Development of a downhole incharge inflow control valve in intelligent wells

A complex hydraulic control system for intelligent wells is costly and cannot use numerous producing layers. Thus, it cannot be easily employed in China oilfields that demand a downhole electric drive inflow control valve, which can be combined with the downhole electronic monitoring system, applied to a 5.5-inch wellbore, and remotely controlled with low cost. In this study, a tubular linear motor is used in developing an incharge inflow control valve (IICV) to drive the sliding sleeve. A rotor displacement detector and a tubular linear motor are integrated to measure the IICV opening. The resulting intelligent well systems only need three 0.25-inch power wires and a 0.25-inch signal transmission cable to control over 12 producing layers. Such intelligent well systems can also reduce the number of holes on the feed-through production packer. The IICV can be combined with the downhole electronic monitoring system to achieve the electronization of intelligent well systems and reduce costs. Field application results show that the IICV continuously ran fault-free in the downhole for 15 months. The cumulative increase in oil production capacity is > 8 × 106 kg, which directly increased profit by >$3 million. The proposed systems can effectively use reservoir energy and enhance oil recovery.