Abb Vetco Gray Incorporated

Ready Joseph Johnson

John Edward Nelson

Charles Morris Smith

Ian Douglas Calder

A rotating drilling head seals around drill pipe while drilling. The drilling head has an outer housing that mounts to the rig floor. An inner housing is rotatably mounted in the outer housing. An annular bladder is mounted in the inner housing. An annular elastomeric gripping member is mounted in the bladder. The inner housing having a passage for delivering hydraulic fluid pressure to the outer surface of the bladder to cause the bladder to deform inwardly, thereby forcing the gripping member to deform inwardly to grip and rotate with a drill pipe. The gripping member has a first end secured to the inner housing for rotating the inner housing as the drill pipe rotates and a second end that is free to move axially to allow the bladder to elongate in response to the deformation by the bladder.

Rotating drilling head gripper

A section of pipe for well operations has a cylindrical fiber composite pipe body and a pair of metallic end fittings. The end fittings differ from each other in that they are provided with mating key features to ensure proper angular or rotational alignment between two abutting sections of pipe. Each pipe is also provided with an optical fiber for data transmission. A fiber optic coupling is located at each end of the optical fiber for sending and receiving data transmissions via optical signals. Multiple strings of pipe are abutted end to end to complete both mechanical and data interfaces. At the junction of each pair of adjacent pipes, the end fittings axially and rotationally align. The flanges of the end fittings are fastened together with bolts such that data transmission takes place between the optical fibers.

Composite pipe telemetry conduit

An apparatus and method are provided for controlling hydrostatic pressure in drilling fluid in a subsea well. A main pump forces drilling fluid down the drill pipe, out of the end of the drill pipe, and upward in an annulus surrounding the pipe. A rotating drilling head is attached to a wellhead assembly at the sea floor. The drilling head has an inner body rotatably carried in an outer body landed in a bore of a housing. An energizable gripper in a bore of the inner body grips an outer surface of the drill pipe. The drilling head diverts the drilling fluid into a lateral passage in the sidewall of the housing. An auxiliary pump forces seawater through a venturi into a conduit, creating a lower pressure to draw drilling fluid into the conduit to be carried back to the surface vessel. Pressure and flow rate measurements are sent to a control system that modulates the speed of each pump to control hydrostatic pressure.

Apparatus and method for returning drilling fluid from a subsea wellbore

A wellhead housing includes a metal seal with a ring portion and a rib portion. The ring portion includes two frustoconical surfaces for mating with tapered surfaces of a wellhead connector and the wellhead housing. Two conical, metal-to-metal seals are created where the ring portions of the seal engage the tapered surfaces of the wellhead connector and housing. These metal-to-metal seals contain internal pressure within the wellhead. Two legs extend outward from the rib portion. An upward-facing foot surface at the end of the top leg engages the wellhead connector, while a downward-facing foot surface at the end of the bottom leg engages the wellhead housing. A metal-to-metal seal created between each foot surface and the corresponding tubular member resists external pressure to prevent water ingress into the joint.

Growing community of inventors

Houston, TX, United States of America

Ready Joseph Johnson