US3007525A - Device for removing debris from wells - Google Patents

Description

Nov. 7, 1961 w. P. ORR

DEVICE FOR REMovING DEBRIS FROM WELLS oiginal Filed Aug. ,1, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. 5.

INVENTOR.

WILLIS P. ORR,

ATTO N Nov'. 7, 1961 w. P. oRR

DEVICE FOR EEMovING DEBRIS FROM WELLS Original Filed Aug. l, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 4.

INVENTOR. w|| L|s P. oRR,

FIG. 3.

FIG. 2.

ATTO NY.

United States Patent Oiice 3,007,525 Patented Nov. 7, 1961 3,007,525 DEVICE FOR REMOVING DEBRIS FROM WELLS Willis P. Orr, Tyler, Tex., assignor, by mesne assignments, to lIersey Production Research Company, Tulsa,

Okla., a corporation of Delaware Original application Aug. 1, 1955, Ser. No. 525,738, now Patent No. 2,902,095, dated Sept. 1, 1959. Divided and this `application May 20, 1958, Ser. No. 736,550

4 Claims. (Cl. 166-170) The present invention is directed to apparatus for removal of debris from Well bores. More particularly, the invention is directed to apparatus for scraping the interior surface of well casing to remove debris therefrom. In its more specific aspects, the invention is directed to apparatus for scraping the interior of a well casing and pushing and confining debris to the bottom of thewell bore prior to running and setting tubing therein.

This application is a division of Serial No. 525,738, tiled August 1, 1955, for Willis P. Orr, entitled, Removal of Debris from Well Bores, now U.S. Patent No. 2,902,095.

'I'he present invention may be briefly described as a device for use in a well casing to remove debris and the like therefrom which comprises an elongated tubular mandrel provided with at least one or al plurality of spaced apart hollow cup-shaped debris removers attached to the mandrel. The debris removers are attached to the mandrel to face unidirectionally and are provided with lat-eral openings of a suiiicient size for passage of liuid butv of insuicient size for passage of debris. 4

The debris remover may suitably be made destructible -or drillable or may be collapsed or telescoped on itself by constructing the tubular member of a destructible metal which may Ibe disintegrated chemicallyV or the tubular member may be formed with yatelescopic section slip joint which may be pinned together by avsuitable frangible means such as shear pins, and the like', or by a releasable detaching means. When shear pins are used, the tubular member may be telescoped by setting down weight on the debris remover such as by lowering the tubing to rest on the debris rem-over a sulicient amount to rupture the frangible means. l

The device is adapted for gravitational or forced travel through a well casing and may comprise an elongated tubular member suitably constructed of a destructible metal, such as aluminum, magnesium and the like.v 'Ihe upper and lower ends of the tubular member are provided with downwardly facing open cup-shaped members for receiving and entrapping junk; the lower of the cupshaped members communicates fluidly with the tubular member and the upper of the cup-shaped members provides an annular recesswith the exterior surface of the tubular member.

`The method of using the present invention includes the completing of a well having a casing arranged therein in which a debris remover is inserted into the well casing and released for gravitational or forced travel through the major portion of the length of the casing to push debris ahead of the debris remover and/or toscrape the interior surface of the well casing. Thereafter a tubing is run in Vand set in the well casing following which the casing is perforated 4by lowering a perforator lthrough the tubing and operating same to'perforate the casing. After members are employed, the debris remover is telescoped on itself to occupy a space in the well casing less than that ordinarily occupied.

The present invention will be further reference to the drawing in which:

' FIG. l is a sectional view of a use in a well casing;

FIG. 2 shows the debris remover of FIG. l on the bottom of a well and a tubing run in and set;

FIG. 3 illustrates the destruction of the destructible portion of the debris remover of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 shows perforating an interval in the well casing following the destruction of a portion of the debris remover and telescoping on itself; `and FIG. 5 shows ka modified debris remover provided with a telescopic section.

Referring now to the drawing and particularly to FIGS. 1 through 4, in which identical numerals will be employed to designate identical parts, numeral 1-1 designates a well bore drilled from the earths surface to penetrate a plurality of hydrocarbon productive intervals having a casing 12 'ar-ranged therein and cemented in place with la primary cement job 113. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a debris remover generally indicated by the numeral 14 has been caused by gravitational or forced travel in the casing 12 to move downwardly in the casing 12 4to the bottom of the well. rIlhis debris remover 14 is comprised of a plurality of spaced apart cup- shaped members 15 and 16 arranged on 'a nipple or tubular mandrel 17 which suitably may be constructed of a chemically or mechanically destructible metal, such as aluminum or magnesium. Thus, the destructible metal may be dissolved by caustic or acid solution or may be drilled as may be desired. The cup-shaped member 15 may be attached to the mandrel 17 by mating threads '18 or by other suitable means. The cup-shaped member 15 is downwardly facing and provides an annular recess 19 for receiving debris and junk. The lower periphery of the cupshaped member 15 may be provided with an annular member 20 which may suitably be a resilient material, like rubber, for scraping :along the interior surface of the casing 12. The cup-shaped member 15 is provided with a plurality of longitudinally extending slots or openings 21 to allow passage of uid from within the space 19 into the casing 12 which will resist passageof debris from the space 19.

l The Ycup-shaped member 16 is similar in construction totjlhe member 15 and may -be attached to the tubular member 17 by mating Vthreads 22 or by other means. The cup-shaped member 16 is attached to the lower end of thel mandrel 17 and lprovides a cup-shaped recess 23 which communicates fluidly with the tubular mandrel 17 by an opening 24a in plate 24 to retain debris but yet allow passagev of fluid. Suitably the plate 24 may be completely closed, as directed. Like the cup-shaped member 15, the lower periphery of the member 16 may have an annular member 25 constructed of resilient material, such as rubber. Since the cup-shaped men1bers 15 illustrated by debris remover for and 16 are constructed of metal, they are rigid and nondeformable. The cup-shaped member 16 also is provided with a plurality of longitudinally extending slots or openings 26 for passage of iiuid from within the space 23 into the casing 12 but which resists passage of debris. The slots 21 and 26 may be a plurality of openings of other shapes of suflicient number and size for passage of uid but of insufiicient size for passage of small particles of debris and junk.

Referring now specifically to FIGS. 2 to 4, lthe debris remover 14 has travelled gravitationally or has been forced to the bottom of the well or to a lower portion of the well and thereafter the tubing 30, which may be provided with a production packer 31, is run in and set in the casing 12.

It will be noted that thecasing 12 penetrates a plurality of hydrocarbon productive intervals, such as A, B, and C from which hydrocarbons or other desirable ffluids may be produced, the productive intervals being separated by non-productive intervals, such as D and E.

In FIG. 3, the debris remover 14' is immersed in a body 32 of caustic solution, such las sodium hydroxide, to cause destruction of the tubular mandrel 17 which causes the cup- shaped members 15 and 16 to collapse and assume the telescopic position shown in FIG. 4, the caustic solution having been removed from the casing 12 by opening the packer 31 and inserting aV tubular member in the tubing 30 to reverse circulate out the body 32 of the caustic solution. The cup-shaped members may also be made of a material that will disintegrate in caustic, acid, or salt water solution.

Thereafter a perforator, such as a tubing gun perforator, designated by numeral 33, provided with a plurality of ibullet or shaped-charge guns 34 is lowered on a wire line or cable 36 adjacent the interval C and operated or tired to form a plurality of perforations 35 through the casing 12, cement 13 and to penetrate and perforate the formation C. Production is then had through the perforations 35, up through the tubing 30 to the wellhead, not shown.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a debris remover designated generally by the numeral 40 is provided with la plurality of spaced apart downwardly facing cup- shaped members 41 and 42 which are generally of the construction of members 15 and 16 and are provided with longitudinally extending slots or openings 21 and 26, respectively. The spaced apart cupshaped members 41 and 42 are attached releasably to a telescopic mandrel 43 by frangible means, such as shear pins 44 and 45. The mandrel 43 may suitably be constructed in sections 46, 47, and 48 which may be releasably connected together by frangiable means, such as shear pins 49 and 50. The device of FIG. is provided with a fishing neck 51 having a fishing spear 52 thereon for removal of the remover 40 with a grab tool (not shown) attached to a wire line and the like, also not shown. The other embodiments may also be provided with retrieving means, as desired.

By providing cup-shaped members releasably attached to the tubular mandrel and by having the tubular mandrel constructed with a sl-ip joint or with telescopic sections as described, it is possible to collapse the cupshaped members 41 and 42 on themselves by suitably setting down weight on the debris remover 40. This may be accomplished `by dropping a weight in the casing before running in tubing or by setting down weight of the tubing 30 on the device l40 when it reaches a position as shown in FIG. 3.

It lis advantageous to construct the device as shown in FIG. 5 since this construction eliminates the necessity for using a caustic soda solution or other chemical to disintegrate the tubular mandrel and/cr telescope the structure.

The presence of caustic soda solution in the well may be detrimental and requires removal of same such as by circulating out or hailing since caustic soda solution may attack gun perforators or well logging devices constructed of aluminum.

The present invention is of considerable value and utility in that heretofore it was the practice to scrape or clean the interior surfaces of well casing to remove debris yand junk by running in a `debris remover or scraper attached to the tubing or to other equipment attached to the tubing. The present invention eliminates a substantial amount of manipulating the tubing by inserting into the casing and releasing a debris remover of the type described herein for gravitational travel through the casing. By dropping a junk pusher or debris remover in the hole during completion operations before perforating the casing using a tubing gun perforator, a round trip with the tubing or drill pipe to the bottom of the hole to insure that the hole is cleaned is saved. If the debris removed will not drop to bottom, it can be pushed to bottom with the tubing. rI'he tubing then may be spaced as desired without a pulling job. This is quite advantageous in that the heavy duty hoisting equipment may be moved olf the hole and used elsewhere earlier than heretofore. Specifically, in a Texas field the junk pusher or debris remover, in accordance with the lpresent invention, is dropped into the casing immediately after pulling the tubing after the stage cementing tool has been drilled out at a designated depth. A tool of this type is described and illustrated on page 2038 of the Composite Catalog of Oil Field and Pipeline Equipment, 20th edition, 1954-55. The tubing is then run with the tubing open-ended, as shown in the drawing, following the junk pusher to the bottom of the hole, if desired, yand thereafter the tubing is picked up, the well 'head connection, commonly called a Christmas tree, installed and the rig moved olf. A well logging device, such as tubing gamma ray logger, may be run and the casing perforated at a particular selected interval using -a tubing gun. In accordance with this invention, the hole is cleaned of junk and a trip to the bottom with the tubing is saved. Thus in accordance with the present invention, it is unnecessary to attach junk and debris removers to tubing strings for cleaning and/or scraping the interior surface of well casing.

The present invention is of commercial utility and has been used successfully on many occasions in cleaning wells of junk and removing debris from the interior surfaces of the casing which otherwise would prove harmful to tools and equipment lowered in the casing.

The debris removers, such as 15 and 16, may suitably be constructed of cast iron ywhile the tubular mandrel 17 may suitably be constructed of aluminum. If desired, the members 15 and 16 might also be constructed of a destructible or drillable metal since it may be desired to deepen the well subsequently to the described operations.

The present invention insures that the hole is clean, prevents sticking of pipe and/or endangering rubber packers and other equipment. It is, therefore, of utility in cleaning wells.

The nature land objects of the present invention having been completely described `and illustrated, what I wish to claim as new and useful and to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A device for use in a Well casing .to remove debris and the like from the casing which consists of an elongated tubular mandrel and a plurality of vertically spaced-apart hollow cup-shaped rigid debris pushers attached on their base ends to the exterior surface of said mandrel and providing cup-shaped recesses to retain debris, said debris pushers being open on their free ends and the walls thereof being formed with lateral openings of suiiicient size for passage of fluid there through into the casing but of insufficient size for passage of debris, said debris pushers being each provided with a deformable member on the exterior periphery of their open free ends for scraping along the Wall of the well casing for removal 0f debris from the inner surface of the casing.

2. A device in accordance with claim 1 in which one of said `debris pushers is attached to one end of said mandrel and forms therewith an annular recess for trapping debris and another of said debris pushers is attached to the other end of said mandrel and a plate attached to said other end of said mandrel, said plate having an opening communicating uidly, said another debris pusher with the interior of the mandrel.

3. A device in accordance with claim l lin Which the mandrel is formed into sections telescopically connected to each other and in which frangible means are provided for lreleasably attaching said sections to each other.

4. A device in accordance with claim 3 in which means are provided for releasably attaching each of said debris pushers to one of said sections.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 216,946 Cunningham July 1, 1879 576,425 Bilton et al. Feb. 2, 1897 1,181,310 Hodgman May 2, 1916 2,150,406 Taylor Mar. 14, 1939 2,221,057 Notley Nov. 12, 1940 2,290,441 McGaiey July 21, 1942 2,326,528 Festervan et al. Aug. 10, 1943 2,575,307 Walker Nov. 13, 1951 2,802,535 Taylor Aug, 13, 1957 2,893,493 Copas Tuly 7, 1959

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