MATEC Web of Conferences 290, 10003 (2019) https://doi.org/10.

1051/matecconf /201929010003
MSE 2019

Casing while Drilling – a Viable Alternative to

Conventional Drilling
Ion Foidaş1,*, Dan-Paul Ștefănescu1, and Mihai Serbancea2
1Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, E. Cioran 4, Sibiu, Romania
2Weatherford Atlas GIP S.A, Clopotei 2, Ploiesti, Romania

Abstract. Mankind’s increased requirement for and dependence on energy

resources, including the resources resulting from discovery and
development of new hydrocarbon commercial reservoirs involves the use of
new technologies such as optimization of the drilling process by reducing
the non-productive time, the costs and the risks. Casing while drilling
involves elimination of classical drilling string by using the casing string
both for transmission to the bit of the mechanical energy and for circulation
of drilling fluid into the well. Although there is a number of technical or
perception barriers related to the use of casing drilling, the important
benefits of this technology related to reduced drilling time and problems
associated to the drilling string make it an increasingly viable alternative to
conventional drilling. The experience in applying this technology has proven
that it can reduce the time of well execution and sometimes it lowers the
costs in relation to drilling depth.

1 Introduction
Considering the information provided by the International Energy Agency [1], the global
natural gas demand increased continuously since 2009, reaching 3757 billion m 3, with the
perspective of an increase up to 23% to 25% share of the global energy consumption in
2040.
The global natural gas demand increase is related, mainly, with a lower environment
impact of this fuel as compared to other fossil fuels, especially in relation to air quality, as
well as to greenhouse gas, as natural gas is the main substitute of coal in electricity
generation industry, despite the higher risks implied by the explosive character of the
natural gases [2].
Thus, “natural gas comprised 22% of electricity supply globally in 2014. By 2060 this could
change to anything between 17-32% - an absolute increase of between 300-1500 bcm” [3].
In order to satisfy such demand, the gas producers plan drilling programs for exploration
– in order to discover new gas reservoirs, and for production - in order to increase the gas
production rate for reservoirs in production. To achieve such investment programs,
considerable amounts are often allocated, amounts which are often spent before completing
the program, due to complications and technical accidents occurred during drilling which
might increase the final cost of the wells.

*
Corresponding author: [email protected]

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
MATEC Web of Conferences 290, 10003 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf /201929010003
MSE 2019

To reduce such unforeseen costs of the well drilling operations, more and more companies
experiment and implement new drilling techniques and technologies which reduce the down-
time, mitigate the risk and technical accidents while drilling.
Casing while drilling - CwD is one of the alternatives of controlled pressure drilling like
Constant Bottomhole Pressure, Pressurized Mud Cap Drilling or Dual Gradient Drilling.
Casing while drilling is an alternative to conventional drilling using the casing as drilling
string, drilling and casing the well simultaneously.
Although the casing while drilling technology was tested in the 1920s, extensive use was
possible only during the last decade, following the technical advancements [4]. The method
was therefore proven as effective in reducing the overall drilling cost by reducing drilling
time and the problems associated to the drilling string.

2 Equipment used for casing while drilling

The equipment used for casing while drilling can be either conventional with minimum
additional equipment or specially configured drilling rig for this purpose.
The drilling rig has to achieve the main parameters of the drilling regime and
consolidation of the well bore, comprising three essential systems: drive system, rotary
system and circulation system.
For casing while drilling the surface casing drive systems have been adapted and
improved allowing to run casing in hole, to circulate the drilling fluid and to rotate safely the
casing on the derrick replacing the conventional tongs, eliminating the personnel from the
dangerous area while making the connections, and the conventional links are operated
remotely in order to eliminate the derrickman from the monkey board.
Surface Casing Drive Systems (Figure 1) can be used for a large range of casing size as
they are designed to be externally clamped – for casings of small size (from 3 ½ in to 9 5/8 in),
or internally clamped for casing larger than 9 5/8 in, as they are controlled automatically by
PLC from the driller cabin [4].
There are basically two methods for casing while drilling:
− rotate the casing from surface to send the torque to a bottom hole assembly that
drills and cements;
− run in a retractable bottom hole assembly, run inside the casing, incorporating a bit
and a reamer.
With respect to drilling by rotating the casing from the surface, eliminating the possibility
to withdraw the bit, called for creating special drilling bits, with the same performances as
the conventional bits. After reaching the desired depth these may serve as casing shoe being
easy to mill with PDC bits after cementing – Figure 2.
Usually inside the casing while drilling a float collar is fitted in order to cement
immediately after reaching TD.
The float collar (Figure 3) is made of steel, almost equal to the resistance of the casing,
its valve has to be resistant to the erosion of the drilling fluid, to the pumping pressure and to
the pressure behind the casing.
Similar to the bits used for casing while drilling, the inner components of the float collar
should be easily milled fully with PDC bits.
For cementing operations, wiper plugs (Figure 4) are used to create a barrier between the
drilling fluid and the cement slurry. Depending on the well conditions, one or two plugs are
used. These can be easily milled both by the rotary bit and by the PDC bit, having also a non-
rotary profile that does not allow rotation during milling operations, reducing the operating
time [4].

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Fig. 1. Casing drive System [4]. Fig. 2. Milling the drilling bit used for CwD.
To maintain the well’s track, to manage casing wear and lining-up casing during
cementing the casing is fit with centralizers. It is recommended to use centralizers with rough
surface and hard blades, non-rotating, made of zinc alloy, that are extremely durable during
directional drilling with casing - Figure 5.
Casing threads are different from those used for conventional drilling to meet the different
working conditions in the well. Therefore, the casing manufacturers developed a range of
casings that satisfy the challenges and severe well conditions manifested during casing while
drilling. These connections have to ensure torque resistance, adequate sealing capacity and
fatigue strength.
In certain situations, casing while drilling calls for using a recoverable/retractable drilling
system due to the need to replace the damaged equipment before reaching the casing depth.
Operators have to reach rapidly and efficiently the formations beneath the casing shoe
and to recover the expensive tools used for a directional casing while drilling.
Casing while drilling uses a bottom hole assembly (BHA) that can be run in and retrieved
by a wireline; its main elements are a bit and an under reamer at the bottom of casing string
to drill a hole of adequate size to allow the casing to pass freely.
The BHA is attached to Drill-Lock Assembly (DLA) engaging axial lock and torsional
lock, fixed in a nipple at the lower part of the casing string that can be retrieved by wireline
without removing the casing from the well. The retrievable DLA rotates both the casing string
and the drilling string and transfers compression and torque loading. It is recommended to
use centralizers on the casing and to prevent wear of sleeves.
BHA may include other equipment necessary for performing almost any operation as a
conventional drilling string. Conventional directional drilling tools (positive displacement
motor, MWD) and LWD may be suspended below the casing shoe for directional drilling.

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Fig. 3. Float collar [4]. Fig. 4. Wiper Plugs [4]. Fig. 5. Centralizer Sub [4].

3 CwD Advantages
Using CwD a lot of problems associated to conventional drilling are eliminated or reduced.
Among these problems, an important category is caused by the drilling string that may
induce the following risks:
− twist off of the drill collar, kelly, drill pipe;
− drilling string sub-assemblies pull out of threads or unscrewing;
− drilling string getting stuck;
− drill pipe breaking or bending.
Other problems that can be avoided by casing while drilling are those associated to
inserting casing in wells with bended or collapsed holes. Moreover, one can avoid problems
caused by crossing formations that deteriorate due to long exposure to drilling fluids,
problems associated to crossing unstable formations (borehole collapsing and overpull) or
crossing formations with loss of circulation.
These issues are overcome by the so-called plastering effect generated by rotating the
casing string in a small annular space causing detritus to enter the borehole wall, sealing the
formation pores and strengthening the borehole walls [4].
As shown in figure 6, while drilling with a conventional drilling string the annular space
is larger, casing while drilling reduces to minimum the annular space resulting in a more
stable and sealed wellbore. Additionally, the annular ascending velocity of the drilling fluid
through this annular space is high, improving detritus cleaning from the wellbore, and the
rigidity of the casing string make a less tortuous hole, reducing the risk of key seats or
mechanical sticking.
Another CwD advantage is total drilling time reduction by eliminating time and efforts
implied by tripping casing string. Therefore, after reaching the depth for setting the casing,
the drilling fluid is replaced by cement, the float collar being installed before drilling start.
Therefore, the operations performed before conventional casing and cementing are
avoided, operations involving control tripping of the borehole to correct the overpulling
areas, circulating for removing solids from the fluid from, performing electrometric
operations, retrieval the bit by decomposing strings, inserting casing by filling the casing
string at each casing section.

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Fig. 6. Annular space size in conventional drilling vs casing while drilling.

4 Casing design issues for CwD

Boreholes are strengthened with steel casing screwed to each other. The regularly used casing
is 6-12 m long, outer (nominal) diameter of 4 ½ - 20 in and has a wall thickness ranging
from 5 to 15 mm.
The purpose of casing a well is to:
- prevent wellbore collapsing;
- isolates such formations that create major difficulties for drilling (formation
overpressure or easily breakable);
- provide a solid support for the surface facilities (preventers, christmas tree);
- transfer through the suspension system to the surrounding rocks the axial loading of
the next casing sections or tubing and of surface facilities weight;
- to ensure sealing of layers containing different types of fluids and different
pressures;
- to enable production under safety conditions;
The forces acting on the casing string are: tensile force, compression, outer and inner
pressure –fig.7. In case of casing while drilling, additional forces act on the casing (fatigue,
torque, buckling). Casing strength to these forces has to be known in order to set the profile
of a casing.
Tensile force occurs because of the casing’s own weight. If the tensile force reaches a
critical value, equal to the casing’s tensile strength, these will break in the weakest part.
Considering that the casing’s connection tensile strength is different from casing body
strength, the calculation has to be done for both elements so as to take into consideration the
lowest values when setting the casing profile. Usually the lowest values of the breaking
strength are at the connection point.
Outer pressure is given mainly by the hydrostatic column of the fluid behind the casing.
Casing may collapse when the pressure is higher than its strength. To determine the critical
pressure for casing manufactured according to API standards we have to consider the ratio
between the nominal diameter D and wall thickness t.

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The outer pressure that reaches on the inner casing wall the minimum yield point is given
by the ratio (thick wall casing) [5]:

Fig. 7. Forces acting on casing.

𝐷⁄ −1
𝑡
𝑃𝑒 = 2𝜎𝑐 ⌊ 2⌋ (1)
(𝐷⁄𝑡 )
where c is yield point;
D – outside diameter;
t – wall thickness.
Inner pressure is the casing fluid pressure, that can be the drilling fluid or the fluid from
a layer opened while drilling. The strength to inner pressure can be calculated by using
Barlow’s formula [5]:
𝜎 𝑡
𝑃𝑖 = 2 𝑐 (2)
𝐷

Torque at the drill bit at the bottom of the hole is the consequence of the cutting process
and of the friction of the casing against the wall of the borehole and/or of the previously cased
hole. Having the drill bit above the bottom hole, the torque resides only from friction of the
casing. Casing while drilling torque is usually higher than at conventional drilling due to the
friction forces acting on the contact point between the borehole walls and the casing, creating
a strength moment with a vector direction opposite to the casing rotation. Thus, when the
casing is rotating in the borehole placing a certain weight on the bit, the moment at the bit is
much lower than the rotating moment at the surface. Therefore, the maximum torque at the
surface sets the casing rotation limit and the increase of the drilling rate.
Fatigue results from the cyclic load at different stress levels considerably lower than the
yield point of the casing material. Under continuous load, a small crack starts to spread from
the high stress point along the casing breaking it.
Buckling results from the bending moments created by the casing-borehole geometry and
the compressive load, thus making it unstable. If the compressive stress acting on the casing
exceeds a certain value, the casing buckles into a helical or sinusoidal shape.

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After buckling, the casing leans against the borehole walls, thus the lateral stress from the
contact point may cause wear and may lead to an increase of the moment required for rotation.
Taking into account the above-mentioned elements, following stages are necessary for
sizing the casing string [5]:
- preliminary sizing for cracking and crushing;
- correct the profile set in the first stage by reducing the casing collapsing pressure
under tensile forces;
- to check the casing and joints tensile resistance.
Other loadings have to be also considered [4]:
- bending with tongs during make-up;
- pull-out of the joint and slip crushing;
- corrosion and fatigue failure;
- pipe wear from running wireline tools and drill string.
To perform casing while drilling in safety conditions it is mandatory to apply during the
design phase safety coefficients. The highest safety coefficients should be considered for
tensile forces, in order to consider additional stress such as friction with the borehole wall,
sticking trends, dynamic forces or buckling. With respect to tension a safety factor of 1.6 –
1.8 is applied for the upper joint of casing [4].
In case of breaking and crushing, the coefficient can be lower, for breaking 1.1 and 1.0 and
for crushing 0.9; the calculation hypotheses for such stress are less probable to be fulfilled [5].

5 Risk considerations related to casing while drilling vs.

conventional drilling
Risk is defined as the exposure to an event that may occur to the detriment or benefit of a
project or activity. It can be described as a combination between the probability that the risk
occurs and the consequences of loss or gain [6].
Risk exposure, meaning the consequences, as a combination between probability and
impact on an organization’s previously set objectives [7], can be expressed by the following
formula:
Risk exposure = Impact x Event Occurrence Probability (3)
Therefore, risks can be classified depending on exposure: low, medium, high and very
high risks.
Risk management is the systematic process for identifying, analyzing and responding to
the potential risk of a project.
During the performance of a drilling project, drilling risks may occur related to
geology, technical-operational issues or a combination of both. Objective difficulties are
triggered by physical and chemical characteristics of rocks crossed by the borehole and
characteristics of fluids contained in pores or cracks: the so-called difficult geological
formations; the subjective issues are related to technology and procedure. As regards
projects, all risks are identified, risk exposure is assessed by estimating the occurrence
probability and the impact, so that by implementing an efficient risk management such
risks are avoided or mitigated.
Table 1 and 2 show maps with the main risks that may occur during conventional drilling
or casing while drilling. Estimating the risk occurrence probability is made for each project
separately, based on a correlation wells and on the drilling technology and procedures used.
As a conclusion after comparing the two tables, casing while drilling might reduce or
mitigate risks during drilling especially those related to the conventional drilling string, to
maintaining borehole stability or circulation loss.

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Table 1. Conventional drilling risk map.

Potential Causes Consequences Risk mitigation measures
risk
Circulation Inadequate specific weight of Non-productive Drilling fluid treatment.
loss drilling fluid. times. Use of blocking materials.
Drill string tripping-in speed Additional materials Placement of cement plug.
to high. and services

Drilling Pressurized formation. Non-productive Continuous monitoring of

fluid Low density of drilling fluid. times. Additional entry- exit fluid flow rates.
gasification String pull out, packed or consumption of Drilling fluid weighting.
with high speed. materials and Fluid circulation through
services. degasifier.
Kicks.
Pack-offs, Limestone swelling Non-productive Use of products to stabilize
collapse of Swabbing effect when times. Additional the limestones.
borehole pressure under the bit is consumption of Additional measures to
reduced due to pulling the materials and correct borehole.
drill string services. Circulation to remove
detritus.
Stuck Pack-off/ collapse of borehole Non-productive Measures to correct
casing Differential sticking times. Additional borehole before casing.
before consumption of Circulation to remove
reaching materials and detritus.
casing services. Casing reciprocation.
depth Well construction
compromised.
Drill string Pack-off/ collapse of borehole Non-productive Stabilization of limestones.
stucks Differential sticking times. Additional Reduction of resting time
Drill string or drill bit pack consumption of of string.
off materials and Circulation to remove
services. detritus.

Drill string Drill pipes break off. Non-productive String control while run in
failure Threaded connections pull times. Additional hole and pull out.
out or break off. consumption of Using drill pipes in
Lost string. materials and accordance with well
services. requirements of wear and
Compromised well. tear.
Control of elevator, links,
rams, drilling cable.
Casing Casing pull out from a Non-productive Proper tightening of
failure connection. times. Additional connection.
Casing collapse. consumption of Drilling fluid pumping at
Break of casing. materials and each or every second
services. casing(s) run in hole.
Well construction Casing testing at surface
compromised. before RIH.

Keyhole Sudden changes in direction Non-productive Drill string to be equipped

formation and bending of borehole times. Additional with blade corrector.
consumption of Well path control.
materials and
services.

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Table 2. Casing while drilling risk map.

Potential Risk Causes Consequences Risk mitigation measures
Loss of Inadequate specific weight of Non-productive times. Drilling fluid treatment.
circulation drilling fluid Additional consumption of Blocking materials to be
materials and services. used.
Drilling fluid Pressurized formations. Non-productive times. Continuous monitoring of
gasification Low density of drilling fluid Additional consumption of entry-exit fluid flow rates.
materials and services. Drilling fluid weighting.
Kicks Fluid circulation through
degasifier.
Pack-offs, Limestone swelling. Non-productive times. Use of products to stabilize
collapse of Inadequate specific weight of Additional consumption of the limestones.
borehole drilling fluid. materials and services.
Stuck casing Pack-off/ collapse of borehole. Non-productive times. Circulation to remove
before Differential sticking. Additional consumption of detritus.
reaching final materials and services. Continuous casing
depth Well construction reciprocation.
compromised.
Casing failure Casing pull out from a Non-productive times. Proper tightening of
connection. Additional consumption of connection. Proper casing
Casing collapse. materials and services. sizing. Casing forcing to be
Break of casing. Well construction avoided. Complying with
Casing break off. compromised. the designed drilling
program. Casing testing at
surface before RIH.
Excessive Selecting an inadequate bit as Failure to reach target, Using such drilling
wear of bit compared to formation casing above target, or parameters as
hardness. withdrawal. recommended for casing
Improper assessment of rock while drilling.
hardness.

6 Conclusions
In the context of ever rising costs of well drilling, many of them performed in new geological
structures, deep wells, implying a series of geological and technical risks, more and more
companies are experimenting and implementing new drilling techniques and technologies
with the aim of reducing non-productive times, technical accidents while drilling, and risk
mitigation.
Casing while drilling, constantly improving over time, has proven an efficient method to
reduce risks, especially those related to the presence of a conventional drill string in the
borehole, maintenance of borehole stability or loss of circulation. Moreover, by reducing
non-productive times and additional costs to overcome difficulties and technical accidents
while drilling, implementation of casing while drilling results in significant cost savings.

References
1. International Energy Agency, Natural Gas Information: 2018 Overview (IEA, 2018)
2. A. Gligor, Petroleum - Gas University of Ploiesti Bulletin, Technical Series, 68, 3 (2015)
3. C. Frei, World Energy Focus (2017)
4. Weatherford Atlas GIP, Drilling-while-casing (DwC) system. (Bucharest, 2015)
5. N. Macovei, Tubarea si cimentarea sondelor (Editura Universității din Ploiești, 1998)
6. ISO, ISO/Guide 73:2009 - Risk management – Vocabulary (ISO, 2010)
7. ISO, ISO 31010, Risk Management – Risk assessment techniques (ISO, 2010).