Casing Design

By
Dr. Eissa Shokir

Casing Design
Why Run Casing?
Types of Casing Strings
Classification of Casing
Burst, Collapse and Tension
Effect of Axial Tension on Collapse Strength

Casing Design
What is casing?

Casing

Why run casing?

Cement

1. To prevent the hole from caving in

2. Onshore - to prevent contamination of
fresh water sands
3. To prevent water migration to
producing formation

Casing Design
4. To confine production to the wellbore
5. To control pressures during drilling
6. To provide an acceptable environment for
subsurface equipment in producing wells
7. To enhance the probability of drilling to total
depth (TD)
e.g., you need 14 ppg mud to control a lower zone,
but an upper zone will fracture at 12 lb/gal.
What do you do?

Types of Strings of Casing

Diameter Example
1. Drive pipe or structural pile
{Gulf Coast and offshore only}
150-300 below mudline.

2. Conductor string. 100 - 1,600

16-60

30

16-48

20

8 5/8-20

13 3/8

(BML)

3. Surface pipe. 2,000 - 4,000

(BML)

Types of Strings of Casing

Diameter Example

4. Intermediate String
5. Production String (Csg.)
6. Liner(s)
7. Tubing String(s)

7 5/8-13 3/8
4 1/2-9 5/8

9 5/8
7

Example Hole and String Sizes (in)

Hole Size
36
26

Structural casing
Conductor string

Pipe Size
30
20

17 1/2

Surface pipe

13 3/8

12 1/4

IntermediateString

9 5/8

8 3/4

Production Liner

Classification of CSG.
1. Outside diameter of pipe

(e.g. 9 5/8)

2. Wall thickness

(e.g. 1/2)

3. Grade of material

(e.g. N-80)

4. Type to threads and couplings (e.g. API

LCSG)

5. Length of each joint (RANGE) (e.g. Range 3)

6. Nominal weight

(Avg. wt/ft incl. Wt. Coupling)

(e.g. 47 lb/ft)

Casing Threads and Couplings

API round threads - short

{ CSG }

API round thread - long

{ LCSG }

Buttress

{ BCSG }

Extreme line
Other

{ XCSG }

See Halliburton Book...

Burst, Collapse, and Tension

API Design Factors (typical)

Required

Design

10,000 psi

Collapse 1.125

11,250 psi

100,000 lbf

Tension

1.8

180,000 lbf

10,000 psi

Burst

1.1

11,000 psi

Abnormal

Normal Pore Pressure

0.433 - 0.465 psi/ft

Abnormal Pore Pressure

gp > normal

Casing Design
Tension

Tension
Depth
Burst
Collapse

Collapse
STRESS
Burst:
Burst
Collapse:
Tension:

Assume full reservoir pressure all along the wellbore.

Hydrostatic pressure increases with depth
Tensile stress due to weight of string is highest at top

Casing Design
Unless otherwise specified in a particular
problem, we shall also assume the following:
Worst Possible Conditions
1. For Collapse design, assume that the casing is
empty on the inside (p = 0 psig)
2. For Burst design, assume no backup fluid on
the outside of the casing (p = 0 psig)

Casing Design
Worst Possible Conditions, contd
3. For Tension design,
assume no buoyancy effect
4. For Collapse design,
assume no buoyancy effect
The casing string must be designed to stand up to the
expected conditions in burst, collapse and tension.
Above conditions are quite conservative. They are also
simplified for easier understanding of the basic concepts.

Casing Design - Solution

PB = pore pressure * Design Factor

= 6,000 psi *1.1
PB = 6,600 psi

Depth

Burst Requirements (based on the expected pore pressure)

Pressure
The whole casing string must be capable of withstanding
this internal pressure without failing in burst.

Casing Design - Solution

Collapse Requirements
For collapse design, we start at the bottom of the
string and work our way up.

Tension Check
The weight on the top joint of casing would be
( 6 ,369 ft * 47 . 0 # / ft ) + (1, 631 ft * 53 . 5 # / ft )
= 386 , 602 lbs actual weight

With a design factor of 1.8 for tension, a pipe

strength of
1.8 * 386,602 = 695,080 lbf is required