This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the presently described embodiments. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the described embodiments. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light and not as admissions of prior art.
Oil and gas wells formed in the earth and often traverse several formation layers or regions of the earth, which may include one or more hydrocarbon reservoirs. Production tubing is disposed in the well and production fluid from the hydrocarbon reservoirs flows to the surface through the production tubing. During some production operations, it may be beneficial to independently control the flow of fluid from different regions of the reservoirs into the production tubing. Packers are disposed in an annulus between the wellbore and the production tubing to isolate the reservoir into different zones.
Each corresponding portion of the production tubing includes a valve. When the valve is open, fluid can flow from the respective reservoir zone into the production tubing. When the valve is closed, fluid from the respective reservoir zone is prevented from flowing into the production tubing. Thus, the flow of fluid from each zone into the production tubing can be controlled by controlling the opening and closing of the corresponding valve.
In many systems, opening and closing of each valve requires electrical operation of an actuator such as a solenoid operated valve (SOV), a motor a heating coil, among others. A single system may have many actuators (e.g., SOVs), each of which needs to be controllable independently of the others. Currently, enabling such a control scheme requires increasing the number of conductor lines or the number of electronic components as the number of SOVs increases.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds