Cypress man on team receiving patent for sliding sleeve for oil and gas wells

A Cypress man is part of a team of inventors receiving a U.S. patent for its improvements in the design of sliding sleeves that can be used to increase flexibility in oil and gas wells.

Sliding sleeves are commonly used in oil and gas wells where operators may need to change the direction of production in the well or adjust it in some other way. According to the patent, such sleeves often encounter jams caused by debris and wear. The teams writes that before its invention, there was no real solution to this problem other than "putting in what was thought to be a sufficient amount of grease and hoping for the best." The team says its solve the problem through the addition of a new kind of protective sheath.

The inventors credited in the patent are Jeffrey Lembcke of Cypress, Joe Jordan of Willis and Robert Coon of Missouri City. The patent's official number is 7,870,907, and it was originally filed on March 8, 2007. The filers were represented by Houston-based intellectual property law firm Wong, Cabello, Lutsch, Rutherford & Brucculeri LLP. The patent is owned by Weatherford International.

Weatherford International is one of the world's largest oil and natural gas services companies. Originally founded in Texas, it is now based in Geneva.