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US 12,366,147 B2Granted
Electrical gas lift valves and assemblies
AssigneeSchlumberger Technology Corporation
InventorsGanesh Balasubramanian, Oguzhan Guven, Jason Bigelow, Naomi Crawford, Yann Dufour, Maria Tafur, Robert Krush
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Electrical gas lift valves and systems including electrical gas lift valves are provided.
Claims15
An electrical gas lift valve assembly comprising:
- an electrical gas lift valve comprising:
- one or more inlet holes;
- one or more outlet holes;
- an orifice positioned along a flow path through the valve such that in use injection gas flows through the inlet holes, through the orifice, and through the outlet holes;
- and
- a valve needle configured to move relative to the orifice to selectively increase or decrease a flow area through the orifice, the valve needle and the orifice arranged such that injection gas flows through the orifice when the valve needle extends through the orifice;
- and
- an actuator assembly configured to cause selective movement of the valve needle relative to the orifice, the actuator assembly including a rotatable screw shaft and a ball screw, the ball screw having an anti-rotation member extending into a track to prevent rotation of the ball screw, the ball screw coupled to the valve needle, and the rotatable screw shaft extending through the orifice.
5 more elements
A method of operating a gas lift valve, the method comprising:
- providing control signals from a surface along a control line extending downhole to an actuator assembly;
- actuating the actuator assembly to cause rotation of a screw shaft of the gas lift valve, the actuator assembly including a worm gear that converts rotation of an intermediate shaft into rotation of the screw shaft, the intermediate shaft oriented perpendicular to the screw shaft;
- converting rotation of the screw shaft into axial translation of a valve needle of the gas lift valve;
- and
- axially translating the valve needle at least partially through an orifice of the gas lift valve to selectively increase or decrease an open flow area through the orifice of the gas lift valve.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.