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WellDiver offers a material science platform of nanostructured materials with tailored material properties such as strength, ductility, density, fracture toughness, corrosion resistance, and dissolution rate.
Published July 16, 2020
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Updated March 7, 2022
Oil & Gas
Sustainability
Completions
Subsurface
Product Overview
Overview
- Nanostructured materials innovation allied with mechanical and electronic design to make differentiated oilfield products
- Tailor material properties to requirements – strength, ductility, density, fracture toughness, corrosion resistance, dissolution rate etc.
- Using methods and matured supply chain from other industries (e.g. aerospace)
- Products include dissolvable frac flugs, inflow control devices, and flow back sensors.
Business Model
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Technology Innovations
- Rapid cost-effective materials design to customer requirements: Tailor materials properties – strength, ductility, fracture toughness, corrosion resistance – at an unprecedented price-performance point
- Lightweight, high strength, tunable dissolution: Tailoring material structures at atomic length scales gives much higher yield strength, lower density - less material in products, lower cost. Better control of materials properties allows for more controlled and more complete dissolution across a wide variety of conditions
- Short development times: Rapid production of new materials, leading to short time from idea to prototype and allowing rapid commercial production (weeks & months)
- Leveraging a mature supply chain for oil & gas applications: Able to deliver products at volume e.g. 8000 frac plugs a month capacity
Applications
- Dissolvable frac plug and ball: Stronger lighter material leads to shorter plug using less material, larger flow bore (3 in) - dissolution rate independent of salinity.
- Retrievable sensor packages – a novel conveyance mechanism: For example, “Dissolvable frac ball with sensor” - Higher strength materials allow for hollow dissolvable outer shell nesting inner sensor(s) packages
- Downhole corrosion measurement at zone of interest: High strength and corrosion resistance buoyant vehicles are used to convey sensors downhole to directly measure corrosion parameters at zones of interest
- Robotic multi-finger sensing tool for assessing internal casing corrosion: Autonomous centralized caliper drone, using light weight high strength envelope. An alternate embodiment also houses ultrasonic sensors to measure internal casing corrosion or perform analysis behind casing
- Temporary plugged nozzles for slotted sleeves: Dissolvable plugs in limited entry perforated liners to eliminate ball drop sleeves for middle and lower completions. Tracer sensing and ability of temporary plugged nozzles to hold bi-directional differential pressure OD to ID / ID to OD are first of its kind