimposed on an AC power signal to create a telemetry link between the downhole assemblies and the surface system 29. This configuration can advantageously provide a greater power transfer efficiency with only one coupler 27 compared to a system including two couplers. This configuration also advantageously does not require penetrators in the tubing hanger 110, as is often required in a wired system, for example as shown in
The various couplers 23, 26, 27 used in multi-stage wireless completion systems, such as the systems shown in
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Language of degree used herein, such as the terms “approximately,” “about,” “generally,” and “substantially” as used herein represent a value, amount, or characteristic close to the stated value, amount, or characteristic that still performs a desired function or achieves a desired result. For example, the terms “approximately,” “about,” “generally,” and “substantially” may refer to an amount that is within less than 10% of, within less than 5% of, within less than 1% of, within less than 0.1% of, and/or within less than 0.01% of the stated amount. As another example, in certain embodiments, the terms “generally parallel” and “substantially parallel” or “generally perpendicular” and “substantially perpendicular” refer to a value, amount, or characteristic that departs from exactly parallel or perpendicular, respectively, by less than or equal to 15 degrees, 10 degrees, 5 degrees, 3 degrees, 1 degree, or 0.1 degree.
Although a few embodiments of the disclosure have been described in detail above, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible without materially departing from the teachings of this disclosure. Accordingly, such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this disclosure as defined in the claims. It is also contemplated that various combinations or sub-combinations of the specific features and aspects of the embodiments described may be made and still fall within the scope of the disclosure. It should be understood that various features and aspects of the disclosed embodiments can be combined with, or substituted for, one another in order to form varying modes of the embodiments of the disclosure. Thus, it is intended that the scope of the disclosure herein should not be limited by the particular embodiments described above.
Any and all applications for which a foreign or domestic priority claim is identified in the Application Data Sheet as filed with the present application are hereby incorporated by reference under 37 CFR 1.57. The present application claims priority to U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 17/621,266 file Dec. 21, 2021, which is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/US2020/039338, filed Jun. 24, 2020, which claims priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Application 62/866,555, filed Jun. 25, 2019, the entirety of each of which is incorporated by reference herein and should be considered part of this specification.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62866555 | Jun 2019 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 17621266 | Dec 2021 | US |
| Child | 18631610 | US |
