Shell Oil Comapny

Tubefuse Applications B.v.

Anthony Thomas Cole

Klisthenis Dimitriadis

Johannis Josephus Den Boer

Djurre Hans Zijsling

Jan Erik Vollebregt

Robert Andrew Alford

Mark Wilson Anderson

Harold J Vinegar

Scott Lee Wellington

Eric Pierre De Rouffignac

John Michael Karanikas

Robert Nicholas Worrall

John Matthew Coles

Bruce Gerard Hunsucker

James Louis Menotti

Fredrick Gordon Carl, Jr

Christopher Arnold Pratt

Lawrence James Bielamowicz

Michalakis Efthymiou

Ali Joseph Cox

Dirk Arie Kronemeijer

Rama Krishna Siva Gunturi

Tubular ends are heated to a predetermined temperature above 1200 degrees Celsius and surrounded by a shield gas when the tubular ends are pressed together to form forge welded tubular ends. The forge welded tubular ends are then cooled down rapidly from said temperature above 1200 to at most 600 degrees Celsius within 3 minutes after the forge welding operation.

Forge welding tubulars

An improved method of permanently marking the location of a tubular joint, the method including creating a cavity into the end surface of one of the tubular ends that are to be joined by a forge weld or screw thread connection, inserting a marker into said cavity and subsequently joining the tubular ends.

Marking of pipe joints

An automated method for forge welding tubulars including heating the tubular ends to be joined in a welding chamber while the heated tubular ends are maintained aligned and parallel relative to each other and at a small spacing, whereupon the heated tubular ends are pressed together while a reducing shield gas is injected into the chamber. The positions of the tubular ends are monitored by cameras which are coupled to a pyrometric and position monitoring system which automatically adjusts the position of the tubular ends relative to each other and the heat supplied to the tubular ends during the heating step until the tubular ends have reached a predetermined temperature, whereupon the tubular ends are moved towards each other along a distance which exceeds the spacing monitored between the tubular ends during the heating step with a selected extra distance, such that the tubular ends are firmly pressed against each other and the amount of external and/or internal upset of the tubular ends in the welding zone is limited to an acceptable level.

Forge welding process

A method for interconnecting tubulars by forge welding involves arranging the tubular ends that are to be interconnected at a distance, up to a few millimeters from each other in a shield gas chamber, into which a reducing non-explosive flushing fluid mixture (e.g. N+H) is injected; heating each tubular end within the space by means of at least three electrodes that are pressed at circumferentially spaced intervals against the wall of each tubular, adjacent to the tubular end such that a high frequency electrical current is transmitted in a substantially circumferential direction through the tubular segments between the electrodes; and moving the thus uniformly heated tubular ends towards each other until a forge weld is formed between the heated tubular ends.

Method for interconnecting tubulars by forge welding

A method of joining expandable tubulars includes joining the tubulars by forge welding and flushing a reducing flushing gas around the heated tubular ends during at least part of the forge welding operation such that oxides are removed from the forge welded tubular ends and the amount of irregularities between the forge welded tubular ends is limited.

Joining expandable tubulars

An oil shale formation may be treated using an in situ thermal process. Hydrocarbons, H, and/or other formation fluids may be produced from the formation. Heat may be applied to the formation from one or more heat sources to raise a temperature of a portion of the formation to a desired temperature. Some of the heat sources may be conductors placed within conduits. The conductors may be resistively heated so that the conductors radiantly heat the conduits. The generated heat may transfer to the formation.

Conductor-in-conduit heat sources for in situ thermal processing of an oil shale formation

A method for inspecting welds between welded tubular ends includes arranging a series electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) assemblies in circumferential direction adjacent to an inner and/or outer surface of at least one of the welded tubular ends and inducing the EMAT assemblies to transmit sequentially or simultaneously acoustic shear wave signals towards the weld and to detect the shear waves reflected by and/or passing through the weld while the EMAT assemblies are maintained in a substantially fixed position relative to the weld such that at least a substantial part of the weld is scanned by the EMAT assemblies instantly after the weld is made.

EMAT weld inspection

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Rijswijk, Netherlands

Anthony Thomas Cole