Sonatrach Casing Design
Sonatrach Casing Design
SH - FOR
CASIGN DESIGN STANDARD Page : 1 de 8
DRAFT
1 Introduction
2 Definitions
Surface casing : casing used to isolate shallow zones and to install a BOP prior for drilling
lower zones.
Production Casing / Liner: the last Casing / Liner in the well. It isolates the different zones
during testing and production operations. For an exploratory well a casing / liner set before
drilling an objective is considered as a production casing / liner.
Intermediate Casing / Liner: Casing / Liner installed while drilling the well, to get a
competent shoe for a BOP of required capacity and/or to isolate zones such lost circulation
zones or unstable zones.
Critical service:
Casings are designed to withstand the loads that can be imposed on them during the
lifetime of the well. The expected loads are multiplied by a safety design factor, because of
the uncertainty of actual loads. The load multiplied by the design factor has to be lower
than the casing's strength.
For example if the design tension for a casing string is 150 t and the safety design factor is
1.60, then the tension strength has to be more than 150 * 1.60 = 240 t.
In the following sections are explained the different load cases used in the oil industry. The
calculation method, design factors and load cases selected by Sonatrach are also defined.
Important Note: for a special operation such as: BOP pressure test, DST, FRAC, side-
track, etc.., the engineer in charge will insure that the casing will withstand the
loads which will be applied.
Connection type
A NEW VAM or similar connection must be used whenever the connection has to be gas
tight, particularly:
for production casings in case of critical service as defined above
for casings where gas is injected in gas lift wells.
Here are some of the load cases used in the oil industry.
The name of the cases in StressCheck software is in italics.
Burst loads
- Circulate a typical gas kick (Gas Kick Profile).Calculated pressure will depend on kick
intensity, mud weight and drilling depth.
Typically:
- for a development well, a gas kick of 11 m3 requiring an increase in mud weight of
+0.06 sg
- for an exploration well, a gas kick of 17 m3 requiring an increase in mud weight of
+0.24 sg
Collapse loads
- hydrostatic pressure due to the cement slurry at the end of primary cement job
(Cementing)
- drop of mud level inside the casing when losing circulation while drilling (Lost Returns
With Mud Drop)
- in case of salt and plastic shales: with temperature and pressure salt and shales can
exhibit plastic flow and exert with time a pressure equal to the weight of soils above them,
with an equivalent density around 2.3 sg (1 psi/ft). They often have a dissymmetrical and
destructive effect (point loading) if the cement sheath is not uniform.The best solution is
often to reinforce the casing by a concentric casing / liner, with good centralization and
good cement.
Tension loads
- tension while pressure testing the casing at the end of the cement job (Green Cement
pressure Test).
Compression loads
- weight on surface casing of casing strings which will be suspended on the first Casing
Head Housing
- uni axial calculation: strengths are calculated independently for each load case. This
calculation can be done manually, or with a software (StressCheck, WellCat, etc..)
Perform a tri axial calculation if there are problems such as important doglegs, great
variations of pressure or temperature, particularly for:
- horizontal wells
- gas wells
- wells drilled UBD
- casings run after a side track
Otherwise a uni axial calculation is satisfactory. Uncertainties on load conditions are much
higher than the few percent of inaccuracy of the calculation.
For HP/HT wells the stability of the production casing has to be checked against pressure
and temperature effects. Stress-Check can't do this calculation, use Wellcat or equivalent.
6. Design factors
Surface casing
Production
Intermediate
casing / liner
casing / liner
Burst
- normal service 1.1 1.1
- critical service N/A 1.25
The most important step in casing design is to collect the well's main characteristics, in
cooperation with geologists and production engineers, and studying the offset wells.
The Project Engineer will fill in this table and attach it to the Well Program.
Fill in values:
RESERVOIR'S CARACTERISTIKS
8 Exemption
9 Design conditions
Conductor pipe
Burst
Tension N/A
Compression
Surface casing.
Intermediate casing / liner
Note : in case of concentric casings, the 2.30 collapse external gradient will apply to the
external casing, but not to the internal casing / liner.