Oil & Gas Well Casing

INTRODUCTION:

Casing is an essential part of drilling and completion of an oil and gas well.
There are two different jobs that a casing must be designed for:

The first is to allow you to safely drill the well and resist any forces or conditions
that are imposed on it during drilling, without sustaining significant damage.

The second is to act through the life of the well to meet the well objectives
without requiring a work over.

The design criteria for each string of casing are different during drilling and
during the remainder of the life of the well.

By the time when the crew drills the well to depth, it usually has several
strings of casing in it. These strings are called conductor casing, surface
casing, intermediate casing and production casing.

Notice: That as the crew drills the well deeper, the size of the whole and the
size of the casing gets smaller in diameter. Almost always, the drilling
contractor cannot begin drilling at the surface and go all the way to total
depth in one step.

For one thing, formations near the surface tend to crumble and cave-in easily
so conductor casing prevents cave-ins. For another thing, formations near the
surface may also hold freshwater that the well cannot contaminate. So surface
casing prevents freshwater zones. For still another thing, deep formations are
sometimes so-called troublesome formations. That is, they can be drilled by
adjusting the properties of the drilling mud but once drilled, need to be sealed
off to prevent problems in drilling the deeper portions of the well. So,
intermediate casing seals of troublesome zones. Sometimes, deep wells
required more than one intermediate casing string. Finally, once the
producing zone is drilled, it needs to be protected and sealed; so production
casing isolates the producing zone.

The first string of casing is the conductor casing. The hole drill first is pretty
big; often as much as 36 inches or more as, almost a meter in diameter. The
conductor hold has to start out with a big because as drilling goes on, the
hole’s diameter decreases. In some cases, the rig will hammer the
conductor casing in place if the ground near the surface is really soft.

If the conductor hole is drilled, the casing is cemented in it. Using a bit whose
diameter is small enough to easily go inside the conductor casing .

The diameter of the surface hole can still be relatively large; say 17 inches, over
400 mm or even more. The surface hole is drilled through all freshwater zones
and then surface casing be set and cemented to protect the zones from damage
by additional drilling operations. This depth could be from hundreds to
thousands of feet or meters. Normally, crew-members nipple up or connect the
BOP’s to the surface casing at the well head. So this casing must be strong
enough to support the BOP stack. In addition, it has to withstand the gas or
fluid pressures the well may encounter. Surface casing, also has to be strong
enough to support the addition of casing strings hung inside of it.
To drill the intermediate hole, the operator chooses smaller in diameter bit
which easily fits inside the surface casing. A bit of about 12 inches or 300 mm
in diameter, is one example of the size. Intermediate casing is also cemented
into place to seal off troublesome formations like abnormally pressured zones.
It is often the longest section of casing in the well; Also the crew connects or
nipples of the BOP’s to the top of the intermediate casing by using an adapter
and casing head or a drilling spool which is stacked on or connected to the top
of the surface casing wellhead. Production casing also houses and protects the
tubing and other equipment used to produce the well. The operator usually
perforates, puts holes in this casing when the well is completed or ready for
work to begin.
Well completion is the term describing the activities and methods of
preparing the well for production of oil and gas. Oil and gas flow into the
well through the perforations. Sometimes well owners run liners instead of
casing into the well. A liner, is a shortened the string of casing used to case the
smaller open hole section below an existing casing string in the hole. It’s just
like casing, except that a liner does not run all the way to the surface. Instead,
the casing crew hangs it from the bottom of the previously run casing or liner
string using a special piece of equipment called liner hanger. Using liners saves
money since they do not extend to the surface.

FUNCTIONS OF CASING:

 To keep the hole open and to provide a support for weak formations.
 To isolate porous formation from the contamination of different fluids.
 To prevent contamination of near- surface fresh – water zones.
 To provide a passage for hydro-carbon fluid.
 To provide a stable connection for the well-head equipment (e.g.; X-mass
tree), (BOP), which is used to control the well while drilling.
 To provide a hole of known diameter and depth, to facilitate the running of
testing and completion equipments.

 Protect from shales or moving salt formations.

 Medium for circulation of drilling fluids.
 Medium for logging and completion tools.
 Provide a smooth medium for future casing and tubing strings.

Basic Understanding of Oil Well Casing and Tubing

Oil well construction requires several casing string to reach a planned depth of
a well therefore we will discuss about the basic of each casing string used in
the oil wells.
In this, we will cover the following strings;

 Conductor Casing.

 Cassion casing.

 Surface Casing (Structural Casing).

 Intermediate Casing.

 Casing Liner.

 Production Casing.

 Production Tubing.

The illustrations below (Figure 1 and Figure 2) are schematics of oil well in
general. We will go into details of each casing/tubing based on these two
images.

Figure 1 – Casing and Tubing Schematic without Liner

 Figure 2 – Casing and Tubing Schematic with liner

Types Of Casing:
STOVE CASING/ CASSION CASING 26 in (660.4 mm) to 42 in (1066.8 mm).
These are the marine conductor or foundation for offshore drilling and is run to
prevent washout of near surface unconsolidated formations, it provides a
profile for circulation of drilling fluid and for the drilling operations. This pipe
does not carry any well head equipment. The stove pipe often carries the
subsequent conductor casing. Once the conductor string is cemented the stove
pipe is released from this axial load and therefore, subsequent casing strings
will hang on the conductor casing string.

CONDUCTOR CASING :

The conductor casing is the first string run in the well below the structural
casing (i.e., drive pipe or marine conductor run to protect loose near-surface
formations and to enable circulation of drilling fluid). Its depth range is 40 to
500 ft for onshore and 1000 ft for offshore. Generally for shallow wells OD is 16
inch and deep wells OD is 20 inch. In soft formation areas or offshore
 environment, the conductor pipe is hammered down by a large pipe
hammer. It isolates unconsolidated formations, water and sands and to
provide protection against shallow gas flows. In hard rock areas, driving the
casing is not possible therefore a larger hole must be drilled to landing depth
before running and cement this casing. This is usually the string onto which
the casing head is installed. A diverter or a blowout preventer (BOP) stack may be
installed onto this string. For onshore wells the conductor string usually
supports the wellhead, the BOP, the Xmas tree and subsequent casing strings.
This string is typically cemented to the surface or to the mud line in offshore
wells.

Functions of conductor casing are as follows:

 Prevent poorly unconsolidated formations from sloughing into the hole.

 Provide a full mud-circulation system.

 Protect fresh water zones from contamination by the drilling mud.

 Provide protection against shallow hydrocarbons.

 Provide support to the well heads and BOPs.

Marine Conductor:
Marine conductors are used in offshore when the BOP is above the water level.
They provide structural strength, to cover soft formations below the sea bed, to
serve as a mud circulation system and to guide the strings into the hole. They
provide centralization for the inner casing strings against column buckling, but
do not carry direct axial loads except during initial installation of the conductor
string.
 Figure 3 – Conductor Casing

SURFACE CASING 13-3/8 in (340 mm) in the Middle East and 18-5/8 in (473 mm) or 20
in (508 mm) in North Sea operations (Structural Casing): (10-3/4 & 13-3/8common sizes).
This casing is called “Surface Casing (Structural Casing)” and it is typically run
from 500 ft to 5,000 ft (length varies according to formation strength). The
surface casing is the first casing that is set deep enough for the formations at
shoe to withstand pressure from a kicking formation further down. Surface
casing is treated as conductor casing if no hydrocarbon are expected in the
next hole interval or alternatively as intermediate casing in the event that
hydrocarbons are expected in the next phase of drilling. Surface casing is run
to prevent caving of weak formations that are encountered at shallow depths.
This casing should be set in competent rocks such as hard lime stones.

 Functions of surface casing are as follows:

 Minimize lost circulation in a shallow depth

 Provide a fluid medium.

 Provide wellbore reliability to prevent hole-caving.

 Cover weak formations when there is a well control situation.

 Support blow out preventer (BOP) for well control.

 Cover shallow fresh water zones from contamination by the drilling fluid.
 Allow a BOP to be nipples up so that the well can be drilled deeper.

 Support the weight of all casing string run below the surface pipe. A typical
size of this casing is.

Figure 4 – Surface Casing (Structural Casing)

INTERMEDIATE CASING is17-1/2 UPTO 9-5/8 in (244.5 mm).

The intermediate casing is run after surface casing and there can be several
intermediate casing in one well. A shallow well may not need an intermediate
casing; but a deep well may needed several. The intermediate casing serves as
strong posts between the surface casing and the production casing. Length of
intermediate casing is 7,000 ft to 15,000 ft (length varies according to
formation strength). Good cementation of this casing must be ensured to
prevent communication behind the casing between the lower hydrocarbon
zones and upper water formations. Drilling intermediate section most of the
time requires higher mud weight than normal pressure gradient therefore
the primary function of this casing is related to control high mud weight
and formation pressure. Intermediate casing Depending upon the depth of the
well and the anticipated problem in drilling the well, such as:

Functions of intermediate casing are listed below:

 Protect weak zones at shallow depth while drilling with higher mud weight.
 Provide wellbore reliability for well control.

 Isolate some formations which can cause drilling issues as lost circulations,
shale sloughing, etc.

 Abnormal pressure formations.

 Recommended whenever there is a chance of encountering an influx that

could cause breakdown at the previous casing shoe, and/or severe losses in
the open hole section.

 To seal off the long open hole or zones causing trouble.

Figure 5 – Intermediate Casing

PRODUCTION CASING is 9-5/8 to 5 in, normal size 7 in (177.8 mm).

The production casing is often called oil string. It houses the completion
tubing, through which hydrocarbons will flow from the reservoir. If the
completion tubing were to leak, the production casing must be able to
withstand the pressure. Sometimes the production casing is cemented in place
with the casing shoe above the reservoir and another hole section drilled. This
may be protected with a liner rather than a string of casing. It is run to isolate
producing zones, to provide reservoir fluid control, and to permit selective
production in multi zone production. This is the string through which the well
will be completed. This casing string/liner can be set at a depth above, midway
or below the pay zone depending on completion strategies. Primary cement job
is very critical for this string because it affects production from the well.

 Functions of production casing are listed below;

 Isolate production zone(s) from other formations

 Provide a conduit for reservoir fluids

 Provide annular passage for gas lift injection

 Contain formation pressure in case of tubing leak

 Isolate the producing zones from the other formations.

 Provide a work tube of a known diameter to the pay zone.

 Protect the production tubing and other equipments.

Figure 6 – Production Casing

Casing Liner:

A Casing liner is a string of casing that does not reach the surface. Casing
Liner are hung on the intermediate casing by use of a suitable arrangement of
a packer and slips called a liner hanger. In liner completion both the liner and
the intermediate casing act as the production string. Because a liner is set at
the bottom and hung from the intermediate casing, the major design standard
for a liner is the ability to withstand with the maximum collapse pressure.
Casing liner is widely used in the industry because it is a cost-effective way to
run a casing string across open hole length without running all string to the
surface. The casing liner can be utilized as intermediate casing or production
casing. The casing liner is run into the shallower casing string and the overlap
between two strings is typically around 300 – 500 ft.

ADVANTAGES:

Economics: The cost of the liner and associated equipment is less than the cost
of a full string of casing to the surface.

Time effective: Its running and cementing time is shorter.

Utility: The inside diameter of the liner is certainly less than the ID of the
production casing. This allows tools to be run as part of the completion that
would be too large to fit inside the liner but could be set higher up, inside the
casing.

DISADVANTAGES:

 The equipment required to run a liner is much more complex than for a
casing so there is more chances that something will go wrong.
 Possible leak across a liner hanger.
 Difficulty in obtaining a good primary cementation due to the narrow
annulus between the liner and the hole.

Figure 7 – Casing Liner

Production Tubing:

Production tubing is a tube used in a wellbore through which production

fluids are produced (travel).

Production tubing is run into the drilled well after the casing is run and
cemented in place. The tubing must be strong enough to support production
load and it should be able to work over in the future.

Production tubing protects wellbore casing from wear, tear, corrosion, and
deposition of by-products, such as sand / silt, paraffin and asphaltenes. Along
with other components that constitute the production string, it provides a
continuous bore from the production zone to the wellhead through
which oil and gas can be produced. It is usually between five and ten
centimeters in diameter and is held inside the casing through the use of
expandable packing devices. Purpose and design of production tubing is to
enable quick, efficient, and safe installation, removal and re-installation.

If there is more than one zone of production in the well, up to four lines of
production tubing can be run.

Functions of production tubing are listed below:

 Provide the conduit for oil, gas, water from formation(s)

 Protect the production casing from corrosion, wear and deposition from the
reservoir fluids

Figure 8 – Production Tubing

Production Liner: Same as production casing. It run to provide isolation
across the production or injection zones.

Figure 9 – Production Liner

Liners:
Drilling Liners are used to isolate lost circulation or abnormally pressurized
Zones to permit deeper drilling. Production Liners are run instead of a full
casing to provide isolation across the producing or injection zones. Liners is a
section of casing extending upwards from the top of an existing liner to the
surface or well head.

 Liners are casings that do not reach the surface.

 They are mounted on liner hangers to the previous casing string.
 Usually they are set to seal off troublesome sections of the well or through
the producing zones for economic reasons i.e. (to save costs).

Types Of Liners:

 Drilling Liner.
 Production Liner.
 Tie-back Liner.
 Scab Liner.
 Scab tie-back Liner.
 Drilling Liner: Same as intermediate / protective casing. It overlaps the
existing casing by 200 to 400ft. it is used to isolate troublesome zones and
to permit drilling bellow these zones without having well problems.
 Production Liner: Same as production casing. It run to provide isolation
across the production or injection zones.
 Tie-back Liner: it is connected to the top of the liner with a specially
designed connector and extends to the surface, i.e. converts liner to full
string of casing.
 Scab Liner: A section of casing used to repair existing damaged casing. It
may be cemented or sealed with packers at the top and bottoms.
 Scab tie-back Liner: A section of casing extending upwards from the existing
liner, but which does not reach the surface and normally cemented in
place. They are commonly used with cemented heavy-wall casing to isolate
salt section deeper portions of the well.

Classifications of Casing:
There are two types of casing standards:

 API
 Non API

Some particular engineering problems are overcome by specialist solutions

which are not addressed by API specification:

 Drilling extremely deep wells

 Using premium connections in high pressure conditions.

Nevertheless we will stick to the API methods.

Classification to be considered are:

 Outside diameter (OD).

 Inside diameter (ID), wall thickness.
 Length (Range).
 Connections.
 Grade.

 Outside diameter (OD):

Casing manufacturing generally try to prevent the pipe from being

undersized to ensure adequate thread run-out when making a connection.

 Inside diameter (ID):Wall thickness:

The ID is specified in terms of wall thickness.

Length Range:

The length of pipe section are specified in three major ranges, R1,R2, R3.

Range Length (ft) Average Length (ft)

1 16 – 25 32

2 25 – 34 31

3 > 34 42
Connections:

API provides specification for four type of casing connectors:

 CSG- short round threads and couplings

 LCSG- long round threads and couplings, mostly use because it is reliable,
easy and cheap.
 BCSG- buttress threads and couplings, offers 100% joint efficiency but not
100% leak proof.
 XCSG- extreme line thread, design is an integral joint, i.e. the coupling has
both box and pin ends, much more expensive.
 CSG & LCSG are also called API 8 Round threads, because they have eight
threads per inch.

Grade:

Casing Size Selection – How To Select Casing Size to Match

the Drilling and Completion Goal
Casing size selection is determined from the inside outward and it starts from
the bottom hole.
The sequence of design is based on the following steps;

1. Proper sizing of tubing is determined by inflow performance analysis.

2. Completion equipment is planned to install with tubing string. Determine

which part has the biggest OD. This will directly impact of production casing.

3. Bit size for drilling the production section.

4. Casing size must be smaller than bit size and its ID must be bigger than the
biggest component in completion string.

5. Once you get the last casing string, the upper string is selected by repeating
bit selection and casing selection similar to step #3 and #4.
You may need to use the following table (Table 1) to determine bit size and
casing size. This is based on API casing therefore if you use special casing, you
may need to check with the casing company to give you exact casing ID.
 Table 1 – Commonly Used Bit Sizes That Will Pass Through API Casing

Example: According to the previous example, this is the casing design based on
pore pressure and fracture gradient (Figure 1).
 Figure 1– Casing Design Based On Pore Pressure and Fracture Gradient
The casing string should be set at 3000’ TVD, 6,000’ TVD and 12,000’ TVD.

The Rig needs to drill and set the conductor casing to 500’ TVD in order to rig
up the well control equipment.
Completion information
• Tubing string – 3-1/2” tubing
• Completion equipment – TRSV, Side Pocket Mandrel, Packer, etc.
• The biggest size of completion equipment is 5 inch.
According to the Table 1, the bit and casing plan for this well is described
below.

Note: this plan is based on size selection only. The load cases are not
accounted for in this example.

Production Section
Bit size = 8-1/2”
Casing = 7”, 26 ppf, ID 6.276”

Intermediate Section
Bit size = 12-1/4”
Casing = 9-5/8”, 40 ppf, ID 8.835”

Surface Section
Bit size = 14-3/4”
Casing = 13-3/8”, 48 ppf, ID 12.715”

Conductor Casing
Bit size = 17-1/2”
Casing = 16”, 55 ppf, ID 15.375”
Figure 2 – Casing Details
Casing Design Overview – Overall Process of How To Do
Casing Design in Oil and Gas Industry:
The objective of the casing design is to define a set of casing strings (casing
scheme), capable of withstanding a variety of external and internal pressures,
thermal loads and loads related to the self-weight of the casing. These casing
strings are subjected to time-dependent corrosion, wear and possibly fatigue,
which down rate their resistance to these loads during their service life.

Casing Design Objectives:

For a well constructions drilling engineers must have the knowledge of

following items while designing a casing string:

 Purpose of the well

 Geological cross section

 Available casing and bit sizes

 Cementing and drilling practices

 Rig performance

 Safety and environmental regulations

 Design must meeting production strategies.

 Design must provide mechanical integrity based on anticipated load cases

which will be encounter during life time of the well.

 Cost of well must be economic.

 Design must provide ways to be able to plug and abandon the well at the
end of wells life.

 Provide clear documentation of the design basis to operational personnel at

the well site. This will help prevent exceeding the design envelope by
application of loads not considered in the original design.

While the intention is to provide reliable well construction at a minimum cost,

at times failures occur. Most documented failures occur because the pipe was
exposed to loads for which it was not designed. These failures are called “off-
design” failures. “On-design” failures are rather rare. This implies that casing-
design practices are mostly conservative. Many failures occur at connections.
This implies that either field makeup practices are not adequate, or the
connection design basis is not consistent with the pipe-body design basis.

These objectives are general and your wells may have additional objectives
based on business needs.

Data Required for Casing Design:

 The following items are information require for casing design.

 Production Information

 Type of packer fluid

 Density of packer fluid
 Type of reservoir fluid
 Expected flow rate, pressure, temperature of the well
 Sour gas (H2S, Co2)
 Maximum production load case
  Completion strategies
 Geological Data

 Pore pressure
 Fracture pressure
 Formation temperature
 Formation type and structure
 Plan for logging programs
 Location of problematic zones as possible loss zones, high permeable
zones, unstable zones, shallow gas hazard, fresh water zones, sour gas
(H2S, CO2) zones, etc
 Directional Data

 Geologic targets
 Surface location
 Anti-Collision issue
 Production plan

 Size of casing and tubing met required production rate

 Completion equipment (packer, SCSSV, gas lift valves, etc) planned to run
into the well.

 Government regulation

 Each country has different requirement for drilling oil wells.

 Equipment supply and logistics

 International or local suppliers for casing

 Logistics and tax for equipment.

Design Phases:
There are two phases of design. The first on is a preliminary design and the
second one is a detailed design.
Preliminary Design Phase:
After gathering information required, you will do the first phase of casing
design. The preliminary design will give you all scopes of the project (well
construction plan).Typically the largest opportunities for saving money are
present while performing this task. This design phase includes:

Casing setting depth and number of strings – The following factors used to determine
casing setting depths.

Pore pressure and fracture gradient – Based on the pore pressure and the fracture
gradient of the well, you will be able to determine how many strings required
and where each string needs to be set. There are two approaches which are top
down design and bottom up design. We will go into details of this topic later on.

Differential sticking zones – potential sticking formations should be cased off

before going deeper because the deeper depth requires higher mud weight
which will result in more serious of pipe stuck issue.The probability of
becoming differentially stuck increases along with:

 An increase in differential pressure between the wellbore and formation

 An increase in permeability of the formation

 An Increase in fluid loss of the drilling fluid (i.e., thicker mud cake)

Wellbore stability – this is the same concern as the differential sticking. Right
type of mud and weight will minimize this issue.

Formation pressure / fracture gradient prediction uncertainty – drilling into

unknown areas has a lot of uncertainty regarding pore pressure / fracture
gradient prediction. Therefore, additional string must be considered to run as a
contingency string.

Directional concern – Typically casing is set after a building section of the

well in order to ease a key seat issue while drilling deeper. A casing string is
often run after an angle building section has been drilled. This avoids key
seating problems in the curved portion of the wellbore because of the increased
normal force between the wall and the drill pipe.

Drilling fluid program – drilling fluid weight is the most critical factor in the
casing design. Mud weight should be sufficient enough to drill to planned
depth without fracturing formation at shallower depth. Moreover, drilling mud
for each section needs to meet drilling objectives as hole cleaning, wellbore
stability, formation evaluation, minimizing formation damage, etc.

The most important mud program parameter used in casing design is the “mud
weight.” The complete mud program is determined from:

 Pore pressure.

 Formation strength (fracture and borehole stability).

 Lithology.

 Hole cleaning and cuttings transport capability.

 Potential formation damage, stability problems, and drilling rate.

 Formation evaluation requirement.

 Environmental and regulatory requirements.

Formation evaluation – this relates to the tool size and drilling fluid used in that
section which you need to evaluate reservoir.

Top of Cement (TOC) – TOC will have effect on load design and typically TOC
design is based on the following criteria;

 Regulatory requirement.

 Zonal isolation. Shallow freshwater sands must be isolated to prevent

contamination. Lost-circulation zones must be isolated before a higher-
pressure formation is penetrated.
Formation strength.

Buckling. Buckling calculations are not performed until the detailed design
phase. Hence, the TOC depth may be adjusted, as a result of the buckling
analysis, to help reduce buckling in some cases.

Pressure build up in the annulus.

Drilling equipment needed – drilling equipment is one of the factors which need to
take into account carefully. You should ask yourself about drilling equipment:

What is the specification of the drilling rig?

2. Can the rig work with the casing plan?

3. Does the rig have enough power to provide hydraulic power to down hole
tool, clean the hole, etc?

4. Do we have the well control equipment fit for the operation?

5. What size of down hole tool do you need to drill the well?

6. Production equipment required for production which you need to consider is

listed below;

7. Type, size, grade, etc of production tubing.

8. Completion equipment as sub surface safety valve, gas lift valve,

submersible pump, down control valve, etc

9. Gravel pack and frac pack.

10. Especially, nowadays many companies tend to run smart completion in

order to prolong well life and optimize well production. This will require a lot
of clearance between completion string and production tubing. It might
affect the casing size big time.

Detailed Design Phase:

In this phase, engineers will go into detailed calculations in order to select
casing/tubing (size, grade, connection, etc) for all strings based on the
preliminary design. The engineers will design each string of pipe by using
design criteria which consist of design factors and load cases. The detailed
design phase includes selection of pipe weights and grades for each casing
string. The selection process consists of comparing pipe ratings with design
loads and applying minimum acceptable safety standards (i.e., design factors).
A cost-effective design meets all the design criteria with the least expensive
available pipe.

Load cases for casing design are as follows:

 Burst load

 Collapse load

 Production load

 Drilling load

 Running and cementing load

 Tri axial load

 Service loads

Collapse design factor:

Using a partial evacuation Design Load case rather than a full evacuation one
is considered more realistic. Also the behavior of cement and annular fluids
with time should be considered in the Design Load cases.

The reliability and characteristics of casing collapse capacities is high as a

function of the more tightly controlled manufacturing processes. API 5C2
presents the relevant values for the collapse capacity of the casing, but recent
studies reveal that these values are occasionally conservative.

Based on the above, and since corrosion, wear and downrating because of
tension and temperature should be treated separately, the uniaxial Collapse
Design Factor of 1.0 is recommended for collapse design.
1 Collapse strengths
A casing experiences a collapse loading when the external pressure exceeds the
internal pressure. The magnitude of the collapse load is generally taken as the
difference in pressure, i.e. Pe-Pi. In the un axial design this load is compared to
the un axial collapse capacity.

The elastic collapse pressure is independent of the material yield strength, but
highly dependent on the casing dimensions: i.e. the geometry.

2 Burst strength
A casing experiences a burst loading when the internal pressure exceeds the
external pressure. The magnitude of the burst load is generally taken as the
difference in pressure, i.e. Pi- Pe. In the uniaxial design this load is compared
to the uniaxial burst capacity.

The maximum burst loading usually occurs at surface, as does the maximum
tensile loading. There would therefore appear to be a case for applying a bi-
axial correction to the burst rating at the top of the string.

Compressive loads can arise in production strings, for example, in high

pressure/high temperature wells, where thermal expansion of the steel is
significant.

The effect of the cement sheath around the casing on the burst capacity has
been the subject of research, however, no clear conclusions can yet be drawn.

For some low strength casing grades (J55) yield strength will initially decrease
as temperature increases, but as temperature further increases, the yield
strength could rise to a level above that evident at room temperature.

Loads on casing and tubing strings:

In order to evaluate a given casing design, a set of loads is necessary. Casing
loads result from:

 Running the casing

 Cementing the casing

 Subsequent drilling operations

 Production and well work over operations

Casing loads are principally pressure loads, mechanical loads, and thermal
loads. Pressure loads are produced by fluids within the casing, cement and
fluids outside the casing, pressures imposed at the surface by drilling and
work over operations, and pressures imposed by the formation during drilling
and production.

Mechanical loads are associated with:

 Casing hanging weight

 Shock loads during running

 Packer loads during production and work over.

 Hanger loads

Temperature changes and resulting thermal expansion loads are induced in

casing by drilling, production, and work over, and these loads might cause
buckling (bending stress) loads in un cemented intervals.

The casing loads that are typically used in preliminary casing design are:

 External Pressure Loads

 Internal Pressure Loads

 Mechanical Loads

 Thermal Loads and Temperature Effects

However, each operating company usually has its own special set of design
loads for casing, based on their experience. If you are designing a casing string
for a particular company, this load information must be obtained from them.
Because there are so many possible loads that must be evaluated, most casing
design today is done with computer programs that generate the appropriate
load sets (often custom tailored for a particular operator), evaluate the results,
and can sometimes determine a minimum-cost design automatically.

Casing and tubing:

Casing and tubing strings are the main parts of the well construction. All wells
drilled for the purpose of oil or gas production (or injecting materials into
underground formations) must be cased with material with sufficient strength
and functionality.
Casing:
Casing is the major structural component of a well. Casing is needed to:

 Maintain borehole stability

 Prevent contamination of water sands

 Isolate water from producing formations

 Control well pressures during drilling, production, and workover operations

Casing provides locations for the installation of:

 Blowout preventers

 Wellhead equipment

 Production packers

 Production tubing

The cost of casing is a major part of the overall well cost, so selection of casing
size, grade, connectors, and setting depth is a primary engineering and
economic consideration.

Casing strings:
There are six basic types of casing strings:

 Conductor Casing

 Surface Casing

 Intermediate Casing
 Production Casing

 Liner

 Liner tieback casing

Conductor casing:

Conductor casing is the first string set below the structural casing (i.e., drive
pipe or marine conductor run to protect loose near-surface formations and to
enable circulation of drilling fluid). The conductor isolates unconsolidated
formations and water sands and protects against shallow gas. This is usually
the string onto which the casing head is installed. A diverter or a blowout
prevention (BOP) stack may be installed onto this string. When cemented, this
string is typically cemented to the surface or to the mud line in offshore wells.

Surface casing:

Surface casing is set to provide blowout protection, isolate water sands, and
prevent lost circulation. It also often provides adequate shoe strength to drill
into high-pressure transition zones. In deviated wells, the surface casing may
cover the build section to prevent keyseating of the formation during deeper
drilling. This string is typically cemented to the surface or to the mudline in
offshore wells.

Intermediate casing:

Intermediate casing is set to isolate:

Unstable hole sections

Lost-circulation zones

Low-pressure zones

Production zones
It is often set in the transition zone from normal to abnormal pressure. The
casing cement top must isolate any hydrocarbon zones. Some wells require
multiple intermediate strings. Some intermediate strings may also be
production strings if a liner is run beneath them.

Production casing:

Production casing is used to isolate production zones and contain formation

pressures in the event of a tubing leak. It may also be exposed to:

Injection pressures from fracture jobs

Down casing, gas lift

The injection of inhibitor oil

A good primary cement job is very critical for this string.

Liner:

Liner is a casing string that does not extend back to the wellhead, but is hung
from another casing string. Liners are used instead of full casing strings to:

Reduce cost

Improve hydraulic performance when drilling deeper

Allow the use of larger tubing above the liner top

Not represent a tension limitation for a rig

Liners can be either an intermediate or a production string. Liners are typically

cemented over their entire length.

Liner Tieback string:

Liner tieback string is a casing string that provides additional pressure

integrity from the liner top to the wellhead. An intermediate tieback is used to
isolate a casing string that cannot withstand possible pressure loads if drilling
is continued (usually because of excessive wear or higher than anticipated
pressures). Similarly, a production tieback isolates an intermediate string from
production loads. Tiebacks can be un cemented or partially cemented.

Tubing:
Tubing is the conduit through which oil and gas are brought from the
producing formations to the field surface facilities for processing. Tubing must
be adequately strong to resist loads and deformations associated with
production and work overs. Further, tubing must be sized to support the
expected rates of production of oil and gas. Clearly, tubing that is too small
restricts production and subsequent economic performance of the well. Tubing
that is too large, however, may have an economic impact beyond the cost of the
tubing string itself, because the tubing size will influence the overall casing
design of the well.

Properties of casing and tubing:

The American Petroleum Inst. (API) has formed standards for oil/gas casing
that are accepted in most countries by oil and service companies. Casing is
classified according to five properties:

The manner of manufacture

Steel grade

Type of joints

Length range

The wall thickness (unit weight)

Almost without exception, casing is manufactured of mild (0.3 carbon) steel,

normalized with small amounts of manganese. Strength can also be increased
with quenching and tempering. API has adopted a casing "grade" designation to
define the strength of casing steels. This designation consists of a grade letter
followed by a number, which designates the minimum yield strength of the
steel in psi (103 psi).

Table 1 summarizes the standard API grades.

Table 1-API Steel Grades

The yield strength , for these purposes, is defined as the tensile stress required
to produce a total elongation of 0.5% of the length. However, the case of P–110
casing is an exception where yield is defined as the tensile stress required to
produce a total elongation of 0.6% of the length. There are also proprietary
steel grades widely used in the industry, which do not conform to API
specifications. These steel grades are often used in special applications
requiring high strength or resistance to hydrogen sulfide cracking.

Connection failures:
Most casing failures occur at connections. These failures can be attributed to:

 Improper design or exposure to loads exceeding the rated capacity

 Failure to comply with makeup requirements

 Failure to meet manufacturing tolerances

 Damage during storage and handling

 Damage during production operations (corrosion, wear, etc.)

Connection failure can be classified broadly as:

 Leakage

 Structural failure

 Galling during makeup

 Yielding because of internal pressure

 Jump-out under tensile load

 Fracture under tensile load

 Failure because of excessive torque during makeup or subsequent
operations

Running The overall mechanical integrity of a correctly designed casing string

is dependent upon a quality assurance program that ensures damaged
connections are not used and that operations personnel adhere to the
appropriate running procedures.

Connection design limits:

The design limits of a connection are not only dependent upon its geometry
and material properties, but are influenced by:

 Surface treatment

 Metal plating (copper, tin, or zinc)

 Bead blasting

 Thread compound

 Makeup torque

 Use of a resilient seal ring (many companies do not recommend this

practice)

 Fluid to which connection is exposed (mud, clear brine, or gas)

 Temperature and pressure cycling

 Large doglegs (e.g., medium- or short-radius horizontal wells)