ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,509,973, issued on Dec. 30, was assigned to ConocoPhillips Co. (Houston).
"ESP shielding via toe-dominant solvent injection" was invented by Javier Sanchez (Houston), Alex Filstein (Houston) and Mason Ogg (Houston).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method for producing heavy oil using solvent injection without gas interference at the electric submersible pump (ESP), the method including completing the injection well with two or more injector tubings, at a heel and toe, and optionally therebetween. Ideally, when gas locking of the ESP is detected, the operator switches to toe dominant injections, mitigating the gas locking problem, and prod...