Abb Vetco Gray Incorporated

Combustion Engineering, Inc.

Vetco Gray Inc.

Gray Tool Company

Shell Offshore Inc.

Vetco Offshore, Inc.

Gray Tool

Charles D Bridges

John K McGee

Frank C Adamek

Eugene A Borak, Jr

Noel A Monjure

Anton J Dach

Charles Edward Jennings

Lionel J Milberger

Glen H Cuiper

Michael A Karr, Jr

Robert Kevin Law

L Steven Landriault

Lawrence A Eckert

James Vaull Bonds

Dale B Marietta

Bert L Morrison

Vicki Deck Corso

Robert K Voss, Jr

Bobby L Ferguson

Kenneth J Hartwein

Henry Lang

Robert T Brown

Harold L Lafferty

Archie L Smith

John P Soland

Warren D King

Jose A Alvarado

A tubing hanger and wellhead have features for controlling and monitoring fluid pressure to downhole equipment. The tubing hanger has an internal vertical passage. A hydraulic line connects to the lower end of the vertical passage and runs downhole. The vertical passage communicates with a lateral passage through the outer wall of the hanger. A lateral passage through the wellhead housing is generally aligned with the lateral passage of the hanger when the hanger is installed in the wellhead housing. A pressure shaft is installed in the wellhead passage and has a passage therethrough. A seal member having spherical ends is inserted between spherical receptacles located on the inner end of the pressure shaft passage and on the outer end of the lateral passage of the hanger. The seal member has an internal passage having a flared inner end. The seal member is allowed to rotate to sealingly connect the lateral passages if some misalignment of the lateral passages exists. A gage or other pressure monitoring device or a source of hydraulic pressure can be attached to the outer end of the pressure shaft to communicate with the shaft passage.

Tubing head control and pressure monitor device

A running tool is used to install a tubing hanger without entangling the continuous control lines. The tubing hanger running tool is made up of a central mandrel, an outer housing, a setting member, and an actuator. The mandrel has a lower end for securing to a tubing hanger. The outer housing surrounds the mandrel and is connected to the setting member. The actuator moves the setting member axially with respect to the mandrel so that the setting member can set the lock element on the tubing hanger, securing the tubing hanger to the tubing head. The setting member has openings which allow the control lines from the tubing hanger to be fed through to the outside of the running tool so that they are not entangled during the placement of the tubing hanger.

Tubing hanger running tool

A drilling head used to seal around a drill pipe while drilling is employed in a subsea location. The drilling head has an inner body located within an outer body. At least one bearing is located between the outer body and the inner body for facilitating the rotation of the inner body relative to the outer body. A seal mounted to a lower portion of the inner body seals around the outer surface of the drill pipe. While lowering the drilling head to the wellhead, a support attached to the drill pipe is inserted into a skirt which surrounds a portion of the seal. The skirt and support are releasably connected using a J-slot mechanism. An inner annulus and an outer annulus are located between the inner and outer bodies, the annuluses containing a lubricating fluid. Helical vanes are located within the inner annulus and affixed to the inner body. The vanes rotate with the inner body for circulating the fluid through the inner and outer annuluses. A set of fins are attached to the outer body for enhancing the heat transfer from the fluid and through the outer body to the exterior environment.

Subsea diverter and rotating drilling head

A subsea well has a tubing hanger which has an annulus bore and a production bore. A check valve is located in the annulus bore. A running tool runs the tubing hanger on a monobore riser such as a drill string while holding the check valve in the open position. After setting and testing, the running tool is lifted and a blowout preventer is closed around the landing string. The operator monitors the choke and kill line of the drilling riser, which will be in communication with the check valve. If the check valve is leaking, an annulus plug may be installed in the annulus bore. The installation of the annulus plug may be handled by using a retrieval tool configured to align the annulus bore with the landing string passage. A wireline tool may be lowered through the landing string and retrieval tool to retrieve the check valve and install the plug. Alternately, the check valve may remain in the tubing hanger and the plug is set in the annulus bore above it. The check valve is retained in the open position, if so.

Annulus check valve with tubing plug back-up

Two or more opposing and outward facing profiles are fabricated and joined to each other along their outer edges, forming a section of a guide string. The sections of the guide string are secured together in an assembly and lowered into a single conductor. The assembly lands on the bottom of the well and may support its own weight. The guide string defines two separate longitudinal cavities or sections of the well. Each separate cavity allows drilling and installation of casing in the conductor.

Bottom-supported guidance device for alignment of multiple wellbores in

An offshore well system has an assembly for tensioning an inner riser or casing string. The system has a hanger which lands on an internal load shoulder. The hanger has a gripping mechanism on its lower end which engages a mandrel, the mandrel being connected to tieback casing. The gripping mechanism allows upward moving of the mandrel relative to the hanger, but not downward movement. A running tool releasably engages an interior portion of the mandrel. A launch adapter secures to an upper end of the hanger. The launch adapter slidingly engages a running string which also extends upward through a blowout preventor. Closing the blowout preventor and applying pressure to the launch adapter causes it to move downward, pushing the hanger onto the load shoulder. Subsequently, the running tool is pulled upward to apply tension to the casing which is held by the griping mechanism. The running tool is retrieved along with the launch adapter. The load shoulder may be retractable to remove tension for retrieving the casing.

Internal riser tensioning system

A guidance system comprising two guide tubes is lowered into a well with a conductor. The guide tubes are connected together by partitions which are about 100 feet apart and divide the conductor into two halves. Each partition comprises two symmetrically formed, semi-cylindrical sections facing in opposite directions. A threaded collar is secured to the upper end of each of the guide tubes. The collars are then landed on a lower plate at the upper end of the conductor. An upper plate is secured to the upper end of the conductor on top of the lower plate. The operator lowers a string of drill pipe through holes in the plates into the conductor to drill a first smaller diameter well at the bottom of the conductor. After drilling to the desired depth, the operator runs a first string of casing down the conductor and through the new well bore. The casing is located on one side of each partition and cemented in place. The operator then lowers the drill pipe down the other side of the partitions and repeats the drilling and casing of a second well. After each well is cased, the operator pumps cement down one of the guide tubes to cement the interior of the lower end of the conductor.

Close proximity wellheads

A guidance system comprising two guide tubes are lowered into a well with a conductor. The guide tubes are connected together by partitions which divide the conductor into two halves. Each partition comprises two symmetrical half sections facing in opposite directions. The operator lowers a string of drill pipe into the conductor to drill a first smaller diameter well at the bottom of the conductor. After drilling to the desired depth, the operator runs a first string of casing down the conductor and through the new well bore. The casing is located on one side of each partition and cemented in place. The operator then lowers the drill pipe down the other side of the partitions and repeats the drilling and casing of a second well.

Single riser with two wellheads

A split tubing hanger for a well has two semi-cylindrical tubing hanger bodies. A seal has a ring portion which seals the tubing hanger bodies to the bore of a tubing head. The seal also has a diametrical band portion which joins the ring portion. The band portion seals between the two tubing hanger bodies. The bodies are run separately and land on a landing shoulder in the bore of the tubing head. The landing shoulder has upward extending tabs which engage recesses in the load shoulders of the tubing hanger bodies. The landing shoulder is a landing ring which is split and locates within a groove formed in the bore of the tubing head. An anti-rotation device prevents the landing ring from rotating relative to the tubing head.

Dual split tubing hanger

A tensioning system for a tieback string of casing between a subsea wellhead and a surface wellhead employs hydraulic pressure. A mandrel is connected into the tieback string. A casing hanger mounts to the mandrel and an internal gripping member between the casing hanger and the mandrel allows upward movement of the mandrel relative to the casing hanger but prevents downward movement. The operator lowers the string into the well with the casing hanger in an extended upward position and secures the tieback. The operator then closes the blowout preventer and applies hydraulic pressure in the annulus below the blowout preventer. Seals seal the casing hanger to the surface wellhead and also seal the inner diameter of the casing hanger to the running conduit. The hydraulic pressure forces the casing hanger down onto an internal landing shoulder in the surface wellhead.

Hydraulic pressure assisted casing tensioning system

An internal lockdown will lock a tubing hanger in a wellhead housing. The tubing hanger has a conical cam surface formed on the exterior. An internal profile is located in the bore of the housing in alignment with the cam surface. A landing sub secures to a threaded bore of the tubing hanger and protrudes above. A carrier ring mounts to exterior threads formed on the landing sub. The carrier ring carries a set of segmented dogs. After the tubing hanger lands, the landing sub is unscrewed relative to the tubing hanger and carrier ring assembly. Then, the landing sub is lowered, pushing the dogs out into engagement with the profile.

Internal tubing hanger lockdown

An emergency casing hanger can be lowered over casing collars and into a wellhead housing to support a string of casing. The casing hanger has a slip bowl which is slotted so that it can be radially expanded to insert over the casing collar. Slips are carried in the interior of the bowl for gripping the casing once the slip bowl is in position. The running tool has an inner sleeve that holds the slips in a retracted position and holds the slip bowl in an expanded position until the slip bowl clears the collar. Once the running tool has been removed, a honing tool is then lowered over the casing. The honing tool has honing stones mounted in a housing and biased inward for smoothing the exterior of the casing to receive a seal.

Emergency method for running slips over casing collars

An adjustable mandrel hanger assembly will maintain tension in a section of casing extending from a subsea location to a surface wellhead. The assembly has a mandrel that secures to the upper end of the casing. The mandrel has grooves on its exterior. A collet slides over the mandrel and has grooves on its interior for mating with the grooves on the mandrel. The collet has inclined load flanks on its exterior. A load ring lands on a load shoulder provided in the surface wellhead housing. The load ring has load flanks on its interior that engage the load flanks of the collet. A retaining ring locks the load ring in the wellhead housing. A running tool pushes downward on the load ring while tension is maintained on the mandrel. The collet ratchets over the mandrel grooves.

Adjustable mandrel hanger assembly

Emergency casing hanger system

A connector for connecting a tubular starter head to a casing of a well allows connection without special tools. The tubular head has an annular recess extending upward from its lower end. The connector includes a seal actuating ring and a slips actuating ring, one of the rings having a recess. A seal ring locates in one of the recesses and slips locate in the other recess. Upward movement of one of the actuating rings sets either the slips or the seal ring first while the other remains unset. Then upward movement of the other actuating ring sets the other.

Growing community of inventors

Cypress, TX, United States of America

Charles D Bridges