AUTOMATED WELL BORE COMPENSATION CONTROL SYSTEM

SYSTEME DE COMMANDE DE COMPENSATION DE PUITS DE FORAGE AUTOMATISE

English Abstract

An automated well bore compensation control system including an oil well, a pump pumping heavy oil from the oil well and at least one sensor monitoring selected pump parameters. A tank is provided containing diluents and a diluents flow line, having flow controls, extends from the tank to the oil well. A controller receives data from the sensor and operates the flow controls to provide diluents to the oil well when the selected pump parameters are not within pre-selected operating limits.

French Abstract

Il s'agit d'un système de commande de compensation de puits de forage automatisé qui comprend un puits de pétrole, une pompe pompant le pétrole brut lourd du puits de pétrole et au moins un capteur contrôlant les paramètres de pompe sélectionnés. Un réservoir, qui contient des diluants et une conduite d'écoulement de diluants, ayant des commandes d'écoulement, va du réservoir jusqu'au puits de pétrole. Un contrôleur reçoit des données du capteur et déclenche les commandes d'écoulement pour fournir des diluants au puits de pétrole lorsque les paramètres de pompe sélectionnés ne sont pas dans les limites de service présélectionnées.

Claims

4
What is Claimed is:
1. An automated well bore compensation control system, comprising:
an oil well;
a pump pumping heavy oil from the oil well;
at least one sensor monitoring selected pump parameters;
a tank containing diluents;
a diluents flow line, having flow controls, extending from the tank to the oil
well; and
a controller receiving data from the sensor and operating the flow controls to
provide
diluents to the oil well when the selected pump parameters are not within pre-
selected
operating limits.
2. The automated well bore compensation control system as defined in Claim 1,
wherein the
sensor is monitoring torque of the pump and the controller is operating the
flow controls to
provide diluents to the oil well when the torque of the pump is greater than
the pre-selected
operating limits.
3. The automated well bore compensation control system as defined in Claim 1,
wherein the
sensor is monitoring output of the pump and the controller is operating the
flow controls to
provide diluents to the oil well when the output of the pump is less than the
pre-selected
operating limits.
4. The automated well bore compensation control system as defined in Claim 1,
wherein the
tank containing diluents is a production tanks and the diluent is sales oil.
5. The automated well bore compensation control system as defined in Claim 1,
wherein the
controller operates the flow controls to provide diluents to the oil well when
the oil well is in
a pumped off state.

Description

CA 02592880 2007-06-01
1
TITLE:
Automated Well Bore Compensation Control System
FIELD
The present invention relates to a system that is used to inject fluids into a
well bore of
an oil well to compensate for the production flow from the well bore.
BACKGROUND
When heavy oil in a well is flowing into a well bore is too viscose, it can
cause the
pump to stall. When this happens, an operator dumps diluents down the well and
restarts the
pump. There are also situations in which pumps can be harmed by a lack of
inflow. Wells
where this frequently occurs have a diluents flow line to facilitate dumping
diluents down the
well. On such wells, operators dump diluents down the well on a daily basis as
a preventative
measure to reduce stoppages.
SUMMARY
There is provided an automated well bore compensation control system which
includes an oil well, a pump pumping heavy oil from the oil well and at least
one sensor
monitoring selected pump parameters. A tank is provided containing diluents
and a diluents
flow line, having flow controls, extends from the tank to the oil well. A
controller receives
data from the sensor and operates the flow controls to provide diluents to the
oil well when
the selected pump parameters are not within pre-selected operating limits.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These and other features will become more apparent from the following
description in
which reference is made to the appended drawings, the drawings are for the
purpose of
illustration only and are not intended to in any way limit the scope of the
invention to the
particular embodiment or embodiments shown, wherein:
THE FIGURE is a schematic view of an automated well bore compensation control
system.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION

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An automated well bore compensation control system generally identified by
reference numeral 10, will now be described with reference to THE FIGURE.
Structure and Relationship of Parts:
Referring to THE FIGURE, automated well bore compensation control system 10
includes an oil well 12, a pump 14 that pumps heavy oil from oil well 12, and
sensors 16 and
18 that monitor selected pump parameters. For example, sensor 16 monitors the
torque of
pump 14 while sensor 18 monitors the output of pump 14. Other sensor
arrangements will be
apparent to those skilled in the art based on different circumstances. A
diluents flow line 20
that has flow controls, such as a valve 22 and pump 23, extends from a tank 24
containing
diluents to oil well 12. In one embodiment, tank 26 is a production tank and
the diluent is the
sales oil held by the production tank. A controller 26 receives data from
sensor 16 and
operates valve 22 and pump 23 to provide diluents to oil well 12 when the
selected pump
parameters monitored by the sensor 16 are not within pre-selected operating
limits. As
depicted, controller 26 operates valve 22 and pump 23 to provide diluents to
oil well 12 when
the torque of pump 14 as measured by sensor 16 is greater than the pre-
selected operating
limits, or when the output of pump 14 as measured by sensor 18 is less than
the pre-selected
operating limits. Controller 26 may operate valve 22 for example when the
production flow is
too viscous, or when oil well 12 is in a pumped off state, i.e. when there is
little or no inflow
into oil well 12.
Operation:
As pump 14 pumps heavy oil from oil well 12, sensor 16 measures the torque of
pump
14 while sensor 18 measures the output flow from pump 14. These readings are
transmitted
to controller 26. As more viscous oil is pumped, the flow will either drop or
remain constant
while the torque remains constant or increases. As described above, the flow
may also drop
due to oil well 12 being in a pumped off state. Once the readings indicate the
operation of
pump 14 is outside a predetermined range, controller 26 causes valve 22 and
pump 23 to
cause a diluent, such as lighter oil, to flow down diluent flow line 20 into
well 12 in order to
reduce the viscosity of the heavy oil. In the case of oil well 12 being in a
pumped off state,
diluent acts to compensate for the lack of flow in order to prevent any damage
to pumps and
other equipment down hole.

CA 02592880 2007-06-01
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In this patent document, the word "comprising" is used in its non-limiting
sense to
mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically
mentioned are not
excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article "a" does not
exclude the
possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context
clearly requires that
there be one and only one of the elements.
It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that modifications may be made
to the
illustrated embodiments without departing from scope of the Claims.

Representative Drawing