Pump-through standing valves, wells including the pump-through standing valves, and methods of deploying a downhole device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11286748-B2
Application number	US-201715723739-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 3, 2017
Priority date	Nov 15, 2016
Publication date	Mar 29, 2022
Grant date	Mar 29, 2022

Abstract

Pump-through standing valves, wells including the pump-through standing valves, and methods of utilizing a pump-through standing valve to deploy a downhole device are disclosed herein. The pump-through standing valves include a valve body, a standing valve at least partially formed within the valve body, and a flow-through valve at least partially formed within the valve body. The standing valve includes a standing valve fluid conduit and a standing valve flow control device. The flow-through valve includes a flow-through valve fluid conduit and a flow-through valve flow control device. The wells include a wellbore, which extends within a subterranean formation, a wellbore tubular, which extends within the wellbore, and the pump-through standing valve, which is operatively attached to the wellbore tubular.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A pump-through standing valve configured to be operatively attached to a wellbore tubular, which defines a tubular conduit and extends within a wellbore that extends within a subterranean formation, the pump-through standing valve comprising:
a single valve body including a wellbore-exposed region and a tubular conduit-exposed region, wherein the valve body is configured to interface with a single fluid passage at each of the wellbore-exposed region and the tubular conduit-exposed region;
a standing valve at least partially formed within the valve body, the standing valve comprising:
(i) a standing valve fluid conduit extending longitudinally through the valve body along a central axis and between the wellbore-exposed region of the valve body and the tubular conduit-exposed region of the valve body; and
(ii) a standing valve flow control device configured move axially along the valve body to permit a fluid inflow, via the standing valve fluid conduit, from the wellbore into the tubular conduit and also to resist a fluid outflow, via the standing valve fluid conduit, from the tubular conduit into the subterranean formation; and

a flow-through valve at least partially formed within the valve body, the flow-through valve comprising:
(i) a flow-through valve fluid conduit fluidly extending between the wellbore-exposed region of the valve body and the tubular conduit-exposed region of the valve body; and
(ii) a flow-through valve flow control device configured to rotate about the central axis with respect to a portion of the valve body to selectively permit the fluid outflow from the tubular conduit exposed region to the wellbore exposed region via the flow-through valve fluid conduit when an outflow pressure differential across the flow-through valve flow control device is at least a threshold outflow pressure differential,

wherein the outflow pressure differential is a pressure differential in which a pressure exerted on the tubular conduit-exposed region of the valve body exceeds a pressure exerted on the wellbore-exposed region of the valve body,
wherein the flow-through valve flow control device is configured to rotate about the central axis with respect to the portion of the valve body to selectively restrict the fluid outflow to the wellbore-exposed region when the outflow pressure differential is less than the threshold outflow pressure differential, and
wherein the pump-through standing valve is configured to provide fluid flow in a single direction between the wellbore-exposed region and the tubular conduit-exposed region through one of the flow-through valve and the standing valve based on the pressure differential between the wellbore-exposed region and the tubular conduit-exposed region.

2. The pump-through standing valve of claim 1 , wherein the standing valve includes a standing valve biasing mechanism configured to bias the standing valve to a standing valve closed position and to permit the standing valve to transition to a standing valve open position when an inflow pressure differential is at least a threshold inflow pressure differential, wherein, when in the standing valve closed position, the standing valve flow control device restricts fluid flow through the standing valve fluid conduit, wherein, when in the standing valve open position, the standing valve permits the fluid inflow, and further wherein the inflow pressure differential is a pressure differential in which the pressure exerted on the wellbore-exposed region of the valve body exceeds the pressure exerted on the tubular conduit-exposed region of the valve body.

3. The pump-through standing valve of claim 2 , wherein the standing valve biasing mechanism includes at least one of:
(i) a spring;
(ii) a resilient material;
(iii) a gravitational force; and
(iv) an elastomeric material.

4. The pump-through standing valve of claim 1 , wherein the standing valve flow control device includes at least one of:
(i) a ball and seat; and
(ii) a flapper.

5. The pump-through standing valve of claim 1 , wherein the threshold outflow pressure differential is at least 0.5 megapascals (MPa) and at most 70 megapascals (MPa).

6. The pump-through standing valve of claim 1 , wherein the standing valve fluid conduit includes at least one of:
(i) is distinct from the flow-through valve fluid conduit;
(ii) is at least partially coextensive with the flow-through valve fluid conduit; and
(iii) is the flow-through valve fluid conduit.

7. The pump-through standing valve of claim 1 , wherein the standing valve flow control device includes at least one of:
(i) is distinct from the flow-through valve flow control device; and
(ii) includes the flow-through valve flow control device.

8. The pump-through standing valve of claim 1 , wherein a ratio of an average transverse cross-sectional area of the standing valve fluid conduit to an average transverse cross-sectional area of the flow-through valve fluid conduit is at least 1.

9. The pump-through standing valve of claim 1 , wherein the flow-through valve flow control device includes a flow-through valve biasing mechanism configured to resist the fluid outflow until the outflow pressure differential is at least the threshold outflow pressure differential.

10. The pump-through standing valve of claim 1 , wherein the flow-through valve flow control device includes at least one of:
(i) a bellows;
(ii) a diaphragm;
(iii) a bearing;
(iv) a ball;
(v) a seat;
(vi) a flapper
(vii) a rotating plate with an aperture
(viii) a rotating disc with an aperture
(ix) a sliding sleeve
(x) a choke bean, and
(xi) a biasing device.

11. The pump-through standing valve of claim 1 , wherein the flow-through valve flow control device is pressure-actuated.

12. The pump-through standing valve of claim 1 , wherein the flow-through valve defines a flow-through valve open state, in which the flow-through valve permits the fluid outflow, and a flow-through valve closed state, in which the flow-through valve restricts the fluid outflow.

13. The pump-through standing valve of claim 12 , wherein the flow-through valve is configured to selectively transition between the flow-through valve open state and the flow-through valve closed state based solely on the outflow pressure differential.

14. The pump-through standing valve of claim 12 , wherein the flow-through valve is biased to the flow-through valve closed state.

15. The pump-through standing valve of claim 1 , wherein the flow-through valve flow control device further is configured to resist the fluid inflow via the flow-through valve fluid conduit.

16. A well, comprising:
a wellbore extending within a subterranean formation;
a wellbore tubular defining a tubular conduit and extending within the wellbore; and the pump-through standing valve of claim 1 , wherein the pump-through standing valve is operatively attached to a downhole portion of the wellbore tubular such that the wellbore-exposed region is exposed to the wellbore and also such that the tubular conduit-exposed region is exposed to the tubular conduit.

17. The well of claim 16 , wherein the threshold outflow pressure differential is selected to be greater than a hydrostatic pressure experienced by the flow-through valve.

18. The pump-through standing valve of claim 1 , wherein the standing valve comprises a single standing valve flow control device.

Assignees

• Romer Michael C
• Tolman Randy C
• Exxonmobil Upstream Res Co

Inventors

• Romer Michael C
• Tolman Randy C

Classifications

• E21B34/10 Primary

  operated by control fluid supplied from outside the borehole · CPC title

• E21B2200/05

  Flapper valves · CPC title

• E21B23/10

  Tools specially adapted therefor · CPC title