Schlumberger Technology Corporation

Conocophillips Company

William Marsh Rice University

Panton, Inc.

Bo Chen

Brian Walther

Qing Chen

James Mitchell Tour

Thomas James Wheeler

Austen K Flatt

Rannie Dong

Michael P Stewart

Brad Swenson

Steven E Buchanan

Yann Dufour

Ramon Hernandez Marti

Christopher A Dyke

Saishi Frank Li

Pradeep Ananth Govind

Jason J Stephenson

Maria Tafur

Condell D Doyle

Mingyang Zhu

Yang Liu

Jianli He

Jack Dong Wang

Yong Chen

William Ryan Sisak

Francisco Maya

A redundant trigger section that actuates a device between operational positions in response to a controlled signal includes a housing including an internal through passage and a plurality of chambers formed in a wall of the housing, a pilot piston disposed within the internal through passage, an actuating piston connected to the pilot piston, and a plurality of triggers connected to the actuating piston. Upon receipt of the controlled signal by a first tubing pressure chamber of the plurality of chambers, at least one trigger of the plurality of triggers activates the actuating piston, which pushes the pilot piston within the internal through passage from an initial position to a final position.

Redundant trigger system

A shifting tool for use with an isolation valve. The shifting tool may include a mandrel and a first shifting assembly positioned about the mandrel. The first shifting assembly may include a shifting member engageable with a profile of the isolation valve to shift the isolation valve into at least one of an open position or a closed position, a sleeve engageable with the shifting member to prevent disengagement between the shifting member and the isolation valve, and a detent mechanism engageable with the shifting member to prevent disengagement between the sleeve and the shifting member. The detent mechanism may engage with the shifting member when the shifting tool initially engages with an isolation valve and relative movement of the shifting tool with respect to the isolation valve may disengage the detent mechanism from the shifting member when the detent mechanism reaches predetermined location within isolation valve.

Positional-release mechanism for a downhole tool

A core rod has internal and external profiles disposed in a housing assembly. A power spring in cooperation with the core rod within the housing assembly is connected to a power spring stopper that is fixed to the housing assembly with at least one shear screw. An inner axial cycling piston bar includes an external profile for mating engagement with the internal profile of the core rod. The inner axial cycling piston bar is connected to a piston in cooperation with a cycling spring, and the piston is configured to move in an upward direction. When a downward force exerted by the cycling spring exceeds the upwardly applied cycling force, the piston, the inner axial cycling piston bar, and the external profile move in a downward direction, thereby causing the core rod to move an incremental distance in the downward direction, which compresses the power spring by the incremental distance.

Hydraulic trigger for isolation valves

A system includes a compression spring having a latch sleeve, a piston rod including a groove section, and a ratchet assembly that progressively moves the piston rod in a downward direction. A latch collet on the latch sleeve sits on the groove section of the piston rod in a first position of the system. The latch collet locks a spring force of the compression spring as the ratchet assembly progressively moves the piston rod in the downward direction. The latch collet becomes unsupported from the groove section when the piston rod has progressively moved a predetermined distance, causing the compression spring to release and provide a push force that actuates a hydraulic valve from the first position to a second position.

Hydraulic trigger with locked spring force

An isolation valve includes a ball valve element, an actuation section to rotate the ball valve element, and a trigger section that actuates the actuation section in response to a pressure differential. The actuation section includes an actuation mandrel, a piston housing that at least partially encases the actuation mandrel, a collet piston, and a holding collet. The piston housing and the actuation mandrel define a hydraulic chamber, and the collet piston separates the hydraulic chamber into an upper hydraulic chamber and a lower hydraulic chamber. The holding collet supports the collet piston during a stroke of the actuation mandrel that is triggered by the trigger section. The collet piston is configured to assume a rest position on the actuation mandrel before and during the stroke of the actuation mandrel, and the collet piston is configured to disengage from the actuation mandrel after the stroke of the actuation mandrel.

Disengaging piston for linear actuation

A well configuration for co-injection processes, wherein a horizontal producer well at the bottom of the pay is combined with injection or injection and producer wells that are vertical and above the lower horizontal production well. This well arrangement minimizes 'blanket' effects by non-condensable gases.

Well configuration for coinjection

A variation of expanding solvent steam assisted gravity drainage (ES-SAGD) production of heavy oil wherein steam and hydrocarbon solvent are co-injected into a heavy oil reservoir and water, hydrocarbon solvent and heavy oil are produced by gravity drainage until the steam chamber is well developed or until oil recovery reaches about 20-30% of oil in place. At that time, the wells are switched to a lateral sweep using non-condensible gas (NSG) and steam co-injection, where more hydrocarbon solvent is recovered than is recovered with ES-SAGD used alone and where the cumulative steam to oil ratio is reduced over using -ES-SAGD alone.

Solvents and NCG-co-injection with tapered pressure

Producing hydrocarbons by steam assisted gravity drainage, more particularly, utilizing conventional horizontal wellpair configuration of SAGD in conjunction of infill production well, to coinject oil-based solvents with steam initially and then switch to NCG-steam coinjection after establishing thermal communication between the thermal chamber and infill well.

Solvents and non-condensable gas coinjection

Producing hydrocarbons by steam assisted gravity drainage, more particularly utilizing conventional horizontal wellpair configuration of SAGD in conjunction of infill production wells the production wells comprising two or more fishbone lateral wells to inject steam initially and then switch to NCG-steam coinjection after establishing thermal communication between the thermal chamber and infill well.

Non-condensable gas coinjection with fishbone lateral wells

Methods for analyzing a chart using an electronic computing device are presented, the methods including: causing the electronic computing device to receive a chart image corresponding with the chart, the chart image having recorded chart data; analyzing the recorded chart data, where the analyzing returns at least measurement values corresponding with the recorded chart data; and returning volumetric results of the processing to a user. In some embodiments, the recorded chart data corresponds with data selected from the group consisting of: temperature data, differential pressure data, and static pressure data. In some embodiments, the chart corresponds with a chart integration device or a chart recorder. In some embodiments, methods further include: capturing the chart image with a mobile image capture device.

Methods for automated chart analysis

The present disclosure introduces pressure-equalized packaging for electronic sensors utilized in conjunction with downhole tools and/or other extreme environments. Such sensors may be operable to detect, sense, and/or measure a parameter, such as may be associated with the downhole tool, or pressurized fluid in which the downhole tool is at least partially submerged, or a subterranean formation adjacent the downhole tool. A housing couples the sensor to a component of the downhole tool. The housing includes an equalizer operable to substantially equalize a first pressure internal to the housing with a second pressure external to the housing.

Pressure equalized packaging for electronic sensors

The present invention is directed toward methods of attaching or grafting carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to silicon surfaces. In some embodiments, such attaching or grafting occurs via functional groups on either or both of the CNTs and silicon surface. In some embodiments, the methods of the present invention include: (1) reacting a silicon surface with a functionalizing agent (such as oligo(phenylene ethynylene)) to form a functionalized silicon surface; (2) dispersing a quantity of CNTs in a solvent to form dispersed CNTs; and (3) reacting the functionalized silicon surface with the dispersed CNTs. The present invention is also directed to the novel compositions produced by such methods.

Growing community of inventors

Houston, TX, United States of America

Bo Chen