Geological Engineering

Outline
Program themes
Relation to other programs
Jobs and careers
Program Themes
Geotechnical & Geo-environmental
– soil & rock mechanics, slopes, groundwater
– waste management, treatment & remediation

Mining
– exploration, underground & surface production
– waste management, reclamation, rehabilitation

Petroleum
– exploration, production & reservoir engineering
– drilling and completions, aquifer protection
 Geotechnical &
Geoenvironmental
Required:
Engineering Geology
Hydrogeology & Hydrology
Advanced Hydrogeology
Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering
Geomatics
Electives:
Modelling of Earth Structures
Waste Management Design
Mining
Required:
Rock Mechanics
Rock Mechanics Design
Electives:
Mineral Deposits
Gravity & Magnetic Methods
Petroleum
Required:
Reservoir Mechanics
Petroleum Geology
Petroleum Geomechanics
Electives:
Petroleum Production
Well Logging
Seismic Methods
Phanerozoic History
Other Engineering Programs

CIVIL
Geotechnical
Wastes & GEOLOGICAL
Environment

Mining &
AG & BIO Drilling Petroleum
CHEMICAL

MECHANICAL
 Careers
 Industry demand is strong and growing.
 Employers include government agencies, large
mining and petroleum production companies and
service and consulting companies (small & large).
 Work environments may be office-based in major
cities or field-based at remote locations.
 Most graduates register as P.Eng. (and P.Geo.) and
remain in the profession for several decades.
 Many graduates work outside Canada in all parts
of the world: USA, S.America, Australia, Europe,
Asia & Africa.
GE 120 GEO E Lab - Introduction

 Several thousand deep and shallow wells

are drilled in western Canada every year.
 For each and every well a “casing string”
has to be designed.
 The GEO E project for this year is to design
a “casing string” for a deep oil well.
Well drilling
 As a well is drilled, a fluid
(drilling mud) is circulated down
the drill stem and up the annulus
between drill stem and casing.
 The drilling mud has many
functions:
– It acts as a coolant and
lubricant for the bit
– It acts as a transport medium
for the cuttings
– It provides internal pressure to
resist formation pressures on
the casing
 Shale shaker

Cuttings
Returned mud

Stabilizers
Large Drill on Site
What is casing ?
 Casing: A borehole lining
(pipe) separating the
formation from the
borehole.
 Mud Pump
What is casing ?
Drill pipe
 During the course of
drilling a well, it is Casing

necessary to run casing

Cement
(that is, lower the casing
string into the well and Rock Formation
– usually – cement it in
place) at a number of
Base of Casing
depth intervals.
Drilling Mud

Drill Bit
Why is casing necessary?
The important functions of casing are:
• To provide a permanent, stable wellbore of precisely known diameter
through which subsequent drilling, completion and production
operations may be conducted,
• To prevent inter-formational flow,
• To hydraulically isolate the wellbore fluids from the sub-surface
formations and formation fluids,
• To permit production only from specified zone(s) by selective
perforation during well completion operations,
• To provide a means of attaching the necessary surface valves (for
example, blow-out preventers) and connections to control and handle
the produced fluids.
Why is casing design important?
 Casing has become one of the most expensive
parts of a drilling program. The average cost of
casing tubulars is about 18% of the average cost of
a completed well.
 An important responsibility of the drilling
engineer is to design the least expensive casing
program that will allow the well to be drilled and
operated safely throughout its life.
Casing Programs

 Several concentric casing strings make up a

typical program
Conductor Casing
Conductor casing: is needed to
circulate the drilling fluid to the
shale shaker without eroding the
surface sediments below the
drill rig when drilling is
initiated.
It also protects the subsequent
casing strings from corrosion
and may be used to provide
structural support for a portion
of the well-head load such as a
BOP (blow-out preventer).
Surface Casing
Surface casing: Prevents cave-in
of unconsolidated, weaker near-
surface sediments and protects
shallow, fresh-water bearing
strata from contamination. It
also supports any subsequent
casing strings and protects them
from corrosion.
Because of their implications
for safety and the environment
conductor and surface casing
are generally required by law.
Intermediate Casing
Intermediate casing (usually one
string, but sometimes more) is
often required for deeper wells
that penetrate over-pressured
formations, lost circulation
zones, unstable shale sections or
salt sections.
The selection of intermediate
casing depths is a process that
also involves the design of the
drilling mud.
Drilling Liner
Liners: are casing strings that do
not extend to the surface.
They are suspended from the
bottom of the next larger casing
string.
Overlap between the liner top
and the casing seat are
necessary to obtain a good
cement seal.
Typically 100 m overlap is
adequate for this purpose.
Production Casing
Production casing: Casing that is
set through the productive
interval. It provides a stable
production interval that can be
re-entered later in the life of the
well.
Production casing is perforated
at the production interval
usually using an explosive
perforator gun that fires shaped-
charges through the casing steel.
Casing Failure Modes(1)
1. Tensile failure Before
being cemented in place,
the weight of the casing
string results in tensile
axial stresses that can Joint
cause yield or even (coupling)
failure. Casing

Mud-filled borehole
Casing Failure Modes (2)
2. Collapse from external pressure If a thief zone is
encountered in drilling and all of the fluid within the
casing is lost, internal pressure drops and the pressure
differential acting to compress the pipe may become large.
3. Bursting from internal pressure If a flow blockage or
obstruction is encountered in the annulus, continued
pumping of mud or cement can result in elevated pressures
within the casing that act to push outwards on it.
Casing Design Step 1
 For this exercise we will only consider axial
tensile load on the casing string.
 The maximum load occurs on the top joint of the
string when the casing is run and the string is
“suspended” in the mud column before cementing.
 The first task when the string has been selected is
to calculate the effective weight of the string.
 A formula and example calculations are provided.
 mud g
weff  wabs 
4
OD 2

 ID 2  z
Casing Design Step 2
 More often than we would like, the casing
string gets stuck and it is necessary to pull
on it with the rig.
 The maximum pull (called hook load) is
usually specified in the design and is
additional to the weight of the string.
 The hook load is added to the effective
weight of the string.
Casing Design Step 3
 You are provided with an interpreted profile
of formation pore pressure and fracture
pressure.
 Mud weight (density) is chosen such that
the mud pressure exceeds the formation
pressure (to prevent blowouts) and is less
than the fracture pressure (to prevent
hydraulic fracturing of the formation).
Casing Design Step 4

Decide what mud densities to use during drilling and sketch

the curve on the depth profile provided.
Casing Design Step 5
 When you have picked the mud weight you can
proceed to calculate effective weights for your
strings.
 For each casing string except the conductor
specify the wall thickness, steel grade and thread
type to avoid tensile failure using the specified
hook load and any margins you think appropriate.
 Select a bit size for each section of hole less than
the “drift diameter” representing the largest bit
that will pass through the casing.
Casing OD Axial Strength Axial Strength of
Wabs of casing body casing joints
L ID

Steel
grade

$  $$  $$$

$$

$$$
Casing Design Step 6
 Casing costs depend on the grade of steel.
The tables provided for material
specifications have rows with cost
increasing downwards.
 Select the cheapest material that meets your
design requirements.
Good Luck!