Well fracturing systems with electrical motors and methods of use

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016258267-A1
Application number	US-201615060296-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 3, 2016
Priority date	Mar 4, 2015
Publication date	Sep 8, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system for stimulating oil or gas production from a wellbore includes a hydraulic fracturing pump unit having one or more hydraulic fracturing pumps driven by one or more electrical fracturing motors, a variable frequency drive (VFD) controlling the electrical fracturing motors, a fracturing pump blower unit driven by a blower motor, and a fracturing pump lubrication unit having a lubrication pump driven by a lubrication motor and a cooling fan driven by a cooling motor. The system may further include a blender unit and a hydration unit. A system control unit may control the operational parameters of the system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system for stimulating oil or gas production from a wellbore, comprising:
(a) a hydraulic fracturing pump unit having
two or more fluid pumps, each fluid pump being driven by an alternating current (AC) electrical pump motor coupled to said fluid pump, and a variable frequency drive (VFD) controlling the electrical pump motor;
(b) an electrically powered hydraulic blender unit configured to provide treatment fluid to at least one of said one or more fluid pumps for delivery to the wellbore, wherein the blender unit comprises at least one AC electrical blending motor; and (c) a system control unit communicating with each of said hydraulic fracturing pump unit and electrically powered hydraulic blender unit, for controlling operational parameters of each of said units, wherein the system control unit is configured to separately control parameters of each of said two or more fluid pumps of the hydraulic fracturing pump unit.

2 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a hydration unit for mixing water and chemical additives to provide a frac fluid supplied to the hydraulic blender unit, and wherein the system control unit further controls operational parameters of the hydration unit.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the system control unit is configured to communicate wirelessly with each of said hydraulic fracturing pump unit, electrically powered hydraulic blender unit, and a hydration unit.

4 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the system control unit communicates with at least one of said hydraulic fracturing pump unit, electrically powered hydraulic blender unit and a hydration unit over a physical medium, such as a cable or an optical fiber.

5 . The system of claim 1 further comprising at least two hydraulic fracturing pump units, and one or more of said at least two hydraulic fracturing pump units having a programmable automation controller (PAC) communicating with the system control unit.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein at least two fluid pumps of the hydraulic fracturing pump unit have different pumping capacities, and the system control unit is configured to dynamically initialize and maintain operating parameters of the fluid pumps of the hydraulic fracturing pump unit based on information about the flow rate of each fluid pump and the flow rate of the electrically powered hydraulic blender unit.

7 . The system of claim 2 , wherein each of said hydraulic fracturing pump unit, hydraulic blender unit and hydration unit comprise at least one programmable automation controller (PAC) configured to receive commands from the system control unit.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the system control unit comprises a human machine interface (HMI) connected via a data channel to the at least one PAC of said hydraulic fracturing pump unit, hydraulic blender unit and hydration unit.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the hydraulic fracturing pump unit is removably mounted on a trailer, truck, or skid that is connected to a manifold system for delivery of slurry to the wellbore, the system further comprising a backup hydraulic fracturing pump unit mounted on the same or different trailer, truck or skid, said backup hydraulic fracturing pump unit further being connected to the manifold system to supplement or replace the hydraulic fracturing pump unit if needed.

10 . The system of claim 2 , wherein each of said hydraulic fracturing pump unit, hydraulic blender unit and hydration unit further comprises ancillary systems including one or more of (i) a lubrication pump system, (ii) cooling pump system, and (iii) a blower system.

11 . The system of claim 7 , wherein said at least one PAC is configured to autonomously monitor operating parameters of the associated system unit, and cause the system unit to shut down in case the operating parameters of the system unit exceed predetermined limits.

12 . A system for stimulating oil or gas production from a wellbore, comprising:
a hydraulic fracturing pump unit having
a hydraulic fracturing pump driven by an electrical fracturing motor;
a variable frequency drive (VFD) controlling the electrical fracturing motor;
a fracturing pump blower unit driven by an electrical blower motor; and
a fracturing pump lubrication unit comprising a lubrication pump driven by an electrical lubrication motor, and
a cooling fan driven by an electrical cooling motor;
an electrically powered hydraulic blender unit configured to provide treatment fluid to the hydraulic fracturing pump unit for delivery to the wellbore, the blender unit comprising at least one electrical blending motor; and a system control unit comprising
(i) a hydraulic fracturing pump unit controller configured to control the hydraulic fracturing pump unit; and
(ii) a hydraulic blender unit controller configured to control the hydraulic blender unit.

13 . The system of claim 12 , further comprising a hydration unit having at least one electrical hydration motor; and wherein the system control unit further comprises (iii) a hydration unit controller configured to control operational parameters of the hydration unit.

14 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the hydraulic blender unit comprises a slurry-power unit (SPU) that is driven by an SPU motor, and a hydraulic power unit (HPU) that is driven by a HPU motor.

15 . The system of claim 12 wherein the hydraulic blender unit further comprises a SPU blower unit that is driven by an SPU blower motor and an HPU blower unit that is driven by a HPU blower motor.

16 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the hydration unit comprises a hydration HPU that is driven by a hydration HPU motor and a hydration HPU blower unit that is driven by a hydration HPU blower motor.

17 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the system control unit is configured to communicate bidirectionally with each of said hydraulic fracturing pump unit, electrically powered hydraulic blender unit, and hydration unit.

18 . The system of claim 13 , wherein each of said hydraulic fracturing pump unit, electrically powered hydraulic blender unit, and hydration unit further comprises at least one programmable automation controller (PAC) for communicating with the system control unit.

19 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the hydraulic fracturing pump unit comprises at least two fluid pumps having different pumping capacities, and the system control unit is configured to dynamically initialize and maintain operating parameters of the fluid pumps of the hydraulic fracturing pump unit based on information about the flow rate of each fluid pump and the flow rate of the electrically powered hydraulic blender unit.

20 . The system of claim 18 , wherein each of said PACs is further configured to receive monitoring data concerning the operating parameters of the respective unit and to communicate said monitoring data to the system control unit.

21 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the system control unit comprises a human machine interface (HMI) connected via a data channel to the at least one PAC of said hydraulic fracturing pump unit, hydraulic blender unit and hydration unit.

22 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the hydraulic fracturing pump unit is removably mounted on a trailer, truck, or skid that is connected to a manifold system for delivery of slurry to the wellbore, the system further comprising a backup hydraulic fracturing pump unit mounted on the trailer, truck, or skid, said backup hydraulic fracturing p

Assignees

• Stewart & Stevenson Llc

Inventors

• Payne Mark
• Lin Haomin
• Robertson Tom

Classifications

• E21B21/062 Primary

  by mixing components · CPC title

• E21B44/00 Primary

  Automatic control systems specially adapted for drilling operations, i.e. self-operating systems which function to carry out or modify a drilling operation without intervention of a human operator, e.g. computer-controlled drilling systems; Systems specially adapted for monitoring a plurality of drilling variables or conditions · CPC title

• E21B43/26

  by forming crevices or fractures · CPC title

• E21B43/2607

  Surface equipment specially adapted for fracturing operations · CPC title