Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.

John S Bowling

John C Gano

Joseph DeWitt Parlin

Tommie Austin Freeman

James R Longbottom

Jim Robert Longbottom

Dana R Dale

Multiple wellbores are interconnected utilizing a deflection device having a guide layer of lower hardness than the body of the deflection device, and a cutting tool having a guide portion and being operative to cut through the deflection device guide layer and a tubular structure lining a wellbore.

Expandable wellbore junction

A motion compensator for drilling from a floater provides isolation of a cutting device in a well from motion of a tubular string thereabove. In a described embodiment, a motion compensator includes an anchoring device and an axial advancement device. The motion compensator is positioned in the tubular string above the cutting device. The anchoring device anchors the motion compensator in the well, while the advancement device axially advances the cutting device.

Motion compensator for drilling from a floater

A method of completing an uncemented wellbore junction provides a well completion in which a tubular assembly is installed through a wellbore junction and then is left uncemented in the junction. Fluid communication is permitted between the interior of the assembly and a formation surrounding the junction after the completion. The method is especially useful in situations in which the formation surrounding the junction is relatively impermeable or is in a production zone, and the method additionally permits convenient access to a lower portion of a main wellbore for stimulation or abandonment purposes after the completion.

Methods of completing an uncemented wellbore junction

Apparatus and methods are provided for completing a wellbore junction. In one embodiment described herein, a lateral wellbore junction is sealed utilizing an apparatus assembled within the well. The apparatus may include multiple housings which are engaged with each other to form a sealed assembly with flow passages extending into the lateral wellbore, and upper and lower portions of a parent wellbore. Associated sealing devices and flexible couplings are also provided.

Sealed lateral wellbore junction assembled downhole

Methods and apparatus are provided for use in conjunction with subterranean well operations. In a described embodiment, an expandable wellbore connector is utilized in interconnecting multiple wellbores in the well. The wellbore connector is expanded into a cavity formed in one wellbore, and then another wellbore is drilled through the wellbore connector. The wellbore connector is sealingly engaged with tubular members in each wellbore.

A sealed wellbore junction is conveniently and efficiently created in a subterranean well. In one described embodiment, a first assembly including a deflection device is positioned in the well adjacent a junction of parent and lateral wellbores. A second assembly is then sealingly engaged with the first assembly, thereby sealing the junction, and providing fluid communication between the lateral wellbore and upper and lower portions of the parent wellbore. Sealing engagement between the first and second assemblies may be provided by a variety of sealing members, or by metal-to-metal contact between the assemblies.

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Dallas, TX, United States of America

John S Bowling