Exxon Production Research Company

Lone Star Steel Company, L.p.

Exxon Research and Engineering Company

James B Greer

Thomas W Childers

Russell D Kane

Hollis A Baugh

Barry J Berkowitz

Harry R Hanson

Dawn F Jacobs

Certain high strength alloys lacking resistance to hydrogen embrittlement are cold worked and heat treated utilizing critical preselected conditions to result in a unique alloy having increased resistance to hydrogen embrittlement without unacceptable loss of strength. It is theorized that this unexpected improved resistance correlates with the concentration of certain elements, such as phosphorus and sulfur as impurities on the crystallographic boundary surfaces of the alloy.

Alloys having improved resistance to hydrogen embrittlement

A high performance carbon steel tubular for critical Oil Country applications and an improved process for its preparation are disclosed. The tubular is particularly adapted for use in deep wells where the tubular may be subjected to high pressure, wide temperature ranges, and/or corrosive environments, which may include hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and brine water, together with hydrocarbons. The process comprises forming a bloom from a modified 41XX killed steel, upset forging and piercing the steel bloom into a cylindrical extrusion billet, cold machining the inside and outside diameters of the extrusion billet to be concentric and cold machining the nose of the extrusion billet, reheating and extruding the billet to form an extruded shell, intercritically heat treating the shell, removing surface defects, cold working the tubular shell to finished dimensions, intercritically heat treating the sized tubular, and quenching and tempering the finished tubular.

High performance tubulars for critical oil country applications and

A high performance carbon steel tubular for critical Oil Country applications and a process for its preparation are disclosed. The tubular is particularly adapted for use in deep wells where the tubular may be subjected to high pressure, wide temperature ranges, and/or corrosive environments, which may include hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and brine water, together with hydrocarbons. The process comprises forming the steel into tubular form, intercritically heat treating the form, removing surface defects, cold working the tubular form to finished dimensions, intercritically heat treating the tubular form, and quenching and tempering the finished tubular.

An improved well packer for use in sour gas wells is disclosed. The improved packer includes a cylindrical mandrel encircled with a resilient metal seal ring, means for anchoring the packer at a predetermined vertical depth, means for radially expanding the seal rings so as to cause sealing engagement with the casing and mandrel, and ratchet means for maintaining the seal rings in expanded form. The packer is adapted to be run into the cased wellbore on tubing and is particularly useful in sour gas wells.

Well packers using metal to metal seals

A high pressure, antigalling, thread interference pipe connection for use with well pipe includes pin and box members, the thread pitch lines of which are curved at the entrance of the box member and at the nose of the pin member so that sharp corners on the threads at the end of one member do not engage the threads of the other mating member and, also, so that pressure due to thread interference is built up in a smooth fashion over several threads rather than as a sharp pressure spike created by the first threads of one member engaging the threads of the other mating member. In addition, the pitch diameters of the threads of the pin and box members are selected so that makeup of the pin and box members occurs only on full height threads.

Growing community of inventors

Houston, TX, United States of America

James B Greer