Qinetiq Limited

The Secretary of State for Defence in Her Britannic Majesty's Government

Geodynamics, Inc.

Brian Bourne

Nathan Garret Clark

Kenneth Graham Cowan

Roger H Warren

Peter N Jones

Leslie Raymond Bates

Nathan Garrett Clark

An oil and gas well shaped charge perforator capable of providing an exothermic reaction after detonation is provided, having a housing, a high explosive, and a reactive liner where the high explosive is positioned between the reactive liner and the housing. The reactive liner is produced from a composition which is capable of sustaining an exothermic reaction during the formation of the cutting jet.

Oil well perforators

An oil and gas well shaped charge perforator capable of providing an exothermic reaction after detonation is provided, comprising a housing, a high explosive, and a reactive liner where the high explosive is positioned between the reactive liner and the housing. The reactive liner is produced from a composition which is capable of sustaining an exothermic reaction during the formation of the cutting jet. The composition may be selected from any known formulation which is suitable for use in an oil and gas well perforator, typically the composition will comprise at least one metal and at least one non-metal, wherein the non-metal is selected from a metal oxide, or any non-metal from Group III or Group IV or at least two metals such as to form an intermetallic reaction. Typically at least one of the metals in the invention may be selected from Al, Ce, Li, Mg, Mo, Ni, Nb, Pb, Pd, Ta, Ti, Zn or Zr. The liner composition may preferably be a pressed particulate composition, such that the material is consolidated under pressure to form the desired shape of the liner. To aid consolidation a binder may also be added.

A liner for a shaped charge having a composition comprising greater than 90% by weight of powdered tungsten and up to 10% by weight of powered binder, the composition being formed into a substantially conically shaped body and having a crystal structure of substantially equi-axed grains with a grain size of between 25 nano-meters and 1 micron.

Shaped charge liner

This invention relates to the field of oil wells and in particular to the explosive and other devices that are used to perforate oil well casings and hydrocarbon bearing rocks in order to create channels through which oil and gas can flow into the well bore. Existing oil well perforators are either termed 'big hole' perforators which are designed to produce large holes in the oil well casing only or 'deep hole' perforators which are designed to perforate the casing of the well into the surrounding rocks. This invention proposes a novel &#x201c;dual action&#x201d; perforator capable of substantially performing the same functions as both deep hole and big hole perforators.

Oil well perforator

A shaped charge liner formed of a solid metallic material having a fine grain size of the order of 25 microns or less. The material can be, for example, copper, uranium, tantalum or an alloy showing superplasticity and having a density greater than about 5 gm/cm.sup.3. The liner can be made by subjecting the material to repeated cycles of cold working, annealing at just above the recrystallization temperature, and quenching.

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Sevenoaks, United Kingdom

Brian Bourne