Electronic Valve Deformable Seat Staged Fracturing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing well fracturing technologies face challenges with long, horizontal wells due to high friction between the gun string and casing, making it difficult and resource-intensive to deploy fracturing tools, which slows down oil and gas extraction and increases costs.
Innovation Solution
An electronic valve with a deformable seat device is integrated into the casing, allowing for electronic actuation to connect the well bore to the formation, enabling efficient fluid communication and fracturing, and can be used in clusters to open at different times, allowing for staged fracturing and isolation of formations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a gun string is deployed to the toe of a horizontal well for fracturing, then fracturing can be performed, but the high friction between the gun string and casing makes deployment difficult and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the fracturing function from a separate deployable gun string and integrates it directly into the casing structure. Electronic valves are built into the casing at different locations, eliminating the need to deploy a separate gun string through the casing to reach the toe. This allows fracturing operations to be performed locally at each valve position without traversing the entire well length.
Solution Approach 2:
The well is divided into multiple fracturing zones with individual electronic valves integrated at different positions along the casing. Each valve can be independently actuated to fracture specific formations at different times, enabling staged fracturing operations without requiring a single long gun string deployment.
2Ease of operation
If existing valves are used to connect formation to casing, then fluid communication is achieved, but sophisticated mechanisms are required and valves cannot be used in clusters to open at different times
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces complex mechanical valve mechanisms with electronically actuated valves. Each electronic valve can be controlled independently through electronic signals, allowing simple operation via electrical commands rather than complex mechanical linkages. This enables multiple valves to be opened at different times through electronic control sequences.
Solution Approach 2:
The electronic valves are designed to be dynamically controllable, allowing each valve in the cluster to be actuated at different times based on operational requirements. The valves transition between closed and open states through electronic actuation, enabling flexible timing control for staged fracturing operations.
3Productivity
If a sleeve is moved to align ports for fluid communication, then the valve opens, but sophisticated mechanisms are required for opening and closing the ports
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces the mechanical sleeve movement and port alignment mechanism with an electronically actuated valve system. The electronic valve uses electrical signals to control the opening and closing of ports, eliminating the need for complex mechanical movement and alignment mechanisms while achieving faster actuation.
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic valve is placed in line with a casing in a well. The electronic valve includes a housing having plural ports that are blocked; a valve configured to initiate unblocking of the plural ports to allow fluid communication between the bore of the housing and an outside of the housing; and a deformable seat device having a body placed inside of the bore of the housing. The deformable seat device is configured to have a given diameter D3 for at least one of first and second ends of the body when the plural ports are blocked, and a smaller diameter when the plural ports are unblocked.