Baker Hughes Corporation

Frank Skilbeck

Mark F Schubert

A method of separating oil, water and sand in a production fluid. The production fluid is fed through a downhole liquid/liquid hydrocyclone (,). An oil enriched stream from the hydrocyclone (,) is pumped to the surface, while an oil depleted stream is fed to a downhole solid/liquid hydrocyclone (,). Here, the bulk of the solids is separated from the water, so that water which is substantially free of solids can be transported to a downhole disposal site (,).

Three component separation in an oil well

A method and apparatus for subjecting a fluid to a controlled pressure drop. Fluid is supplied under pressure with a tangential velocity component to an annular passageway (17). The fluid swirls around the axis of the passageway while flowing axially along the passageway to an outlet (6). A cross section of at least a part of the passageway (17) is adjustable to enable the flow rate to be adjusted for a given pressure loss or the pressure loss to be adjusted for a given flow rate. The outlet (6) includes a second annular passageway (22) surrounding the first annular passageway so that the first annular passageway leads to, and the second annular passageway leads from, a chamber (21) common to the passageways. The second annular passageway is of increasing outer diameter and cross sectional area in the direction of flow from the chamber to the outlet.

Growing community of inventors

Gloucester, United Kingdom

Frank Skilbeck