This disclosure relates to apparatus for penetrating wellbore obstructions. Such obstructions may be, for example, a collapsed wellbore section, a wellbore plug, a failed flapper in a downhole safety valve, and the like. The disclosure also relates to removing a section of wellbore conduit (“tubular”) or penetrating several nested wellbore tubulars to access the wellbore externally to or off such tubulars.
In the hydrocarbon exploitation industry, there is often a need for penetrating an obstruction in a wellbore, where such an obstruction may be a section of a collapsed wellbore and tubulars, a “fish” in the wellbore that cannot be removed by traditional wellbore milling tools, and the like. Such a “fish” may be a barrier installed, for example, in the form of a wireline plug, a failed flapper in a downhole safety valve, a lost tool string, a logging tool, and so forth. Penetrating such obstructions can be required to bring the well back to normal operation or to obtain access to the wellbore below the obstruction to plug and abandon the well.
It is common, with various rates of success, to remove or penetrate such wellbore obstructions using lightweight wellbore milling tools deployed by wireline or coiled tubing. In some instances, attempts may be made to remove or penetrate the obstruction with heavier intervention apparatus deployed on jointed pipe; however, such methods are without guaranteed success.
Hence, there is a need for methods and devices that can be used to mechanically mill away, or to disintegrate, an obstruction sufficiently for this obstruction to fall into the wellbore below an interval of interest or to be retrieved to the surface.
In one illustrative embodiment, a wellbore intervention tool for use in penetrating an obstruction in a wellbore includes a cutting tool having at least one rotating cutter member for penetrating the obstruction. The wellbore intervention tool includes a displacement mechanism that is coupled to the cutting tool and operable to set and adjust a cutting position of the cutting tool relative to a tool axis. The wellbore intervention tool includes a sweeper coupled to the displacement mechanism. The sweeper is operable to deflect the displacement mechanism about the tool axis, wherein the cutting tool is deflected with the displacement mechanism.
In another illustrative embodiment, a method of penetrating an obstruction in a wellbore includes lowering a wellbore intervention tool into the wellbore. The wellbore intervention tool includes a cutting tool having at least one rotating cutter member, a displacement mechanism coupled to the cutting tool, and a sweeper coupled to the displacement mechanism. The method includes positioning the at least one rotating cutter member against the obstruction and rotating the rotating cutter member. The method further includes operating the sweeper to deflect the displacement mechanism about the tool axis during at least a portion of rotating the rotating cutter member, thereby deflecting the rotating cutter member about the tool axis.
The following is a description of the figures in the accompanying drawings. The figures are not necessarily to scale, and certain features and certain views of the figures may be shown exaggerated in scale or in schematic in the interest of clarity and conciseness.
In one embodiment, the wellbore intervention tool 10 may be deployed into the wellbore 12 by a wellbore deployment system capable of transmitting power and control signals to the wellbore intervention tool 10 from the surface and returning data from the wellbore intervention tool 10 to the surface. For example, the wellbore intervention tool 10 may be deployed on the end of an armored electrical cable (“wireline”) or a coiled tubing having an electrical cable implemented therein. As an example,
In one embodiment, the wellbore intervention tool 10 includes an anchor 14 for holding the wellbore intervention tool 10 in place during penetration of an obstruction. The anchor 14 may engage a wall of the wellbore 12, a casing or liner installed in the wellbore 12, or a tubing within the wellbore 12. In
Returning to
In one embodiment, the cutting tool 30 may be a dual-blade counter-rotating cutter. Such embodiments include the cutting tool 30 having two blades 31 (only one blade is visible in the drawing) mounted adjacent to each other with a gap between the blades 31 such that the blades 31 do not contact each other when rotating and a drive mechanism (not shown) for rotating the two blades 31 in opposite directions, typically about a common rotational axis (shown at 31A). The drive mechanism may be operated by a motor 42, such as an electrical motor, pneumatic motor, or hydraulic motor, included in the wellbore intervention tool 10. Introducing a counter-rotating cutting feature in the cutting tool 30 will improve the penetration speed and efficiency of the cutting tool 30, lower the amount of axial force (weight) needed to urge the cutting tool 30 against the obstruction, and significantly reduce the risk of “kickback” due to the blade of the cutting tool 30 becoming stuck, which would damage a wireline deployed tool.
An example of a dual-blade counter-rotating cutter is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0048329 filed by Qian (the '329 publication). A dual-blade counter-rotating cutter such as disclosed in the '329 publication or other similar device may be used as the cutting tool 30 in one embodiment.
In another embodiment, the cutting tool 30 may be a single-blade rotating cutter. In another embodiment, the cutting tool 30 may have more than two rotating blades. In another embodiment, the cutting tool 30 may be a drill bit.
In one embodiment, a pivoting mechanism 40 is coupled to the cutting tool 30 and may be used to adjust a cutting position of the cutting tool 30. As an example, the pivoting mechanism 40 may include a pivot pin 35 that the cutting tool 30 may pivot around. The cutting tool 30 may be coupled to the pivot pin 35 such that an offset angle of the cutting tool 30 relative to the tool axis 33 can be set by adjusting the rotational angle of the cutting tool 30 around the pivot pin 35. This movement may be independently controlled by a suitable rotary drive mechanism in the pivoting mechanism 40, such as an electric motor and a worm gear.
In one embodiment, the pivoting mechanism 40 is coupled to a sweeper 45, which is configured to rotate the pivoting mechanism 40 about the tool axis 33. The sweeper 45 may rotate the pivoting mechanism 40 through 360 degrees around the tool axis 33. The sweeper 45 may include, for example, an electrical or hydraulic motor and a gear or gear box. The cutting tool 30 is coupled to the pivoting mechanism 40 and will rotate with the pivoting mechanism 40.
In
In
The pivoting mechanism 40 is an example of an angular displacement mechanism. In another embodiment, the pivoting mechanism 40 may be replaced with a linear displacement mechanism, such as illustrated at 40A in
It is also possible to have a displacement mechanism that selectively provides an angular or linear displacement to the cutting tool 30.
Returning to
The stroker 50 may have any suitable configuration. In
Another example of a stroker that may be used in the wellbore intervention tool 10 is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application No. 2010/0126710 to Hallundbaek et al. (the '710 publication). In the '710 publication, the stroker includes a piston mounted on a shaft and disposed in a cylinder. The piston divides the cylinder into two chambers, each of which may be selectively filled with fluid from a pump. The piston moves along the cylinder in response to differential fluid pressure between these two chambers. As the piston moves, the shaft moves along with the piston and provides the desired axial force.
Returning to
The cuttings from the wellbore intervention tool 10 may be left in place, or a debris catching feature can be built into the wellbore intervention tool 10. In one embodiment, the debris catching feature may include circulating fluids through the cutting tool 30 into a so-called “junk basket” mounted externally or internally on the cutting tool 30 or in a module attached above the cutting tool 30.
While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by the attached claims.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US2015/040455 | 7/14/2015 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2016/011085 | 1/21/2016 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20170198538 A1 | Jul 2017 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62024074 | Jul 2014 | US |