US 12,331,632 B2
Analyzing hydrocarbon flow into multi-lateral wells by releasing tracers from the surface
Gawain Thomas, Cambridge, MA (US); Hsieh Chen, Cambridge, MA (US); and Martin E. Poitzsch, Cambridge, MA (US)
Assigned to Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Dhahran (SA)
Filed by Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Dhahran (SA)
Filed on May 15, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/317,335.
Prior Publication US 2024/0384648 A1, Nov. 21, 2024
Int. Cl. E21B 47/11 (2012.01)
CPC E21B 47/11 (2020.05) 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising:
in a wellbore formed in a subterranean zone from a surface of the Earth, a lateral formed from the wellbore into the subterranean zone, hydrocarbons entrapped in the subterranean zone flowing into the lateral, a wellbore production tubing installed within the wellbore and extending toward the lateral, the wellbore production tubing defining an annulus between an outer surface of the wellbore production tubing and an inner wall of the wellbore:
flowing, within an internal volume defined by an elongated, ring-shaped body wrapped around the outer surface of the wellbore production tubing and through an inlet formed on a surface of the body, a portion of the hydrocarbons flowing from the lateral into the annulus, wherein the internal volume resides in the annulus defined by the wellbore production tubing;
mixing, within the internal volume, the portion of the hydrocarbons with tracers residing within the internal volume;
flowing, out of an outlet formed on the surface of the body and towards the surface, a mixture of the portion of the hydrocarbons with a portion of the tracers, wherein the mixture flows towards the surface in the annulus defined by the wellbore production tubing;
flowing the mixture from the annulus into the wellbore production tubing and towards the surface;
analyzing, at the surface, a concentration of the tracers in the mixture flowed to the surface; and
determining, based on a result of the analyzing, properties of hydrocarbon flow into the lateral.