Equipment to reduce torque on a drill string

Details Equipment to reduce torque on a drill string Equipment to reduce torque on a drill string

1996-04-10

1998-01-27

Neuder, William P.

Boring or penetrating the earth

With tool shaft detail

Shaft carried guide or protector

384508, E21B 1710

Patent

active

057113866

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to equipment for reducing torque on a drill string during a drilling operation, and is particularly concerned with a drill string torque-reducing sub-assembly.
During drilling operations a drill bit is attached to the bottom end region of a drill string, and the drill bit is caused to rotate by rotation of the drill string which, in turn, is rotated by appropriate means on the drilling rig. The drill string hangs from the rig and is in tension but, in order to apply the necessary weight to the drill bit in order to cause it to bite into the earth, there is usually provided, just above the drill bit, a so-called bottom hole assembly which applies weight to the drill bit and is, in effect, a number of weighted drill collars.
The drill string is made up of numerous drill pipes each of which might be about thirty foot in length, the pipes being joined end-to-end. Usually the pipes are slightly enlarged in their end regions to provide for connection components to enable one end region of a drill pipe to be connected to the adjacent end region of the adjacent drill pipe.
The drill pipes are hollow and thus provide a continuous channel of communication between the drill rig and the bore, down through which a suitable drilling fluid can be introduced to the region around the drill bit.
There is an increasing move in industry to employ so-called extended reach drilling (ERD) which can mean that the drill bit can be at a position three miles laterally displaced from the foot of the rig, and there is also nowadays the use of so-called horizontal drilling wherein the bit is caused to follow an arcuate route and then drill a horizontal bore, which is a technique used to complete wells once the bits are in the reservoir. There is a particular problem associated with the transmission of power from the rig to the bit, in both extended reach drilling and in horizontal drilling. The problem is associated with rotating the string, because of the enlarged connecting end portions of the drill pipes and the associated frictional losses against the edge of the bore.
Often the bore is lined with a casing and, to protect the drill string from abrasion against the side wall of the bore or the casing, there can be employed a so-called casing or drill pipe protector. The purpose of the drill pipe protector is to keep the pipe from the casing or from the bore hole, as the case may be. There have been attempts to make protectors which are non-rotating, i.e. they may remain in fixed contact with the casing or side wall of the bore and not rotate with respect thereto, which of necessity means that the drill string must rotate with respect to the protector.
However, the prior art arrangements currently available tend to suffer from various short comings.
According to the present invention, there is provided a drill string torque-reducing sub-assembly comprising: adjacent first and second drill pipes in the drill string; and external diameter intended to be larger than that of any connection component of the first or second drill pipe, and the sleeve being prevented by means mounted internally of the sleeve from longitudinal displacement relative to the mandrel.
Preferably the mandrel has first and second opposing ends, with the first end having a male connection component capable of being connected to a female connection component of a first drill pipe, and with the second end having a female connection component capable of being connected to a male connection component of a second drill pipe.
To assist in the relatively free rotation between the sleeve and the mandrel, the sub-assembly preferably comprises two spaced-apart ball races, each of which serves various important functions indicated in more detail below.
Depending on the particular operating conditions anticipated, more than one of the sub-assemblies according to the present invention could be, and is likely to be, required over the total length of the drill string; in fact, as with the drill pipe protectors, the sub-assemblies could be used in multiples.

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