BACKGROUND

Completion operations in the oil and gas industry include the procedures and equipment needed to bring a wellbore into production after drilling operations have ended. Downhole tubulars and equipment are assembled and lowered downhole to allow for safe and efficient production from the oil or gas well. Completion equipment may include tubulars, packers, perforated pipe, pumps, plugs, gauges, valves, etc. A slickline, a cable or single-strand wireline, may be used to run and retrieve tools and equipment in the well.

Slickline plugs or lock mandrels and landing nipples are used in completion operations and are configured to provide mechanical isolation of the well (a well control mechanical isolation barrier) to prevent downhole fluids and downhole pressures from coming up the well while performing surface work on the wellhead. A landing nipple is a section of tubular with a machined internal surface that provides a seal area and a locking profile. Landing nipples may be provided at various locations along a length of a wellbore to allow for the installation of flow control devices for isolation of sections of the well. The flow control devices may include, for example, plugs, chokes, or lock mandrels. The flow control device is inserted in the landing nipple and engages the locking profile and provides a seal against the seal area of the landing nipple.

There are several types of slickline plugs or lock mandrels and landing nipple profiles available from various manufacturers, for example, X®, XN®, R®, RN®, FBN®, RPT®, SRP, RQ, RPV. The N designates no-go nipples, which is a landing nipple that has a reduced diameter internal profile to prevent a set tool or device from passing through the nipple. The X® and R® landing nipples may be run into the well on completion tubing to provide a specific landing location for slickline plugs. The X® landing nipple may be used in standard weight tubing and the R® landing nipple is typically used with heavyweight tubing. The XN® and RN® no-go landing nipples and slickline plugs are designed for use in single nipple installations or as the bottom nipple in a series of X® or R® landing nipples. These landing nipples have the same packing bore inner diameter for a particular tubing size and weight. X® and XN® landing nipples are designed for use with standard weight tubing.

SUMMARY

In one aspect, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a method that includes running a lock mandrel into a subterranean wellbore, setting the lock mandrel in a landing nipple located at a specified depth in the subterranean wellbore, acquiring data within a control unit, the data including information regarding a position of the lock mandrel in the landing nipple, transmitting the data in real time from the control unit to a surface of the wellbore, and determining a position of the lock mandrel in the landing nipple based on the transmitted data.

In another aspect, embodiments disclosed herein relate to an apparatus that includes a landing nipple having an internal locking profile, a lock mandrel having an external locking profile configured to engage the internal locking profile of the landing nipple, a sensor coupled to the landing nipple, and a control unit coupled to the landing nipple and configured to receive data from the sensor and transmit the received data to a surface of the wellbore in real time, wherein signal transmissions between the sensor and the control unit are configured to be activated and deactivated.

In yet another aspect, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a method that includes running a lock mandrel into a subterranean wellbore, positioning the lock mandrel in a landing nipple located at a specified depth in the subterranean wellbore, transmitting a signal to a control unit coupled to the landing nipple to activate data acquisition from a sensor disposed on the landing nipple, acquiring data representative of a pressure or a strain associated with the landing nipple form the sensor, transmitting the data representative of the pressure or the strain associated with the landing nipple to a system at a surface of the wellbore in real time, and determining, based on the data representative of the pressure or the strain associated with the landing nipple, a position of the lock mandrel within the landing nipple.

Other aspects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims.

