Abstract: Apparatus for servicing a submerged valve 4 comprises a lower vertical box 13 fixed to the valve body 3, surrounding the valve actuating rod 9 and open at its upper end, and an upper box 19 open at its lower end which contains a lifting winch 28, a screwing and unscrewing robot 32, a camera 30, 31, and pumps 27. An intermediate valve 17 is slidable in a flat body 16, and may be sealingly connected between the upper and lower boxes. In use the flat body of the intermediate valve and the upper box are lowered onto and connected to the lower box. The intermediate valve is then opened and both boxes are emptied of water and filled with nitrogen or the like. The active part of the submerged valve can then be removed and repaired or replaced in situ, or withdrawn into the upper box for inspection on the surface following closure of the intermediate valve and disconnection of the lower box from the body of the intermediate valve.

Abstract: A connector for incorporation in a production tube for an oil well, below the packer, comprises a closing flap which closes when a first retractable ball seat is displaced downwards, in order to provide a safety device during the installation of the well head, and above the flap, a second retractable ball seat which, when it is moved away axially downwards, causes the flap to open and be maintained in the open position, in order to put the well in a state of production. The balls seats are provided in the upper portions of two resiliently radially expandable sleeves and are displaced downwardly by the application of fluid pressure to the space within the production tube above their other closure of the respective seat by a ball dropped on to the seat from above.

Abstract: A hydraulic shock-absorbing jack particularly for use underwater comprises a cylinder 1 in which a piston 20 associated with an actuated rod 23 is slidable. The piston defines within the cylinder a first actuating chamber 6 provided with a first inlet 2 for actuating liquid and connected to an accumulator 7 of elastically variable volume, and a second actuating chamber 8 provided with a second inlet 3 for actuating liquid. The rod is mounted to be slidable relative to the piston such that, in the event of a shock applied to the rod which would otherwise cause an increase in the volume of the second chamber, the rod alone moves relative to the piston without affecting the volume of the second chamber. The rod is provided with an enlarged head 24 located in the first chamber and preventing its disengagement from the piston.

Abstract: A sliding-sleeve valve for an oil well comprises a valve body provided with ports for the passage of fluid therethrough, and a longitudinally slidable sleeve for opening and closing the ports. The sleeve is located on the outside of the valve body and provided internally with drive teeth which are accessible from within the valve body through an orifice in the valve body. The sleeve is moved by an engagement and drive member carried by an actuating tool which is lowered into the valve body. The engagement and drive member is housed in a bush of the tool and caused to project through an orifice in the bush and into engagement with the drive teeth of the sleeve by ramp means during longitudinal displacement of an actuating rod of the tool.

Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus enabling assessment in real time of the effectiveness of a treatment of a hydrocarbon well which is being applied by introducing fluids under pressure into an injection line. The apparatus comprises a computing unit provided with connections for connection to pressure and flow pickups mounted on the injection line at the surface, and connected to a data acquisition unit receiving data relating to the well, to the petroleum-bearing stratum and to the treatment, and a visual display unit which is controlled by the computing unit and which is adapted to display flow relative to the well bottom pressure.

Abstract: A safety installation for a well-head located on the sea bottom comprises an emergency unit mounted on the well-head below the well shut-off units and including a complete-closure shut-off device controlled by sound transmission and by an intervention liquid supplied to a lateral inflow, a re-entry structure provided with an inflow funnel and placed on the sea bottom in the region of the well-head but spaced therefrom, and a flexible pipe connecting the lateral inflow of the emergency unit to the re-entry structure for intervention liquid and being wound on a drum on the re-entry structure.

Abstract: In a process for recovering or fractionating a mixture composed mainly of butane and propane and present in a crude gas, using an external mechanical cooling loop, the mixture itself constitutes the cooling fluid in the loop and the loop comprises a compressor, a condenser, a storage tank and a heat exchanger in series.

Abstract: A hollow rotary drilling tool is equipped with a percussion device which comprises a nozzle comprising a cylindrical annular duct followed by a divergent annular duct. The divergent duct opens into flow paths, a central path and a peripheral path, through which drilling mud flows alternately in order to cause reciprocation of a percussion head located in the central path. The peripheral path joins the central path downstream of the percussion head. The external conical surface of the divergent duct is connected to the external cylindrical surface of the cylindrical duct via a radial step, which makes the flow in the peripheral path unstable, so that under normal conditions of flow the drilling mud flows along the central path. Flow along the central path is interrupted by contact of the percussion head with an abutment, which limits its movement in one direction, and which closes the central path, causing flow to switch to the peripheral path.

Abstract: A safety connection located between a vessel containing a gas under pressure and a gas discharge system comprises a pilot controlled valve which is provided with a separate control system for opening the valve, the valve having a ball-and-socket system between the actuating rod and the valve-closing flap which it carries, so that the valve can also function as a sluice so as to avoid the need to provide a second pipe connected to the vessel and provided with a sluice as is conventional.The actuating rod of the valve carries a piston, one face of which is normally subject to the pressure of fluid in the vessel via the pilot valve but is connected to a vent as soon as an overpressure occurs, to open the valve. The other face of the piston is normally connected to a vent but is subject to the pressure of a fluid from an independent source of control fluid when the separate control system is operated to open the valve.

Abstract: In a hydrocarbon production well in which the effluent is activated by an activation pump installed in a production pipe, a safety valve is disposed in the production pipe below the pump, the safety valve being operated by lowering of an operating member by a controlling device. The controlling device comprises a piston and cylinder system, and connection means connecting the piston to the operating member during the downward movement of the piston. The cylinder and piston system is provided at the level of the pump, and is advantageously constituted by the production pipe and pump respectively, so that pressurized fluid present at the level of the pump will cause downward movement of the piston.

Abstract: An automatic hydraulic connector for connecting an hydraulic pipe to apparatus comprises a female cylindrical receptacle for connection to the apparatus and a retractable hollow male cylindrical body releasably lockable by locking means to the receptacle, under the control of a cylindrical slide member biased by a spring to its locking position and driven into its unlocking position by the action of an operating fluid which acts on a movable cylindrical core which is connectable to the slide member and also in part defines the hydraulic passage extending from an inlet in the male body to an outlet in the female receptacle.

Abstract: An apparatus for inserting a shut-off device 9 laterally into a pipe via a branch 48 which is inclined at an obtuse angle to the pipe, comprises a housing 1 for connection at one end to the branch and containing a first carriage 6 which is movable relative to the housing to a forward position projecting from the housing into the pipe and includes a receptacle for the shut-off device and a guide member 8 for guiding the shut-off device out of the receptacle, a second carriage 10 which is movable relative to the first carriage and is connected to the shut-off device by an insertion jack 13, and displacement means for first moving the first carriage to its forward position, the second carriage moving with the first carriage, and for then moving the second carriage relative to the first carriage to move the shut-off device out of its receptacle further into the pipe, the insertion jack finally being operated to move the shut-off device into position in the pipe.

Abstract: An internal mandrel (22) cooperating in the operation of joining two successive lengths of tubing by welding, and it is characterized in that this mandrel comprises zones (25, 26, 27) separated longitudinally and serving respectively for matching, welding, and welding checking, and means of displacement of the mandrel (22) by a step, enabling the latter to present the said zones in succession in front of one and the same working station.

Abstract: The invention relates to the measurement of the ovalization of a ferromagnetic pipe.An electromagnetic pickup is moved in a circular path around the pipe, the pickup transmitting signals influenced by the radial distance between the pickup and the pipe. These signals are compared with signals from previous measurements made on a similar pipe to obtain indications of the radial distance between the pickup and the pipe so as to be able to deduce the transverse configuration of the pipe. The pickup is supplied with ac at a frequency of about 700 Hz and the signals from the pickup are compared with previously obtained signals both as to amplitude and phase.The pickup is mounted on a circular slide movable along a circular track supported on a U-shaped collar which is fixed to the pipe.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of and apparatus for converting an oil well with natural effluent rise to one with gas-lift of the effluent column, wherein the oil well has a nipple in the production tube provided with a stop-groove and smooth bearing surfaces between which a hydraulic control line comes out. For conversion an inner tube is lowered inside the production tube, the inner tube being provided with a locking system for locking the inner tube to the nipple, and with a safety valve assembly capable of closing both the passage inside the inner tube and the annular passage between the latter and the production tube, under the action of a control fluid supplied by the control line which opens between two seals on the inner tube and which bear against the smooth bearing surfaces when locking is effected.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a heavy-duty metal brush particularly, but not exclusively, for removing anti-corrosion materials from an immersed metal surface.The brush comprises a compact assembly of radial strands of, for example, steel wire, which are applied against each other and are clamped between two metal plates, the diameter of which is less than that of the assembly of strands by at most 20 mm.In use of such a brush for removing an anticorrosion covering, the brush may be rotated at a circumferential speed of the order of 17 meters per second and may be mounted on a carriage adapted to roll over the surface on rollers and which is displaced either automatically or manually.

Abstract: In a hydrocarbon production well in which the effluent is activated by an activation pump removably installed in a production pipe in the well, a safety valve is removably mounted in the production pipe below the activation pump. The safety valve comprises, in a lower part of the valve body, a foot valve and thereabove an obturator which is moved to its open position by an operating member which is provided with a piston slideably mounted in the valve body and separating first and second chambers. The first chamber is pressurized to open the valve, and the second chamber, which acts in opposition to the first chamber, is in communication with the bottom of the well below the foot valve, and is thus isolated from the interior of the safety valve when the foot valve is closed.

Abstract: Apparatus for use in the treatment and recovery of viscous petroleum emulsions comprises a leaktight chamber in which a reduced pressure is established, the chamber having an inlet connected to a feedpipe for sucking up emulsion. A mixer is connected on the feedpipe and a demulsifier is supplied to the mixer simultaneously with the emulsion so that the emulsion mixed with demulsifier is fed to the chamber.

Abstract: The invention relates to a connector for taking over control of a submerged tool.The connector comprises two parts, a first part mounted on the tool, and a second part mounted on a movable control appliance. The tool is provided with energy distributors and mechanical actuators are mounted on the first connector part for operating the distributors. The control appliance comprises means for controlling the distributors and mechanical control members controlled thereby are mounted on the second connector part for acting on the actuators. A purely mechanical energy transmission is advantageously provided between the two connector parts.

Abstract: In a method of tracing a well drilling mud by determining the concentration of a tracer ion in samples of filtrate from a drilling mud which contains a predetermined concentration of the tracer ion, the improvement wherein the tracer ion is the acetate ion and is present in the drilling mud in a concentration of about 1.10.sup.-3 to about 5.10.sup.-2 ions per liter.