T-Frac Zone Test Tool and System
The present invention is to a tool for testing various zones in a well without having to remove the drill string containing the tool(s) from the well. Each of the individual fracture test tool has an internal passage that can be blocked by a ball bearing to close off the passage. Increased fluid pressure on the internal passage causes a valve body defining the passage to move to open windows in the tool. A collet reset tool is insertable through the passage to pull the valve body back into the run in position to close the windows without requiring the tools be raised to the surface to reset the fracture test tools.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application 61/257,878, filed Nov. 4, 2009, entitled T-Frac Zone Test Tool and System, which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to a method of testing zones in a well and a system therefor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Oil and natural gas wells are drilled deep into the earth. A central bore (“main drill hole”) is made with into the earth and stabilized with a steel pipe (“casing”) inserted into the hole to maintain the integrity of the bored hole and to separate various zones of the well found at different depths in the well. Different production zones may be operated on by drilling out sideways through openings (“windows”) created in or existing in the casing is at various depths to communicate with these zones. Over time, these zones may be tapped out, may collapse or may continue to be productive. Because of the depths involved and the inaccessibility of these production zones to workers, it may be difficult to ascertain the condition of various zones. Additionally, it may be very expensive to lower hundreds or thousands of feet of a drill string (i.e., down hole work tools) into a well to check on a particular zone, remove all of the tools and reinsert to check a different zone. Therefore, there exists a need to be able to test various fracture zones in a downhole bore without having to raise and lower the drill string out of the hole.
None of the prior inventions and patents to date, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAccordingly, it is a principal object of a preferred embodiment of the invention to provide a fracture test tool having individually addressable tools connected in a drill string.
It is another object of the invention to provide a fracture test tool that can be activated by dropping a ball bearing of a known size to activate a particular tool.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a fracture test tool that can have each of the test tools in a drill string activated in sequence.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a fracture test tool reset tool that can be reset test tools downhole without having to remove the tools to the surface.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof in an apparatus for the purposes described which is inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.
These and other objects of the present invention will be readily apparent upon review of the following detailed description of the invention and the accompanying drawings. These objects of the present invention are not exhaustive and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the claimed invention. Further, it must be understood that no one embodiment of the present invention need include all of the aforementioned objects of the present invention. Rather, a given embodiment may include one or none of the aforementioned objects. Accordingly, these objects are not to be used to limit the scope of the claims of the present invention.
Similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the attached drawings.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)The present invention is to a tool for testing various zones in a well without having to remove the drill string containing the tool(s) from the well.
As best shown in
As shown in
In practice, a drill string 20 is run in to a well to be tested with a number of packers, centralizing tools, zone test tools and terminating in a shut off valve. Fluid displaced by the tool enters the shut-off valve ports 44 and flows up the tool through the interior of the drill string. The composite tool is lowered to a desire depth. At this point, the tool is ready to be used to test one or more of the various zones.
A ball 60 (
In most circumstances, the lower most zone to be acted on will be addressed first. This allows for larger balls to be dropped later sequentially acting on higher and higher zones. To act later on a lower zone, one or more balls would have to be removed as will be explained later to allow for smaller balls to fall through to the lower zones.
If a ball falls all the way to the lowest zone test tool as shown in
With the packers set, the individual set of windows 22 within the particular zone may be opened by fluid pressure. The ports 22 may align with ports 64 in the casing or may both be contained in the 100 foot or so isolation zone created by the surrounding packers. The operator may increase the pressure to a third level such as 4000 psi to activate opening of the zone test tool port window if they are for example blocked by other means. Flow into the drill string flows through the valve bodies 30 that do not have their bores 32 blocked by a ball and thus do not have the same pressure acting on the face 34 of their valve body as the blocked valve body 30. The pressure building against the desired (“blocked”) valve body causes the valve body to slide down the zone test tool body 12 under the pressure of the fluid. The valve body may resist by friction, shear pins, other devices or a combination thereof. When the pressure on the face of the valve body exceeds the resistance of the valve body, the valve body moves to expose (“open”) the ports 22 as shown in
Once the valve body opens the ports 22, there should be a noticeable drop in the pressure in the system notifying the operator that the windows were successfully open. The particular zone can now be tested by flowing materials into the zone or by shutting off the flow and testing for flow to the surface, etc.
When testing has been completed, the process can be repeated by dropping a ball of slightly larger diameter to act upon the next higher zone test tool. Raising pressure once the next higher zone test tool valve body bore is blocked will cause flow to cease to the lower zone test tool. Instead, pressure will rise on the blocked zone valve body face 34 moving the valve body downward, opening (“uncovering”) ports 22 to expose the new zone. Since the ports in the newly unblocked zone test tool are separated from the lower zone test tool, a new zone area can be tested different from the earlier test zone. In this way, subsequent test zones can be tested.
If desired, the balls can be removed to aid in withdrawal of the tool or for other reasons. Once the packer tools are released, by releasing the flow through the tool, by lifting on the tool or by other mechanical releases or methods known to those skilled in the art, a reverse flow can be initiated. Pressurized water or other fluid can be initiated along the outside of the drill string but inside the casing. The flow will along the outside of the tool until it finds an open port (“window”) in the tool. The main portion of the flow will continue to flow outside the tool under the force of pressurized fluid and/or gravity and once enough flow has been pumped will enter all of the open windows, though not necessarily at the same rate through each open window. The flow will go through the port and upwards along the tool. The bottom shut off valve will help encourage flow to move only upwardly in the tool. The flow will dislodge any ball at or above the port and will cause the balls to flow upwardly where they can be trapped or caught at the surface. The flow may now be discontinued so that the tool may be raised, allowing displaced fluid to flow through the tool and out the windows including the bottom most window.
Alternatively, the windows may now be reset with the balls removed.
FIGS. 10 and 4-9 show a reset tool 70 for resetting the valve body 30 in situ. The reset tool 70 must be able to be inserted (“squeeze”) through a number of upper valve bodies 32 in upper zone test tools 10 before being able to act on a lower tool 10. This is accomplished by providing retractable elements of the tool 70, namely centering springs 72, guide 74 and collet tool 76. The centering springs retract (see
In operation as shown in
The collet tool will eventually exit the valve body as shown in
After passing through the valve body 30, the re-expanded fingers of the collet tool with catch on the valve body as shown in
As shown in
The tool can be further lifted to engage the next higher tool and reset the valve body of the next higher tool 10 and so on until all of the zone test tools 10 are back in place. In this way, the zone test tools are completely reset so that further action on the zones can be implemented or the tool can be left in place for other operations or reasons or for subsequent testing.
As an alternative method of operation, after a particular zone has been tested, that window may be closed according to the above method prior to opening the next higher window. Among other things, this will make pressurizing the system easier and simplify the use of packers in the system.
While this invention has been described as having a preferred design, it is understood that it is capable of further modifications, uses and/or adaptations of the invention following in general the principle of the invention and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within the known or customary practice in the art to which the invention pertains and as maybe applied to the central features hereinbefore set forth, and fall within the scope of the invention and the limits of the appended claims. It is therefore to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the sole embodiment described above, but encompasses any and all embodiments within the scope of the following claims.
Claims
1. A method of testing fracture zones in a downhole well, comprising:
- providing a zone test tool having an outer housing defining a number of windows;
- providing a valve body within said outer housing, said valve body having an internal passage to allow fluid flow through the valve body and said valve body being selectively slidable from a first position to a second position, wherein when said valve body is in a first position the valve body blocks fluid flow from inside the outer housing to an area outside the outer housing, and when said valve body is in said second position, said valve body allows fluid flow from inside the outer housing to an area outside the outer housing;
- lowering said a plurality of zone test tools on a drill string in a well bore;
- lowering at least one ball bearing within the drill string to a seat on the valve body of a first of said plurality of zone test tools to seal the internal passage of the first zone test tool;
- raising the fluid pressure above said first zone test tool whereby fluid pressure acts upon said first zone test tool valve body to cause the valve body to slide from the first valve body position to the second valve body position to open a window of the first zone test tool; using a zone test tool reset tool to reset the zone test tool without substantially raising said zone test tool toward the surface.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 4, 2010
Publication Date: Aug 4, 2011
Inventors: Donald W. Tinker (Rapid City, MI), Michael T. Sommers (Beggs, OK)
Application Number: 12/939,334
International Classification: E21B 34/10 (20060101);