Solid Expandable Tubular Technology – A Year of Case Histories in the Drilling Environment

Abstract

Maximizing hole conservation while optimizing well economics in both conventional and deepwater wells is a continual challenge. Addressing these challenges with new technology has provided some significant solutions, but the uncertainty when utilizing new technology with no proven track record must be risk-weighted. Solid Expandable Tubulars (SETs) have been installed in both openhole and cased-hole wellbores from November of 1999, in a variety of environments in wells on land, offshore and in deepwater to solve a range of drilling and completion challenges. This paper will discuss the drilling case histories in depth including:Descriptions of drilling challenges surrounding the use of SETs and their next best alternativesRisk analysis leading to the use of SETsDiscussion of the advantages and disadvantages of using SETsOperational lessons learned during installations of SETs Technology Overview Previously published papers and articles have discussed the concepts of Solid Expandable Tubular technology1 and the effect of the expansion process on the system's tubulars2,3 and connectors4. In this paper, the basics of SET technology will be briefly reviewed, emphasizing how the early products of this new technology have been applied in the drilling environment. Presentation of several case histories will demonstrate that Solid Expandable Tubular products can provide additional tools for the drilling "tool box", ultimately cutting drilling costs and bringing more dollars to the bottom line. As of this writing, 15 jobs have been performed, of which three were unsuccessful. Since learnings often are the results of problems, heavy emphasis will be placed on problems and the lessons learned. The Expansion System. The underlying concept of expandable casing is cold-working steel tubulars to the required size downhole - a process that, by its nature, is very unstable mechanically. Thus, there are many technical and operational hurdles to overcome when using cold-drawing processes in a downhole environment. An expansion cone, or mandrel, is used to permanently mechanically deform the pipe (Fig. 1). The cone is moved, or propagated, through the tubular by a differential hydraulic pressure across the cone itself and/or by a direct mechanical pull or push force. The differential pressure is pumped through an inner-string connected to the cone, and the mechanical force is applied by either raising or lowering the inner-string (Fig. 2). The progress of the cone through the tubular deforms the steel beyond its elastic limit into the plastic region, while keeping stresses below ultimate yield (Fig. 3). Expansions greater than 20 percent, based on the inside diameter of the pipe, have been accomplished. However, most applications using 4–1/4 inch to 13–3/8 inch tubulars have required expansions less than 20 percent.

Application of Solid Expandable Tubulars in the Petroleum Industry

“…Liner length is weight dependent and is calculated at the time of design (ULR 2). Running and expansion process of expandable openhole liner system takes place in several stages (Dupal et al, 2001;Brunner, 2002;Benzi, 2003;Kupresan 2014;Dell et al, 2019).…”

“…By introducing expandable tubulars into drilling practice, existing wells could now be completed by including an additional casing without increasing top-hole design or compromising on the planned completion size (Stewart et al, 1999;Stringer and Farley, 2013). Solid expandable tubular (SET) technology has been used to improve well design in the plan-ning phase, to mitigate drilling hazards in drilling and completion phase, and to overcome mature-field challenges in the production phase (Demong and Rivenbark, 2003;Escobar et al, 2003;Carrillo et al, 2016;Ben Aissa and Benabdelhafid, 2017).…”

“…casing. The initial liner length of 300.23 m (985 ft) shortened to 288.341 m (946 ft), as a result of the expansion process, putting the top of the SET liner at a measured depth (MD) of 3,714 m (12,185 ft) (Dupal et al, 2001).…”

Prospects of Using Bionic Technologies in Oil/Gas Development

“…The Solid Expandable Tubular (SET) technology has been employed in both open-hole and cased-hole wellbores for more than one decade, in a variety of environments in wells on land, offshore and in deepwater to solve a range of drilling and completion problems [7,8,9], shown in Fig 2 . Tubular members with smaller inside diameter than the cones are typically expanded by forcing cones through them along their lengths, which results in huge friction during the expansion process and causes severe wear of the expansion cone; and due to the high contact surface pressure, the conventional lubrication methods cannot play an effective role in reducing the friction between the expansion cone and the tubular. Efforts to reduce the huge friction and improve the resistance to galling and wear by conventional methods haven't been so successful yet.…”

Expandable Tubular Completions for Carbonate Reservoirs

“…Expandable tubular solutions were originally developed to extend well depth while maintaining a larger borehole diameter (Dupal et al 2001). Such a product is usually referred to as an openhole liner (OHL).…”