Abstract: A submersible electric motor has feature to enhance thermal conductivity from the motor interior to the exterior. The motor has a cylindrical housing and a stator rigidly mounted within housing. A rotatable rotor is located within the stator. A gap formed between the stator's outer diameter and the inner wall of the housing is filled with a high thermal conductivity material to improve heat transfer from the motor. The remaining portion of the housing may be filled with a dielectric lubricant that has lesser thermal conductivity than the high thermal conductivity material.

Abstract: An electrical submersible pump that regulates pump flow rate based on sensor measurements of the fluid is disclosed. The sensor measures a property of the fluid being processed. The sensor may be located at the intake, discharge or other area of the pump. The sensor measures the relative proportion of gas in the pumped liquid. The pump flow rate is adjusted to maintain a desired level for the gas in a production environment. The pump may be used to operate and control a seabed gas-liquid separation and centrifugal pump system.

Abstract: An electrical submersible pump assembly has first and second modular component sections, each of the sections having an outer housing and an inner shaft member. A coupling sleeve having a bore is disposed between the modular component sections and receives the shaft member of each of the component sections. The bore of the coupling sleeve and the shaft members have mating drive shoulders for transmitting torque. An axial tension transmitting shoulder is affixed to the shaft member of the first modular component section and located in the bore of the coupling sleeve. A latch member carried by the shaft member of the second modular component section engages the axial tension transmitting shoulder as the modular components are moved together to secure the shaft members to one another for transferring axial tension from one of the shaft members to the other. A retainer prevents disengagement of the latch member.

Abstract: An electrical submersible pump assembly has first and second modular component sections, each of the sections having an outer housing and an inner shaft member. A coupling sleeve having a bore is disposed between the modular component sections and receives the shaft member of each of the component sections. The bore of the coupling sleeve and the shaft members having mating radial load transmitting shoulders for transmitting torque. An axial load transmitting shoulder is affixed to the shaft member of the first modular component section and located in the bore of the coupling sleeve. A locking element is carried by the shaft member of the second modular section and engages the axial load transmitting shoulder to secure the shaft members to one another for transferring axial tension from one of the shaft members to the other.

Abstract: A submersible pump assembly has a release adapter on a string of coiled tubing. Power cables and a hydraulic capillary tube extend through the coiled tubing to the release adapter where each terminates at a coupling. The release adapter has a locking mechanism that is located in a chamber adjacent to a fishing neck at the upper end of the pump. The locking mechanism has a collet that is latched to the fishing neck. A piston captures the collet against the neck, and is restrained from movement by shear pins. The locking mechanism is actuated from the surface by pumping hydraulic fluid down through the capillary tube to the chamber to stroke the piston downward and shear the pins. When the piston moves, the lower end of the collet releases the fishing neck and is free to be retracted axially upward into the wellbore toward the surface. As the coiled tubing lifts the release adapter away from the fishing neck, tension develops in the wires and tubing until those components detach from their respective couplings.

Abstract: An electrical submersible pump assembly has first and second modular component sections, each of the sections having an outer housing and an inner shaft member. A coupling sleeve having a bore is disposed between the modular component sections and receives the shaft member of each of the component sections. The bore of the coupling sleeve and the shaft members having mating radial load transmitting shoulders for transmitting torque. An axial load transmitting shoulder is affixed to the shaft member of the first modular component section and located in the bore of the coupling sleeve. A locking element is carried by the shaft member of the second modular section and engages the axial load transmitting shoulder to secure the shaft members to one another for transferring axial tension from one of the shaft members to the other.

Abstract: A submersible-pump assembly has an electric motor and pump adapted to be lowered into a string of production tubing. A permanently-deployed power cable is located in the annulus located between an outer surface of the production tubing and an inner surface of a string of casing. A set of wet-mateable power connectors provide electricity to the motor through hydraulically-actuated pins carried in hydraulic cylinders mounted to the outer surface of the production tubing. The power cable is connected to each pin for carrying electricity from the surface of the well to the pins. The pins are moved inward toward the motor to engage receptacles located in the outer surface of the motor. Alternatively, the power connectors may be a receptacle that receives a stab mounted to the tubing.

Abstract: A method for installing a submersible pump assembly that allows deployment in a live well under pressure. In some of the embodiments, a pressure barrier is installed in the well lower than a length of the submersible pump assembly. The submersible pump assembly is lowered on a line into the chamber, then a lubricator at the surface seals around the line by allowing the pressure barrier to be released and the submersible pump assembly to be lowered into the well to a desired depth. Preferably, there is a lower pressure barrier in the well. The upper pressure barrier may be a packer that may be collapsed and retrieved alongside the submersible pump assembly. The pressure barrier also may be a packer that is temporarily set in the well, then engaged by the submersible pump assembly, with the pump assembly and packer then being lowered as a unit to a further depth in the well.

Abstract: This invention provides oilfield spooled coiled tubing production and completion strings assembled at the surface to include sensors and one or more controlled devices which can be tested from a remote location. The devices may have upsets in the coiled tubing. The strings preferably include conductors and hydraulic lines in the coiled tubing. The conductors provide power and data communication between the sensors, devices and surface instrumentation. The coiled tubing strings are preferably tested at the assembly site and transported to the well site one reels. The coiled tubing strings are inserted and retrieved from the wellbores utilizing an adjustable opening injector head system. This invention also provides method of making electro-coiled-tubing wherein upper and lower adapters are connected to the coiled tubing and tested prior to transporting the string to the wellbore. The string preferably includes pressure barriers at both ends of the string.

Abstract: An electrical line for installation in a well for transmitting power to a well pump includes a string of coiled tubing. An electrical cable having insulated electrical conductors embedded within an elastomeric jacket extends longitudinally through the interior passage of the tubing. Retainers are mounted to the electrical cable and spaced longitudinally apart from each other. An indentation is integrally formed in the tubing adjacent each of the retainers. Each indentation protrudes into the interior passage of the tubing and creates a ledge which is contacted by one of the retainers when the electrical line is installed in the well. The indentations and retainers transfer weight of the electrical cable to the tubing. Weld material is filled into the depression on the surface created by each indentation.

Abstract: A bearing configuration for use in electrical submersible pumps having improved stability. The bearing configurations include multi-lobed bearings, such as lemon bore, tri-lobe bearings, pocket bearings and tilting pad type bearings.

Abstract: An inducer pump located internally in an electrical submersible pump motor enhances lubricant circulation within the motor. The inducer is located at the lower end of the shaft within a shaft bore. The inducer has a rod and a helical flight rigidly mounted to the rod. The inducer rotates in unison with the motor, pumping lubricant from a lower lubricant chamber upward through the shaft bore.

Abstract: An electrical line for a well pump has elastomeric supports clamped to the exterior of electrical cable for supporting the cable within coiled tubing. The cable supports have an elastomeric member that swells when contacted with a hydrocarbon liquid. Each expansion member is clamped to the cable exterior by retainers located at the ends. The expansion members are spaced apart longitudinally along the cable, and then the cable is inserted into the coiled tubing. Hydrocarbon liquid is pumped through the coiled tubing to cause the expansion members to swell into frictional engagement with the coiled tubing. The retainers direct the swelling laterally into tight contact with the coiled tubing.

Abstract: An electro-mechanical cable for use in cable deployed pumping systems includes a containment layer surrounding a cable core and constructed to restrain outward radial expansion of the core while permitting longitudinal expansion.

Abstract: Apparatus for deploying and energizing pumping apparatus including a submergible electric motor comprises a cable socket assembly and a cable connecting-and-sealing chamber assembly. The cable socket assembly has a housing that is connected at a lower end to an upper end of a housing of the cable connecting-and-sealing chamber assembly, the lower end of which is connected to a housing of the motor. The upper end of the housing of the cable socket assembly has an attachment portion provided with a breakaway connection to a weight-bearing cable. An electrical cable extends through the housing of the cable socket assembly to the housing of the cable connecting-and-sealing chamber assembly, which is divided by the body of a penetrator into upper and lower chambers. Sets of conductors in the chambers are connected, respectively, to the electrical cable and to the motor, and are interconnected with each other via feed-through elements (mandrels) associated with the body.

Abstract: Electric power is supplied to downhole equipment, such as a submergible pump, by a power cable that is joined to a support cable by a cable carrier as the carrier and cables are fed into a well. The carrier comprises laterally displaced resilient clamping sections that are clamped about respective cables to form a continuous assembly, and the assembly is fed into the well as the equipment is installed.

Abstract: A cable suspended pumping system has a conventional subsurface safety valve, close to the surface, controlled by a conventional safety valve operating line. The safety valve is located in a tube that provides a flow passage through a packer. The cable is divided into an upper section above the packer and a lower section below the packer. The tube is suspended from the upper section of the cable, and the lower section of the cable is suspended from the tube. A submergible pumping unit is suspended from the lower section of the cable. The pumping unit includes an electrically driven pump having a discharge head that cooperates with a seating shoe for supporting the pump and for dividing the well into an intake zone and a discharge zone. Opposite ends of the tube are perforated so that production fluid may pass through the packer via the tube. Electric current carrying portions of the cable sections above and below the packer are joined by a cable packer penetrator extending through the packer.

Abstract: A pump discharge assembly for a submergible pump installation, for use in an oil well and the like, has inlet ports for receiving liquid from a pump discharge, which ports are regulated by a back-pressure compensating valve. The valve obturates the ports upon start-up of the pump and prevents liquid being pumped unless or until the pump discharge pressure has attained a suitable level. The arrangement prevents excessive flow rate on start-up of the pump if the back-pressure is too low.