A riser stub for acoustic resonance decomposition of hydrate in deepwater drilling, comprising a through tubular stub body, a plurality of acoustic transducers being fixedly disposed on an outer wall surface of the tubular stub body; an outer side of the tubular stub body being covered with a water insulation layer, the plurality of acoustic transducers being sealed between the tubular stub body and the water insulation layer, the water insulation layer being further provided with a power-on interface that can be connected to a power supply, the plurality of acoustic transducers being connected to the power-on interface. A riser stub for acoustic resonance decomposition of hydrate in deepwater drilling, through continuous power-on, sound waves close to a simple harmonic vibration frequency of the hydrate are generated inside the pipeline to cause the hydrate in the riser to resonate, thereby being able to effectively avoid formation of hydrate inside the pipeline; after the hydrate is formed inside the pipeline, the acoustic transducers of the riser stub are energized, by means of the acoustic waves, the hydrate blocking the pipeline is caused to resonate to break its equilibrium state and to be decomposed so as to realize de-blocking.

A method of controlling operation of equipment that spools an elongated member on and off a rotatable drum, in one or more embodiments, includes obtaining video data of a position of the elongated member on the rotatable drum. The method can also include feeding data into a trained artificial neural network and processing the data fed into the trained artificial neural network to determine at least one of a calculated position of the elongated member on the rotatable drum, a calculated fleet angle, or both. The method can also include actuating the rotatable drum to one of spool elongated member on and off the rotatable drum.

A method and a control system are provided for reducing the size and/or the frequency of hydrodynamic slugging in a fluid processing system. The fluid processing system includes a pipeline for conveying produced fluids and a vessel for receiving the produced fluids from the pipeline. A control valve is provided in the pipeline upstream of the vessel. A pressure sensor is provided upstream of the control valve. Pressure information from the pressure sensor is sent to a master control loop in a cascade control scheme in which the master control loop controls a slave control loop which in turn controls the control valve. The master control loop determines a set point of the slave control loop coupled to the control valve to achieve a pressure setpoint. The slave control loop, also referred to as a pseudo-flow controller, determines whether the control valve opening needs be modulated to achieve the setpoint of the slave control loop. A method is also provided for retrofitting an existing fluid processing system.

A method for controlling the liquid load size of a plunger lift well during the shut in time of the well to facilitate a controlled plunger rise. Intra-cycle control allows dynamic adjustments within a cycle to keep the plunger running and not stalling out or rising too fast. The method includes the steps of shutting in the well to build up pressure within the well, adjusting a size of a liquid slug within the tubing while the well is shut in, opening a valve to relieve pressure within the well and raise the plunger within the tubing, pushing the liquid slug out of the well with the plunger, and closing the valve wherein the plunger falls within the tubing. The intra-cycle adjustments include reducing the size of the liquid slug for preventing fluid loading and increasing the size of the liquid slug for controlling a rise rate of the plunger.

Slugging of fluids produced in petroleum wells creates major disturbances for production rigs, and leads to major variation in process pressures and levels. In many cases, these disturbances cause unscheduled production stops, and in others may damage equipment such as heat exchangers. Thus slugging may have a major impact on the reliability of the operation, as it may affect product availability and quality (BSW, TOG and Moisture). Therefore, there is a complex control problem to use measurements to dynamically act on the production choke valves to set a new type of flow, without major slugging. The purpose of this invention is to provide an Advanced Automated Control System for minimizing slugging that can quickly act to avoid this type of flow as well as protect the process equipment. This system is comprised of sensors, valves and numerous PID or ONFC type controllers using aggregate computer algorithms to monitor a set of operating variables that enable diagnosing and controlling production well slugging. This advanced control system is efficient and eliminates or minimizes slugging during production well operation.

A method of estimating a state of a rotary steerable drilling system comprising applying a control input to a rotary steerable drilling system, sensing an actual output of the rotary steerable drilling system, inputting the control input into a mathematical model of the rotary steerable drilling system, receiving an estimated output of the rotary steerable drilling system from the mathematical model, generating an error compensation signal based on a difference between the actual output and the estimated output, and applying the error compensation signal to the mathematical model.

A gas intake apparatus for use in a wellbore configured to channel a mixture of fluids and solids includes a housing defining a chamber and at least one gas intake passage in flow communication with the chamber. The gas intake apparatus further includes a gas intake mechanism coupled to the housing at the at least one gas intake passage. The gas intake mechanism is configured to facilitate a flow of gaseous substances therethrough and to restrict a flow of solids and liquids therethrough.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for monitoring slug flow in subterranean wells. In one aspect, a method includes at a time instant, transmitting an acoustic signal across a cross-section of a pipeline flowing multiphase fluid including gaseous fluid and liquid fluid, wherein a portion of the acoustic signal is carried through the cross-section of the pipeline by the multiphase fluid and determining, at the time instant, a first quantity of the gaseous fluid and a second quantity of the liquid fluid passing the cross-section of the pipeline based, in part, on an energy of the portion of the acoustic signal carried through the cross-section and at least a portion of a total energy of the transmitted acoustic signal.

Methods include the injection of a gelled, gelling or gellable composition into a horizontal section of a well at a location, where produced well gases or a combination of well gases and injected gases are sufficient to move the pill through the horizontal section into heal section, sweeping the horizontal section of accumulated liquids. Once in the heal section, the pill and the accumulated liquids are uplifted to the surface resulting in a cleaned well.

A method of controlling operation of equipment that spools cable on and off a rotatable drum, in one or more embodiments, includes obtaining video data of a position of the cable on the rotatable drum. The method can also include feeding data into a trained artificial neural network and processing the data fed into the trained artificial neural network to determine at least one of a calculated position of the cable on the rotatable drum, a calculated fleet angle, or both. The method can also include actuating the rotatable drum to one of spool cable on and off the rotatable drum.