Patent Application
20160201421
Boreholes into the subsurface environment of a planet such as earth, whether for hydrocarbon exploration and recovery, carbon dioxide sequestration, etc., employ borehole capping structures known colloquially as well heads. Well heads serve to hang various casing strings and provide mounting locations for other accessories such as Christmas trees, blow out preventers, etc. Commonly, the manufacturer of the wellhead will configure the same to receive a tubing hanger supplied by the same manufacturer. This is, of course, supportive of that manufacturers interest in selling more equipment but does not necessarily support the interests of the well operator, who might prefer to run another manufacturer's tubing hanger for a host of reasons.
In view hereof, the industry has created a tool known colloquially as a wellhead adapter. The tool is fittable into the top of the well head and provides for the use of another manufacturer's tubing hanger. These work well to allow the well operator to use tubing hangers from whatever manufacturer having features in which the owner has a particular interest for the particular well or whatever manufacture's tubing hanger that the well operator happens to have in stock. The ability to run a selected tubing hanger also enables the well owner to commoditize the tubing hangers in order to buy in bulk. These benefits of the wellhead adapters make them popular and have for a long time obscured the costs of actually running a wellhead adaptor. To use the adapter, several trips are needed that generally take about 3 weeks of running time in various runs before the operation is complete. Costs can run into the millions of dollars but because of commodity purchasing of the various wellhead components, the industry has had no difficulty with the current state of affairs.
Despite the industry acceptance of the paradigm noted above, it is always receptive to the ruminations of intrepid souls who conceive and devise new methods and configurations that reduce time and expenditure in the completion of borehole systems.
A wellhead adapter configuration includes a body configured and dimensioned to attach to a wellhead; an inside dimension sufficient to allow through passage of a casing hanger.
A method for preparing a borehole includes running a wellhead adapter either with or subsequent to the running of a wellhead, the wellhead adapter having an inside dimension sufficient to allow through passage of a casing hanger; running a casing and casing hanger to the wellhead through the wellhead adapter; running a tubing and tubing hanger and landing shoulder into the wellhead adapter.
The following descriptions should not be considered limiting in any way. With reference to the accompanying drawings, like elements are numbered alike:
A detailed description of one or more embodiments of the disclosed apparatus and method are presented herein by way of exemplification and not limitation with reference to the Figures.
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Through the teachings hereof, the following method is enabled: running a first manufacturer's wellhead either with a wellhead adapter as described above or prior to running the wellhead adapter as described above, connecting the wellhead adapter to the wellhead; running a casing and casing hanger through the wellhead adapter to land in the wellhead; and running a tubing and tubing hanger from a manufacturer different than the first manufacturer to land in the wellhead adapter. Also enabled is the method of providing a landing shoulder for the tubing hanger either by a spacer landing upon the casing hanger or by a profile engaged by an enlarging configuration such as a snap ring or collet.
Great benefit to the art is realized by the teachings herein in that different OEM equipment may be used for the wellhead and the tubing hanger while substantially cutting down the number of runs and time needed to accomplish the conversion.
While the invention has been described with reference to an exemplary embodiment or embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment(s) disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the claims. Also, in the drawings and the description, there have been disclosed exemplary embodiments of the invention and, although specific terms may have been employed, they are unless otherwise stated used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention therefore not being so limited. Moreover, the use of the terms first, second, etc. do not denote any order or importance, but rather the terms first, second, etc. are used to distinguish one element from another. Furthermore, the use of the terms a, an, etc. do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced item.
