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US 11,237,076 B2Granted
Automatic pressure testing for leaks in frac iron
AssigneeHalliburton Energy Services, Inc.
InventorsMehdi Sebdani Mazrooee, Michael Linley Fripp, Ian Bradford Mitchell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Automatically pressure testing a frac iron configuration in a wellbore environment including performing a plurality of pressure testing cycles using increasing higher levels of fluid pressure to detect the presence of any leaks in the frac iron at one or more of the pressurization levels.
Claims21
A method comprising:
- performing automatically a plurality of pressure testing cycles on a frac iron configuration, each of the pressure testing cycles comprising:
- pressurizing the frac iron configuration with a fluid using a predefined pump configuration to generate a predetermined evaluation pressure level within the frac iron configuration,
- monitoring one or more measured pressures within the frac iron configuration at one or more times during an evaluation time period beginning once the predetermined evaluation pressure level within the frac iron configuration has been reached, including stopping, for the duration of the evaluation time period, further pressurization of the frac iron configuration, and
- determining whether a pressure loss in the frac iron configuration indicates detection of a leak based on the one or more measured pressures.
1 more element
A method comprising:
- performing automatically a plurality of pressure testing cycles on a frac iron configuration, each of the pressure testing cycles comprising:
- pressurizing the frac iron configuration with a fluid using a predefined pump configuration to generate a predetermined evaluation pressure level within the frac iron configuration,
- monitoring one or more measured pressures within the frac iron configuration at one or more times during an evaluation time period beginning once the predetermined evaluation pressure level within the frac iron configuration has been reached, including monitoring a bleed off pressure within the frac iron configuration over the evaluation time period as a slope of a pressure curve;
- and
- determining whether a pressure loss in the frac iron configuration indicates detection of a leak based on the one or more measured pressures, including identifying, based on the slope of the pressure curve, at least one characteristic of the frac iron configuration causing the bleed off pressure.
2 more elements
A system comprising:
- a frac iron configuration comprising a network of devices forming one or more flow paths for containing and delivering a pressurized fluid to a wellbore;
- a plurality of pumps coupled to the frac iron configuration, the plurality of pumps configured to provide a pressurized fluid to the frac iron configuration;
- one or more sensors configured to monitor one or more fluid pressures within the frac iron configuration;
- and
- a controller configured to automatically control the operation of the plurality of pumps and to perform a plurality of pressure testing cycles on the frac iron configuration, wherein each of the pressure testing cycles comprises:
- pressurizing the frac iron configuration with a fluid to a predetermined evaluation pressure level within the frac iron configuration using one or more of the plurality of pumps configured in a predefined pump configuration,
- monitoring, based on output signal from the one or more sensors, one or more measured pressures levels within the frac iron configuration at one or more times during an evaluation time period beginning once the predetermined evaluation pressure level within the frac iron configuration has been reached, including monitoring a bleed off pressure within the frac iron configuration over the evaluation time period as a slope of a pressure curve, and
- determining whether a pressure loss in the frac iron configuration exceeds a maximum bleed off value based on the one or more measured pressures, including identifying, based on the slope of the pressure curve, at least one characteristic of the frac iron configuration causing the bleed off pressure.
5 more elements
One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having program code executable by a processor to cause the processor to:
- control performing automatically a plurality of pressure testing cycles on a frac iron configuration, each of the pressure testing cycles comprising:
- pressurizing the frac iron configuration with a fluid using a predefined pump configuration to generate a predetermined evaluation pressure level within the frac iron configuration,
- monitoring one or more measured pressures within the frac iron configuration at one or more times during an evaluation time period beginning once the predetermined evaluation pressure level within the frac iron configuration has been reached, including stopping, for the duration of the evaluation time period, further pressurization of the frac iron configuration, and
- determining whether a pressure loss in the frac iron configuration indicates detection of a leak based on the one or more measured pressures.
1 more element
A system comprising:
- a frac iron configuration comprising a network of devices forming one or more flow paths for containing and delivering a pressurized fluid to a wellbore;
- a plurality of pumps coupled to the frac iron configuration, the plurality of pumps configured to provide a pressurized fluid to the frac iron configuration;
- one or more sensors configured to monitor one or more fluid pressures within the frac iron configuration;
- and
- a controller configured to automatically control the operation of the plurality of pumps and to perform a plurality of pressure testing cycles on the frac iron configuration, wherein each of the pressure testing cycles comprises:
- pressurizing the frac iron configuration with a fluid to a predetermined evaluation pressure level within the frac iron configuration using one or more of the plurality of pumps configured in a predefined pump configuration,
- monitoring one or more measured pressures within the frac iron configuration at one or more times during an evaluation time period beginning once the predetermined evaluation pressure level within the frac iron configuration has been reached, including stopping, for the duration of the evaluation time period, further pressurization of the frac iron configuration, and
- determining whether a pressure loss in the frac iron configuration exceeds a maximum bleed off value based on the one or more measured pressures.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.