Corrosion Guard Tubing Nipple

(1) Field of the Invention

This invention relates to conduits, and more particularly to oil field tubing in wells. Applicant submits that an oil field production person is one having ordinary skill in this art.

(2) Description of the Related Art

It is well known that tubing is used in wells in oil field production. A common example is that tubing which goes inside of a casing and has a pump attached to the bottom in an oil bearing formation. A sucker rod extends from the pump in an oil bearing formation to the top of the tube.

Another example of oil field tubing includes tubing with a submergible motor and pump attached to the bottom. The oil is produced by pumping the oil from the oil bearing formation far below the surface of the ground to the surface through the open tubing.

Other uses include tubing in a water flood field where tubing is used in injection wells and water is pumped down the tubing to an oil bearing formation far below the ground to displace the oil to production wells in the field.

Normally, the string of tubing in an oil well will include individual sections of tubing, e.g. 20' or 30' long having external threads on each end of each section. The sections are connected together by cuffs having internal threads. Because the external threads on the ends of the section would otherwise weaken the tubing, it is common practice to use tubing having upset ends. The ends of the tubing are thicker so that after the threads are cut in them, they still have the necessary tensile strength to support long strings of tubing. It is not unusual to have 10,000' of tubing which is supported from the surface of the earth. Therefore, the tubing must have sufficient tensile strength at the surface to support the weight of 10,000' of tubing.

Also, in many instances, other devices besides sucker rods are passed through the tubing. Although normally these are lowered by a wire line, in certain instances, these devices may be dropped for free fall through the tubing. Therefore, it is extremely important that the tubing have uniform bore from top to bottom, and it is important that the tubing not have any restrictions in the bore from top to bottom, and it is desirable that the tubing not have abrupt changes or ledges in its bore upon which devices could hang. Also, it will be recognized that smooth bore has less resistance to the flow of fluid through it than a bore having abrupt changes. Therefore, it is desirable that the bore be smooth, or if there are any changes in diameter that there be a smooth transition between any changes in diameter.

In many instances the fluids flowing through the tubing will be highly corrosive. Therefore it is known in the art to place a corrosive resistant coating on the inside of the tubing to prevent the fluid passing through the tubing from corroding it.

The joints at each coupling form a corrosion problem. Under normal circumstances, the threaded joint between the tubing and coupling forms a fluid tight seal for joining one tubing section to the next. Because of the mechanical nature of screwing one section to the next, it is difficult, if not impossible, to form a corrosion resistant coating at the threads.

Before this application was filed, the applicant was aware of the following United States patents:

Many of these patents represent efforts of prior workers to solve this problem of the corrosion at the cuffs. Other of these patents show structure similar to this invention; although, the invention was directed to the solution of some other problem.

(1) Progressive Contribution to the Art

This invention discloses a nipple or short tube or broad ring or band of corrosion resistant material which fits in the bore or the inside diameter of the tubing at the cuffs. In this way, the corrosive fluid is isolated from the cuffs and is not in contact with the threads of either the tubing or the cuff. The preferred embodiment includes beveling or tapering the ends of the bore of the tubing at about a 15.degree. taper and also tapering the ends of the nipple at about a 15.degree. taper.

(2) Objects of this Invention

An object of this invention is to prevent corrosion in a tubing string used to produce oil from oil bearing formations deep below the earth.

Further objects are to achieve the above with devices that are sturdy, compact, durable, lightweight, simple, safe, efficient, versatile, ecologically compatible, energy conserving, and reliable, yet inexpensive and easy to manufacture, install, and maintain.

Other objects are to achieve the above with a method that is rapid, versatile, ecologically compatible, energy conserving, efficient, and inexpensive, and does not require highly skilled people to install, adjust, and maintain.

The specific nature of the invention, as well as other objects, uses, and advantages thereof, will clearly appear from the following description and from the accompanying drawing, the different views of which are not scale drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of an oil field production well.

FIG. 2 is an axial sectional view of a coupling with the invention illustrated therein.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a nipple according to this invention.

FIG. 4 is a detailed sectional view of part of the tubing without the nipple.

FIG. 5 is a detailed sectional view of one end of the nipple.

As an aid to correlating the terms of the claims to the exemplary drawing, the following catalog of elements and steps is provided:

Referring to the drawings, there may be seen a production oil field well. Casing 10 extends from the surface 12 of the earth to oil producing formation 14 far below the surface. Tubing string 16 extends from the oil producing formation 14 to the surface of the earth. Many wells will include sucker rod 18 within the tubing from pump 20 in the oil bearing formation and to above the tubing string 16 to pump jack 22 above the surface of the earth.

The tubing string 16 will include a plurality of sections of tubing 24 and 26 which are connected by a plurality of cuffs 28. As pointed out previously, often the tubing is upset. I.e., the each end of the tubing section 24 and 26 will have a greater wall thickness "t" than the remainder of the tubing. Those having ordinary skill in the art will understand that the American Petroleum Institute (API) has specifications as to the threads of the tubing and to the cuffs and that API specifies the torque with which the tubing is to be made up.

A taper or internal bevel 36 is formed on bore 32 at each end 30 of each the section, according to this invention. Coating 34 is applied to the bore, including the taper 36, of the tubing. The taper angle is preferred to be about 15.degree..

Nipple 40 has an external cylindrical portion at the center thereof and is tapered at each end 42. It has the same taper angle as the taper 36 within the bore 32 of the tubing. The inside diameter of the nipple is greater than the inside diameter of the tubing, as explained above.

The nipple is made of corrosion resistant material. One common corrosion resistant material applicable for manufacture of the nipples is stainless steel. There are other corrosion resistant metals which are suitable for particular circumstances. Also, in certain instances, the nipple might be made of a nonmetalic material such as Nylon, Ryton, or composite materials such as a Ryton glass composite. Also, suitable coating over steel.

Analysis will show that although the nipple floats free of the cuff during assembly, if excessive internal pressures within the tubing string were to cause the nipple to swell, that its swelling would be limited by the inside diameter of the cuff. If the outside diameter of the nipple is less than the smallest inside diameter of the cuff, the nipple itself will have a wall thickness less than the wall thickness "t" of the ends of either tubing section 24 or 26. The inside diameter of the nipple is slightly greater than the inside diameter of the bore of the tubing sections 24 and 26. Therefore, there will be no restriction in the bore of the string from the surface of the earth to the oil bearing formation. It is also evident from an examination of FIG. 2, that the taper forms a smooth and fair transition from the inside diameter of the tubing section to the inside diameter of the nipple.

To use the invention, the regular procedure will be to form joints with the cuff 28 attached to one of the ends of the tubing section with a predetermined torque. The cuff 28 will be attached to the tubing section with torque not greater than the API torque which is finally applied to the two tubing sections in the well. Then the joint having the tubing section 26 is lowered into the well with the cuff 28 at the top and extending above the surface of the earth. Nipple 40 is dropped within the cuff. It will be understood that the threads on the cuff and the external threads on the tubing section will be tapered. Therefore, the cuff will have an inside diameter which is larger at the ends and is the smallest at the median point between the ends. The outside diameter of the nipple 40 is smaller than the smallest inside diameter of the cuff 28. Therefore, the nipple may be dropped into the cuff, and it will freely fall so that the tapered end 42 of the nipple fits with the taper 36 in the end 30 of the tubing section 26. Then, the tubing section 24 is placed upon the cuff and threaded to the cuff. It is torqued to the API specifications. The length of the nipple 40 is such that the nipple will form a fluid tight fit to the ends 30 of the tubing section 24 and 26 when these tubing sections are connected to the cuff 28 with the prescribed torque thereon.

It may be seen that the nipple floats in the joint. I.e., the nipple can move up and down relative to the cuff as the tubing sections 24 and 26 are torqued to their final fit.

Also, it may be seen that the corrosive fluid will be confined so that it contacts only the bore of the tubing which is coated and the bore of the nipple. The nipple, as stated before, is of the corrosion resistant material. Therefore, it is not necessary that the base metal of the tubing or the metal of the cuff be corrosion resistant and no particular additional effort is used to prevent the threads from either being damaged from corrosion.

The embodiment shown and described above is only exemplary. I do not claim to have invented all the parts, elements or steps described. Various modifications can be made in the construction, material, arrangement, and operation, and still be within the scope of my invention. For example, some workers might desire to use a taper other than 15.degree. upon the tubing bore or nipple end.

The restrictive description and drawing of the specific examples above do not point out what an infringement of this patent would be, but are to enable one skilled in the art to make and use the invention. The limits of the invention and the bounds of the patent protection are measured by and defined in the following claims.