Cleaning and liquid contact with solids – Processes – Using solid work treating agents
Patent
1999-03-18
2000-10-31
Gulakowski, Randy
Cleaning and liquid contact with solids
Processes
Using solid work treating agents
137242, 137268, 15 35, 15 351, 405169, 405170, B08B 904, E21B 33068
Patent
active
061396443
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to equipment and a method designed to enable scraper devices, known as pigs, to be passed through the interior of an undersea hydrocarbons flow line.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The purpose of this invention is to provide equipment which will allow a scraper device to pass through a submarine hydrocarbon flow line. A branch located close to the wellhead or gathering line interconnects the gas injection line and the production flow lines.
This branch is designed in such a way that a scraper device placed within the gas injection line remains stationary at a particular point within the equipment. In order to insert the scraper device into the production flow line it is merely necessary to open a valve, provided in the equipment, which is controlled from a remote point. Passage of the scraper device through the interior of the production flow line will take place without interrupting the flow of injection gas.
PRIOR ART
The production from an oil well normally flows to a gathering station through pipes, which may be rigid or flexible. Frequently organic deposits accumulate on the internal walls of the piping, which causes a substantial loss of head in the piping, restricting the flow of oil and causing a fall in production.
Various techniques are used to remove these deposits. One of the best known is the use of scraper devices, known to those skilled in the art as `pigs`. In the case of offshore oil production these pigs have a fundamental role because frequently they are the only economically viable means which can be used to remove the deposits.
Normally the pigs are launched from an offshore platform into the line through which high pressure gases are injected into the wells with a view to improving production, a technique known by those skilled in the art as gas-lift. To enable the pig to pass, devices are used which provide a connection between the gas injection flow line and the production flow line, but this normally gives rise to an undesirable interruption in the gas injection flow into the annulus of the well into which it is normally injected. As a consequence there is a fall in the production from the well.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,562,014 discloses a magazine for releasing pigs into a flow line from an undersea platform or template, using gas injection line from the surface to drive the leading pig of the magazine through a clear flow valve into the production line when the clear valve has been opened and the flow of injection gas into the magazine behind a pig has been initiated from the surface. Pigs are loaded into the magazine by reverse flow down a production line from the surface, while production in that line is suspended.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide equipment and a method which makes it possible to pass the pig from the gas injection line to the production flow line with minimum interference in normal operation, without there being any need for the pig to be monitored.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to equipment and a method designed to make it possible to introduce a pig into the oil production flow line either from an offshore well or from a manifold which gathers the production from various offshore wells.
A first aspect of the invention provides equipment for launching pigs into an undersea pipe of undersea hydrocarbon flow system, comprising the following components: gas injection line and its other end is connected to a U-shaped second length of pipe which is in turn connected to a production flow line; region close to and in front of the connection between said first pipe length and the U-shaped second pipe length; and gas injection line and having means to prevent passage of a pig into them; pipe length to said second gas injection line form a section in said first pipe length, between the point of connection of said first and second branches to said first pipe length, where a pig becomes immobilized when launched into said section.
A second aspect of the invention provides
REFERENCES:
patent: 3562014 (1971-02-01), Childers
patent: 3777812 (1973-12-01), Burkhardt
patent: 4574830 (1986-03-01), Rickey et al.
patent: 5435338 (1995-07-01), Da Silva et al.
patent: 5437302 (1995-08-01), Da Silva et al.
patent: 5460227 (1995-10-01), Sidrim
patent: 5842816 (1998-12-01), Cunningham
Chaudhry Saeed
Gulakowski Randy
Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.--Petrobras
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