Abstract:
Apparatus and method for operating a valve positioned in a wellbore. The apparatus includes a tubing having a bore and a piston operably coupled to the valve. The piston is moveable from a first position to the second position by predetermined pressure applied from fluid in the tubing bore. A counter mechanism coupled to the piston prevents movement of the piston to the second position until the predetermined pressure has been applied a first number of times.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit of under 35 U.S.C. §119(e)(1) of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/041,108, filed Mar. 19, 1997, entitled “FORMATION ISOLATION VALVE (FIV) WITH TRIPLESS COUNTER OPERATOR”; 
     This application further claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §120 of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/646,673, filed May 10, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,087, entitled “FORMATION ISOLATION VALVE ADAPTED FOR BUILDING A TOOL STRING OF ANY DESIRED LENGTH PRIOR TO LOWERING THE TOOL STRING DOWNHOLE FOR PERFORMING A WELLBORE OPERATION”, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/762,762, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,845, filed Dec. 10, 1996, entitled “SURFACE CONTROLLED FORMATION ISOLATION VALVE ADAPTED FOR DEPLOYMENT OF A DESIRED LENGTH OF A TOOL STRING IN WELLBORE”. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     The invention relates to a valve operating mechansim. 
     In a wellbore, one or more valves can be used to control flow of fluid between different sections of the wellbore. Such valves are typically referred to as formation isolation valves. A formation isolation valve can include a ball valve that is controllable with a shifting tool lowered into the wellbore. For example, the shifting tool can be attached to the end of a tool string (e.g., perforating string). The shifting tool engages a valve operator that is operably coupled to the valve to rotate the valve between the open and close positions. 
     In addition to use of a shifting tool, such valves can also be operated remotely, such as by application of fluid pressure from the surface to a valve. In addition to valves, other equipment may also be located downhole. Such equipment may also be operable by fluid pressure applied down the wellbore. Thus, a need arises for a mechanism that can prevent actuation of a valve when such fluid pressure is applied to operate the other equipment. 
     SUMMARY 
     In general, in one aspect, the invention features an apparatus for operating a valve positioned in a wellbore. The apparatus includes a tubing having a bore and a piston operably coupled to the valve. The piston is moveable from a first position to the second position by predetermined pressure applied from fluid in the tubing bore. A counter mechanism coupled to the piston prevents movement of the piston to the second position until the predetermined pressure has been applied a first number of times. 
     Other features will become apparent from the following description and from the claims. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a diagram of a wellbore having a formation isolation valve. 
     FIGS. 2-4 are diagrams of a formation isolation valve. 
     FIGS. 5A-5B are a cross-section of portions of the formation isolation valve. 
     FIG. 6 is a diagram of J slots used in a counter mechanism in the formation isolation valve. 
     FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a power mandrel used in the counter mechanism in the formation isolation valve. 
     FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of a spline sleeve used in the counter mechanism in the formation isolation valve. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Referring to FIG. 1, a wellbore  12  having a vertical section and a deviated section is shown. Casing  6  is cemented to the inner wall of the wellbore  12 . A tubing string  14 , connected to surface equipment, extends through both the vertical and deviated portions of the wellbore  12 . A formation isolation valve (FIV)  18  is connected to the tubing string  14  at a predetermined location. In one embodiment, the FIV  18  includes a ball valve  18   a  and a valve operator mechanism  18   b . The operator mechanism  18   b  can be actuated to open and close the valve  18   a . When closed, the ball valve  18   a  prevents fluid communication between the upper and lower sections of the wellbore  12 . 
     A tool string (e.g., a perforating string  10 ) can be lowered on a coiled tubing  14  into the bore of the tubing string  14  and through the bore of the FIV  18 . Connected at the bottom end of the perforating string  10  is a shifting tool  16  used to engage the operator mechanism  18   b  to actuate the ball valve  18   a . The shifting tool  16  can be used to repeatedly open and close the valve  18   a.    
     The FIV  18  can be actuated remotely from the surface using fluid pressure communicated down the tubing string  14  to the FIV  18 . By allowing this remote actuation, a trip downhole to open the valve  18   a  can be avoided. According to an embodiment of the invention, the FIV  18  includes a counter section  200  (FIG. 5B) that can be set to actuate the valve operator mechanism  18   b  after a predetermined number of pressure cycles. One advantage offered by using the counter section  200  is that pressure cycles can be used to activate other equipment downhole or to perform tests without actuating the ball valve  18   a.    
     Referring to FIGS. 2-4, portions of the FIV  18 , including a tripsaver section and a valve section, are illustrated. FIG. 2 shows the FIV  18  in its initial run-in position, FIG. 3 shows the FIV  18  in its closed position, and FIG. 4 shows the FIV  18  in its re-opened position. 
     The ball valve  18   a  is connected to a ball operator  18   b , which includes a pair of grooves  18   b   1  in which a detent  18   b   3  is disposed. An upward longitudinal movement of the ball operator  18   b  (such as in response to engagement of a shifting tool as the tool is being raised out of the wellbore) will cause the detent  18   b   3  to move out of one groove and fall into the other groove of the pair of grooves  18   b   1 . The ball operator  18   b  will then rotate the ball valve  18   a  from the run-in open position in FIG. 2 to the closed position in FIG.  3 . 
     The tripsaver section of the FIV  18  includes an operator mandrel  114 , a gas chamber  110 , a power mandrel  122 , a fluid chamber  128 , and a counter section  200 . The gas chamber  110  includes a preselected gas (e.g., nitrogen), which defines a reference pressure. Fluid in the tubing string  14  can be communicated through the FIV bore  108  to the fluid chamber  128 , which applies an upward pressure on the power mandrel  122 . When the fluid pressure exceeds the gas pressure, the power mandrel  122  moves up along with the operator mandrel  114 . When fluid is bled from the tubing string  14  the fluid pressure drops and the power mandrel  122  is pushed back down. Each up and down movement of the power mandrel  122  makes up a cycle. After a predetermined number of cycles, the counter section  200  is activated to allow the bottom of the power mandrel  122  to contact the top part of a latch mandrel  176  in the valve operator  18   b , as shown in FIG.  4 . The downward movement of the valve operator  18   b  will cause the ball valve  18   a  to rotate from its closed position (FIG. 3) to its open position (FIG.  4 ). This cycled actuation of the ball valve  18   a  can be repeated. 
     In the configuration shown in FIG. 4, the latch mandrel  176  of the valve operator  18   b  engages the power mandrel  122  to open the valve  18   a . The counter mechanism  200  acts to engage and disengage the latch mandrel  176  from the power mandrel  122 . The counter mechanism allows engagement of the power mandrel  122  with the latch mandrel  176  after the power mandrel is operated a certain number of up and down cycles. The nitrogen gas provides power for moving the power mandrel  122  down against the tubing pressure. 
     The nitrogen gas chamber can be pre-charged at the surface to certain pressures to give a desired downhole reference pressure or a separate reference tool can be run which will allow the nitrogen gas reference pressure to equalize with the hydrostatic pressure and then isolate the nitrogen gas reference pressure from the tubing pressure. 
     Referring to FIGS. 5A-5B, the FIV  18  includes a valve section (containing the valve  18   a  and valve operator  18   b ) and a tripsaver section (containing a power mandrel  122  and a counter section  200 ). In FIG. 5A, the top part of the FIV  18  includes a top sub section  106  that has a threaded opening for connecting to the tubing string  14 . The FIV  18  has an axial bore  108  through which a tool string can pass. The top sub section  106  is threadably connected to a first housing section  112 . An operator mandrel  114  is located inside the first housing section  112 . A chamber  110  is defined by the outer wall  118  of the operator mandrel  114 , the inner wall  116  of the first housing section  112 , and the bottom face  134  of the top sub section  106 . The chamber can be filled with nitrogen or other suitable gas to define a reference pressure for remote operation of the FIV  18 . O-ring seals  102  are used to seal the gas chamber  110 . 
     In FIG. 5B, the operator mandrel  114  is threadably connected to a power mandrel  122 , and the first housing section  112  is threadably connected to a middle housing section  136 . A fluid chamber  128  is defined between the inner wall  140  of the middle housing section  136  and the outer wall  138  of the power mandrel  122 . The fluid chamber  128  fills with fluid that exists in the bore  108  of the FIV  18 . Thus, fluid pressure applied from the surface can be communicated through the bore of the tubing string  14  to the fluid chamber  128  and applied to the area formed between the O-ring seal  124  and the inner diameter of the operator mandrel  114 . The bottom surface  142  of a flange portion  126  of the power mandrel  122  initially sits on a shoulder  150  of a protruding section  156  of a spline sleeve  152 . 
     If the fluid chamber pressure exceeds the reference pressure of the gas chamber  110 , then the power mandrel is pushed up (or to the left of the page on FIG.  5 B). The power mandrel  122  can travel the distance defined by a gap  146  until the top surface  148  of a flange portion  126  bumps up against the bottom face  134  of the first housing section  112 . An O-ring seal  124  prevents fluid communication between the fluid chamber  128  and the gas chamber  110 , and an O-ring seal  144  prevents fluid communication from outside the housing of the FIV  18 . 
     When the power mandrel  122  is pushed to its up position, half a power cycle has occurred. When fluid pressure in the FIV bore  108  is next bled off at the surface until the gas chamber reference pressure exceeds the fluid chamber pressure, the power mandrel  122  drops back down until the bottom surface  142  of a flange portion  126  hits the shoulder  150  defined by a protruding section  156  of the spline sleeve  152 . Each up and down motion of the power mandrel  122  defines one cycle of the counter section  200 . 
     After a predetermined number of cycles, the counter section  200  of the FIV  18  is activated to allow the power mandrel  122  to move down past a protruding section  156  of the spline sleeve  152 . The spline sleeve  152  is rotatable with respect to the power mandrel  122 . Each up and down cycle of the power mandrel  122  causes the spline sleeve  152  to rotate a certain distance. In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, the power mandrel includes three flange portions  126 A-C. As shown in FIG. 8, the spline sleeve  152  includes three protruding sections  156 A-C. After a predetermined number of cycles, gaps  158 A-C between the protruding sections  156 A-C line up with the flange sections  126 A-C, allowing the power mandrel  122  to move down past the protruding sections  156  toward the shoulder  137  of the middle housing section  136  (after shear pins  120  are sheared as discussed further below). 
     A J-slot pin  130  is inserted through the spline sleeve  152  to move in a step-wise fashion along J slots defined in the outer wall  138  of the power mandrel  122  as the spline sleeve  152  is rotated. As the spline sleeve  152  rotates, the J-slot pin  130  travels along a path defined by the J slots generally along the circumference of the power mandrel outer wall  138 , as shown in FIG.  6 . 
     As illustrated in the different views of FIGS. 6 and 7, there are 10 J slots  161 ,  162 ,  163 ,  164 ,  165 ,  166 ,  167 ,  168 ,  169 , and  170  in the power mandrel  122 . J slots  161 - 169  are of the same length (length A), and J slot  170  is of a longer length (length B). The shorter length J slots allow movement of the power mandrel  122  in an up and down fashion along length A, but such movement does not allow the power mandrel to engage the ball valve operator  18   b . The J-slot pin  130  of the rotating spline sleeve  152  is rotatingly urged along adjacent J slots with each cycle of the power mandrel  122 . The single long length counter track engagement J slot  170  is designed to allow sufficient movement along length B of the power mandrel to allow the power mandrel  122  to engage the valve operator  18   b  sufficiently to operate on the valve  18   a . A fixed J-slot pin  132  contained in the first housing section  112  remains tracking in the engagement slot  170  as the spline sleeve  152  rotates and the J-slot pin  130  moves between different J slots. 
     In operation, the J-slot pin  130  can initially be located in slot  161 A. When the power mandrel  122  is pushed up by fluid pressure, the J-slot pin  130  travels along the path from the slot  161 A to  161 B. When the power mandrel  122  moves back down again after fluid pressure is removed, the J-slot pin  130  travels along the path defined from slot  161 B to slot  162 A. This is repeated until the J-slot pin  130  reaches slot  169 B. On the next down cycle of the power mandrel  122 , the flange portions  126 A-C line up with the gaps  158 A-C, which then allows the J-slot pin  130  to travel along the extended slot  170 A as the power mandrel  122  moves down toward the shoulder  137  of the middle housing section  136 . 
     When the operator mandrel  114  moves down to actuate the valve  18   a , an opening  101  in the operator mandrel  114  moves down to allow the gas chamber  110  to communicate with the inner bore  108  of the FIV  18 . As a result, the gas (e.g., nitrogen) in the chamber  110  escapes through the opening  101 . The chamber  110  then fills up with tubing fluid to equalize pressure above and below the operator mandrel  114 . This allows a shifting tool to open and close the valve  18   a  in subsequent operations. 
     To ensure that the pressure in the FIV bore  108  is at or below the formation pressure under the ball valve  18   a , shear pins  120  connect the operator mandrel  114  to a sleeve  121 . When the operator mandrel  114  and power mandrel  122  initially move downwardly, the sleeve  121  hits against a shoulder  123  in the first housing section  112  to prevent further movement of the operator and power mandrels. By bleeding away the tubing string bore pressure (and thus the FIV bore pressure), a sufficiently large pressure differential can be created between the gas chamber pressure and the fluid chamber pressure in the FIV  18  to shear the shearing pins  120 . Once the shearing pins  120  are sheared, the operator mandrel and power mandrel can drop down. By ensuring a low FIV bore pressure less than the formation pressure below the valve  18   a , damage can be avoided to the formation below the valve  18   a  when the valve  18   a  is reopened. 
     If desired, the tubing bore fluid pressure can also be maintained at a high enough level that the shearing pins  120  are not sheared. As a result, down movement of the power mandrel  122  to engage the valve operator  18   b  is prevented. If the tubing bore fluid pressure is not dropped low enough, then the valve  18   a  is not opened. This effectively resets the counter mechanism  200  on the next pressure up cycle. To activate the power mandrel again, the predetermined number of cycles must be reapplied to the counter mechanism. 
     The down movement of the power mandrel  122  causes its bottom part  172  to contact the top part of the latch mandrel  176 . This moves the latch mandrel  176  to thereby actuate the ball valve  18   a.    
     The tripsaver counter mechanism  200  in the FIV  18  allows one to, for example, pressure test tubing against the closed ball valve multiple times without cycling the ball valve open. This provides a great deal of flexibility downhole to alter the planned operations if required. 
     Alternatively, the valve can be closed and opened with a shifting tool run on the tubing, wireline, or coil tubing giving a redundant means of operating the valve to tubing pressure. The shifting tool is run at the end of the tool (e.g., perforating gun) string and includes a bi-directional collet and upper and lower centralizers. Pulling out of the hole the shifting tool collet engages with the latch profile and pulls the latch out of the detent closing the ball valve. The shifting tool disengages from the latch fingers once the ball is fully closed. Running in the hole the shifting tool collet engages with the latch profile and pushes the latch out of detent opening the ball valve. The ball valve opens every time the shifting tool is run through it and closes when pulled out of it. A uni-directional collet with shifting tool is run in to open the ball valve in case it can not be opened with tubing pressure. This collet will open the ball running in but does not close the ball pulling out. A detailed description of how a shifting tool actuates a ball valve is provided in the following applications, which are both owned by the same assignee of the present application and both incorporated herein by reference: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/646,673, entitled “Formation Isolation Valve Adapted for Building a Tool String of any Desired Length Prior to Lowering the Tool String Downhole for Performing a Wellbore Operation,” filed on May 10, 1996; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/762,762, entitled “Surface Controlled Formation Isolation Valve Adapted for Deployment of a Desired Length of a Tool String in Wellbore,” filed on Dec. 10, 1996. 
     An optional spring loaded lock  133  (FIG. 5B) can be included in the FIV  18  adjacent the power mandrel  122 . When the power mandrel  122  moves down to engage the latch mandrel  176  of the ball operator  18   b , the spring loaded lock is pushed into a groove  135  initially located higher up on the power mandrel  122 . Once locked, the power mandrel  122  cannot be moved by subsequent operations, thereby locking the valve  18   a  in an open position. 
     The FIV according to embodiments of the invention has many uses and advantages. For example, some wells are completed with other than cemented liner, i.e. the reservoir is exposed while top hole completion is run. In such a case, the formation might be damaged beyond repair due to the invasion of the completion fluid. If an FIV is installed at the top of the liner, it can be used as a barrier to keep the reservoir section isolated and protected. If the FIV is set in shallow depth up to 600 meters, it can be controlled via a control line with nitrogen, then the valve can be used as a second safety valve. 
     The FIV has an advantage that it can be tested from above as well as from below because it is a ball valve as compared to flapper-type safety valve. Some of the traditional wireline works can be avoided or minimized by using appropriate downhole valve technology which will reduce rig time, cost and risks associated with wireline works. As multi-lateral wells become common with the advancement of drilling and completion technologies, full bore ball valves will be an important component for well control, intervention, production and reservoir management in intelligent completion systems used in such multi-lateral wells. 
     Additionally, the FIV can be used to isolate wellbore sections so that a wellbore tool string of any desired length may be made up in the first section prior to opening the valve. The tool string can be lowered into the second section of the wellbore for performing one or more wellbore operations downhole in the second section. 
     Further, the FIV according to embodiments of the present invention can be used for isolating the formation from a portion of the wellbore above the formation by, e.g., positioning in a wellbore above the formation a valve assembly having a fluid conduit capable of the passage of tools therethrough and into the zone to be isolated and capable of allowing or preventing fluid communication within the wellbore between the wellhead and the formation. 
     Embodiments of the invention may also have one or more of the following advantages. By using a trip saver section, tubing pressure can operate the valve, thereby avoiding the need for a trip downhole for valve operation. The counter section associated with the valve allows other operations to be performed downhole before the valve is activated. The valve is multi-cycled and can be opened and closed as often as desired. Even after activating the trip saver, the valve can be subsequently opened and closed mechanically by a shifting tool. 
     Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. For example, although a specific valve mechanism is described, other types of valves and valve operator mechanisms can be used with a counter section  200  according to an embodiment of the invention. 
     Although the present invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments, various modifications and variations may be made to these embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the claims.