Downhole Apparatus with a Valve Arrangement Three-Stage Flow Control for Sand Screen Deployment

This patent covers a downhole apparatus for oil and gas wells that uses a three-stage locking valve arrangement to first inflate a sand screen against the wellbore wall and then open it for production, all through a single sequenced tool string.

The Problem

Completing an oil or gas well in a sand-prone formation requires placing a sand control element — typically a screen or filter — in tight contact with the formation face so that hydrocarbons can flow in while sand grains are excluded. The conventional approach involves multiple separate operations and tool strings: running the screen, expanding packers to anchor the assembly, then opening flow ports for production. Each trip into the wellbore adds time, cost, and the risk of stuck tools or wellbore instability. An apparatus that can complete all three stages — run in, expand against the formation, and then switch to production flow — through a single tool with a controlled, lockable valve sequence reduces operational complexity and the number of trips required.

What This Invention Does

The invention is a downhole apparatus comprising a tubular body with two distinct ports in its wall, an expandable activation chamber, and a valve arrangement that can be locked sequentially into three configurations. In the first configuration (run-in), both ports are closed and the tool is locked for deployment. In the second configuration, the first port opens to allow activation fluid to pressurize and expand the activation chamber, pressing the sand control element into contact with the wellbore wall, while the second port remains closed. In the third configuration, the first port closes and the second port opens, allowing reservoir fluids (oil, gas, or water) to flow from the formation through the sand screen and into the tubular body for production. Each configuration is positively locked, preventing unintended transition. The apparatus can be fitted with multiple valve arrangement pairs along the tubular body to allow selective, zoned production from different intervals of the same wellbore, with each zone independently operable by hydraulic, mechanical, or combined actuation.

Key Features

• Three locked configurations. The valve arrangement locks in each stage, preventing premature or accidental transition from deployment through activation to production. This gives operators positive confirmation of tool state at each step.
• Hydraulic expansion of the activation chamber. Activation fluid pumped down the tubing string pressurizes the chamber, expanding it radially to press the sand control element against the formation face. This eliminates the need for a separate packer run.
• Dedicated separation of activation and production ports. Using two distinct ports for the two functions (expansion fluid in, reservoir fluid out) prevents contamination of the activation circuit by formation fluids and vice versa.
• Multiple zone capability. The tubular body can carry two or more valve arrangement pairs, each associated with its own port pair and independently operable. This enables selective production from multiple formation intervals in a single run.
• Sand-free production from tight contact. Once expanded, the sand control element is in direct contact with the wellbore wall, enabling the formation to be produced without sand ingress, more effectively drained, or flooded with injected fluids for pressure management or enhanced recovery.

Who Is Behind It?

The applicant is Halliburton Manufacturing and Services Limited, a subsidiary of Halliburton Company, one of the world’s largest oilfield services providers. The named inventors are Stephen Edmund Bruce, David Grant, Scott E. Wallace, and Ewan Smith. This application is a divisional with a long lineage: AU 2024278161, which is itself a divisional of AU 2023204248, of AU 2021273628, of AU 2017259201, which is the national phase of PCT/GB2017/051223 (published as WO2017/191442). The underlying invention therefore dates to 2017. The Australian patent attorney is Spruson and Ferguson in Sydney.

Why It Matters

Sand control is a critical engineering challenge in a significant proportion of Australian oil and gas wells, particularly in offshore Western Australia and the Timor Sea, where producing formations are often unconsolidated. A downhole completion tool that reduces trips, simplifies the activation sequence, and locks each stage positively reduces well completion costs and non-productive time. Halliburton’s long divisional chain on this invention reflects its commercial importance: each divisional extends the patent family’s effective life and allows claims to be tailored to different embodiments of the underlying technology. The multi-zone selective production capability is particularly relevant to long horizontal wells, where independent control of production zones is central to reservoir management.

Related Concepts

This application sits within the broader field of well completion engineering, where the goal is to move from a drilled wellbore to a producing one with the minimum number of trips and the maximum operational certainty. The three-stage locked valve architecture addresses a specific challenge in sand-prone formations that require both packer inflation and selective flow control from a single run.

The divisional filing strategy employed here – with four generations of divisionals stretching back to a 2017 PCT application – is standard practice in oilfield services IP, where long patent families allow claims to be tailored to successive product generations and emerging competitor embodiments across multiple jurisdictions.

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AU 2026201826 was published in the Australian Official Journal of Patents on 2 April 2026 and is open for public inspection. Patent applications represent inventions that are sought to be protected and do not necessarily reflect commercially available products.