The drilling apparatus includes a wire line core barrel head assembly that has a latch body seatable on a drill string landing shoulder and retained in a latch seated position by a latch assembly spring urged to a latch seated position, fluid seals on the latch body to facilitate fluidly propelling the head assembly in an upward direction, valve mechanism in a latch body bypass channel to restrict fluid flow therethrough to provide a signal of the latch body seating on the landing shoulder and then opening together with being retractable to an open position by a latch retractor prior to the latch body being retracted and second valve mechanism to block axial outward flow in the bypass channel. The fluid seals are mounted to a latch body adaptor that may be removed to convert from an up-hole to a down-hole assembly.
The present invention is a system and method for removal of buried objects. According to one embodiment of the invention, a crane with a vibrator casing driver is used to lift and suspend a large diameter steel casing over the buried object. Then the casing is driven into the ground by the vibratory driver until the casing surrounds the buried object. Then the open bottom of the casing is sealed shut by injecting grout into the ground within the casing near its bottom. When the seal has cured and hardened, the top of the casing is lifted to retrieve the casing, with the buried object inside, from the ground.
A pressure and temperature core sampler comprises a tool for recovering cores specifically enabling the evaluation of methane hydrate resources. Because methane hydrate tends to decompose under conditions of pressure decrease and/or temperature increase as the samples are retrieved to the surface, a coring tool in accordance with the present invention provides a self-contained system for retrieving core samples at or near in situ pressure while cooling the core sample. The coring tool is preferably a wire line retrievable device that provides for nearly continuous coring during the drilling operation.
