Key information

Title: Multilateral Heating System
Application number: 20230230
Case type: National
Status: 28.02.2025 P.g.a ikke betalt årsavgift
Filed: 21.02.2023
Effective date: 21.02.2023
Publicly available: 22.08.2024
Applicant: TG & T AS (NO)
Inventor: GILBERTO TOFFOLO (NO)

Abstract and drawing

Disclaimer: This text has been machine-scanned and may contain errors – please refer to "Publications" for legally binding content.

The proposed invention, related to the production of viscous oil, combines in an innovative way existing technology. The main idea behind the invention is to take advantage of a well with a multilateral architecture, therefore with several branches, not only to increase the flow from the same branches, but also to use the same lateral channels to heat the formation and the viscous oil that flows along the same.

Publications

Checking availability of the latest published version...

Documents

Expand

Download files (21)

Date

Date	Doc. No.	Process	Case number	In/Out	Journal description	To/from
15.09.2025	15-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	UT	PT Endelig henlagt for ikke betalt årsavgift (3313)	TG & T AS
02.07.2025	14-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	UT	PT Påminnelse om ikke betalt årsavgift (3329) (PT20230230)	TG & T AS
25.06.2025	13-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	UT	Henlagt manglende svar ENG	TG & T AS
10.03.2025	12-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	UT	Substantive examination	TG & T AS
02.01.2025	11-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	UT	PT Varsel om betaling av første årsavgift (3317) (PT20230230)	TG & T AS
03.09.2024	10-02	Saksbehandling	20230230	INN	HO FB EH 2 2023 FFF RV 2024	GILBERTO TOFFOLO
03.09.2024	10-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	INN	Korrespondanse (Hovedbrev inn)	GILBERTO TOFFOLO
31.07.2024	09-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	UT	Henlagt manglende svar ENG	TG & T AS
16.05.2024	08-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	INN	Korrespondanse (Hovedbrev inn)	TG & T AS
28.02.2024	07-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	INN	Korrespondanse (Hovedbrev inn)	GILBERTO TOFFOLO
27.02.2024	06-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	INN	Korrespondanse (Hovedbrev inn)	GILBERTO TOFFOLO
27.02.2024	05-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	INN	Korrespondanse (Hovedbrev inn)	GILBERTO TOFFOLO
20.09.2023	04-02	Saksbehandling	20230230	UT	PT report 09:45:43
20.09.2023	04-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	UT	Substantive examination	TG & T AS
08.03.2023	03-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	UT	Generelt brev uten frist ENG	TG & T AS
08.03.2023	02-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	UT	Søknadskvittering Patent	TG & T AS
21.02.2023	01-05	Saksbehandling	20230230	INN	HO FB EH Abstract	GILBERTO TOFFOLO
21.02.2023	01-04	Saksbehandling	20230230	INN	HO FB EH 2 2023 FFF	GILBERTO TOFFOLO
21.02.2023	01-03	Saksbehandling	20230230	INN	HO FB EH 2 2023 FFF	GILBERTO TOFFOLO
21.02.2023	01-02	Saksbehandling	20230230	INN	HO FB EH 2 2023 FFF	GILBERTO TOFFOLO
21.02.2023	01-01	Saksbehandling	20230230	INN	Søknadsskjema Patent	GILBERTO TOFFOLO

Description, claims and drawings

Disclaimer: This text has been machine-scanned and may contain errors – please refer to "Publications" for legally binding content.

Description

MULTILATERAL HEATING TECHNOLOGY

Gilberto Toffolo, Theodor Dahlsvei 4B leil nr.103 seks.20, 4355 Kverneland, Norway

Main field of application of the innovative idea

The present invention has the objective of reducing one of the major problems associated with the production of heavy oil, the low productivity of wells caused by its high viscosity.

There are large deposits of high viscosity oil in nature; however, their exploitation is complex due to the low mobility of the viscous hydrocarbon through the porous formation. Therefore, many fields are not exploited and those that can produce have low productivity and low recovery factors, leaving a high amount of oil in the reservoir.

Solutions usually used in the main field of application

Several solutions have been considered to improve the productivity of viscous oils, depending on the type of reservoir and its viscosity. For relatively low viscosities the wells can produce naturally even if with reduced flow rates. In this case, for higher productivity, one solution is to increase the contact with the reservoir, for example with longer wells or wells with more than one branch (Multilateral Wells). Often heating of the reservoir is another technique to reduce the viscosity of the hydrocarbon, therefore increasing the productivity of wells. Examples of these solutions are induction heating, resistive heating, and radiofrequency heating.

For higher viscosities, the preferred solution is the drilling of twin wells in which one is a steam injector, while in the second one the hydrocarbon is produced thanks to the reduced viscosity of the hydrocarbon mixed with the hot steam.

In situ combustion is also a technology used, in this case, part of the hydrocarbon is burned in the formation to increase the temperature and reduce the viscosity of the oil to be produced.

To obtain a greater final recovery from a field, displacement techniques using solvents or gases, in particular carbon dioxide, are also used. However, these solutions are applied at the reservoir level and not at a single well level. In other words, some wells are transformed into injection wells and the fluid injected pushes the viscous hydrocarbon towards other producing wells. The injected fluid can also be miscible with hydrocarbon and it can, at the same time, reduce its viscosity.

Technical problem: criticality of the known art resolved by the innovative idea.

The solutions previously described allow to different degrees an improvement in productivity and final recovery, however, the quantity of hydrocarbon that cannot be produced remains still extremely high and the production takes place with significant costs, above all due to the high number of wells required. Finally, production requires a long time and high maintenance costs. In the case of bottom hole heating, one of the main limitations is the difficulty of bringing the heat inside the reservoir,

Confidential Page 1 mainly due to the poor thermal conductivity of the formation and the oil itself, both substantially thermally insulating materials. In the case of heating with resistances distributed along the main hole, it is possible to obtain a high temperature but only inside the main wellbore, and only a limited amount of heat enters the reservoir close to the wellbore, increasing very slowly its temperature. With radiofrequency heating it is possible to reach distances of some meters, but with lower temperatures. In any case, the amount of thermal power introduced into the system finds limits due to the costs and the difficulty of uniformly distributing the heat, with the consequent risk of creating points with too high temperatures inside the main wellbore that could degrade the oil produced and damage the production system. The steam injection and the in-situ combustion remain a solution, however with high costs and high environmental impact, and they are mostly associated with the very high viscosity of oil or tar sands. The known art, therefore, allows for an increase of productivity and recovery factor, however of a limited entity.

Technical aspects that characterize the innovative idea and distinguish it from the known art.

The basic idea of the proposed solution is to combine a multilateral well concept with an innovative heating system, in practice to improve the heating of the formation thanks to a different well geometry. In this way, the well productivity is not only improved with a higher number of flow paths but the same flow paths are used to increase the penetration of the heat inside the formation. The side holes that depart from the main wellbore will contain a metallic pipe of small diameter and will therefore be able to perform two functions: the first being to allow production along with the annular space between each lateral pipe and the formation and, at the same time, and in opposite direction, allow the dispersion of the heat generated along the main wellbore towards the reservoir.

This second effect is possible given that the metal of the small pipes, that will remain permanently inserted in the holes, will have high thermal conductivity and any heat generated along the main wellbore will easily enter the lateral holes and therefore the formation.

The heat along the main wellbore could be generated for example by mineral insulated cables providing a permanent generation of heat along the main wellbore and the lateral pipes could be considered at the same time “Cooling Fins” for the heat in the main wellbore and “Heating Fins” for the formation in the lateral channels.

In this way, the formation could be heated much deeper in respect for example to resistive heating, induction heating, or radiofrequency heating. A clear advantage in respect to these alternatives is that most of the heat would be used to reduce the viscosity inside the same channels where the oil would flow reducing dramatically the friction losses due to the viscosity.

Description of the innovative idea in the general form

The system can be considered as composed of two fundamental elements, both part of the completion of the same well: a production system with different branches that depart from a central hole able to increase the production thanks to a high number of lateral channels and a heating system distributed along the axis of the main hole. Small diameter metal tubes are inserted into the side holes and are

Confidential Page 2 mechanically connected to the main metal production liner to maximize thermal conductivity. A distributed heating system is inserted along the main horizontal hole, preferentially of a resistive type, but not limited to, which transfers heat to the metal walls of the production liner in the mother bore. Thanks to a high thermal conductivity connection between the metal forming the main production liner and the metal of the lateral pipes, a large part of the resistive heat generated along the main axis is transmitted by conduction and convection to the metallic pipes along the lateral holes.

The heat transmitted inside the lateral holes is dispersed with two effects: the increase of temperature of the oil flowing in each channel and the increase of the temperature of the formation surrounding each channel. The proportion between the heat transmitted to the formation and the heat used to increase the temperature of the oil and therefore reduce its viscosity depends on the flowrate in each lateral, the heat flux, the thermal conductivity of the lateral pipes and the specific characteristics of the oil and the formation.

In any case, it should be underlined that the heat exchange is highly efficient in the sense that both effects are geometrically developed along the same lines, in other words, all the heat entering the lateral channels through the metal of the lateral pipes will be used to increase the temperature of the flowing oil and the temperature of the formation. In this way, the side tubes can be considered “Cooling fins” able to dissipate the heat produced along the main hole and to yield it advantageously to the surrounding formation to make the oil contained therein less viscous. By all means, this solution could be considered a multilateral well structure with several branches each one containing its inner heating system.

Thermal Efficiency

Given that one of the two components of the innovative idea is the reduction of oil viscosity achieved by increasing its temperature, the efficiency of the solution must be the best possible. The heat should be released most efficiently to increase the mobility of the oil, but at the same time without creating spots with an excessive temperature that could damage the system or change the oil properties or composition.

One of the main limitations of the heating system with a distributed generation of heat is precisely that of excessive heating of the oil produced, which limits the maximum transmissible power. This is due to the poor thermal conductivity of formation and oil so that all the heat released is only used to increase the temperature of the oil already inside the production liner.

In summary, with the proposed solution, the heat released by the MI cable would, or in other ways, to different degrees, increase the temperature of the following:

1. Oil already entered the production liner, decreasing its viscosity and therefore reducing the friction losses inside the liner itself, the production tubing, and the surface gathering system.

2. Oil along the lateral channels before entering the production liner, decreasing the friction losses along the laterals.

3. Productive formation. The formation would be heated by thermal conduction around the main production liner and each lateral. Temperature increase could be low due to the relatively low thermal conduction of formation, however not negligible.

Confidential Page 3 All these three elements would contribute to an increase in flow rate, but there are several variables to be controlled to maximize its productivity. The main would be the thermal power released, the thermal conductivity of all metallic elements, and the number of lateral channels.

The best engineering design will allow the maximization of well productivity, using all the thermal power in the best way and without overheating unnecessarily any part of the system. As a general observation, an ideal system would be able to release as much heat as possible inside the formation while keeping at a minimum the quantity of heat released inside the productive liner. This will be achieved only with the high thermal conductivity of every part of the system.

Data, examples, and detailed description

In multilateral wells, there is always the main bore, also caller mother bore and lateral holes that are connected in different ways to the mother bore. Several constructive solutions allow making side holes from the main hole and they may be left open or in some cases, a metal pipe often called a liner, can be left inside the motherboard and the laterals. The liners are often metallic and are most of the time connected in the junctions.

This solution has some advantages such as protecting the production of the mother bore and lateral from the possible collapse of the formation and the consequent obstruction of the flow path, but for the present invention, it is important that both inside the mother bore and inside the lateral holes will be placed some liners, preferably metallic and with good thermal conductivity.

The liners could be different according to the needs like control of sand production, control of an unwanted fluid, however, given that this is not the main object of the invention we shall consider a simple solution of a liner in the motherboard with slotted sections to let the fluid in, while the lateral pipes will be simple pipes that could have the capability of letting the produced fluid to flow inside, but also in the annular space between the pipes themselves and the lateral holes.

The lateral channels could be realized with a three-dimensional geometry departing from the mother bore in the most convenient directions.

A general description of the system is reported in fig. 1. From a mother bore (100) several lateral channels (102) are departing in the most appropriate directions. Inside the mother bore is inserted a metallic liner (101) with slotted holes (107) to let the fluid enter the liner and inside each lateral hole are placed smaller liners. The liner in the mother bore and the lateral liners are connected with high thermal conductivity subs (104). Inside the liner in the mother bore is placed an internal coaxial small diameter pipe (105) containing a mineral insulated cable to generate heat (108). To keep the heating pipe and cable in the center of the liner, several high thermal conductivity centralizers are distributed evenly along with the main liner (106). The purpose of the centralizer is not only the precise positioning of the heating system but also to improve the transmission of heat from the cable to the metallic slotted liner and from the liner to the lateral smaller liners through the high thermal conductivity subs (104). The centralizers would be able to move with the heating coaxial pipe according to its expected thermal expansion.

Confidential Page 4

Fig.1 - General description of the system.

Without an efficient heating transmission between the cable heating element and the lateral pipes the cable would first heat the hydrocarbon present in the main hole and this, in turn, transfer the heat to the main metal channel and finally to the lateral pipes. However, the efficiency of the heat transmission would be low, the oil being an insulating material. This would substantially reduce the efficiency and the temperature of the oil already along the production liner would increase excessively and unnecessarily, limiting the amount of thermal power that could be released.

Fig.2 – Possible solution to increase the thermal efficiency of the system.

If necessary, to maximize the amount of heat transmitted from the resistive cable to the lateral it might be possible to concentrate the generation of heat only in specific sections in front of every lateral sub (Fig.2). The intimate contact between the heating coaxial cable and the walls of the main liner would be given by sliding metallic centralizers. The proper positioning of the centralizers should account for the thermal expansion of the heating coaxial pipe and cable.

A different solution could be running the electric cable outside the production liner as reported in fig 3. In this case, the heating elements, distributed or concentrated in the needle’s subs would be run together with the liner. This solution would increase the amount of heat released to the formation,

Confidential Page 5 both through the needles and along with the liner. To further reduce the amount of heat used to increase the temperature of the oil already produced, the inner part of the liner could have a thermally insulating layer.

Fig.3 – Possible solution to increase the thermal efficiency of the system.

There is a degree of freedom on the number of laterals and their orientation, but for the invention, this is not a relevant point. In fig.4 an example where from one sub depart four lateral channels each one with its metallic liner.

Fig.4 – Frontal view in case of four lateral channels departing from each sub.

Fig. 5 represents a different technical solution based on the circulation of hot fluid, preferably a solvent but not necessarily, rather than the downhole generation of heat. In this case, hot fluid is

Confidential Page 6 pumped from the surface through a pipe placed coaxially inside the main producing liner and will exit preferably at the very end of the production liner.

After the fluid comes out from the pipe it will mix with the oil and will decrease its viscosity due to the dilution and the increase of its temperature. The heat exchanged with oil will be partly transmitted to the walls of the liner and, through the high thermally conductive subs to the lateral pipes.

Fig.5 – Heating solution with an open circulation of hot fluid

In fig.6, a possible variant of this solution, instead of using a single pipe the flow will circulate inside two coaxial pipes an inner (110) for the inlet flow and the return from the external one (111). To improve the thermal efficiency of the heat exchange, both pipes could be made of poor thermal conductivity material in the part of the well not exposed to the reservoir. The advantage of this solution could be that heating efficiency could be higher because the circulating fluid will not mix with the produced hydrocarbon therefore the fluid might have better thermal specific heat and carry more useful heat to the reservoir section.

Fig.6 – Heating solution with a closed circulation of hot fluid

Confidential Page 7 Fig. 7 represents a different solution to heat the lateral channels based on low frequency electrical current transmission from a surface electrode to the well. A surface generator (205) is connected with a pole to a surface grounded electrode (206) and with the other pole to an electric cable connected with the lower section of a well (200). The lower part of the well is electrically insulated from the upper section of the well (201) with an electrically insulated sub (203).

Fig.7 – Low frequency Heating surface – well

The electric current flowing through the different formations will reach the metallic liner of the mother bore and the metallic liners of the lateral holes increasing their temperature. This type of heating would be different from the previous description that was based on the thermal conductivity of heat released along the mother bore because currents would flow along the whole metallic lateral pipes, therefore, increasing evenly their temperature and providing better heating of the whole lateral sections.

Several variants of this concept are possible to improve the efficiency of the system for example using a metallic liner with an external electrically insulating coating to get the maximum amount of electricity passing through the lateral pipes. A second variant could be the diameter of the lateral pipes because the smaller their diameter the higher will be the electrical charge density over their surface, therefore, in a similar way as sharp objects might better attract lightning, the lateral lower diameters pipes pipe might better exchange the current with the formation and heat faster than the larger metallic liner inside the mother bore. Another variable could be the use of lateral pipes of high conductive metals for example copper. More variants are related to the type and intensity of the electric current and the way the power is applied, continuously, by impulses, or following specific patterns. In fig 8 is reported a variant of this concept connecting two similar wells. In this case, the efficiency could be higher because two wells would be heated at the same time.

For both low-frequency heating solutions, one possible variant could be the direct connection of the generator to the wellhead. Given that the voltage is expected to be relatively low and the voltage difference between the wellhead and surrounding area would be half of what would be applied

Confidential Page 8 between the two wells, its application would not be dangerous. This solution has been already applied successfully in the industry.

Fig.8 Low-frequency heating. Twin Wells Solution

Fig.9 Solution of the system for heat farming

Another proposed solution could be the use of a radio frequency antenna placed inside a non-metallic liner able to heat the formation and also the metallic lateral pipes, that being at least partly metallic, could adsorb the radio frequency energy transmitted by the antenna. In this case the lateral pipes would be heated directly from the same well without the need of a second well or an electrode placed at surface. The detailed description of this solution is not part of the current patent.

Confidential Page 9 An interesting application of the systems proposed in figures 5 and 6 to increase the temperature of the formation would be its use for the opposite concept, i.e. extract heat from the formation to transform it into power. In this case, see fig.9, there would be no flow of hydrocarbon or other, just the flow of the heat from a hot formation to the wellbore, where a closed circulation system could heat a working fluid flowing inside a coaxial pipe (301 and 302) to carry the heat towards the surface. Given that there would be no flow of any liquid, once the lateral holes are created a fluid with good thermal conductivity as for example water, could be left around the main mother bore and inside the lateral channels. High thermal conductivity centralizers could be run to increase the heat flux from the formation to the cooling fluid inside the coaxial pipes. Also, the lateral pipes would be made of a high thermal conductivity material. No better detail is deemed necessary to describe the rest of the tubing and the heat exchanger at surface.

GENERAL COMMENT OF THE PROPOSED INVENTION

The system proposed can considerably increase production compared to a conventional well for four main reasons.

1. The first is that, concerning similar systems, can give a better thermal efficiency between heat generated and heat transferred advantageously to the formation given the lateral metallic pipes.

2. The second is that, given the presence of the lateral pipes, the amount of heat that can be generated in the main wellbore and then transferred to the formation can be much higher than other conventional systems for example heating with mineral insulated cable because the metal lateral pipes represent at the same time a cooling system for the main mother bore.

3. The third is that there is a clear synergy between the heating function of the lateral pipes and the holes themselves that allow the production, in other words in the lateral channels the viscous oil can flow towards the main channel, but also heat up thus reducing its viscosity and the consequent friction losses.

4. The fourth is that with a multilateral geometry an important increase of the reservoir contact would be achieved even in “Cold Production” i.e. with no heating.

In other words, the proposed systems represent an ideal synergy between a multilateral well concept and conventional heating technology used to reduce the viscosity of the oil. The expected improvement in productivity is higher than the improvement expected from each of the two added together.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following drawings illustrate by way of example and are included to provide a further understanding of the invention for illustrative discussion of the embodiments of the invention. No attempt is made to show structural details of the embodiments in more detail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of the invention, the description taken with the drawings making apparent to those skilled in the art how the several forms of the invention may be embodied in practice. Identical reference numerals do not necessarily indicate an identical structure. Rather, the

Confidential Page 10 same reference numeral may be used to indicate a similar feature of feature with similar functionality. In the drawings:

FIG 1: General description of the system, composed of two fundamental elements, a well with lateral tubes that depart from the main production well and a heating system inside the main production liner. Inside a well (100) drilled in a productive formation, is run a production liner (101). One or more lateral channels (102) depart from the main production liner and smaller metallic pipes are run inside each channel. Inside the main production liner, is run a smaller metallic pipe (106) with a heating cable (107). The connections between the main production liner and the lateral metallic pipes (104) are made of a highly thermally conductive material. Highly thermally conductive metallic centralizers (105) are connected to the smaller metallic pipe with the heating cable for a better thermal transmission between the cable and the production liner.

FIG.2: Possible solution to increase the thermal efficiency of the system i.e. the quantity of heat transferred to the lateral channels. The heat is released with shorter resistive sections (108) only in sections placed in front of high thermal conductivity subs from where the lateral pipes depart. To further increase the effect the liner between two high thermal conductivity subs could be made or coated by poor thermal conductivity material so that most of the heat will be transmitted by conduction to the lateral channels.

FIG.3: Possible solution to increase the thermal efficiency of the system and the amount of heat transferred to the lateral channels. In this embodiment, an electric cable (115) is run outside the production liner and the heating could be either evenly distributed along the cable or concentrated with dedicated heating elements (108) in the subs (104) where the lateral pipes (103), run inside the lateral channels (102) depart from the main production liner (101) run inside the mother bore well. (100). with heating sections that could be concentrated on the departing subs or distributed evenly along with the liner. To further increase the heat exchanged with the formation and minimize the amount of heat given to the oil already entered the production liner, the same could have an internal insulating layer.

FIG.4: Example of a possible distribution of lateral wells departing from the main mother bore. In this case, from every multilateral sub depart four lateral channels each one with its metallic liner. In case the well would be close to the oil-water contact, it would be wise not to drill the lateral oriented downwards; in the same way, if close to the gas-oil contact, it would be wise not to drill the lateral oriented upward.

FIG.5: This figure represents a different technical solution based on the circulation of a hot fluid rather than the downhole generation of heat. In this case, hot fluid is pumped from the surface through a pipe (109) placed for example coaxially inside the main production liner (101) with the fluid outlet as close as possible to the very end of the production liner.

FIG.6: This figure represents a possible variant of the previous solution. Instead of using a single pipe, the flow will circulate inside two coaxial pipes: an inner (110) for the inlet flow and an external one (111) used for the return, in the annular space between the internal and the external one. The advantage of this solution could be that heating efficiency could be higher because the circulating fluid will not mix with the produced hydrocarbon therefore the fluid might be different and have better thermal specific heat, therefore, carry more useful heat to the reservoir section.

Confidential Page 11

Claims

To improve the thermal efficiency of the heat exchange, both pipes could be made of poor thermal conductivity material in the part of the well not exposed to the reservoir.

FIG.7: This figure represents a different solution to heat the lateral channels based on low frequency electrical current transmission from a surface electrode to the well. A surface generator (205) is connected with one electric pole to a surface grounded electrode (206) and with the other pole to an electric cable connected with the lower section of a well (200). The lower section of the well is electrically insulated from the upper section of the well (201) with an electrically insulated sub (203).

FIG.8: This figure represents an alternative to the previous concept and in this case, two similar wells are connected directly to the two poles of the generator. In this case, the efficiency could be higher because two wells would be heated at the same time.

FIG. 9: This figure represents an alternative application of the system represented in fig. 5 and 6 for heat mining. A high thermal conductivity system made of a production liner and several lateral pipes is posed in close contact with the formation and will be heated by the same. Inside the mother wellbore a pipe system for close circulation of a fluid will capture the heat coming from the hot formation through the high thermal conductivity system. Given that there would be no flow of any liquid, once the lateral holes are created a fluid with good thermal conductivity as for example water, could be left around the main mother bore and inside the lateral channels. High thermal conductivity centralizers could be run to increate the heat flux from the formation to the cooling fluid inside the coaxial pipes. Also the lateral pipes would be made of a high thermal conductivity material.

CLAIMS

What is claimed is:

1 - A method and apparatus for increasing the productivity of a multilateral well producing viscous oil, but not limited to, made of a mother bore and lateral channels, obtained transferring heat from the mother bore towards the lateral channels comprising:

• A production liner placed inside a mother bore productive formation;

• At least one lateral metallic pipe made preferably, but not limited to, a high thermal conductivity material, departing from the production liner inside a lateral well;

• At least one linear distributed or localised heating element placed inside the production liner;

• At least one high thermal conductivity interphase sub connecting the production liner and the lateral pipe;

• At least one high thermal conductivity sliding centralizer to transfer the heat by conduction from the heating element to the lateral pipe.

2 – The system of claim 1 with at least one single concentrated heating element placed in front of the lateral channel rather than a distributed heating element.

3 – The system of claim 1 with linear distributed heating element placed externally in respect to the production liner.

Confidential Page 12 4 – The same of claim 1 with a pipe placed internally in respect to the production liner to release a hot fluid internally at the end of the production liner.

5 – The same as in claim 1 with a pipe in a pipe closed system to circulate hot fluid all along with the lower completion without mixing with the produced hydrocarbon.

6 – As in 1, but instead of generating the heat along the mother bore, generating the heating directly in the lateral pipes through an electric current comprising:

• At least one lateral channel departing from the mother bore

• One metallic production liner placed inside the mother bore

• At least one metallic lateral channel connected electrically with the main production liner.

• A surface pole electrically connected to the ground

• A surface generator with one electrical pole connected to the ground and the other electrical pole connected to the wellhead of the well.

7 – As in 6, further comprising an electric cable run together with the production tubing and able to connect one pole of the surface generator with the lower completion, being the lower completion in this case insulated from the production tubing and the upper well system, employing an insulating sub.

8 – As in 7, but with one electrical pole of the generator connected to a second well in order to release the heat in two wells at the same time. This connecting directly the two wellheads to the two poles.

9. As in Claims 8, but instead of connecting directly the generator to the two wellheads, the same is connected to the two lower completions by means of two electric cables run together with the production tubing in the two wells.

10. As in claim 1 with the difference that the heating element be in this case a radiofrequency distributed or localized antenna placed internally along the main production liner, in such a way that the RF energy irradiated could be at least partly captured by the metallic lateral pipes. In this case the liner, if present, will be non-metallic and transparent to the RF waves.

PÅSTANDER

Det som hevdes er:

1 - Fremgangsmåte og apparat for å øke produktiviteten til en multilateral brønn som produserer viskøs olje, men ikke begrenset til, laget av en moderboring og laterale kanaler, oppnådd overføring av varme fra moderboringen mot de laterale kanalene, omfattende:

• En produksjonsforing plassert inne i en mor bar produktiv formasjon;

• Minst ett lateralt metallrør laget fortrinnsvis, men ikke begrenset til, et materiale med høy varmeledningsevne, som går fra produksjonsforingen inne i en lateral brønn;

• Minst ett lineært distribuert varmeelement plassert inne i produksjonsforingen;

• Minst én interfase-sub med høy termisk ledningsevne som forbinder produksjonsforingen og siderøret;

Confidential Page 13

Priority

No priority

Patent classes

IPC classes

E21B 36/00

E21B 36/04

E21B 41/00

E21B 43/24

CPC classes

E21B 36/005

E21B 36/04

E21B 41/0035

E21B 43/24

E21B 43/2401

Citations

CA 3008878 A1 (A1)

US 2020032621 A1 (A1)

FR 3017411 A1 (A1)

US 10385666 B2 (B2)

Applicants, owners and inventors

Applicants

TG & T AS

Theodor Dahls veg 4B

4355 KVERNALAND

NO (TIME Municipality, Rogaland county)

Org. number: 926448455

Inventors

GILBERTO TOFFOLO

Rossåskroken 6

4332 FIGGJO

NO (SANDNES Municipality, Rogaland county)

Agent

No agent

Status history

Payment history

Oppositions and appeals

No oppositions or appeals

Administrative limitation

No administrative limitation

Liens and licences

No liens or licenses registered

Gazette entries

No Gazette entries found

Only events from 2024.03.04 and onwards are shown.

Multilateral Heating System