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AssigneeSmart Drilling and Completion, Inc.
InventorsWilliam Banning Vail, III, Robert L. Dekle, Damir S. Skerl, James E. Chitwood
Estimating the term…
Methods and apparatus are described to drill and complete wellbores. Such wellbores include extended reach horizontal wellbores, for example in shales, deep subsea extended reach wellbores, and multilateral wellbores. Specifically, the invention provides simple threaded subassemblies that are added to existing threaded tubular drilling and completion equipment which are used to dramatically increase the lateral reach using that existing on-site equipment. These subassemblies extract power from downward flowing clean mud, or other fluids, in an annulus to provide additional force or torque on tubular elements within the wellbore, while maintaining circulation, to extend the lateral reach of the drilling equipment and completion equipment. These added elements include combinations of The Leaky Seal™, a Cross-Over, The Force Sub™ and The Torque Sub™. The use of such additional simple elements allow lighter drilling equipment to be used to reach a given lateral distance, therefore reducing drilling costs.
A Leaky Seal.
A drilling machine having at least one Leaky Seal.
A method to rotary drill an extended section of a borehole with a rotary drill string that includes at least the step of inserting a mandrel having a Leaky Seal as a threaded component into said drill string comprised of discrete threaded drill pipes.
A drilling machine possessing at least one Leaky Seal having a fluid passageway through said Leaky Seal.
A drilling machine possessing at least one Leaky Seal in the Mud Flow Path providing clean drilling mud to a drill bit and returning dirty mud with rock chips towards the surface.
A drilling machine having at least one Leaky Seal and at least one Cross-Over.
A drilling machine possessing at least one Leaky Seal in the Mud Flow Path that provides an additional force on tubular elements attached to the drill bit and provides clean drilling mud to a drill bit.
A tubular portion of a rotary drilling machine having a Leaky Seal and a Cross-Over.
A drilling machine possessing at least one Leaky Seal disposed in an Annular Clean Mud Flow Path that provides an additional force on rigid tubular elements attached to the drill bit and provides clean drilling mud to a drill bit.
A method of using pressurized mud in any first annular portion of a cased wellbore to convey downhole any tubular means possessing at least one Leaky Seal attached to any Completion Bottom Hole Assembly located in a second open hole portion of the wellbore.
A method of simultaneously applying a force to a rotating tubular element disposed within a wellbore having casing and supplying clean mud to a drill bit that includes at least the step of generating and causing mud to flow through a passageway in a hydraulic seal that is rigidly mounted on the exterior of said rotating tubular element and which makes a rotating and sliding hydraulic seal with the interior of the casing.
The method in claim 12, wherein said rotating tubular is a portion of a rotating drill string attached to a rotating drill bit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.