Landing Packer Valve for Wireline Cement Plugging in Well Annuli
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing permanent well barrier operations in petroleum wells are costly and inefficient, requiring extensive use of drilling rigs and workover rigs, and face challenges in ensuring long-term integrity, impermeability, and effective bonding to steel due to corrosion and debris, especially in deviating wellbores.
Innovation Solution
A wireline-operated tool system is used to inject cement and other plugging materials directly into the well's annuli and tubing, utilizing a landing packer with a valve and dump bailer to form a homogeneous cement column, ensuring clean injection and pressure-assisted pumping to avoid mixing with well fluids, and using vibration or dimpling to enhance bonding.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If drilling rigs or workover rigs are used for permanent well barrier operations, then the barrier can be established with sufficient integrity, but the operation becomes costly and inefficient with extensive equipment use
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical drilling rig system with a wireline-deployed injection tool system. The injection tool delivers cement slurry through the production tubing using a pump, eliminating the need for drilling rigs while maintaining barrier integrity through controlled cement placement and vibration-assisted bonding.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses hydraulic pumping to deliver cement slurry through the production tubing. The pump system pressurizes the cement slurry and injects it into the annulus, providing a controlled and efficient alternative to mechanical drilling operations while ensuring proper cement placement for barrier integrity.
2Ease of manufacture
If cement is injected into deviating wellbores without vibration assistance, then the injection process is simple, but bonding quality deteriorates due to cement settling
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates a vibration device that acts on the production tubing during cement injection. The vibration prevents cement slurry from settling against the wellbore wall in deviating sections, ensuring uniform distribution and high-quality bonding while maintaining relatively simple injection procedures.
3Ease of manufacture
If production tubing is removed before cement injection, then cement can be placed directly in the annulus, but the operation becomes more complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent prepares the production tubing in advance by ensuring it is clean and free of obstructions before cement injection. The tubing serves as the delivery conduit for cement slurry, eliminating the need for removal. This preliminary preparation allows direct injection through the existing tubing, reducing operation time and complexity.
4Productivity
If cement slurry mixes with well fluids during injection, then the injection process is continuous, but the cement purity deteriorates affecting barrier quality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a displacer or wiper plug as an intermediary element between the cement slurry and well fluids. This displacer separates the two fluids during injection, preventing mixing while maintaining continuous injection flow. The cement slurry is delivered through the production tubing, and the displacer ensures clean separation at the injection point, preserving cement purity for high-quality barrier formation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method reduces the need for temporary abandonment operations, minimizes equipment use, and ensures high-quality, long-term integrity and bonding of the cement plug, allowing for efficient and cost-effective permanent well abandonment without the need for large rigs.
Implementation Method 1
A pump in the tool is adapted to pump the fluid plugging material from the tool located in the production tubing through the valve and into the annulus
Implementation Method 2
It is also described to increase the pressure in the well fluid surrounding the tool to assist the tool-string pump in pumping out the fluid plugging material through the valve
Implementation Method 3
The valve body is adapted to be displaced from the first position to the second position by a downward force executed by the tool
Data Source
AI summary
A valve for a landing packer in a petroleum well. The landing packer is provided with a passage between an upper face and a lower face, and the valve is adapted to close the passage. The valve comprises a biased valve body adapted to be displaced between a first position and a second position. The valve body is adapted to receive a tool from above. The valve body is adapted to be displaced from a first position to a second position by a downward force executed by the tool. It is also described a tool comprising a leading end adapted to abut fluid tightly the biased valve body and the tool is adapted to displace the biased valve body between the first closed position and the second open position. It is also described a method for plugging the A-annulus in a petroleum well.