PETRO-BOOSTER

Path to field Exposure

CASING SEAT
SELECTION
Casing:

Casing is a series of steel pipes that are run into a drilled oil

well to stabilize the well, keep contaminants and water out of
the oil stream, and prevent oil from leaching into the
groundwater. 
Casing is installed in layers, in sections of decreasing diameter
that are joined together to form casing strings
Casing Design Objective:

● Design must meet production strategies.

● Design must provide mechanical integrity based on anticipated
load cases which will be encountered during the lifetime of the
well.
● Cost of wells must be economic.
● Design must provide ways to be able to plug and abandon the
well at the end of the well's life.
Functions of Casing

Isolate porous formations with different fluid-pressure regimes and also allow
isolated communication with selectively perforated formation(s) of interest.

Isolate troublesome zones (high pressure zones, weak and fractured formations,
unconsolidated formations, and sloughing shales) and to allow drilling to the total
depth.

To prevent the hole from caving in.

To prevent contamination of fresh water sands.

Types of Casing Strings
There are different types of casing for different functions and drilling conditions.
They are run to different depths and one or two of them may be omitted depending on
the drilling conditions.

They are:
⚫ Cassion pipe
⚫ Conductor pipe
⚫ Surface casing
⚫ Intermediate casing
⚫ Production casing
⚫ Liners
Types of Casing Strings

Cassion pipe (26 to 42 in. OD):

For offshore drilling only. Driven into the sea bed. It is tied
back to the conductor or surface casing and usually does
not carry any load.

Prevents washouts of near-surface unconsolidated formations.

Ensures the stability of the ground surface upon which the rig is
seated.
Serves as a flow conduit for the drilling mud to the surface
Types of Casing Strings

Conductor pipe (30 to 42 in. OD):

The outermost casing string. It is 40 to 500 ft in length for onshore and up to
1,000 ft for offshore. Generally, for shallow wells OD is 16 in. and 20 in. for
deep wells.

Isolates very weak formations.

Prevents erosion of ground below rig.
Provides a mud return path.
Supports the weight of subsequent casing strings.
Types of Casing Strings

Surface casing (17-1/2 to 20 in. OD):

The setting depths vary from 300 to 5,000 ft 10-3/4 in. and 13-3/8 in. being
the most common sizes. Setting depth is often determined by government or
company policy and not selected due to technical reasoning.

Provides a means of nippling up BOP.

Provides a casing seat strong enough to safely close in a well after a kick.
Provides protection of fresh water sands.
Provides wellbore stabilization
Types of Casing Strings

Intermediate casing (17-1/2 to 9-5/8 in. OD):

Also called a protective casing, it is purely a technical casing. The length varies from 7,000
to 15,000 ft.
Provides isolation of potentially troublesome zones (abnormal pressure formations, unstable
shales, lost circulation zones and salt sections).
Provides integrity to withstand the high mud weights necessary to reach TD or next casing
seat
It is set through the protective productive zone(s).
It is designed to hold the maximal shut-in pressure of the producing formations.
Types of Casing Strings

A 7-in. OD production casing is often used

Provides zonal isolation (prevents migration of water to producing zones,
isolates different production zones).
Confines production to wellbore.
Provides the environment to install subsurface completion equipment.
Provides protection for the environment in the event of tubing failure during
production operations and allows for the tubing to be repaired and replaced
It is designed to withstand stimulating pressures during completion and
workover operations.
Types of Casing Strings

Production casing (9-5/8 to 5 in. OD):

It is set through the protective productive zone(s).
It is designed to hold the maximal shut-in pressure of the producing formations. It is
designed to withstand stimulating pressures during completion and workover operations.
1. A 7-in. OD production casing is often used
2. Provides zonal isolation (prevents migration of water to producing zones, isolates
different production zones).
3. Confines production to wellbore.
4. Provides the environment to install subsurface completion equipment.
Provides protection for the environment in the event of tubing failure during production
operations and allows for the tubing to be repaired and replaced
Types of Casing Strings

Liners:
They 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).
Drilling liner:
Functions like intermediate. Hung on surface or intermediate casing

Production liner:
Functions like production. Hung on intermediate or production casin
Design Phase: Preliminary Design Phase

The preliminary design will give you all scopes of the project (well construction plan).
The following scopes are results from this phase.
1. Casing setting depth and number of strings: The following factors used to
determine casing setting depths.
● Based on the pore pressure and the fracture gradient of the well, we 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.

● 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.
Design Phase: Preliminary Design Phase

● 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 mitigate a key seat issue while drilling deeper.
Design Phase: Preliminary Design Phase

2. 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, minim
Design Phase: Preliminary Design Phase

3. Drilling equipment needed:

Drilling equipment is one of the factors which need to take into account carefully.

● What is the specification of the drilling rig?

● Can the rig work with the casing plan?
● Does the rig have enough power to provide hydraulic power to downhole tool, clean
the hole, etc?
● Do we have the well control equipment fit for the operation?
● What size of downhole tool do you need to drill the well?
Design Phase: Preliminary Design Phase

4. Production equipment:
Equipment required for production which we need to consider is listed below;

● Type, size, grade, etc of production tubing

● Completion equipment as sub-surface safety valve, gas lift valve, submersible
pump, down control valve, etc
● Gravel pack and frac pack.

5. Formation evaluation:

This relates to tool size and drilling fluid used in that section which you need to evaluate
reservoir.
Design Phase: Preliminary Design Phase

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
● Formation strength
● Buckling
● Pressure build up in the annulus
Design Phase: 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.

Design Factors:

Forces acting on Casing

● Tensile (axial tension loading)
● Collapse Pressure
● Burst Pressure
Design Phase: Detailed Design Phase

Tensile (axial tension loading):

Due to the weight of the casing string
suspended below the point of
interest.
Body yield strength - the tensional
force required to cause the pipe body
to exceed its elastic limit Joint
strength – minimum tension force
required to cause the joint failure.
Design Phase: Detailed Design Phase
Pipe Body Yield Strength:
Pipe body yield strength is the axial load required to yield the pipe. It is taken as the
product of the cross sectional area and the specified minimum yield strength for the
particular grade of pipe.
Design Phase: Detailed Design Phase

Collapse Strength:

Collapse Pressure rating or

Collapse strength. The
minimum external pressure
rating what will cause the
casing walls to collapse in the
absence of internal pressure and
axial loading
 Design Phase: Detailed Design Phase
Collapse (from external
pressure)

● Elastic Collapse - (specimen

fails before it deforms)
● Transition Collapse
● Plastic Collapse - (a certain
deformation takes place
before it fails)
● Yield Strength Collapse
Collapse pressure resistance of a
pipe depends on the axial stress.
Design Phase: Detailed Design Phase
Plastic Collapse:

The factors A, B, and C and applicable D/t range for the plastic collapse formula are shown in Table 7.4.

Yield Strength Collapse:

The applicable D/t ratios for yield strength collapse are illustrated in Table 7.3
Design Phase: Detailed Design Phase
Elastic Collapse:

The applicable D/t range for elastic collapse is shown in Table 7.6

Transition Collapse:

The factors F and G and applicable D/t range for the transition collapse pressure

formula, are shown in Table 7.5.
Design Phase: Detailed Design Phase
Collapse pressure rating - with axial stress (Biaxial loading):
Design Phase: Detailed Design Phase
Burst Pressure rating:
The maximum internal (fluid) pressure that will cause the casing to rupture/yield in
the absence of external pressure and axial loading.
Depends on → the maximum formation pressure (that could be encountered during
drilling of next hole section) (eg- kick)
Design Phase: Detailed Design Phase
Kick Tolerance
Kick tolerance is the maximum increase in mud weight allowed by the pressure
integrity test of the casing shoe , for a specified kick size, well depth, and annular
geometry.

In other words, kick tolerance represents the maximum increase in formation pore
pressure, expressed as a ppg equivalent, that can be shut-in on without breaking down
at the shoe.
Kick Tolerance
Shut-In Kick Tolerance: Table
Kick Tolerance
MISICP:
It is the pressure at initial shut in that if exceeded could cause losses to the formation
at the shoe.
MISICP = (LOT - CMW) * .052 * TVDSHOE

Maximum Formation Pressure:

• It is the pressure we can drill into with out breaking down the shoe.
• How is it calculated?
Pmax = HPAnnulus + MISICP
Kick Tolerance
Case #1: At Shoe
Kick Tolerance
Case #2: Open Hole at 10,000’ with 12.0 ppg mud
Kick Tolerance
Case #2: Open Hole at 10,000’ with 12.0 ppg mud
Kick Tolerance
Case #3: At 10,000’ with 500’ kick
Kick Tolerance
Case #3: At 10,000’ with 500’ kick
Kick Tolerance
Case #4: 10,000’ with 14.0 ppg mud
Kick Tolerance
Case #4: 10,000’ with 14.0 ppg mud
Kick Tolerance
Case #5: At 10,000’ with 500’ kick and 14.0 ppg mud
Kick Tolerance
Case #5: At 10,000’ with 500’ kick and 14.0 ppg mud
Kick Tolerance
Summary:
Shut-In Kick Tolerance

Equation for determination of kick density.

Shut-In Kick Tolerance
Summary:
Kick tolerance:
• decreases with increasing TVD
• decreases with increasing kick volume
• decreases with decreasing annular geometry
• decreases with increasing mud weight

Note: For horizontal wells influx should be considered

in vertical
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