Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.

Malcolm E Whittaker

Neal Gregory Skinner

Emad Bakri

A method of freeing a pipe stuck in a subterranean well can include determining a location of a portion of the pipe stuck in the well, and penetrating and/or heating a sidewall of the pipe portion with a beam of light. A system for freeing a pipe stuck in a subterranean well can include a tool deployed into a portion of the pipe stuck in the well by a differential pressure from a wellbore to a formation penetrated by the wellbore. A beam of light emitted from the tool penetrates the pipe portion. Another method of freeing a pipe stuck in a subterranean well can include determining a location of a portion of the pipe which is biased against a wall of a wellbore by differential pressure, and directing a beam of light to the pipe portion.

Freeing pipe stuck in a subterranean well

The present disclosure provides a method of manufacturing a polycrystalline diamond (PCD) cutting element used as drill bit cutting elements (). The method includes leaching a PCD body formed from diamond particles () using a binder-catalyzing material so as to remove substantially all of the binder-catalyzing material from portions of a cutting surface of the PCD body. A portion () of the cutting surface is identified as a cutting area which, in use of the cutting element to cut material, is heated by the cutting action of the cutting element. Leaching of the PCD body includes performing a relatively deep leach in the portion of the cutting surface identified as the cutting area and performing a relatively shallow leach in at least the portion () of the cutting surface surrounding the identified cutting area.

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Houston, TX, United States of America

Malcolm E Whittaker