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US 5,301,760 AGranted
Completing horizontal drain holes from a vertical well
AssigneeNatural Reserves Group, Inc.
InventorStephen A. Graham
Life of this patent
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AssigneeNatural Reserves Group, Inc.
InventorStephen A. Graham
Estimating the term…
A horizontal bore hole is sidetracked through a window cut in a cased vertical well or from a vertical open hole shaft extending below the kickoff point. In one embodiment, a whipstock is used. In another embodiment, the cased vertical well provides a drillable joint so the window can be cut with a conventional bent housing mud motor from a cement plug located adjacent the drillable joint at the kickoff point. In yet another embodiment, a cement plug is dressed down to the kickoff point in a vertical open hole and is used to start the curved well bore. After drilling at least the curved bore hole, a production string extending into the vertical well is cemented in the curved bore hole and then cut off inside the vertical cased hole with a conventional burning shoe/wash pipe assembly. The whipstock or cement plug is removed to clear the vertical well to a location below the entry of the horizontal well bore. Multiple horizontal wells may be drilled. Any open hole portions of the vertical well are cased with a liner. A downhole pump may be provided in the vertical well below the entry of the horizontal well bore. In addition to one or more horizontal completions, one or more productive intervals can be perforated through the vertical well to provide vertical completions.
In a process of completing a horizontal well in a hydrocarbon formation comprising the steps of providing a vertical well, drilling a curved well bore from the vertical well, drilling a horizontal well bore into the formation through the curved well bore, positioning a first section of a pipe string in the curved well bore and a second section of the pipe string in the vertical well, and cementing the pipe string in the curved well bore, the improvement comprising comminuting the pipe string in the vertical well and thereby providing a passage between the horizontal well bore section and the vertical well and then producing hydrocarbons from the horizontal well bore section through the passage into the vertical well.
A process comprising drilling a well bore into the earth, running a casing string into the well bore including a plurality of first joints of hard-to-drill metal pipe and at least one second joint of pipe of a material easier-to-drill than the first joints, and cutting window in the casing string through the second joint.
A well having a first vertical cased section extending into and communicating with a subterranean hydrocarbon bearing formation, a curved well bore section extending away from the first vertical cased section at a location above the bottom of the formation, a horizontal well bore section extending away from the curved well bore section and into the formation, a second vertical cased section extending below the curved well bore section and means for producing a first stream of hydrocarbons from the horizontal well bore section and a second stream of hydrocarbons from the second vertical cased section.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.