Swellable packer assembly for a wellbore system

Abstract

A swellable packer assembly includes a mandrel, a base pipe disposed within the mandrel, a swellable seal element retained externally on the mandrel, and a shearable member that releasably secures the base pipe to the mandrel. In use, the base pipe forms part of a downhole tubing string in a wellbore. The seal element is swelled with a swelling fluid to seal between an outer wall of the mandrel and a wellbore wall. The shearable member is allowed to shear so that the injection tubing string including the base pipe may move axially within to the wellbore, while the seal element and the mandrel remain stationary relative to wellbore, with the seal element in contact with the wellbore wall. The assembly may help to avoid distortion of and damage to the seal element that may otherwise occur due to thermal expansion and contraction of the downhole tubing string.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.