ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 29 -- United States Patent no. 12,209,478, issued on Jan. 28, was assigned to Halliburton Energy Services Inc. (Houston).
"Plug and abandon with fusible alloy seal" was invented by Michael Linley Fripp (Singapore), Wei Zhang (Houston) and Brandon T Least (Carrollton, Texas).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of creating a seal in a tubular by melting a first component comprising a fusible alloy, using heat produced by an exothermic, hydrolysis reaction of a second component comprising a metal, to provide a melted fusible alloy, and allowing the melted fusible alloy to solidify in the tubular, wherein the fusible alloy expands upon solidifying and forms the seal. A sy...