The University of Texas System

Teradata Us, Inc.

Pq Corporation

Newpark Drilling Fluids LLC

Eric Van Oort

Ali Karimi Vajargah

Sriramya Duddukuri Nair

Pradeepkumar Ashok

Besmir B Hoxha

Robert O Williams, Iii

Hugh D Smyth

Roman Shor

Raissa Ferron

Kenneth M Cowan

Silvia Ferrati

Michael James McDonald

Dongmei Chen

Carlos Torres-Verdin

Parham Pournazari

John David Downs

Qian Wu

Matthew W Harris

Ahmed Said Amer

Vivek Singhal

Jacob Lubecki

Ysabel Witt-Doerring

Nathan Zenero

Saeid Enayatpour

Tadeusz W Patzek

Xiangyu Liu

Katherine Louise Aughenbaugh

Adrian Ambrus

Behcet Acikmese

Michelle Shuck

Compositions for treating a wellbore include an exothermic additive capable of initiating an exothermic event following contact with a carrier fluid. The exothermic additive can have a coating that delays the exothermic event after contact with the carrier fluid. Methods disclosed herein include emplacing a fluid loss treatment composition in an interval of a wellbore, the fluid loss treatment including: a metallic fluid loss additive; an exothermic additive; and a carrier fluid; and reacting the exothermic additive to initiate an increase in temperature in the interval of the wellbore above a melting point of the metallic fluid loss additive; and converting the metallic fluid loss additive to a molten fluid loss additive; and treating the interval of the wellbore with the molten fluid loss additive.

Control of lost circulation through a thermally activated metallic additive

A geothermal well includes a borehole formed in a geologic formation. The borehole includes a first portion extending from a first end to a second end and a second portion intersecting the first portion at a first depth. The second portion is exposed to the formation for heating a fluid flowing in the second portion. The well includes an outer string disposed in the first portion where a lower end of the outer string is disposed above the first depth. The well includes an inner string disposed though the outer string and an annulus formed between the inner string and the outer string. The well includes a choke fluidly coupled to at least one of the annulus or the inner string. The choke is configured to regulate return flow of the heated fluid to maintain surface backpressure above a boiling pressure of the heated fluid at surface.

Geothermal well designs and control thereof for extraction of subsurface geothermal power

Described herein are methods of cementing at least a portion of a well comprising feeding a magnetorheological cementitious slurry to a well and applying a magnetic field to the magnetorheological cementitious slurry concurrent with at least a portion of said feeding step to cause a mechanical response in said magnetorheological cementitious slurry in the well. Also disclosed herein are methods of temporarily blocking at least a portion of a well comprising providing a magnetorheological fluid in a well, applying a magnetic field to cause a mechanical response in said magnetorheological fluid thereby blocking at least a portion of the well, and removing the magnetic field to unblock the portion of the well. Also disclosed herein is a magnetorheological cement.

Magnetorheological fluids and methods of using same

Disclosed herein are compositions and methods for reducing fluid loss in a well bore, methods for wellbore strengthening and increasing the integrity of the borehole of an oil or gas well. Also disclosed are methods for artificially increasing the temperature of a subsurface formation in the wellbore to increase the apparent wellbore strength. The mechanism for accomplishing this revolves around increasing fracture propagation pressure by actively manipulating thermal wellbore stresses.

Methods for increasing wellbore strength

An x-ray mass flow rate sensor uses a low density polymer pipe, an x-ray source, and an x-ray detector. The polymer pipe has a low density (less than 2.8 SG) and a high pressure rating (greater than 5 ksi). By using a low density polymer pipe, the sensor is able to use an x-ray source that does not require a linear accelerator and is less than or equal to 450 kV. The x-ray source and the x-ray detector are mounted on opposite sides of the polymer pipe to form a detection area that passes through the polymer pipe. A real-time calibration of the sensor is performed by detecting gray level values in a calibration region of the detection area for two reference materials placed in the detection area. The sensor may additionally include a mechanical flow rate sensor with a plurality of pistons with springs of varying spring constants.

X-ray mass flow rate sensors for high pressure processes

An imaging system may include a housing having shape and size sufficient to receive an industrial tool inserted into the housing. The imaging system may further include a plurality of cameras and a plurality of light sources positioned within the housing in a manner to surround the industrial tool upon insertion of the industrial tool into the housing. The imaging system may include a processing unit to control operation of the cameras and light sources and adjust relative positions of the cameras and light sources in relation to the industrial tool to capture a plurality of images of relevant portions of the industrial tool. The plurality of images collectively reveals substantially all of the relevant portions of the industrial tool. A method and computer-readable medium are also disclosed.

Industrial tool imaging

A method and agent to induce accelerated creep deformation of shale rock formations in the annular gap between a shale formation and non-cemented sections of a casing string have been developed. A fluid containing alkali silicate or a modified alkali silicate is added to the annular space between the shale rock formation and the casing string. The alkali silicate promotes creep deformation of the shale rock, effectively closing the annulus surrounding the casing. It has been found lithium silicate provides the strongest shale-casing bond and is the presently preferred material for closing abandoned wells.

Method for plugging and abandoning oil and gas wells

Disclosed herein are compositions and methods for reducing fluid loss in a well bore. Also disclosed herein are methods for wellbore strengthening and increasing the integrity of the borehole of an oil or gas well. In particular, disclosed are methods for artificially increasing the temperature of a subsurface formation in the wellbore to increase the apparent wellbore strength.

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for determining a fluid characteristic of a fluid flowing within a flow region.

Systems and methods for determining a fluid characteristic

Methods and systems that provide ways to detect the hydrocarbon flow while eliminating the hydrogen darkening effect in the downhole environment by separated strain and temperature measurement. The methods and systems use fiber optic sensing cables for real-time detection of hydrocarbon fluids (oil, gas, condensate or combination) in oil and gas wells, for example in cemented annuli between either a rock formation and a casing string, or between a larger diameter casing string and a smaller diameter casing string, or in a cement plug left in the well upon abandonment. Hydrogen darkening-resistant temperature and strain sensing fiber optic cables can be used in conjunction with hydrocarbon sensitive polymers to monitor hydrocarbon migration in the oil and gas well and/or to identify the zone(s) from which the hydrocarbons are flowing.

Hydrocarbon detection in oil and gas wells using fiber optic sensing cables

Systems and methods are disclosed that provide highly accurate and controllable measurements of rock formation properties in a wellbore. The systems and methods utilize a prescribed input signal to mechanically perturb a drill string in contact with a rock formation in order to elicit a mechanical response. Based on the input signal and the mechanical response, a transfer function is computed and analyzed, wherein the analysis uses estimates of the drill string resonances to identify rock formation resonances, which are used, in turn, to determine the rock formation properties.

Sensing formation properties during wellbore construction

A control system for controlling stick-slip oscillations in a drilling system is disclosed. The control system includes a processor and a memory communicatively coupled to the processor with computer program instructions stored therein. The instructions are configured to, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to receive a communication including a value of a drilling system parameter, determine based on the value of the drilling system parameter, a value for a torque to be applied to a drill string to reduce the effect of stick-slip oscillations, and transmit to a drive system the value for the torque to be applied by the drive system. The value for the torque to be applied by the drive system is determined by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities including a disturbance minimization linear matrix inequality, a first magnitude constraint linear matrix inequality, and a second magnitude constraint linear matrix inequality.

LMI-based control of stick-slip oscillations in drilling

A method, system and computer program product for utilizing look-up tables representing all models in an automation control architecture to independently handle uncertainties in sensed data. Data is stored in a form of conditional probability tables (CPTs) or conditional probability distributions (CPDs), where the data comes from an operator, a service provider, a drilling contractor and an equipment manufacturer. Models of the drilling process domains, such as wellbore hydraulics, drill bit/rock interactions, torque and drag modeling, vibration modeling and drilling machinery operation, are received. Data is extracted from these models into the CPTs or CPDs. The CPTs or CPDs are converted to look-up tables. Data in the look-up tables are then visually displayed in graphical form. As a result, real-time troubleshooting of drilling operations occurs in an efficient manner.

Utilizing look-up tables representing all models in an automation control architecture to independently handle uncertainties in sensed data in oil and gas well construction

Provided herein are cementitious compositions comprising a non-aqueous fluid and an alkali-activated material. The non-aqueous fluid can include a natural oil, a synthetically derived oil, one or more surfactants, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the non-aqueous fluid can include an oil based mud, a synthetic based mud, or a mixture thereof. The alkali-activated material in the cementitious composition can be derived from an aluminosilicate material and an alkaline activator. In some embodiments, the aluminosilicate material includes fly ash. The alkaline activator can be selected from an alkali-hydroxide, an alkali-silicate, an alkali carbonate, an alkali bicarbonate, an alkali sulfate, and a mixture thereof. Provided herein are also wellbore servicing composition, such as compositions to reduce lost circulation of drilling fluids or cement a casing into the borehole, comprising the cementitious compositions and methods for preparing and using the cementitious compositions.

Growing community of inventors

Bee Cave, TX, United States of America

Eric Van Oort