Retrievable Landing Base for Repeated Perforating Gun Positioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current perforating technologies face challenges in securely positioning and repeatedly returning a perforating gun to the same location for multiple firings in wells without the use of a surface rig, especially in tight reservoir formations with high compressive strength, and struggle to maintain accuracy when changing perforation depths or intervals.
Innovation Solution
The use of a landing base assembly with a through-tubing retrievable bridge plug and a perforating gun assembly featuring a guide member and rotating head, which allows for secure mating and rotational alignment with a receiving member, enabling precise and repeated deep penetrations without a surface rig, and facilitates the withdrawal and reloading of the gun for successive firings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a latch coupling is secured to the end of production tubing to serve as a gun anchoring point, then the assembly can be deployed downhole without a surface rig, but accuracy at new depths is jeopardized when the perforation plan changes to a lower depth or further into a lateral/horizontal wellbore
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a bridge plug as an intermediary device that is set in the wellbore to provide a stable reference point for the gun anchoring system. The bridge plug acts as a mediator between the production tubing and the formation, creating a fixed reference point that maintains accuracy even when perforation depths change. This resolves the contradiction by providing both the ease of deployment without a surface rig and the precision needed for accurate perforations at varying depths.
2Length of moving object
If the same location is used for multiple perforating gun firings to extend penetration depth, then deeper penetrations are achieved, but the complexity of positioning and returning the gun to the same location increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-setting the bridge plug in the wellbore before deploying the perforating gun. The bridge plug creates a predetermined reference point that simplifies subsequent gun positioning. This preliminary setup eliminates the need for complex real-time positioning systems during multiple firings, as the gun simply needs to return to the pre-established reference point achieved through the guide member and rotating head mechanism.
3Productivity
If high-performance deep-penetrating shaped charges are used to create large diameter perforations, then hydraulic fracturing efficiency is improved, but formation damage caused by explosive forces increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by using multiple separate perforating gun firings instead of a single high-power charge. The bridge plug with guide member enables the gun to be precisely repositioned for multiple sequential shots. This segments the penetration process into multiple controlled stages, each creating perforations that collectively achieve the desired deep penetration and large effective diameter while distributing the explosive forces to minimize formation damage compared to a single high-intensity charge.
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 solution ensures accurate and repeated deep penetrations with larger diameters, bypassing near-wellbore damage and allowing for multiple reservoir penetrations across multiple casings, improving hydraulic fracturing efficiency and reducing operational costs by eliminating the need for a surface rig.
Implementation Method 1
detonating high-performance deep-penetrating shaped charges that maximize perforation length and entry hole size
Implementation Method 2
detonating high-performance deep-penetrating shaped charges
Implementation Method 3
The guide member is dimensioned and configured to rotate within the receiving member to enable angular alignment and secure mating
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus are provided for conducting multiple successive same-location firings of a number of shaped charges carried by a perforating gun that is lowered into the wellbore and precisely positioned by engagement with a landing base assembly that includes a through-tubing retrievable bridge plug to which is secured a receiving member that matingly engages a perforating gun assembly that includes a mating guide member secured to the downhole end of the perforating gun and a rotating head member attached to the opposite upper end of the gun, the rotating head member configured for attachment to the downhole end of a length of coiled tubing for lowering the gun assembly and permitting its axial rotation and downward vertical movement into a final secure, but releasably engaged position with the fixed landing base assembly. The landing base assembly can be recovered via the production tubing using a wire line or coiled tubing following the multiple reservoir penetration firings by retraction of the locking anus of the bridge plug to their original collapsed position.