Oil well treatment
AssigneeAEA Technology plc
InventorPeter Arne Read
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Corrosion, scale-formation, or other deleterious processes are inhibited in an oil well by installing within the oil well (10) fluid-permeable elements, such as tubular filters (20), which comprises a suppressing material. Each filter (20) comprises two tubular filter screens (24) between which is a bed (26) of particles comprising suitable inhibitor material. The particles might for example be porous ceramic spheres impregnated with the inhibitor material. The inhibitor material gradually dissolves in the well fluids during operation, and may for example inhibit corrosion and/or scale formation.
Claims11
A method of treating an oil well so as to inhibit deleterious processes, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming a multiplicity of rounded beads of an insoluble porous inorganic material with a porosity between 10% and 30%;
- (b) then causing a suppressing material to suppress the deleterious processes to be precipitated within the beads from an aqueous solution;
- (c) then installing the beads as a packed bed in a filter pack and installing said filter pack within the oil well;
- wherein said filter pack is fluid-permeable and comprises two generally coaxial tubular filter screens defining a region between them, the region containing the fluid permeable filter pack;
- further comprising injecting additional said beads into a gap outside the outermost tubular filter screen, the inner surface of the gap being defined by the outer surface of the filter and the outer surface of the gap being defined by the bore of the well.
A method of treating an oil well so as to inhibit deleterious processes, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming a multiplicity of rounded beads of an insoluble porous inorganic material containing pores to provide a porosity between 10% and 30%;
- (b) then causing a water-soluble suppressing material for suppressing the deleterious processes to be precipitated from an aqueous solution and depositing said material within said pores of said beads in solid form;
- (c) then installing said beads as a packed bed to form a fluid permeable filter pack wherein said packed bed consists essentially of said porous beads;
- and (d) installing said filter pack within the oil well so that well fluids flow through said packed bed, said beads being such that said suppressing material dissolves gradually into said well fluids, thereby inhibiting said deleterious processes without structurally changing said packed bed.
A method of treating an oil well for inhibiting inorganic scale formation, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming a multiplicity of rounded beads of an insoluble porous ceramic material with a porosity between 10% and 30%;
- (b) then causing a water-soluble scale inhibiting material to be precipitated within said beads from an aqueous solution containing divalent cations;
- and (c) then installing said beads down hole within the oil well as a fluid permeable bed, so well fluids flow through said bed, and said scale inhibiting material dissolves gradually into said well fluids, thereby inhibiting scale deposition, and said bed of beads being structurally unchanged by this dissolution.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.