Schlumberger Technology Corporation

Raymond J Tibbles

Mehmet Parlar

Gary D Hurst

Diankui Fu

Balkrishna Gadiyar

Frank F Chang

Bryan Stamm

Colin J Price-Smith

Palathinkara S Vinod

Elizabeth W A Morris

Antje M Wierenga

Jonathan Mark Davison

Gary John Tustin

Lawrence A Behrmann

Mohan K R Panga

Brenden M Grove

Michael J Fuller

Anatoly Vladimirovich Medvedev

Kevin W England

Mark Brady

Matthew Miller

Ezio Toffanin

Jeremy Harvey

Tomaso Ceccarelli

Luis Felipe Peixoto

Abul K M Jamaluddin

Ernest Brown

Michaela Nagl

Konstantin Viktorovich Vidma

Elizabeth W Morris

Ivan Sergeyevich Glaznev

Shahryar Saebi

Shrihari Kelkar

A technique includes completing a well, including installing a tubing string that includes a screen in the well and installing a fiber-based material outside of the screen. The technique further includes using the well as an injection well, including communicating a fluid into the tubing string to cause an injection flow to be communicated in a fluid flow path from an interior of the tubing string, through the screen and into a formation.

Gravel and fracture packing using fibers

A gravel pack system and method for zonal isolation includes a swellable element used in conjunction with a primary isolation device, such as a cup packer. The zones may be isolated by both the isolation device and the swellable element. Shunt tubes may be used to convey a gravel slurry to each zone. At least one upper shunt tube extends through the isolation device to provide the slurry to the zone therebelow. Once the gravel packing is completed, the swellable member may be activated to provide and supplement a hydraulic seal between adjacent zones.

Method of gravel packing multiple zones with isolation

Apparatus and methods for gravel packing. The method is particularly useful for deploying a sand screen assembly having shunt tubes. The apparatus can include two or more tubulars disposed about at least one expandable member. The tubulars are longitudinally aligned with one another and bundled together in a run-in position, and the bundled tubulars radially expand when the expandable member is activated.

Slurry bypass system for improved gravel packing

An apparatus and related methods for removing hazardous trace elements from hydrocarbon reservoir effluent is implemented by placing an adsorbing volume of material designed to adsorb the hazardous trace elements into the vicinity of a producing formation face at a downhole location; and letting the reservoir effluent flow through the volume of adsorbing material.

Apparatus and methods for removing mercury from formation effluents

Gravel packing of a wellbore penetrating a subterranean formation is carried out in a wellbore having a cased section and an uncased section that contains water-based drilling fluids. A first water-based displacement fluid that contains a shale inhibitor is introduced into the wellbore to displace the water-based drilling fluids from the uncased section of the wellbore. A second water-based displacement fluid is introduced into the wellbore to displace fluids within the cased section of the wellbore. A sand control screen assembly is run to a selected depth within the uncased section of the wellbore to facilitate a gravel packing operation. A gravel pack slurry containing gravel and a viscosified carrier fluid is introduced into the wellbore to facilitate gravel packing of the uncased section. The gravel packing operation may be carried without the use of shunt flow paths and with the use of a sand screen assembly having at least one diverter valve to divert fluid returns to facilitate prevention of pressure build up.

Toe-to-heel gravel packing methods

A transient overbalance condition is created in a wellbore interval such that a pressure of the wellbore interval is greater than a reservoir pressure in surrounding formation. Creating the transient overbalance condition causes a near-wellbore region of the formation to increase in pressure. The pressure in the wellbore interval is reduced at a rate that produces a relative underbalance condition in which the pressure in the wellbore interval is less than the pressure of the near-wellbore region of the formation, but the pressure in the wellbore interval is greater than the reservoir pressure.

Providing dynamic transient pressure conditions to improve perforation characteristics

Method and apparatus for gravel packing an open-hole wellbore are disclosed. The apparatus includes a sandscreen disposed in the wellbore thereby creating an annulus between the wellbore and the sandscreen for receiving a gravel slurry. The apparatus further comprises a tubular member or wash pipe which is concentrically disposed in the sandscreen for receiving carrier fluid which passes through the sandscreen and for returning the carrier fluid to the earth's surface. At least one diverter valve is installed in the tubular member for permitting flow of the carrier fluid into the tubular member.

Gravel packing apparatus utilizing diverter valves

A method for stimulation of gas production from coal seams is described using a permeability modifier, such as a coal swelling agent, injected into the coal seams via a wellbore to reduce the permeability of the coal seams prior to a fracturing treatment.

Method of fracturing a coalbed gas reservoir

A gravel pack apparatus for use in a wellbore includes a screen assembly to filter particulates, at least one shunt conduit to carry gravel slurry, and a swellable element around a portion of the at least one shunt conduit. The swellable element swells in response to an input stimulus and expands radially outwardly to seal against the wellbore.

Gravel pack apparatus that includes a swellable element

A technique is provided to selectively control flow along shunt tubes, such as those used in gravel pack operations. The technique utilizes a swellable material valve that comprises a swellable material deployed along the shunt tube flow path. When flow through a specific shunt tube is no longer desired, the swellable material valve can be exposed to a substance that induces swelling of the swellable material. The expanded or swollen material blocks further flow along the shunt tube.

System and method for isolating flow in a shunt tube

The present invention provides a method for gravel packing a open-hole wellbore having a filter cake, comprising pumping a gravel slurry into a first portion of an annulus between the wellbore and a screen, at a sufficient rate and pressure to form at least a first fracture and diverting the gravel slurry to a second portion of said annulus through alternate flowpaths while providing hydraulic isolation between the first and the second portion of said interval, thereby preventing flowback from said second portion to said first portion and resulting extension of the first fracture, and thereby forming a second fracture in said second portion of said interval.

Method and gravel packing open holes above fracturing pressure

The Invention relates to fluids and techniques to optimize/enhance the production of hydrocarbon from subterranean formations (e.g., &ldquo;completion fluids&rdquo;), in particular, fluids and techniques are. disclosed and claimed which remove wellbore damage and near-wellbore damage in the form of coating formed from drilling and production-related operations (&ldquo;filtercake&rdquo;); the techniques can be applied either by themselves or in conjunction with other completion operations, such as gravel packing; preferred embodiments are chelating agent and enzyme systems in a viscoelastic surfactant (VES) matrix.

Fluids and techniques for hydrocarbon well completion

A method of gravel packing a wellbore which has at least one aperture therein that provides a fluid flow path between the wellbore and an adjacent subterranean formation. At least a part of the formation adjacent to the open hole has a filter cake coated thereon that comprises a water and oil emulsion. The method of gravel packing comprises injecting into the wellbore a gravel pack composition that comprises gravel and a carrier fluid. The carrier fluid comprises an aqueous liquid having a pH that is outside the range at which the filter cake emulsion is stable. The aqueous liquid is present in an amount effective to invert the water in oil emulsion in the filter cake when the carrier fluid comes into contact with the filter cake. As a result, gravel is deposited at or adjacent to the aperture in the wellbore and some of the filter cake is removed. The remainder of the filter cake and the carrier fluid can be broken simultaneously by contact with a breaker fluid that contains at least one of a surfactant and a mutual solvent.

Filter cake cleanup and gravel pack methods for oil based or water based drilling fluids

This invention provides improved apparatus and methods for completing a subterranean zone penetrated by a wellbore utilizing a gravel pack operation. One embodiment of the invention is an apparatus for completing a subterranean zone penetrated by a wellbore comprising a tubular member having a wall and a longitudinal bore. A plurality of apertures extend through the tubular member wall, the apertures define at least one radial arc and create at least one perforated radial aperture zone and at least one non-perforated radial blank zone. A screen member is attached to the exterior of the tubular member that covers the apertures. The placement of the apparatus within the wellbore creates an annular flow region that has a reduced tendency for premature dehydration of slurry during a gravel pack completion operation.

Apparatus and methods for gravel pack completions

Apparatus and methods for use in completing a subterranean zone penetrated by a wellbore include a tubular member having a first segment and a second segment, each segment containing a longitudinal bore. The tubular member forms an annulus between itself and the wellbore wall. At least one screen member at least partially encloses and is coupled to a second segment of the tubular member. The screen member and the enclosed second segment of the tubular member both have openings that allow fluid communication between the longitudinal bore of the tubular member and the wellbore. The apparatus includes an alternate flowpath member having a wall, upper and lower ends, and at least one aperture in its wall. The apertures are small enough to substantially prevent passage of particulate material. The alternate flowpath member extends longitudinally along a portion of the wellbore and creates a communication path for fluid flow.

Growing community of inventors

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Raymond J Tibbles