Downhole Safety Valve Apparatus and Method
AssigneeBJ Services Company
InventorsJeffrey L. Bolding, David R. Smith
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The application discloses a valve, which may include either a safety valve or a storm surge choke valve or the like, to isolate a zone below a valve from a string of production tubing. Preferably, the valve includes a flow interruption surface assembly, such as a flapper valve or a ball valve, displaced by an operating conduit extending from a surface location to the valve through the inside of the production tubing. The application also discloses a bypass-conduit inside the production tubing to allow communication from a surface location to the production zone when the valve is in either an open or a closed location.
Claims54
A valve comprising:
- a flow interruption device operable between an open position and a closed hydraulically sealed position;
- and
- a bypass-conduit extending from a surface location through the valve to a zone below said valve, said bypass-conduit wholly contained within a bore of a string of tubing carrying said valve.
A method to communicate with a zone below a valve, the method comprising:
- installing a valve at a downhole location within a string of tubing;
- connecting an operating conduit inside a bore of the string of tubing between the valve and a surface location;
- extending a bypass-conduit wholly contained within a bore of a string of tubing carrying said valve from the surface location, through the valve, and to the zone below the valve;
- selectively opening and closing a flow interruption device with the operating conduit;
- and
- communicating with the zone below the valve via the bypass-conduit when the flow interruption device of the valve is in a closed hydraulically sealed position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.