DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 1 and 11 require diverting of a fluid stream having a higher water-to-oil ration to an annulus around the exterior of a drilling string based on a specified temperature of a drilling string component. It is unclear what the limitation “based on a specified temperature of a drilling string component” means. The claims require the fluid stream to be diverted to an annulus based on a specified temperature of a drilling string component. This could mean that (1) there is something like a valve in place that only opens (i.e., opens the flow path to the annulus) under certain conditions related to the specified temperature of the drill string component. Alternatively, the claim limitation could mean that (2) the entire system is designed and operated so that the appropriate amount of drilling fluid reaches the separator so that the amount of liquid in the fluid stream, after separation by the separator, is such that it keeps the drill string component at a specified temperature (i.e., within an operational range). To the extent best understood, it appears that applicant intended for the second interpretation based on the specifications. Therefore, the claims will be read with the second possible interpretation discussed above.
Claims 2-10 and 12-20 are rejected for depending from a rejected claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Latos (CA 2,320,903) discloses drilling, with a drill bit (U) of a drilling string (CT, DFS; Figs. 4A, 4B), a wellbore (WB) in a subterranean zone (Figs. 4A, 4B), the drilling string comprising tubing (CT) and a fluid separator (DFS) uphole of the drill bit (Figs. 4A, 4B); and
while drilling:
flowing a drilling fluid (F1, F2; pg. 10, lines 25-37) through an interior of the drilling string and through the fluid separator (pg. 10, lines 25-37; Fig. 4B), the fluid separator separating, from the drilling fluid, a fluid stream (F1) and a remainder (F2) of the drilling fluid; and
diverting, uphole of the drill bit, the fluid stream from the fluid separator to an annulus around the exterior of the drilling string while the remainder of the drilling fluid flows from the fluid separator to the drill bit (pg. 10, lines 25-37; Fig. 4B).
Latos further discloses that the fluid stream and the remainder of the drilling fluid can be any fluids that can be separated by density (pg. 10, lines 25-37). However, Latos does not explicitly disclose the fluid stream has a higher water-to-oil ratio than the remainder of the drilling fluid or that the diverting of the fluid stream from the fluid separator to the annulus around the exterior of the drilling string is based on a specified temperature of a drilling string component. While Latos states “[f]luids F1 and F2 can be any fluid mixture separable by density” (pg. 10, lines 35-36) Latos does not specify the fluids being oil and water. Instead, Latos is directed to gas/liquid separation (see Summary of the Invention pgs. 4-7). Therefore, the broad statement by Latos does not include the limitation of fluid composition of the claims. Furthermore, Latos does not relate the diverting of the fluid stream into the annulus to the temperature of a drilling component.
Fincher (US 2011/0048806) discloses diverting a fluid stream being diverted from a remainder that is sent to a drill bit based on a temperature using a valve system (¶ [0007, 0046-47]). However, Fincher does not disclose separating drilling fluid downhole based on a water-to-oil ratio or that the diverting based on a temperature is done by a specified amount of drilling fluid reaching the separator.
The art of record does not teach or make obvious having a drilling fluid separated downhole so that a specified amount of a fluid stream, designed based on a specified temperature of a drill string component, having a higher water-to-oil ratio than a remainder of the drilling fluid that flows to a drill bit is sent into an annulus outside the drill string.
Conclusion
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/KRISTYN A HALL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3672
29 March 2026