Abstract: A connector for connecting two tubular members has a pin and a box, the box having a bore that receives the pin in stabbing engagement. The bore having a grooved profile, and a split lock ring mounted to the pin, the lock ring snapping into engagement with the grooved profile in the box when the box and pin are stabbed together to lock the tubular members together. An annular wedge shoulder is located on the pin axially spaced apart and facing a rim on the box. The wedge shoulder and rim are inclined relative to each other, resulting in a closer axial distance between them at outer diameters of the pin and box than farther inward. An annular recess is located on the pin at an inner portion of the wedge shoulder, the recess having an inner wall facing outwardly.

Abstract: A ball valve assembly has a lower support, an upper seat, a spherical ball, and linkages for rotating the ball. The lower support has a spherical support surface for the ball. The lower support also has a pair of guides for maintaining alignment of the ball and seat to prevent contact with the linkages. The upper seat has a skirt with a spherical inner surface having grooves for contacting the ball. The skirt and grooves seal and ensure alignment of the ball. The grooves also assist in the retention of lubricant to reduce friction. An optional insert is located in the skirt for low pressure sealing from below and above. Finally, the skirt has a pair of openings to provide relief for the operating links, and flat structures against which the guides of the lower support may restrain rotation of the upper support.

Abstract: A stacking arrangement for wellhead tubular members wherein the adjoining ends of the tubular members are specially shaped to prevent or limit outward radial deflection and the damage associated therewith. A casing hanger is provided with an upper longitudinal end having an inwardly sloped inner bearing surface and an inwardly sloped outer bearing surface. An outwardly sloped engagement surface adjoins the two bearing surfaces and is designed to be captured radially within a complimentary shaped surface on a running tool or other engaging member landed atop the casing hanger. A grooved section is provided to assist removal of trash from the upper end of the casing hanger.

Abstract: A stress joint for a subsea riser has a reduced diameter intermediate section to reduce bending stresses on the connection between the stress joint and the riser as well as the subsea equipment. The stress joint having a riser joint with a threaded upper end for connection to a riser string. Attached to a lower end of the riser joint is an upper transition section that tapers from the diameter of the riser joint to a reduced diameter. An intermediate section below the upper transition section has a reduced outer diameter. A lower transition section connects the lower end of the intermediate section to the subsea equipment. The lower transition section is tapered from a reduced diameter to a larger diameter to ensure a firm connection with the subsea equipment.

Abstract: A drill cuttings injection system injects cuttings from drilling a well into a wellhead assembly. The wellhead assembly has a tubular housing mounted to an upper end of a well and a casing hanger concentrically located in the housing, defining an annular clearance. A port extends through the housing for injecting a stream of drill cuttings into the annular clearance. A sleeve is mounted in the port. The sleeve has a cylindrical sidewall and an inner end containing a deflection plate. The sleeve has an aperture in the sidewall adjacent the deflection plate for discharging the stream after the stream contacts the deflection plate. The deflection plate protects the casing hanger from erosive contact with the stream.

Abstract: A drill bit guide is mounted in a wellhead in place of a wear bushing. The bit guide is capable of guiding strings and tools through the wellhead without damage to the wellhead or string while drilling. In one version of the bit guide, a pair of linear actuators radially extend and retract separate halves of the bit guide to conform to the size of the object located between them. In another version of the bit guide, a set of interlocking arms and wear bars are articulated to form a circular opening having a variable inner diameter. A drill string may be lowered through a fully open bit guide or landed on top of a fully closed bit guide. The bit guide also can be moved to more closely receive the drill string passing through it to prevent damage to the drill string and the wellhead.

Abstract: A wellhead load ring constructed in the shape of a C-ring is pre-installed in a wellhead in a storage position that maintains full bore of the wellhead. The load ring is secured in this position by shear pins. The shear pins are sheared by a tool that pushes the load ring into an operational position where it rests on a landing shoulder of a support ring. The load ring is further secured in this position by one of several latching methods.

Abstract: A landing adapter is used to softly land a tubing hanger in the bore of a production tree. The landing adapter makes initial contact so that the tubing hanger does not have to absorb the harsh impact. The landing adapter has a hydraulic sleeve that strokes axially relative to the tubing hanger. Initially, the sleeve is extended and locked when it is run into the well so that the landing adapter can be hard-landed in the bore. When the sleeve lands in the bore, the impact is absorbed by a landing adapter buffer, not by the tubing hanger. After the hanger with the landing adapter has landed in the bore, hydraulic fluid is bled off so that the tubing hanger gradually descends axially relative to the sleeve and the tree to the retracted position. The landing adapter buffer remains in the tree after the tubing hanger is landed in the bore.

Abstract: A subsea wellhead assembly has the capabilities of communicating from the outer surface of an outer wellhead housing to a casing annulus. Seals between the outer and inner wellhead housings define an annular chamber when the inner wellhead housing lands. The outer wellhead housing has a communication port formed through one of its sidewalls. The inner wellhead housing has a passageway extending from the annular chamber to the bore of the inner wellhead housing. The casing annulus located radially inward of the inner wellhead housing is in communication with the outer surface of the outer wellhead housing through the passageway, the annular chamber between the seals, and the communication port.

Abstract: A tieback connector includes a passive lower locking system and an active upper locking system to exert a positive locking force on the connection between a production riser and a high pressure wellhead. The tieback connector is composed of an outer housing which carries lower locking dogs, upper locking dogs and a piston. The piston is located above the lower end of the production riser and controls the movement of the outer housing. As the piston is stroked the outer housing cams the lower dogs into grooved profile in the wellhead housing. As the piston is stroked further the upper dogs exert a force onto the production riser that locks the riser to the wellhead housing.

Abstract: A connection between a riser and a receptacle of a floating platform may be preloaded to reduce fatigue. The platform has a receptacle with upper and lower grooved profiles. A hanger is connected to the upper end of the riser. The hanger has a latch that engages the lower grooved profile in the receptacle to resist downward pull of the riser. A tieback connection inserts from above into the receptacle. The tieback connection has an outer member that lands on the hanger. The outer member has a latch that engages the upper grooved profile. The tieback connection also has an inner member with a set of internal threads. Threads on the inner member engage threads on the latch, rotating the inner member relative to the outer member exerts an outward force on the tieback connection latch. As the latch is pushed into the tieback grooved profile, a downward preload force is created, which passes to the hanger latch.

Abstract: A device and method are provided for storing pipeline pigs and launching the pigs into a subsea production pipeline. The device is installed in line with a pipeline and includes a frame, a magazine containing several rotatable trays for storing and sequentially launching the pigs, and a connector for directing the pigs into a pipeline. Each magazine tray holds several pigs and rotates to align the pigs with a launching tube. The pigs travel through the launch tube and connector and into the pipeline.

Abstract: A rotatable head assembly wherein there is an outer housing that carries a cartridge assembly that permits rotational movement. The cartridge assembly made up of a cartridge housing and cartridge body that is rotatable within the cartridge housing. Static seals are used to provide fluid seals between the radially outer surface of the cartridge housing and the outer housing. Fluid passages within the cartridge housing carry lubricating fluid from the static seals to dynamic seals that allow the cartridge body to rotate easily within the cartridge housing. Fluid passages are also provided within the cartridge housing for carrying spent fluid out through the cartridge housing. There may be multiple fluid inlets and outlets within the cartridge housing without requiring a multiplicity of stepped increases in the diameter of the cartridge housing and the outer housing.

Abstract: A running tool for a wellhead has an outer sleeve, a piston, an inner sleeve, each with respective hydraulic chambers, and a pair of collets for engaging a tubing hanger in a wellhead. Pressure is applied to the various chambers to actuate the collets and engage and/or release the tubing hanger. This process is gradual so that the tubing hanger is landed softly in a production bore of a tree or wellhead. The piston is forced downward to actuate a lower sleeve and move locking dogs into a bore profile to secure the tubing hanger. This process is reversed to release the collets and detach the running tool from the tubing hanger. The running tool is then brought back to the surface without the tubing hanger, which remains landed in the bore.

Abstract: A casing hanger lands on a load shoulder in a wellhead to seal and support a string of casing. The casing hanger has a lower ring for landing on the load shoulder, the lower ring having an upward facing surface. A plurality of circumferentially spaced recesses are in the upward facing surface of the lower ring, each of the recesses having a base. A seal is located on the lower ring and has a plurality of holes that register with the recesses in the upward facing surface of the lower ring. A slip assembly bowl has a wedging surface that carries a plurality of slip members. The slip members grip the casing and cause the bowl to transmit downward forces from the casing to the seal to axially compress and energize the seal. Fasteners extend from the lower ring through apertures provided in the seal into threaded apertures provided in a downward facing surface of the bowl to secure the lower ring to the slip assembly but allow relative axial movement between the bowl and the lower ring.

Abstract: An offshore riser includes a plurality of tubular elements, each having a pin member on one end and a box member on the other end for connection with adjacent tubular elements. The pin member has an external thread which engages an internal thread on the box member of the adjacent tubular element. A dual angle torque shoulder locks the box end securely into place against the pin, preventing radial distention of the box end and maintaining bearing pressure between the external sealing surfaces. Also, stress relief grooves are located on the box member and on the pin member, to reduce the incidence of stress fractures, thereby improving the fatigue life of the connection.

Abstract: A tubing hanger and wellhead have features for controlling and monitoring fluid pressure to downhole equipment. The tubing hanger has an internal vertical passage. A hydraulic line connects to the lower end of the vertical passage and runs downhole. The vertical passage communicates with a lateral passage through the outer wall of the hanger. A lateral passage through the wellhead housing is generally aligned with the lateral passage of the hanger when the hanger is installed in the wellhead housing. A pressure shaft is installed in the wellhead passage and has a passage therethrough. A seal member having spherical ends is inserted between spherical receptacles located on the inner end of the pressure shaft passage and on the outer end of the lateral passage of the hanger. The seal member has an internal passage having a flared inner end. The seal member is allowed to rotate to sealingly connect the lateral passages if some misalignment of the lateral passages exists.

Abstract: A drill bit guide is mounted in a wellhead in place of a wear bushing. The bit guide is capable of guiding strings and tools through the wellhead without damage to the wellhead or string while drilling. In one version of the bit guide, a pair of linear actuators radially extend and retract separate halves of the bit guide to conform to the size of the object located between them. In another version of the bit guide, a set of interlocking arms and wear bars are articulated to form a circular opening having a variable inner diameter. A drill string may be lowered through a fully open bit guide or landed on top of a fully closed bit guide. The bit guide also can be moved to more closely receive the drill string passing through it to prevent damage to the drill string and the wellhead.

Abstract: A subsea well apparatus has features for controlling and monitoring production fluid flow from a well. A Christmas tree lands on a subsea wellhead, the tree having a tubular, open upper end. A first flow passage extends from a lower end of the tree to the upper end for communicating fluid with the well. A second flow passage extends downward from the upper end of the tree and has an outlet on a sidewall of the tree for communicating with a flowline. A production module lands on and is retrievable from the upper end of the tree, the module having a flow loop with one end in communication with the first flow passage and another end in communication with the second flow passage. At least one flow interface device is located in the loop of the production module. The flow interface device may be used to monitor or control the flow and may be a temperature or pressure sensor, a flow or multi-phase flow meter, or a choke.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for controlling hydrostatic pressure in drilling fluid in a subsea well. A main pump forces drilling fluid down the drill pipe, out of the end of the drill pipe, and upward in an annulus surrounding the pipe. A rotating drilling head is attached to a wellhead assembly at the sea floor. The drilling head has an inner body rotatably carried in an outer body landed in a bore of a housing. An energizable gripper in a bore of the inner body grips an outer surface of the drill pipe. The drilling head diverts the drilling fluid into a lateral passage in the sidewall of the housing. An auxiliary pump forces seawater through a venturi into a conduit, creating a lower pressure to draw drilling fluid into the conduit to be carried back to the surface vessel. Pressure and flow rate measurements are sent to a control system that modulates the speed of each pump to control hydrostatic pressure.