Sampling hydrocarbons in a well using a flexible bag
AssigneeSchlumberger Technology Corporation
InventorPaul B. Guieze
Life of this patent
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Abstract
To take a sample of liquid and/or gaseous hydrocarbon at the surface or down an oil well, use is made of a flexible bag suspended by a tube from a top region of a wall of a closed receptacle. The bag and the tube are made of a flexible material that is leakproof and inert relative to the sample to be taken, such as a cross-linked polymer. The volume of sample admitted into the bag is controlled so as to avoid stretching the wall of the bag.
Claims6
A method of taking a hydrocarbon sample of a petroleum fluid, comprising providing at a location down an oil well from which a hydrocarbon sample is to be taken, an apparatus for taking a hydrocarbon sample, said apparatus comprising a receptacle having walls defining an internal leakproof chamber, a flexible, leakproof, and chemically inert sampling bag disposed inside and sealed from said chamber, means for introducing a hydrocarbon sample into the interior of said sampling bag;
- and means for removing and introducing a driving liquid into said chamber, a controlled volume of a driving being interposed between the exterior of the sampling and the walls of the chamber;
- drawing a volume of hydrocarbon at the location from which the sample is to be taken, though said means for introducing a hydrocarbon sample into the sampling bag by removing a predetermined volume of driving liquid from the chamber by said means for removing and introducing a driving liquid, the volume of driving liquid removed being equal to the volume of hydrocarbon drawn into the sampling bag.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.