Wellbore cleaning method and apparatus

摘要

A method of drilling and cleaning a wellbore includes providing a drill string having a drill bit and a cleaning tool with selectively activatable cleaning members; drilling a wellbore using the drill bit while maintaining the cleaning members in a deactivated position; and pulling the drill string from the wellbore with the cleaning members in an activated position, to thereby clean the wellbore. A corresponding cleaning tool includes a body having a bore running therethrough, a sleeve located within the bore, the sleeve including a ball seat and the sleeve being biased in a first direction, and a plurality of selectively activatable cleaning members mounted for repeated movement relative to the body between activated and deactivated positions.

主权项

1. A tool comprising:
a body having a bore running therethrough; a sleeve located within the bore, the sleeve including a ball seat and the sleeve being biased in a first direction; and a plurality of selectively activatable cleaning members mounted for repeated movement relative to the body between activated and deactivated positions; wherein location of a ball on the ball seat facilitates movement of the sleeve in a second direction opposite to said first direction, to in turn facilitate movement of the selectively activatable cleaning members to activated positions where the selectively activatable cleaning members contact a wellbore wall.