Abb Vetco Gray Incorporated

Walter J Lacey

Stephen Paul Fenton

David Stewart Christie

Robert O Lilley

Egil E Rebne

Peter A Scott

Leslie J Adam

A subsea wellhead assembly has a tubular housing having a sidewall, an axial bore, and a housing lateral passage extending from the bore through the sidewall. A blocking sleeve fits around the housing to block the housing lateral passage while drilling through the housing. A tubing hanger is secured to a string of tubing and landed in the housing. The tubing hanger has a vertical passage which communicates with the tubing and a tubing lateral passage which extends from the vertical passage and registers with the housing lateral passage. A lower annulus port is in the sidewall of the housing below the lower seal and leads to a tubing annulus. An upper annulus port is in the sidewall of the housing above the upper seal and leads to the bore of the housing. A tree block having a central opening for receiving the housing is lowered over the housing after removal of the blocking sleeve. The tree block has a tree production passage which registers with the housing lateral passage for directing flow of production fluid from the well. A production valve is mounted to the tree block for opening and closing the tree production passage. A bypass passage in the tree block connects the upper and lower annulus ports to communicate the bore above the tubing hanger with the tubing annulus.

Horizontal tree block for subsea wellhead and completion method

A subsea wellhead connector has a stress joint which abuts the rim of a wellhead housing. A body is carried by the stress joint and extends over the wellhead housing. The body carries dogs for moving into an engaged position with a profile on the exterior of the wellhead housing. A seal locates between the rim and the downward facing shoulder of the stress joint.

Simplified wellhead connector

Growing community of inventors

Aberdeenshire, United Kingdom

Walter J Lacey