ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 13 -- United States Patent no. 12,523,113, issued on Jan. 13, was assigned to ConocoPhillips Co. (Houston).
"Setting a cement plug" was invented by Lars Hovda (Tananger, Norway), Dan Mueller (Houston), James C. Stevens (Willis, Texas) and Amal Phadke (Houston).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A cementing tool (1) and method for setting a cement plug where Instead of the conventional "balanced plug", the technique involves pumping cement whilst pulling and rotating the tool. The cementing tool (1) includes nozzles (9) for jetting cement which are located in a relatively narrow region (8) of the tool and a larger diameter choke region (5) proximal of the nozzles (9). The end ...