Stream-Flo Industries Ltd.

Steam-Flo Industries, Ltd.

Tony M Lam

Keith David Farquharson

Tianle Guo

Heinrich Lang

Abram Khazanovich

Andrew Francis Masson

Kevin Paul Schneider

Irina Khazanovich

Glen Murray Eleniak

Daniel J Riddell

Michael James Cornelssen

Thomas L Gust

John Braben

An expanding gate valve and method is provided for bidirectional sealing capability against pressure, whether the direction of pressure is upstream or downstream. The bidirectional annular seat seals against the gate assembly against pressure from the normal wellhead direction, typically upstream. For sealing against pressure in the opposite direction, the seat is formed with an annular recess extending radially outwardly from the central bore of the annular seat so that a flex portion of the seat formed between the recess and the front sealing face of the annular seat at the central bore flexes toward the gate assembly against this pressure. The front face of the bidirectional seat forms a raised annular sealing portion on the flex portion of the seat adjacent the central bore to provide sealing contact with the gate assembly in the expanded condition when the flex portion flexes toward the gate assembly.

Expanding gate valve

A ram type blowout preventer having a seal on each ram, extending across the front face, rearwardly and then over the top portion or the bottom portion of the ram. Each ram forms a leading edge portion above or below the front face seal, so as opposing rams move into the extended sealing position, the leading edge portions of the rams press against each other, imparting a generally vertical movement to bring the seals on the front faces into sealing engagement with each other and to energize the seals extending over the top or bottom portions against the ram bores. The front face of each ram may include a portion which is inclined toward the central bore. Rope packing seals may be provided on the rams having a vertical offset at the front faces of the rams such that rope packing seals on opposing front faces seal against each other.

Blowout preventer and rams

A wellhead seal device forms metal seals in an annular space between inner and outer tubular members such as a rough casing held within aligned casing and tubing heads. An annular metal sealing sleeve has a lower portion seated in the annular space, and an upper portion which forms an inner sealing annulus adjacent the outer wall of the inner tubular member. A metal seal ring and a wedge ring are located in the inner sealing annulus. A retaining ring is retained by the upper portion above the wedge ring. Threaded seal energizing members extend through the retaining ring to push downwardly on the wedge ring and compress the metal seal ring radially inwardly to form a metal seal to the inner tubular member and thus seal the inner sealing annulus. The lower portion of the annular metal sealing sleeve may seal to the casing head and to the casing.

Wellhead seal device to seal casing

A blowout preventer (BOP) is provided in which each ram includes a primary rope packing seal formed from a first length of rope packing extending horizontally across the front face, rearwardly and then either or both of upwardly and downwardly over the top and/or bottom portion of the ram. The primary rope packing seal is held in, so as to protrude radially outwardly from, a continuous first groove formed in the ram. The continuous first groove is adapted to accommodate joined abutting ends or overlapping ends of the first length of rope packing. A secondary rope packing seal and a circumferential rope packing seal may be provided on the ram.

Blowout preventer with rope packing seal

A reusable metal seal for a wellhead provides a metal-to-metal seal and includes upper and lower tapered sealing flanks which may be deflected by tapered wall surfaces on the wellhead engaging the taper sealing flanks, and the seal may have a plurality of annular relief grooves.

Metal seal for wellheads

A wellhead assembly to seal to a production casing including one or more pressure-containing wellhead body members defining a vertical bore, with the lowermost of the wellhead body members sealing to the production casing. A fracturing isolation tool is sealed in the vertical bore of the wellhead body members above the production casing, and forms a pressure barrier profile in its internal bore. A removable protector sleeve is located at least partially within the fracturing isolation tool to seal, protect, isolate and cover the pressure barrier profile against a fracturing pressure and a fracturing fluid. After fracturing the protector sleeve is removed and a pressure barrier is sealed in the pressure barrier profile of the fracturing isolation tool. The invention also extends to the method of isolating the wellhead body members and to the fracturing isolation tool assembly which includes the fracturing isolation tool and the protector sleeve.

Method and apparatus for isolating a wellhead for fracturing

A polish rod clamping device, for use as part of a wellhead production pumping tree to secure a polish rod. The device includes a pressure-containing body forming a central vertical and opposed first and second side bores. A pair of clamping rams are positioned in the side bores for sliding movement therealong, each clamping ram having a front and a rear end, the front ends of the clamping rams being configured to accommodate at least a portion of the polish rod between their front ends when the clamping rams are advanced across the central bore. The front end of at least one of the clamping rams is configured with a vertical V-groove for gripping the polish rod. The invention extends to the V-groove rams themselves and to composite wellhead assemblies containing the V-groove clamping device.

Polish rod clamping device

A gate valve for controlling fluid flow, with a valve body forming a cylindrical flowbore and a gate cavity intersecting the flowbore to provide opposed openings. Seat pockets formed in the opposed openings may optionally include a metal carrier ring. A non-metallic bridging seal formed as a face seal is provided between the first seal surface of the annular seat element and the seat pocket. The bridging seal bridges any gap formed at the first seal surface such that sealing engagement is maintained across the gap at all times as the gate moves between open and closed positions, while still permitting limited axial movement of the annular seat element. Preferred embodiments of the bridging seal include tongue and groove seals and bridge ring inserts. A secondary seal to the seat pocket may be included as a corner, periphery or face seal, for example as an O-ring, U-ring or wiper seal.

Gate valve with tongue and groove or bridging seal to annular seat elements

A blowout preventer (BOP) is provided in which one of the BOP rams is formed with an extended central bore sealing section to seal across the central bore in a central bore closing position when the polish rod is not present. The ram bores of the BOP are sized to accommodate this extended central bore sealing section in any of the open, sealing or central bore closing positions. The front ends of the BOP rams may be adapted to carry elastomeric or thermoplastic seals to seal against the polish rod or against each other. The central bore seals for the extended central bore sealing section may be formed with elastomeric or thermoplastic seals. In the case of thermoplastic seals, the rams and ram bores are adapted to ensure that the thermoplastic seals are compressed outwardly, to seal the ram bores, or are lifted upwardly, to seal the central bore.

Wellhead blowout preventer with extended ram for sealing central bore

A gate valve for controlling fluid flow, in which a valve body forms a cylindrical flowbore and includes a gate cavity intersecting the flowbore to provide opposed openings into the flowbore. Seat pockets are formed in the opposed openings, each with a radial base and a side wall, and may optionally include metal carrier ring sealed in the seat pockets. The gate is slidably movable within the valve body between open and closed positions. Annular seat elements are mounted in each seat pocket for limited axial movement on opposite sides of the gate, with a first seal surface for sealing against the seat pocket or optional carrier ring, and a second seal surface for sealing against the gate. A non-metallic bridging seal formed as a face seal is provided between the first seal surface of the annular seat element and the seat pocket (or optional carrier ring). The bridging seal is adapted to bridge any gap formed at the first seal surface of the annular seat element such that sealing engagement is maintained across the gap at all times as the gate moves between open and closed positions, while still permitting the limited axial movement of the annular seat element. Preferred embodiments of the bridging seal include tongue and groove seals and bridge ring inserts. A second seal to the seat pocket is also preferred.

The invention broadly provides a ram incorporating a thermoplastic seal for sealing in the horizontal bore of a wellhead production blowout preventer to close off the vertical bore of the well, the ram being adapted to seal at its front end against either a polish rod of a rod string, or against an adjacent ram. The invention also extends to a BOP including a pair of such rams, wherein, each ram includes (a) a body component with front and rear portions and ends, (b) a seal component with front and rear portions and ends, (c) the body component having an arcuate longitudinal outer surface for conforming with the horizontal bore surface, and having a cut-out in its front portion which provides a seal support surface to support the seal component in both a vertical and horizontal direction, (d) the seal component having an arcuate longitudinal outer surface for conforming with the horizontal bore surface, and an inner surface which generally conforms to the seal support surface of the body component, the body component and seal components combining, in an assembled form, to form a full bore ram body, which when out of sealing engagement has the front end of the seal component protruding a horizontal distance d beyond the front end of the body component, (e) connectors for connecting the seal and body components while allowing the seal component, during sealing engagement, to be pressed against the seal support surface of the body component, and (f) the seal component providing a sealing surface formed of thermoplastic material around the arcuate outer surface for sealing against the horizontal bore. Thus, as the body component is advanced forwardly into a sealing engagement causing the front end of the seal component to contact either the adjacent ram or the polish rod to seal off the vertical bore, the seal component is pressed against the seal support surface of the body component such that the thermoplastic sealing surface is compressed outwardly to seal against the horizontal bore.

Wellhead production blowout preventer

The invention provides a Y-body Christmas tree for use with coil tubing and other wellhead components which integrates components of a Christmas tree, while providing for coil tubing access without necessarily adding to the vertical height of the unit. The Y-body Christmas tree includes firstly, a body formed as a single piece of steel and forming a vertical bore extending axially therethrough, wherein the body comprises in sequence from the bottom to the top:

Y-body Christmas tree for use with coil tubing

The assembly functions to clamp onto and frictionally engage the polished rod of a well's rod string, with sufficient force to suspend the string from the wellhead. The assembly comprises an annular body forming opposed, radial, internally threaded side openings extending from its outer circumferential surface to its central vertical bore. An externally threaded locking member is positioned in each side opening and protrudes externally. The locking members can be manually threaded inwardly to engage the polished rod. An external leverage assembly is anchored to the body and engages one of the locking members. This leverage assembly can be manually turned to tighten the locking member against the polished rod with powerful axial force to provide enhanced gripping.

Assembly for locking a polished rod in a pumping wellhead

A monolithic pumping tree combining a bottom connection, production blow-out preventer section, flow tee section and top connection is cast so as to provide an access port extending downwardly through the side wall of the tree from its outer surface, to connect with either the central vertical bore of the tree or its horizontal bottom surface, thereby enabling coiled tubing to be inserted either into the tubing string bore or into the annulus between the tubing and production casing strings.

Growing community of inventors

Edmonton, Canada

Tony M Lam