Patent ID: 7100684

Claim:
In a wellbore that traverses a subterranean formation and includes a cased section having a wellbore casing and an uncased section that traverses a porous subterranean zone, wherein the operating pressure of the wellbore is greater than the operating pressure of the porous subterranean zone, a method of coupling a tubular liner to the wellbore casing of the cased section of the wellbore, comprising: positioning a solid tubular liner and an expansion cone within the wellbore with the solid tubular liner overlapping the wellbore casing; during the positioning of the solid tubular liner within the wellbore, preventing the portion of the solid tubular liner that does not overlap with the wellbore casing from contacting the porous subterranean zone of the uncased section of the wellbore; radially expanding the solid tubular liner by injecting a fluidic material into the tubular liner to pressurize the interior of the solid tubular liner and displace the expansion cone relative to the solid tubular liner; and preventing the portion of the solid tubular liner that does not overlap with the wellbore casing from contacting the porous subterranean zone of the uncased section of the wellbore during the radial expansion of the portion of the solid tubular liner that does not overlap with the wellbore casing.