Method and system for transporting a hydrocarbon fluid

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9488005-B2
Application number	US-201314441309-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 7, 2013
Priority date	Nov 9, 2012
Publication date	Nov 8, 2016
Grant date	Nov 8, 2016

Abstract

A method for transporting a hydrocarbon fluid, such as crude oil and/or natural gas, comprises:
drilling a chain of double ended U-shaped boreholes into the earth crust, such that at least one pair of the boreholes has an adjacent pair of upper ends at or near the earth surface; lining each of the boreholes with an at least partly expanded impermeable liner comprising an expandable tubular, which is circumferentially expanded after insertion into the borehole; interconnecting each pair of adjacent upper ends of the chain of lined U-shaped boreholes by a connection conduit; and transporting the hydrocarbon fluid through a transportation pipeline with one or more W-shaped sections provided by the chain of lined U-shaped boreholes and the connection conduit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for transporting a hydrocarbon fluid, the method comprising:
drilling a chain of double ended U-shaped boreholes into the earth crust, such that at least one pair of the boreholes has an adjacent pair of upper ends at or near the earth surface;
lining each of the U-shaped boreholes with an at least partly expanded impermeable liner comprising an expandable tubular, which is circumferentially expanded after insertion into the borehole, wherein lining each of the U-shaped boreholes comprises bending the tubular radially outward and backwards in a semi-toroidally shaped bending zone, which moves from one end towards an opposite end of the tubular, thereby forming an expanded tubular section of a gradually increasing length around an unexpanded tubular section of a gradually decreasing length and wherein the unexpanded tubular section is arranged around a drill string of a directional drilling assembly, which is equipped with a sensor for monitoring a distance D between a drill bit and the bending zone and with means to adjust the speed at which the unexpanded tubular is inserted into the borehole such that the monitored distance D between the drill bit and bending zone remains is substantially constant;
interconnecting each pair of adjacent upper ends of the chain of lined U-shaped boreholes by a connection conduit; and
transporting the hydrocarbon fluid through a transportation pipeline provided by the chain of lined U-shaped boreholes and the connection conduit.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pipeline comprises at least one W-shaped section, which is formed by at least one pair of adjacent lined U-shaped boreholes and at least one of the connection conduits.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the pipeline comprises a plurality of interconnected predominantly underground W-shaped sections.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the pipeline is located in an arctic region and at least one of the W-shaped sections comprises a lower part, which is located below an at least occasionally frozen part of the earth crust.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pipeline is an underwater pipeline.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pipeline spans a lateral distance of at least 60 km and at least one of the U-shaped boreholes has a length between 5 and 50 km.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of increasing the length of the expanded tubular section comprises pushing the unexpanded tubular section into the expanded tubular section until the tubular is expanded along its entire length.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drill bit comprises a pilot bit and an under-reamer.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the directional drilling assembly comprises a downhole drilling motor with an output shaft which rotates the drill bit relative to the drill string about an axis of rotation that is oriented at an acute angle relative to a central axis of the drill string.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the impermeable liner forms an outer liner and at least one of the U-shaped boreholes furthermore comprises an additional impermeable inner liner, which is inserted into the outer liner.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the additional impermeable inner liner is inserted into the outer liner by pulling and/or pumping the inner liner into the outer liner and the inner liner is not expanded after insertion into the outer liner.

Assignees

• Shell Oil Co

Inventors

• Kriesels Petrus Cornelis

Classifications

• E21B43/108

  Expandable screens or perforated liners · CPC title

• E21B4/00

  Drives for drilling, used in the borehole · CPC title

• E21B47/09

  Locating or determining the position of objects in boreholes or wells {, e.g. the position of an extending arm}; Identifying the free or blocked portions of pipes · CPC title

• E21B7/20

  Driving or forcing casings or pipes into boreholes, e.g. sinking; Simultaneously drilling and casing boreholes · CPC title

• E21B7/043

  for underwater installations · CPC title