Subsea wellhead apparatus
AssigneeDril-Quip, Inc.
InventorsBruce J. Watkins, Blake T. DeBerry
Life of this patent
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Abstract
There is disclosed subsea wellhead apparatus which includes a tubing hanger supported within the bore of a wellhead housing and having a passageway through it connecting the annulus between the casing and tubing strings suspended from the hangers with the bore of the housing above the tubing hanger. The passageway is opened and closed by a valve member carrying metal seal rings, and the integrity of the seals is tested by test pressure from a reservoir contained in the tubing hanger.
Claims15
For use in a subsea wellhead including a wellhead housing having a bore therethrough and a casing hanger supported within the bore for suspending a casing string within the well bore, apparatus comprising
- a tubing hanger including a body having a bore therethrough connectable to the upper end of a tubing string and adapted to be supported in the bore of the housing above the casing hanger so as to suspend the tubing string therein,
- said hanger body having passageway means therethrough including first and second sections for connecting respectively with the annulus between the casing and tubing strings and the bore of the wellhead housing thereabove and with one another through port means, and
- means for opening and closing the passageway means including a valve member having a body reciprocable within a chamber in the hanger body which forms a continuation of the first section of the passageway means at one end and which is closed at its opposite end,
- said valve member body having
- a hole therethrough connecting with its opposite ends,
- a pair of longitudinally spaced seal rings thereabout sealably slidable within equal diameter portions of the chamber and first section of the passageway means between positions in which both seal rings are in the chamber to open the port means and one of the seal rings is within said first section to close the port means, and
- means responsive to pressure fluid from a remote source for moving the valve member from opened to closed and from closed to open position.
For use in a subsea wellhead including a wellhead housing having a bore therethrough, and a casing hanger supported within the bore for suspending a casing string within the well bore, apparatus comprising
- a tubing hanger including a body having a bore therethrough connectable to the upper end of a tubing string and adapted to be supported in the bore of the housing above the casing hanger so as to suspend the tubing string therein,
- said hanger body having passageway means therethrough for connecting the annulus between the casing and tubing strings with the bore of the wellhead housing thereabove,
- a valve member movable between positions opening and closing the passageway means, and including a body carrying spaced apart seal rings for sealably engaging an annular seal surface of the hanger body in its closed position,
- means for testing the spaced seal rings in the closed position of the valve member, including
- means forming a test fluid reservoir in the hanger body to receive test pressure including a metal enclosed, expandable and contractible pressure chamber within an opening in the body,
- means for supplying pressure fluid to the opening from a remote source above the tubing hanger body in order to contract the chamber and thereby apply pressure to the test fluid, and
- port means in the hanger body connecting the chamber with the passageway means in the hanger body intermediate the spaced seal rings of the valve member in its closed position, whereby test fluid may be supplied thereto.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.