Patent Grant
11719093
Embodiments of the subject matter disclosed herein generally relate to well operations, and more specifically, to a valve status system that is capable to indicate the status of plural valves provided within the casing of the well.
In the oil and gas field, once a well 100 is drilled to a desired depth H relative to the surface 110, as illustrated in
According to a first approach, as illustrated in
Some of these steps require to lower into the well 100 a wireline 118 or equivalent tool, which is electrically and mechanically connected to the perforating gun assembly 114, and to activate the gun assembly and/or a setting tool 120 attached to the perforating gun assembly. Setting tool 120 is configured to hold the plug 112 prior to isolating a stage and also to set the plug.
The above operations may be repeated multiple times for perforating and/or fracturing the casing at multiple locations, corresponding to different stages of the well. Note that in this case, multiple plugs 112 and 112′ may be used for isolating the respective stages from each other during the perforating phase and/or fracturing phase.
These completion operations may require several plugs run in series or several different plug types run in series. For example, within a given completion and/or production activity, the well may require several hundred plugs depending on the productivity, depths, and geophysics of each well. Subsequently, production of hydrocarbons from these zones requires that the sequentially set plugs be removed from the well. In order to reestablish flow past the existing plugs, an operator must remove and/or destroy the plugs by milling or drilling the plugs.
However, according to a second approach, as illustrated in
For these reasons, most of the current valve based casings typically rely upon pressure drop measurements at the surface as an indication if a valve has opened. According to this approach, when a valve 202-1 is opened, the pressure inside the wellbore 104 is expected to drop, as the pumping system 126 creates a pressure in the wellbore that is larger than the pressure in the formation 106 and thus, the well fluid flows into the formation. Thus, by monitoring at the surface the pressure variations in the borewell, it is possible for an experienced operator to infer when a valve has been opened.
With multiple valves provided along the casing (e.g., hundreds), it is very difficult to determine which ones opened. Prior art devices that rely upon the release of large sized identifiers (e.g., a ball) into the flow stream have limited utility due to the restrictions in the flow path presented by the various production equipment.
In a different sub-field of the oil exploration, U.S. Pat. No. 8,833,154 (the '154 patent herein) presents a sand screen tool 300 that has plural valves 301-1 to 301-3. The sand screen tool 300 is lowered into the bore 104 of the well 100. Because the well 100 has no casing, the sand tool 300 is configured with a sand screen 310 that prevents the sand from the well from entering the bore of the sand screen tool. The oil that passes through the sand screen 310 is directed to the valves 301-1 to 301-3 and then allowed to enter the bore of the tool 300. A tracer element 302-1, as show in
However, such a solution has its limitations. The valves 301-1 to 301-3 do not open directly to the formation 106, and to install the tracer element next to each valve is time consuming and expensive. Further, a moving element of the valve has to mechanically puncture or shred pieces of the tracer element to release tracer particles into the bore. Further, a sand screen tool is not required in many of the wells.
Thus, there is a need for finding a better system that indicates the status of the valves along the casing, a system that is easier and quicker to install.
According to an embodiment, there is a fluid control system that includes a fluid control device configured to be connected to at least one of two casing elements in a well, for controlling a fluid flow between a bore of the fluid control device and a zone located outside the casing elements, and a tracer material located within an inner chamber of a body of the fluid control device, the tracer material being uniquely associated with the fluid control device. The fluid control device is configured to release, when activated, the tracer material out of the inner chamber.
According to another embodiment, there is a fluid control device that includes a body extending along a longitudinal axis X, the body having a bore, a port formed to extend radially through the body, an inner sleeve located within the body and configured to close the port to prevent fluid communication between the port and the bore, an actuation mechanism configured to actuate the inner sleeve to open or close the port relative to the bore, and a tracer material located within an inner chamber of the body, wherein the tracer material is released out of the inner chamber only when the inner sleeve is actuated.
According to yet another embodiment, there is a fluid control system that includes a fluid control device configured to be connected to at least one of two casing elements in a well for controlling a fluid flow between a bore of the fluid control device and a zone outside the casing elements, and a tracer material located within a moving sleeve of the fluid control device, wherein the tracer material is uniquely associated with the fluid control device, and the tracer material is released from the moving sleeve when the moving sleeve is activated.
According to another embodiment, there is a method for controlling a fluid flow in a well and the method includes providing plural fluid control devices connected to casing elements in the well, for controlling the fluid flow between a bore of the fluid control devices and a zone located external to the casing elements, lowering the plural fluid control devices and the casing elements into the well, actuating a fluid control device of the plural fluid control devices to establish the fluid flow between the bore and the zone, and releasing a tracer material from within an inner chamber of the fluid control device into the fluid flow. The tracer material is uniquely associated with the fluid control device.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The following description of the embodiments refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers in different drawings identify the same or similar elements. The following detailed description does not limit the invention. Instead, the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims. The following embodiments are discussed, for simplicity, with regard to an oil well. However, the embodiments to be discussed next are not limited to an oil well, but they may be applied to other types of wells, for example, gas wells or water wells.
Reference throughout the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the subject matter disclosed. Thus, the appearance of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout the specification is not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.
According to an embodiment, a novel valve status indicator system includes a containment vessel that is placed within a recess of the casing, and the containment vessel includes a tracer material. When the sleeve that closes the port formed in the recess of the casing is opened, the containment vessel is broken, releasing the tracer material. The arrival of the tracer material at the surface can be quickly identified and that tracer material is a positive indication that the corresponding port in the casing has been opened.
More specifically, as illustrated in
The inner sleeve 412 is configured to slide relative to a body 414 of the fluid control device 410, so that a port 416 formed in an external part of a wall of the body is closed by the inner sleeve and no fluid flow happens between the borehole 408 and the formation 409 around the casing 400. The wall of the body is understood herein to extend radially, from the bore to the formation around it. The body 414 may be manufactured to have two parts, an upper part 414A and a lower part 414B that are connected to each other, for example, by threads 415. In this way, the internal elements of the fluid control device 410 can be added in a more efficient way. The terms “upper” and “lower’ are defined herein relative to a head and toe of the well, the upper part facing the head of the well and the lower part facing the toe of the well, irrespective of whether the well is horizontal, vertical, or having any other shape. One or more seals 418 may be formed at interfaces of the various elements of the fluid control device 410 to prevent a well fluid 406 to move along these interfaces. Under certain conditions, which are discussed later, the inner sleeve 412 can move along the longitudinal axis X and allow fluid communication through the port 416, between the borehole 408 of the casing and the formation 409.
The lower part 414B may include an actuation mechanism 420 for actuating the inner sleeve 412, for opening the port 416. In one implementation, the actuation mechanism 420 includes a pressure disc or burst disc 422 and a conduit 424 that fluidly connects the pressure disc 422 to a first internal chamber 426 of the fluid control device 410. The first internal chamber 426 is defined in this embodiment only by the inner sleeve 412 and the lower part 414B of the body. The pressure disc 422 is configured to break at a given pressure of the well fluid 406. At that point, the well fluid 406 from the bore 408 enters through the conduit 424 into the first chamber 426 and exerts a force F on the sleeve 412, opposite to the direction of the longitudinal axis X. A second chamber 428 is defined by the lower part 414B of the body 414 and the sleeve 412 and this chamber contains air at the atmospheric pressure. The second chamber 428 is sealed from the bore 408 and from the formation 409.
The fluid control device 410 further includes a status monitoring system 430 that is integrated into and associated with the fluid control device 410 and is configured to indicate to the operator of the well when the fluid control device 410 has opened. In one embodiment, the status monitoring system 430 is fully integrated within the body 414 of the fluid control device 410 in the sense that no part of the status monitoring system 430 extends into the bore 408 or outside of the fluid control device. This specific configuration of having the status monitoring system 430 fully located or integrated within the fluid control device 410 is understood as being “fully within a wall, or between two walls of the fluid control device, with no part sticking out into the bore or the formation.” The status monitoring system 430 may be implemented as a containment vessel 432 that holds a tracer material 434. The containment vessel 432 is placed in a third chamber 429 formed between the sleeve 412 and the lower part 414B of the body 414. The containment vessel 432 may be fixedly attached to one of the sleeve or the lower part of the body or just sitting within the third chamber 429. In one embodiment, the third chamber is defined exclusively by the sleeve 412 and the lower part 414B of the body 414. However, in one embodiment, the containment vessel 432 may be omitted so that the tracer material 434 is directly placed inside the third chamber 429. In one embodiment, the second chamber 426 is insulated from the third chamber 429 so that no fluid can be exchanged between the two chambers. However, in one application, the second chamber 426 may be in fluid communication with the third chamber 429.
The tracer material 434 may include, but is not limited to, any small scale material capable of unique marking or identification, for example, DNA or DNA-like material comprising molecules of variable length, size, number of base pairs (amino acids) or sequence and/or type of amino acid base pairs; radioactive materials including nuclear or unique isotope, particle, or other materials; organic or inorganic molecules of varying molecular size, atomic composition or structure, for example, polymers of varying chain length detectable by analytical methods and instrumentation known in the art, e.g., mass spectrometry or other techniques, magnetic material, nanoparticles, nanofibers, nanorods, or other nanosized materials, etc. The type of material states may include gases, liquids, solids, and particles. Individual micro- or nano-particles may be physically marked with unique identifiers such as microdots or other tagging methods known in the art to include unique numbers, shapes, colors, color or other patterns, RFID, UPC, QR or other barcodes. Current technology has designed RFID chips that are 0.15×0.15 mm in size or smaller.
The tracer reservoir or containment vessel 432 itself may be composed or a tracer material that dissolves in the wellbore fluid 406 or another material, such as an acid, contained and released by a separate compartment of the valve. In one embodiment, the tracer reservoir may be made of a material that is degraded by the oil flowing into the bore and thus, the tracer reservoir releases the tracer material.
Combinations of different tracer materials are also contemplated herein, for example, a certain colored sphere of a particular material may identify a given group of valves, and each valve within the group is further marked with an individual RFID tag. Similar schemes may be applied wherein the DNA chain length is indicative of a subgroup of valves, while each DNA tracer within the group varies with respect to its amino acid base pair composition or sequence to identify individual valves within the group.
In one application, a tracer reservoir or containment vessel 432 of up to approximately 100 mL is possible, depending on the valve size and overall design. In one application, the tracer material 434 could be a closed cell foam ball. In the well, it would be compressed by the hydrostatic pressure —>5,000 psi. and be a small size —<2 mm. As it reaches the surface at 14.7 psi, its size would have grown due to the air inside the foam expanding. It would now be much bigger and its bulk density would be reduced, and thus it would float. It could be skimmed off the top of a surface collector tank (not shown) placed at the head of the well. In another application, the containment vessel 432 is made of a material that dissolves when in contact with the well fluid 406. In still another embodiment, the containment vessel is made of a flexible material, like a balloon or a bladder, which when exposed to the high pressure inside the wellbore, breaks and releases the tracer material 434. In still another embodiment, the containment vessel 432 is accompanied by a second reservoir 436, which may be filled with an acid or solvent that would dissolve the containment vessel 432. When the inner sleeve 412 opens, it may be configured to puncture the second reservoir 436, which releases its content so that the first containment vessel 432 is starting to dissolve. In still another application, the containment reservoir 432 is pressurized by the second reservoir 436 that, upon sleeve opening, communicates to the containment reservoir which then causes the tracer to disperse into the wellbore.
Because of the pressure differential between the high pressure of the well fluid in the first chamber 426 and the low pressure (atmospheric pressure) in the second chamber 428, the sleeve 412 is actuated and forced to move in an upward direction in
In another embodiment, as illustrated in
In operation, the start switch 628 is configured to determine when a pressure inside the wellbore is larger than a given pressure. This pressure is selected by the operator of the well. When the operator needs to actuate the inner sleeve 412, the operator increases the pressure of the fluid inside the wellbore, until the start switch 628 is activated. When this happens, a signal is transmitted from the start switch 628 to the controller 624. The controller 624, aware now that the pressure inside the wellbore is over the given pressure, electronically instructs the dump valve 622 to open, so that the fluid 406 can enter through the conduit 424 into the first chamber 426, to initiate the movement of the inner sleeve 412. Because the pressure inside the second chamber 428 is smaller than the given pressure, the inner sleeves moves from the first chamber toward the second chamber to open the port 416. At the same time, the containment vessel 432, if present in the third chamber 429, moves together with the inner sleeve 412, and gets punctured by the puncturing member 450, which results in the release of the tracer material 434 as illustrated in
After the tracer material 434 is released into the wellbore 408, as shown in
While
In still another embodiment, the tracer material 434 may be located directly within an inner sleeve 912 of a flow control device 910, as illustrated in
In this embodiment, the inner sleeve 912 has a chamber 913 formed within the sleeve 912 and this chamber is configured to hold the tracer material 434. Thus, in this embodiment, a status monitoring system 930 includes the chamber 913, which has one or more ports 915, and the tracer material 434. Because of the one or more ports 915, the chamber 913 is in fluid communication with the wellbore 408 only when the inner sleeve 912 moves in an open position, as illustrated in
To move the inner sleeve 912 from the closed position shown in
In another embodiment illustrated in
A method for controlling a fluid flow in a well is now discussed with regard to
The disclosed embodiments provide a fluid control device and an associated and integrated status monitoring system that is capable to indicate whether the fluid control device has opened or not. It should be understood that this description is not intended to limit the invention. On the contrary, the embodiments are intended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which are included in the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Further, in the detailed description of the embodiments, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the claimed invention. However, one skilled in the art would understand that various embodiments may be practiced without such specific details.
Although the features and elements of the present embodiments are described in the embodiments in particular combinations, each feature or element can be used alone without the other features and elements of the embodiments or in various combinations with or without other features and elements disclosed herein.
This written description uses examples of the subject matter disclosed to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the same, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the subject matter is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20100108148 | Chen | May 2010 | A1 |
| 20130091943 | Skillingstad | Apr 2013 | A1 |
| 20160084075 | Ingraham | Mar 2016 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20220268149 A1 | Aug 2022 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62807522 | Feb 2019 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16790248 | Feb 2020 | US |
| Child | 17742592 | US |
