BACKGROUND

In hydrocarbon production wells, it may be beneficial to regulate the flow of formation fluids from a subterranean formation into a wellbore penetrating the same. A variety of reasons or purposes may necessitate such regulation including, for example, prevention of water and/or gas coning, minimizing water and/or gas production, minimizing sand production, maximizing oil production, balancing production from various subterranean zones, equalizing pressure among various subterranean zones, and/or the like.

A number of devices are available for regulating the flow of formation fluids. Some of these devices may be non-discriminating for different types of formation fluids and may simply function as a “gatekeeper” for regulating access to the interior of a wellbore pipe, such as a well string. Such gatekeeper devices may be simple on/off valves or they may be metered to regulate fluid flow over a continuum of flow rates. Other types of devices for regulating the flow of formation fluids may achieve at least some degree of discrimination between different types of formation fluids. Such devices may include, for example, tubular flow restrictors, nozzle-type flow restrictors, autonomous inflow control devices, non-autonomous inflow control devices, ports, tortuous paths, any combinations thereof, and the like.

Autonomous inflow control devices (AICD) may be particularly advantageous in subterranean operations, since they are able to automatically regulate fluid flow without the need for operator control due to their design. In this regard, AICDs may be designed such that they provide a greater resistance to the flow of undesired fluids (e.g., gas and/or water) than they do desired fluids (e.g., oil), particularly as the percentage of the undesired fluids increases.

Several AICDs may be combined into an AICD system and may be manufactured to particular specifications and/or designs requested by well operators based on production needs for particular well sites. Such design specifications may include the need to seal off the flow ports of an AICD to perform certain downhole operations. The entry and/or exit of fluids into the tooling during certain operations may be harmful to said tooling and/or the operation being performed.

