ExxonMobil awards Alternate Path completion license to Delta Screens

Exxon awards Alternate Path completion license to Delta Screens

HOUSTON -- Exxon Mobil has awarded Delta Screens & Filtration a limited international license to Exxon Mobil’s Alternate Path technology patent portfolio for gravel packing cased and openhole completion wells.

Alternate Path is a patented technology, developed by Exxon Mobil, to improve the reliability of wells completed in sand-prone reservoirs. The technology provides alternate flow paths called shunt tubes in the downhole tool used for packing gravel in the producing sections of a well.

The shunt tubes enable the Alternate Path packing operation to continue when sand prematurely blocks the well annulus, which would stop a conventional packing operation. The shunt tubes divert the gravel slurry around sand blockages and through distributed portholes to fill voids in the annulus until a complete pack is in place.

Sara N. Ortwein, President of Exxon Mobil Upstream Research Company, said, “When the geology and the economics of a development call for openhole completions, Alternate Path technology is the technique preferred by Exxon Mobil.”

The Alternate Path license allows Delta Screens to produce and deploy Alternate Path technology for Exxon Mobil affiliates around the world and for ventures in which Exxon Mobil participates.

“Alternate Path technology gives us a more reliable way to gravel pack wells where we need sand control,” said Delta Screens' President, Richard Grifno.