U.S. patent application number 16/104728 was filed with the patent office on 2020-02-20 for system and method to increase production from a borehole.
This patent application is currently assigned to Baker Hughes, a GE company, LLC. The applicant listed for this patent is Tarik Abdelfattah, Jose Rafael Gonzalez. Invention is credited to Tarik Abdelfattah, Jose Rafael Gonzalez.
Application Number | 20200056463 16/104728 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 69523774 |
Filed Date | 2020-02-20 |
United States Patent
Application |
20200056463 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Abdelfattah; Tarik ; et
al. |
February 20, 2020 |
SYSTEM AND METHOD TO INCREASE PRODUCTION FROM A BOREHOLE
Abstract
A borehole system including a completion in a borehole; an
interval of the borehole having a plurality of productivity zones
therein, at least one of the zones being a lower productivity zone
and at least one of the zones being a higher productivity zone; a
pump connected to the at least one lower productivity zone of the
interval and configured to bring production from the lower
productivity zone to a production capacity of the higher
productivity zone of the interval.
Inventors: |
Abdelfattah; Tarik;
(Houston, TX) ; Gonzalez; Jose Rafael; (Fulshear,
TX) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Abdelfattah; Tarik
Gonzalez; Jose Rafael |
Houston
Fulshear |
TX
TX |
US
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
Baker Hughes, a GE company,
LLC
Houston
TX
|
Family ID: |
69523774 |
Appl. No.: |
16/104728 |
Filed: |
August 17, 2018 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
E21B 43/08 20130101;
E21B 43/128 20130101; E21B 43/14 20130101; E21B 43/12 20130101 |
International
Class: |
E21B 43/14 20060101
E21B043/14; E21B 43/12 20060101 E21B043/12; E21B 43/08 20060101
E21B043/08 |
Claims
1. A borehole system comprising: a completion in a borehole; an
interval of the borehole having a plurality of productivity zones
therein, at least one of the zones being a lower productivity zone
and at least one of the zones being a higher productivity zone; a
pump connected to the at least one lower productivity zone of the
interval and configured to bring production from the lower
productivity zone to a production capacity of the higher
productivity zone of the interval.
2. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the pump is connected
directly to an inlet port of the lower productivity zone.
3. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the system includes at
least two lower productivity zones and at least two pumps, one
connected to one of the at least two lower productivity zones and
another connected to the other of the at least two lower
productivity zones.
4. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the interval includes
multiple zones each having a different productivity index and
wherein each zone having a lower productivity index than a highest
productivity index of the interval is connected to a pump
configured to boost the associated lower productivity index zone to
the production capacity of the highest productivity index zone.
5. The system as claimed in claim 1 further including a filtration
arrangement.
6. The system as claimed in claim 5 wherein the filtration
arrangement is a screen.
7. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the pump is an electric
submersible pump.
8. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the pump is a
magnetohydrodynamic pump.
9. A method for increasing production from a borehole comprising:
determining a productivity index for at least two zones of a
plurality of production zones in an interval of the borehole;
operably coupling a pump to at least one of the plurality of
production zones that exhibits a lower productivity index than at
least one zone of the plurality of production zones that exhibits a
higher productivity index; and boosting production through the pump
of the lower productivity zone to produce at a rate of the higher
productivity zone.
10. The method as claimed in claim 9 further including operably
coupling a second pump to a second one of the plurality of
production zones and boosting production from the second zone to
produce at a rate of the higher productivity zone.
11. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein the boosting is by
pumping with an electric submersible pump.
12. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein the boosting is by
magnetically pumping fluid.
13. The method as claimed in claim 9 further including filtering a
production fluid at least from the zone or zones having a lower
productivity index.
14. The method as claimed in claim 9 further including filtering
production fluid from all production zones.
Description
BACKGROUND
[0001] In the resource recovery industry there is often need to
balance flow from multiple zones in order to avoid premature
breakthrough of undesirable fluids from areas having a higher
productivity index. Such breakthroughs are damaging to the well and
deleterious to overall production from the particular formation.
Commonly, inflow control devices are used to restrict inflow from
higher productivity zone thereby avoiding breakthrough in those
areas. While wells employing the above noted paradigm work well,
the industry is always receptive to efficiency increases.
SUMMARY
[0002] A borehole system including a completion in a borehole; an
interval of the borehole having a plurality of productivity zones
therein, at least one of the zones being a lower productivity zone
and at least one of the zones being a higher productivity zone; a
pump connected to the at least one lower productivity zone of the
interval and configured to bring production from the lower
productivity zone to a production capacity of the higher
productivity zone of the interval.
[0003] A method for increasing production from a borehole including
determining a productivity index for at least two zones of a
plurality of production zones in an interval of the borehole;
operably coupling a pump to at least one of the plurality of
production zones that exhibits a lower productivity index than at
least one zone of the plurality of production zones that exhibits a
higher productivity index; and boosting production through the pump
of the lower productivity zone to produce at a rate of the higher
productivity zone.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0004] The following descriptions should not be considered limiting
in any way. With reference to the accompanying drawings, like
elements are numbered alike:
[0005] The FIGURE is a schematic elevation view of a wellbore
having a plurality of zones of differing productivity index, and a
system as taught herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0006] A detailed description of one or more embodiments of the
disclosed apparatus and method are presented herein by way of
exemplification and not limitation with reference to the
FIGURE.
[0007] Referring to the FIGURE, system 10 optionally including a
filtration arrangement 11 is illustrated within a borehole 12 in a
formation 14. The formation 14 has a plurality of zones therein,
referred to herein as zone A, B, C, D, etc. in an interval 16 of a
completion system 18. The plurality of zones will have at least one
with a lower productivity index, i.e. lower than the productivity
index of another zone in the interval 16. Specifically, of those
plurality of zones, at least one will have a higher productivity
index than at least one other, the "other" accordingly having a
lower productivity index. In the FIGURE, zones B and D are lower
productivity zones and A and C are higher productivity zones. This
is merely for example. It is to be appreciated that the optional
filtration arrangement 11 may be any conventional filtration
arrangement including but not limited to conventional screens,
premium screens, memory polymer screens, bead screens, etc. and
further that each zone may have different screens or none at
all.
[0008] As noted above, the difference in productivity indexes would
be traditionally addressed by installing an inflow control device
at the higher productivity index zone to restrict productivity
therefrom to more closely match the productivity from the lower
productivity index zone while allowing maximum potential flow from
the lower productivity zone or zones. For simplicity of discussion
the four zones are discussed herein but it will be understood that
there may be any number of zones greater than 1 in the interval 16
and one or more of them may have differing productivity indexes.
Regardless of the actual number of zones, the interval will be
enhanced in production through use of this disclosure.
[0009] The teaching herein upends conventional practice in that
higher productivity index zone(s) is/are not throttled with an
inflow control device but rather specific low productivity zones
(one or more of them) are directly boosted in productivity through
the use of applied low pressure at the inlet port 20 of the lower
productivity zone. This is generally accomplished by disposing a
pump 22 at the inlet port 20 of the lower productivity zones of the
borehole 12 and connecting the pump inlet to the inlet port 20 so
that pump action is directed specifically through the inlet port 20
to which the pump is attached. Pumps contemplated include electric
submersible pumps, magnetohydrodynamic pumps, etc. The pumps will
bring the lower productivity zones B and D to a production regime
that matches the higher productivity zones A and C. In a multizone
well interval, one embodiment hereof will place pumps at each of
the lower productivity zones to bring each one of them up to the
productivity of one of the higher productivity zones, that zone
possibly being the highest higher productivity zone. In an
embodiment, each pump may be configured to boost flow by a
different amount to raise different lower productivity zones
independently to all equal the higher productivity zone target
level. Configured as such, overall production from the multiple
zones would not be matched to the lowest productivity zone in the
group as would have been the case in the past but rather overall
production from the interval 16 would be dictated by the highest
productivity zone in the interval 16 due to all of the lower
productivity zones being brought up to the production of the
highest productivity zone. This will ensure a maximum overall
productivity from the interval 16.
[0010] In embodiments, all lower productivity index zones in an
interval are provided with individual pumps to boost production
from these zones to a level approaching the productivity index of a
higher or highest productivity zone in the interval. Therefore all
production zones in the interval will produce at the higher or
highest productivity zone of the interval.
[0011] A method for increasing production from a borehole comprises
determining what a productivity index is for at least a plurality
of zones A-D in an interval 16. Where a zone is determined to have
a lower productivity index than other zones in the interval 16,
that zone or zones will be fitted with pumps to boost production to
closer to whatever the higher productivity indexes are for other
zones in the interval. Pumping may be by electric submersible
pumps, magnetohydrodynamic pumps or other pumps as desired.
[0012] Set forth below are some embodiments of the foregoing
disclosure:
Embodiment 1
[0013] A borehole system including a completion in a borehole; an
interval of the borehole having a plurality of productivity zones
therein, at least one of the zones being a lower productivity zone
and at least one of the zones being a higher productivity zone; a
pump connected to the at least one lower productivity zone of the
interval and configured to bring production from the lower
productivity zone to a production capacity of the higher
productivity zone of the interval.
Embodiment 2
[0014] The system as in any prior embodiment wherein the pump is
connected directly to an inlet port of the lower productivity
zone.
Embodiment 3
[0015] The system as in any prior embodiment wherein the system
includes at least two lower productivity zones and at least two
pumps, one connected to one of the at least two lower productivity
zones and another connected to the other of the at least two lower
productivity zones.
Embodiment 4
[0016] The system as in any prior embodiment wherein the interval
includes multiple zones each having a different productivity index
and wherein each zone having a lower productivity index than a
highest productivity index of the interval is connected to a pump
configured to boost the associated lower productivity index zone to
the production capacity of the highest productivity index zone.
Embodiment 5
[0017] The system as in any prior embodiment further including a
filtration arrangement.
Embodiment 6
[0018] The system as in any prior embodiment wherein the filtration
arrangement is a screen.
Embodiment 7
[0019] The system as in any prior embodiment wherein the pump is an
electric submersible pump.
Embodiment 8
[0020] The system as in any prior embodiment wherein the pump is a
magnetohydrodynamic pump.
Embodiment 9
[0021] A method for increasing production from a borehole including
determining a productivity index for at least two zones of a
plurality of production zones in an interval of the borehole;
operably coupling a pump to at least one of the plurality of
production zones that exhibits a lower productivity index than at
least one zone of the plurality of production zones that exhibits a
higher productivity index; and boosting production through the pump
of the lower productivity zone to produce at a rate of the higher
productivity zone.
Embodiment 10
[0022] The method as in any prior embodiment further including
operably coupling a second pump to a second one of the plurality of
production zones and boosting production from the second zone to
produce at a rate of the higher productivity zone.
Embodiment 11
[0023] The method as in any prior embodiment wherein the boosting
is by pumping with an electric submersible pump.
Embodiment 12
[0024] The method as in any prior embodiment wherein the boosting
is by magnetically pumping fluid.
Embodiment 13
[0025] The method as in any prior embodiment further including
filtering a production fluid at least from the zone or zones having
a lower productivity index.
Embodiment 14
[0026] The method as in any prior embodiment further including
filtering production fluid from all production zones.
[0027] The use of the terms "a" and "an" and "the" and similar
referents in the context of describing the invention (especially in
the context of the following claims) are to be construed to cover
both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein
or clearly contradicted by context. Further, it should be noted
that the terms "first," "second," and the like herein do not denote
any order, quantity, or importance, but rather are used to
distinguish one element from another. The modifier "about" used in
connection with a quantity is inclusive of the stated value and has
the meaning dictated by the context (e.g., it includes the degree
of error associated with measurement of the particular
quantity).
[0028] The teachings of the present disclosure may be used in a
variety of well operations. These operations may involve using one
or more treatment agents to treat a formation, the fluids resident
in a formation, a wellbore, and/or equipment in the wellbore, such
as production tubing. The treatment agents may be in the form of
liquids, gases, solids, semi-solids, and mixtures thereof.
Illustrative treatment agents include, but are not limited to,
fracturing fluids, acids, steam, water, brine, anti-corrosion
agents, cement, permeability modifiers, drilling muds, emulsifiers,
demulsifiers, tracers, flow improvers etc. Illustrative well
operations include, but are not limited to, hydraulic fracturing,
stimulation, tracer injection, cleaning, acidizing, steam
injection, water flooding, cementing, etc.
[0029] While the invention has been described with reference to an
exemplary embodiment or embodiments, it will be understood by those
skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents
may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the
scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made
to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the
invention without departing from the essential scope thereof.
Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the
particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for
carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include
all embodiments falling within the scope of the claims. Also, in
the drawings and the description, there have been disclosed
exemplary embodiments of the invention and, although specific terms
may have been employed, they are unless otherwise stated used in a
generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of
limitation, the scope of the invention therefore not being so
limited.
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