This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the presently described embodiments. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present embodiments. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In order to meet consumer and industrial demand for natural resources, companies often invest significant amounts of time and money in finding and extracting oil, natural gas, and other subterranean resources from the earth. Particularly, once a desired subterranean resource such as oil or natural gas is discovered, drilling and production systems are often employed to access and extract the resource. These systems may be located onshore or offshore depending on the location of a desired resource. Further, such systems generally include a wellhead assembly mounted on a well through which the resource is accessed or extracted. These wellhead assemblies may include a wide variety of components, such as various casings, valves, hangers, pumps, fluid conduits, and the like, that facilitate drilling or production operations.
As will be appreciated, various tubular strings can be run into wells through wellhead assemblies. For instance, wells are often lined with casing that generally serves to stabilize the well and to isolate fluids within the wellbore from certain formations penetrated by the well (e.g., to prevent contamination of freshwater reservoirs). Such casing is frequently cemented into place within the well. During a cement job, cement can be pumped down a casing string in a well, out the bottom of the casing string, and then up the annular space surrounding the casing string. The cement is then allowed to set in the annular space. Wells can also include tubing strings that facilitate flow of fluids through the wells. Hangers can be attached to the casing and tubing strings and received within wellheads to enable these tubular strings to be suspended in the wells from the hangers. These hangers may be installed and set under substantial amounts of pressure through snubbing.
Certain aspects of some embodiments disclosed herein are set forth below. It should be understood that these aspects are presented merely to provide the reader with a brief summary of certain forms the invention might take and that these aspects are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Indeed, the invention may encompass a variety of aspects that may not be set forth below.
Some embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to snubbing of wellhead hangers and tubular strings into wellhead assemblies. In some instances, a wellhead hanger is snubbed into a wellhead housing to a setting location in a bore. The wellhead housing is then elastically deformed to securely grip the wellhead hanger at the setting location. A clamp or other gripping device may selectively provide a radially inward compression force that elastically deforms the wellhead housing to grip the wellhead hanger. In at least some instances, the wellhead hanger carries seals that are not energized as the wellhead hanger is moved to the setting location in the bore, allowing fluid in the bore to pass along the exterior of the wellhead hanger as it moves to balance pressure above and below the hanger. When the wellhead hanger is positioned at the setting location, elastic deformation of the wellhead housing grips the wellhead hanger and energizes the carried seals.
Various refinements of the features noted above may exist in relation to various aspects of the present embodiments. Further features may also be incorporated in these various aspects as well. These refinements and additional features may exist individually or in any combination. For instance, various features discussed below in relation to one or more of the illustrated embodiments may be incorporated into any of the above-described aspects of the present disclosure alone or in any combination. Again, the brief summary presented above is intended only to familiarize the reader with certain aspects and contexts of some embodiments without limitation to the claimed subject matter.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of certain embodiments will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:
Specific embodiments of the present disclosure are described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.
When introducing elements of various embodiments, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. Moreover, any use of “top,” “bottom,” “above,” “below,” other directional terms, and variations of these terms is made for convenience, but does not require any particular orientation of the components.
Turning now to the present figures, a system 10 is illustrated in
The wellhead hangers 22 can be positioned on landing shoulders 24 within hollow wellhead bodies (e.g., within the tubing and casing heads). These landing shoulders 24 can be integral parts of tubing and casing heads or can be provided by other components, such as sealing assemblies or landing rings disposed in the tubing and casing heads. In some instances, and as discussed in greater detail below, a wellhead hanger 22 can be secured within a hollow wellhead body using a gripping device without landing the wellhead hanger 22 on a landing shoulder 24. Each of the hangers 22 can be connected to a tubular string, such as a tubing string 26 or a casing string 28, to suspend the string within the well 14. The well 14 can include a single casing string 28 or include multiple casing strings 28 of different diameters. Casing strings 28 are often cemented in place within the well. During a cement job, cement is typically pumped down the casing string. A plug is then pumped down the casing string with a displacement fluid (e.g., drilling mud) to cause the cement to flow out of the bottom of the casing string and up the annular space around the casing string.
The system 10 also includes a snubbing unit 32 coupled to the wellhead equipment 16. The snubbing unit 32 facilitates installation of hangers 22 and tubular strings under pressure and can include any suitable components. As generally depicted in
By way of further example, a wellhead assembly 40 is generally depicted in
As noted above, various tubular strings can extend downwardly from a wellhead into the well. In
An obstruction 58 can be installed in a bore 60 of the tubing hanger 56. In
In some other techniques, seals on the exterior of a tubing hanger are energized and seal against a bore wall before the tubing hanger is landed within the bore, with the seals dragging along the bore wall as the tubing hanger is pushed against well pressure and lowered to its landed position in the wellhead. With a backpressure valve or other obstruction in the bore of the tubing hanger and the exterior seals preventing flow past the exterior of the tubing hanger as the tubing hanger is snubbed into the wellhead, the regions above and below the tubing hanger are isolated from one another and a pressure differential may exist between these regions. In such cases, pressure above and below the tubing hanger may be balanced with a lubricator tool to facilitate installation of the hanger.
In contrast to those other techniques, however, at least some embodiments of the present disclosure include a hanger that is snubbed into a wellhead housing to a desired location and then set using a gripping device that elastically deforms the wellhead housing to secure the hanger and hold it in place within the bore while supporting the tubing load plus any pressure loads from above or below. This manner of setting and securing the hanger may allow for a greater degree of play between the hanger and the wellhead housing prior to setting without sacrifice to sealing upon setting. That is, in at least some instances this may avoid interference between the wellhead housing and exterior seals of the hanger during movement of the hanger to its desired position in the bore and may allow post-snubbing seal testing to be avoided. The wellhead assembly 40 of
As an example, the gripping device 70 is shown in
The gripping device 70 may be coupled to other equipment of the wellhead assembly 40 in any suitable manner. In
Radial compressive forces may result from the tightening of nuts 80 (or bolts) to drive the bowl 72 upward along an incline or deflecting surface. More specifically, with reference to the embodiment of
As shown in further detail in
The elastic deformation of the wellhead housing 42 also compresses seals 64 of the tubing hanger 56 to energize these seals 64 and prevent fluid communication past the tubing hanger 56 along its exterior. Although two seals 64 are presently shown in
Further, in this relaxed state, fluid pressure above and below the tubing hanger 56 may be balanced while lowering the tubing hanger 56 with the obstruction 58 into the bore 44 by allowing flow along the exterior of the tubing hanger 56 past the seals 64 and through a gap 102 between the wellhead housing 42 and the tubing hanger 56. Once the tubing hanger 56 is positioned at the desired setting location, the gripping device 70 may be used to elastically deform the wellhead housing 42 from the relaxed state to the locked state to securely grip the hanger 56, such as described above. Even when the hanger 56 is lowered into the bore 44 under pressure with a backpressure valve or other obstruction 58 installed, this process can eliminate the need to lubricate a differential of pressures above and below the hanger 56 because the seals 64 on the hanger 56 are not energized until the grip is enacted.
In at least some embodiments, such as those depicted in
Additional examples of the wellhead assembly 40 are depicted in
Some clamps are depicted as examples of gripping devices 70 in
While the aspects of the present disclosure may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and have been described in detail herein. But it should be understood that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed. Rather, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following appended claims.
This patent application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/390,387, filed on Jul. 30, 2021, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/706,086, filed on Jul. 31, 2020. Each of the above applications is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62706086 | Jul 2020 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 17390387 | Jul 2021 | US |
Child | 18328002 | US |