Formate salt gels and methods for dewatering of pipelines or flowlines
AssigneeWeatherford/Lamb, Inc.
InventorsJack Curr, Brian Hallett, Alan Sweeney
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A gelled composition for pipeline, flowline, pipeline jumper or flowline jumper dewatering or preventing ingress of seawater into open pipeline systems or components during tie-in operations of jumpers or additional pipe, valving, manifolds, subsea pipeline architecture or flow conduits operations is disclosed, where the composition includes a concentrated metal formate solution and a hydratable polymer. The gelled formate compositions have improved dewatering properties with 100% or 360 pipe coverage. The gelled formate compositions have can also be reused by breaking and reformulation.
Claims26
A method for dewatering a pipeline comprising the step of:
- pumping into a pipeline or portion thereof an aqueous composition including a metal ion formate salt and an effective amount of a gelling agent, where the effective amount of the gelling agent is sufficient to gel the composition and to increase a viscosity of the composition and where the composition reduces an amount of bulk water and/or an amount of residual water in the pipeline below desired amounts,
- prior to adding the gelling agent to the aqueous composition, pH adjusting the aqueous composition to a pH between about pH 7 and about pH 7.5, and
- after reducing the bulk and/or residual water below the desired amounts, discharging the aqueous composition from the pipeline or portion thereof into the environment without further treatment.
An improved system for dewatering comprising an aqueous composition comprising a metal ion formate salt solution and an effective amount of a gelling agent, where the aqueous composition is pH adjusted to a pH between about pH 7 and about pH 7.5, where the effective amount of the gelling agent is sufficient to gel the composition, where the metal ion formate salt solution includes between about 5% w/w of metal ion formate salt and a saturation solution of the metal ion formate salt, where the aqueous composition is capable of removing substantially all bulk water and residual water in a pipeline into which the composition is placed and where the aqueous composition is capable of being directly discharged into the environment without further processing or treatment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.