Controlling flow in a wellbore
AssigneeHalliburton Energy Services, Inc.
InventorsBrandon Thomas Least, Jean Marc Lopez, William Mark Richards
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Techniques for controlling flow of a wellbore fluid include positioning a plurality of inflow control assemblies on a pipe joint in a wellbore, the pipe joint including a proximal end engageable with a first downhole tool and a distal end engageable with a second downhole tool; receiving a flow of a wellbore fluid from a subterranean zone to an inlet of at least one inflow control device (ICD), the at least one ICD mounted in each of the plurality of inflow control assemblies, the flow at a velocity that is less than the transport velocity of fines in the wellbore fluid; and transmitting the flow of the wellbore fluid to the pipe joint from the ICDs to an interior of the pipe joint.
Claims23
A wellbore flow control apparatus, comprising:
- an inflow control assembly engageable with a pipe joint that comprises a proximal end engageable with a first downhole tool and a distal end engageable with a second downhole tool, wherein the inflow control assembly is fluidly located between the pipe joint and one or more associated sand screens located proximate a wellbore, the one or more associated sand screens collectively having a sand screen flow area;
- and
- at least one inflow control device (ICD) having an inlet and an outlet mounted in the inflow control assembly, each of the at least one ICDs having an ICD flow area and a collection of each of the at least one ICDs having a collective ICD flow area, and further wherein the collective ICD flow area is sized relative to the sand screen flow area to limit a localized inlet flow velocity of wellbore fluid at the one or more sand screens to a value less than a transport velocity of fines in the wellbore fluid.
A method for controlling flow of a wellbore fluid, comprising:
- positioning an inflow control assembly on a pipe joint in a wellbore, the pipe joint comprising a proximal end engageable with a first downhole tool and a distal end engageable with a second downhole tool, wherein the inflow control assembly is fluidly located between the pipe joint and one or more associated sand screens located proximate the wellbore, the one or more associated sand screens collectively having a sand screen flow area;
- receiving a flow of a wellbore fluid from a subterranean zone to an inlet of at least one inflow control device (ICD), the at least one ICD mounted in the inflow control assembly, each of the at least one ICDs having an ICD flow area and a collection of each of the at least one ICDs having a collective ICD flow area, and further wherein the collective ICD flow area is sized relative to the sand screen flow area to limit the flow to a velocity that is less than the transport velocity of fines in the wellbore fluid;
- and
- transmitting the flow of the wellbore fluid to the pipe joint from the ICDs to an interior of the pipe joint.
A wellbore flow control system, comprising:
- a pipe joint comprising a tubular that extends between threaded ends;
- and
- a flow control apparatus fixed to the tubular between the threaded ends and one or more associated sand screens, the one or more associated sand screens collectively having a sand screen flow area, the flow control apparatus including at least one inflow control device (ICD), each of the at least one ICDs having an ICD flow area and a collection of each of the at least one ICDs having a collective ICD flow area, and further wherein the collective ICD flow area is sized relative to the sand screen flow area to limit a localized inlet flow velocity of wellbore fluid at the one or more sand screen to a value less than a transport velocity of fines in the wellbore fluid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.