Torsional shearing of oilfield tubulars
AssigneeHydril USA Distribution LLC
InventorEric Dale Larson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A shearing device that torsionally shears an oilfield tubular by gripping the tubular at vertically spaced apart locations and exerting a torsional force at the locations. Tong assemblies are provided for gripping the tubular, where the tong assemblies include a tong member pivotally mounted on a tong arm. The tong assemblies may be housed in a blowout preventer mounted on a wellhead assembly; projecting the tong assemblies radially inward engages the tong members with the tubular, and moving the arm further radially inward imparts the torsional force onto the tubular. In an alternate embodiment, the shearing device includes holding rams that project radially inward to engage the tubular and a torque rack that tangentially engages the tubular thereby torqueing the tubular.
Claims16
A method of shearing an oilfield tubular comprising:
- engaging the tubular at two vertically spaced apart locations;
- exerting torsional forces on the tubular at the locations;
- and
- shearing the tubular by continuing to exert the forces on the tubular;
- wherein the torsional forces rotate the tubular around the longitudinal axis of the tubular until the tubular shears.
A wellhead assembly comprising:
- a housing;
- a bore selectively having a tubular inserted therein;
- and
- a torsional shearing device provided with the housing comprising, a first unitary member that selectively exerts a first torsional force onto the tubular in a first direction, and a second unitary member that selectively exerts a second torsional force onto the tubular in a second direction substantially opposite the first direction;
- wherein the first torsional force turns the tubular around the longitudinal axis of the tubular in a first direction, and the second torsional force turns the tubular around the longitudinal axis of the tubular in a second direction until the tubular shears.
A method of wellbore operations comprising:
- applying a torque onto a tubular disposed through a wellhead assembly;
- and
- shearing the tubular by continuing to apply the torque;
- wherein the torque applied to the tubular rotates the tubular around the longitudinal axis of the tubular until the tubular shears.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.