Wells – Pistons – fluid driven into well
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-15
2001-01-09
Lillis, Eileen D. (Department: 3673)
Wells
Pistons, fluid driven into well
C166S070000, C166S156000, C166S250010, C166S372000, C417S056000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06170573
ABSTRACT:
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
This invention relates to an oil field assembly for gathering data about and/or producing an oil well using a self regulating, freely traveling piston located in the tubing string of a well located in a well casing which is moved solely by gravity and or the differential pressure of the fluids in a well from or to the surface of a well or from or to predetermined downhole positions or a position and for collecting of data while freely moving between the surface of the well and the down hole positions and for producing the well in its return to the surface of the well using a self regulating, traveling piston with free movement solely by gravity and or the differential pressure of the fluids of a well with instrumentation located thereon for gathering data about the well while controlling the traveling piston's speed of free movement and having a landing housing at the surface of a well and a landing receiving station at a predetermined down tubing string position and instrumentation at the landing housing for downloading the data gathered by the instrumentation on the self regulating, travelling piston when the traveling piston returns to the surface and or produces the well in the process of the return of the traveling piston to the surface.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The prior art to date has relied on two separate technologies and markets for well surveying and plunger lift production. The plunger lift production technologies used pigs or swabs for servicing wells to keep them in production. Thus in the plunger lift technologies for oil wells the industry relied upon technologies which are relatively primitive because they relied on hard and durable plungers with preset mechanical adjustments which would be set on these devices for the presumed conditions in a well before they were inserted into the well. Thus the operators of a well did not have to worry about the impact speeds and forces on the pigs or swabs when they struck the bottom of the hole because they were just hard material with no “soft” electrical instruments on board. The well surveying technologies have been developed in a different way using electronic instruments to collect the data about downhole conditions in a well. These electronic instruments had to be lowered into a well and retrieved from a well on a wire line to protect the instruments from damage and to allow the correlation of vertical position in the well relative to the data gathered. Thus to date each of these industries developed distinct technology for their markets in the oil field business but this bifurcated development lead to the limitations of the technology for use outside of their respective field of application.
Thus for example in the past, if a well operator needed oil well surveying data, such as pressures, temperatures, etc, through out the tubing string, they would call out a wire line service company and the service company would take readings on a well, using instruments mounted on a structural cable which was lowered into the well. These cables operations came in the form of slickline and or conductor line services with very large reels of cable and required significant amounts of equipment be mounted over the hole of the well to conduct this operation.
In this wire line process a large reel of wire with sufficient strength to support both the wire and the data gathering device while they are lowered into the hole and retrieved was positioned over the well at the surface. In fact it was a major operation forjust the coiling and uncoiling of the bulky structural wire line on which the data gathering device was run into the hole. Also as part of the process a grease cap was used to keep the well sealed as the cable was being moved either up or down the tubing in the process of running the wire line. The grease caps as those skilled in this art know are messy and can be difficult at their best operating conditions to use. The wire line process was a very expensive and cumbersome operation which in some cases took the well out of production while the process was being conducted. Further these wire line service processes required constant attention and thus it also took two to three people to operate such a system. The bulky reels were used because the cable rolled upon the reels had to be long enough to go to the bottom of the well and had to be large and strong enough to support the lowered device and the weight of the cable when they are lowered into the well. Also, these well surveying operations took time to set up and take down in addition to the time for acquiring the data. Further, these companies' services were very expensive because the equipment they use is very expensive and it required several skilled people to operate at the well site. Also because of the complex nature of these wire line service processes, which required constant attention, they could not be done remotely or in an automated manner from a remote site.
Also in the prior art it was well know to set a semi-permanent type data gathering device in a well, usually in a side pocket mandrel where the sensor assembly can be communicated with from time to time by lowering a line with some type of inductive device which allows downloading of the data accumulated by the sensor assembly without the need to transport the data gathering assembly to the surface except for repair or battery replacement. Once the data is downloaded to the inductive device then the device and line are then removed and the data read on the surface. The problem with this approach is that an expensive sensor assembly was left in the hole and it can not be moved from well to well on demand without a great deal of effort and the running of a tool to recover the device. Also in this semi-permanent type of prior art device if the well is not just being completed or drilled it required the pulling of the tubing string which requires a work over rig to pull the tubing and then put it back in the well with the data gathering device attached, which is a very expensive process. Further, there is still the need to run the wire line through the grease cap when it becomes time to get the data from the semi-permanent type well data gathering sensor assembly with all of the problems associated there with.
Also known in the prior art is an another semi-permanent type of data gathering device which is dropped off in the well and connected to a surface data acquisition device by a conductor line. These systems can be communicated with remotely and the data can be downloaded on a per demand basis. The problem with this prior art was that it still required the lowering of a line through a grease cap and the intrusion into the well of a wire line to communicate with the data gathering device on the bottom of the hole and the problems associated therewith. A further disadvantage of this prior art is that it required the expansive conductor line to remain on the site for the duration of the measurement period increasing significantly the cost of the operation.
Also in the prior art it was well know to set a permanent type data gathering device in a well, usually in a side pocket mandrel where the sensor are connected to a cable which is attached to the outside of the tubing. This method requires the use of a workover rig to pull out and reinsert the tubing in the well. This method permits continuous monitoring of data from the bottom of the well but is very expensive due the need from the well operator to purchase the cable and the measuring device and the high cost associated with the tubing manipulation for the installation and maintenance of the measuring device.
The most recent prior art involves data gathering devices which are inserted in the well either on wireline or on the end of the tubing string using a workover rig as described in the above previous arts but this prior art differentiates by the way it communicates its accumulated data to the surface through the use of Electro-magnetic waves. Again the main disadvantage is the costs associated with wireline and or w
Bouchard Michel J.
Brunet Charles G.
Lee Jong-Sak
Lillis Eileen D.
Parks and Associates P.C.
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