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Using Fatigue-Failure Envelope for Cement-Sheath-Integrity Evaluation

Article  in  SPE Drilling & Completion · March 2015

DOI: 10.2118/168321-PA

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SPE 168321

HPHT Cement Sheath Integrity Evaluation Method for Unconventional Wells

Arash Shadravan, Jerome Schubert, Texas A&M University, Mahmood Amani, Texas A&M University at Qatar,
Catalin Teodoriu, TU Clausthal

Copyright 2014, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE International Conference on Health, Safety, and Environment held in Long Beach, California, USA, 17–19 March 2014.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to
reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract

Chances of cement sheath failure increase considerably when the application involves deepwater, high pressure high
temperature (HPHT) conditions. Such failures may occur as a result of temperature and pressure-induced stresses created by
well events such as hydraulic fracturing, cyclic steam injection, steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), production,
completion, or other remedial treatments. Thermal and stress cycles could impose the risk of losing zonal isolation and lead
to delay in hydrocarbon production.

Cement mechanical properties measurment solely would not be sufficient to predict the failure threshold of a cement sheath.
Some experimental studies were conducted about the effect of cyclical loading on the integrity of casing and drill strings but
less research have been done about the in situ cement sheath integrity under cyclical loading. This paper introduces a new
Ultra HPHT experimental set up and an applicable method to evaluate cement sheath integrity under cyclical loading. It also
provides insights to find the cement fatigue failure cycle for the set cement at elevated pressures and temperatures.

This system was built and completed by benefiting from the capabilities of an extreme HPHT Rheometer. Cement samples
could be cured for number of hours in the newly developed HPHT cell and then instantly tested under cyclical loading in
various scenarios at high temperatures. The cement sheath fails after a certain number of cycles when reaches its fatigue
endurance limit. This research showcases scenarios in which the fatigue failure cycles were identified for 1,000 psi, 2,000 psi
and 5,000 psi, pressure differentials between the confining pressure (exposed to outside of the sheath) and the casing
pressure. During these experiments, the confining pressure and temperature were held constant at 15,000 psi and 330 ̊ F while
the casing pressure varied cyclically between 15,000 psi and 16,000 psi (Set A), 17,000 (Set B) and 20,000 (Set C). A stable
chemistry of Class H cement plus 35% silica was used to prevent cement retrogression. Cement sheath failures such as radial
cracking, debonding and disking occured due to cyclical loadings. Finally, a fatigue failure envelope was generated by the
obtained data. This curve represents the extent of cement sheath endurance at HPHT conditions under cyclical loading.

Introduction

Gas migration is defined as gas entry into a cemented annulus creating channels with the potential to provide a flow path of
formation fluids, including hydrocarbons, into the wellbore. As cement gels, it loses the ability to transmit hydrostatic
pressure. During this period, fluids (water and/or gas) may invade the cement slurry and form channels. Laboratory research
determined that static gel strength (SGS) of 500 lbf/100 ft2 or more is required to prevent short term gas migration. This type
of fluid migration often leads to long term zonal isolation problems and sustained casing pressure. After the slurry sets,
changes in pressure and temperature which occur in expansion and contraction of the casing and cement sheath, can cause
cement to debond from the casing or the formation. Portland cement is a brittle material and susceptible to cracking when
exposed to thermal and stress induced tensile loads, (Bourgoyne and et al. 1991).

This study relates to long-term potential gas migration. Numerous factors during drilling operation such as poor mud removal
and casing centralization, excessive free water and cement sheath shrinkage, directly affect the long term well integrity. After
drilling and reaching the total depth, events such as hydraulic fracturing, well testing, enhanced oil recovery, depletion, and
work over, or other remedial treatments considerably may challenge the integrity of cement sheath. In addition, high pressure
2 SPE-168321-MS

high temperature conditions impose a huge risk on effective zonal isolation. Cement sheath failures happen as a result of
temperature and pressure-induced stresses. Jackson and Murphey (1993) cured the cement with the internal casing pressure of
1,000 psi and then pressurized and depressurized cyclically to investigate the effect of increasing internal casing pressure as
observed during pressure testing. A microannulus was made which resulted in flowing gas after a cycle to 8,000 psi followed
by a depressurization to 1,000 psi. This micro annulus stayed active whenever internal casing pressure was below 3,000 psi.

Once the cement is repeatedly stressed, the number of cycles which it can withstand, depends on the stress magnitude and its
mechanical properties. In various industries, ‘endurance limit’ is the term coined for the stress below which the material can
withstand a large number of stress cycles. Cement mechanical properties, such as Young’s modulus, tensile strength, and
compressive strength, by themselves are not sufficient to determine integrity of the cement sheath (Ravi et al. 2007). Cement
sheath failure cycle under cyclical loading could be determined from lab experiments. Bois et al. (2012), Figure 1, shows the
cement failures that might occur during the life of a well. This paper, between the five mechanical damages, addresses mainly
radial cracking, disking and inner debonding.

Figure 1. Cement sheath failure types.

Hydraulic Fracturing
Hydraulic fracturing has been evolving since the 1940s to boost production. Industry is today capable of performing up to 60
stage frac jobs in unconventional wells. McDaniel and et al. (2014) investigated cement sheath durability to reduce gas
migration in the Marcellus shale. Most of the wells in that shale play, are not reaching the HPHT conditions but are all
subject to stress loading during hydraulic fracturing. The Haynesville Shale, which is located in northwestern Louisiana, is a
HPHT shale play with massive production potentials (Shadravan and Amani 2012). It was estimated that it holds four times
the reserves of the Barnett. The Haynesville is not only becoming one of the hottest plays with respect to activity, but also in
regards to one of the hottest downhole temperatures. Indeed, most of the wells in this shale plays, have bottomhole
temperatures above 300°F. Therefore new cement chemistries were developed for harsh downhole conditions.

Fatigue is defined as the initiation of micro cracks and their propagation due to repeated applications of stress. A structural
member that may not fail under a single application of static load may easily fail under the same load if it is applied
repeatedly. Failure under cyclical (repeated) loading is called fatigue failure (Petrowiki). The fatigue cycles may vary
according to the well events and number of stages in hydraulic fracturing. In every frac stage, the pressure exceeds the
formation pressure to create fractures in the formation. The differential pressure might vary case to case but in this paper,
1,000 psi, 2,000 psi and 5,000 psi were practiced. The goal was to discover if cyclical loading causes a fatigue failure and
finally leads to a permeable crack in the cement sheath.
SPE-168321-MS 3

Pressure and Temperature Cycles during Well Testing

Oil and gas wells usually go through low cycle stresses (less than 1,000 cycles) and some thermal cycles especially during
thermal EOR operations. Figure 2 shows a long term pressure transient test to understand the reservoir limits and define the
reservoir potential (Schlumberger 2012). Such tests may lead to pressure and temperature cycles and potentially loss of
cement sheath integirty. Sustained casing pressure (SCP) buildup over time may be analyzed to determine cement
permeability, location of leak and the nature of the leakage process. SCP can be caused by tubing or casing leaks, poor
cementing, or damage to the cement sheath resulting from thermal and pressure loading. Feather (2011) showed a statistics of
well integrity issues in Gulf of Mexico, Norway and North Sea, Figure 3.

Figure 2: Extended well test - pressure cycle differentials are from a few hundred psi to 5,000 psi.

Figure 3: Global well integrity Issues.

11,000 casing strings in 8,000 wells in the Gulf of Mexico were identified with SCP problems in 1991. According to the
MMS report in 2004, about 6,650 wells had SCP and 33% of them were linked to leaking cement. The cost of removal was
estimated as $650 MM. In 2006 the Petroleum Safety Authority of Norway (PSA) determined that about 18 % of wells on the
Norwegian Continental shelf (NCS) may suffer from well integrity issues. According to Watson and Bachu (2007), in
onshore Alberta, about 142,000 wells surveyed, exhibited surface casing gas migration.

HPHT conditions add many complexities to well cementing operations. Such harsh conditions can raise the risk of short term
gas migration during the placement of the cement slurry and eventually create cracks in the set cement during the life of the
well (Wray and Bedford 2009). Primary cementing is a critically important operation in construction of a well. Apart from
providing structural integrity to the well, the chief purpose of the operation is to provide a continuous impermeable hydraulic
seal in the annulus, preventing uncontrolled flow of reservoir fluids behind the casing (Yetunde and Ogbonna 2011). It is
however speculative to believe that cementing is the only consideration for effective zonal isolation.

HPHT Cement Integrity Evaluation System

A high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) system, including a large and a small cell, was designed with the capability of
reaching 25,000 psi and 450 ̊ F. Cement sheath would bond to the smaller cell (the casing) and is placed in the larger cell.
4 SPE-168321-MS

Figure 4 shows the workflow followed to perform a cyclical HPHT test to assess the cement sheath integrity.
 Prepare the slurry according to API RP 10B, the recommended practice for testing well cements.
 Pour the slurry and then puddle.
 Place the samples in the water bath.
 Assemble the sample once the cement sheath sets and bonds to the small cell.
 Apply confining pressure to the cement sheath and start curing at HPHT conditions.
 Keep the confining pressure constant and vary the pressure of the small cell (casing pressure) until the cement
sheath cracks.

Figure 4: HPHT cement sheath integrity evaluation workflow.

HPHT Cement Fatigue Failure Envelope

Three sets of class H cement plus 35% Silica were prepared according to the API 10B. All samples were cured for 15 hours
at 15,000 psi and 330 ̊ F. They were then tested under cyclical loading at HPHT conditions. Set A was tested under 1,000 psi
differential pressure, set B was tested under 2,000 psi differential pressure and set C was tested under 5,000 psi differential
pressure. The purpose was to find the cement fatigue endurance cycle for each set and develop a fatigue failure envelope for
class H cement plus 35% silica at HPHT conditions. During the life of a well, there are many circumstances in which a 1,000
psi differential pressure occurs. Set A represents the positive pressure magnitude of 1,000 psi. Figure 5 demonstrates a
definition of a cycle with 15,000 psi confining pressure and 16,000 psi casing pressure. The unconfined compressive strength
measured after curing at 15,000 and 330 ̊ F was 7828 psi.

Figure 5: Set A, cement sheath tested at 1,000 psi magnitude.

SPE-168321-MS 5

Figure 6 shows 12 cycles of casing pressure between 15,000 psi and 16,000 psi while the confining pressure stayed constant
at 15,000 psi; No failure was detected even after 13 cycles. So another sample was prepared, cured and went through 14
cycles. It turned out that after 14 cycles with 1,000 psi magnitude, a radial crack was induced in the cement sheath and
therefore cycle #14 was considered as the failure cycle, Figure 7. The failure cycle is very unique to the specific cement
chemistry, cycle intervals, curing period and testing conditions. The current set up provides a triaxial stress distribution
(confining pressure) outside the cement sheath.

20000
19000
18000
17000
Pressure, psig

16000
15000
14000
13000
12000
11000
10000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time, min

Figure 6: HPHT cement sheath cyclical loading test, 12 cycles of 1,000 psi magnitude, Set A.

Figure 7: Set A, neither 12 cycles of 1,000 psi magnitude nor 13 cycles caused a crack,
but 14 cycles created a radial crack in the cement sheath.

Set B was tested under 2,000 psi pressure differential after curing for 15hrs. The confining pressure similarly remained
constant at 15,000 psi and casing pressure varied from 15,000 psi to 17,000 psi, Figure 8. After 13 number cycles a radial
and a circumferential crack (disking failure) were detected in the cement sheath while at the 12th cycle, no failure (crack) was
observed. Therefore, cycle #13 was considered as the failure cycle under 2,000 psi pressures differential, Figures 9 and 10.

Figure 8: Set B, cement sheath tested at 2,000 psi magnitude.

6 SPE-168321-MS

Figure 9: 13th cycle, the failure cycle under 2,000 psi differentials.

Figure 10: HPHT cement sheath cyclical loading test, 12 cycles of 2,000 psi magnitude, Set B.

Set C was tested at 15,000 psi confining pressure while the casing pressure changed from 15,000 psi to 20,000 psi, Figure
11. 5,000 psi pressure differential caused the cement sheath to crack radially and circumferentially at cycle #11 more
drastically compared with set B and set A, Figure 12 and Figure 13;However 10 cycles with 5,000 psi magnitude did not
lead to any failure in the cement sheath. Therefore, cycle#11 was identified as the fatigue endurance limit for class H cement
plus 35% silica with the confining pressure of 15,000 psi and 5,000 psi differentials. Table 1 summarizes all the data
acquired to build the cement fatigue failure cycle matrix.

Figure 11: Set C, cement sheath tested at 5,000 psi magnitude.

SPE-168321-MS 7

Figure 12: 11th cycle is the failure cycle under 5,000 psi differential pressure.

Figure 13: HPHT cement sheath cyclical loading test, 11 cycles of 5,000 psi magnitude, Set C.

Table 1: The matrix of fatigue failure cycles at HPHT conditions

Set A B C
Time, hours 15 15 15

HPHT Pressure, psi 15,000 15,000 15,000

Curing
Temperature, ̊ F 330 330 330

Confining Pressure, psi 15,000 15,000 15,000

Casing Pressures, psi 15,000- 16,000 15,000- 17,000 15,000- 20,000

Cyclical
Loading at
HPHT
Conditions Sample Temperature, ̊F 330 330 330

Failure Cycle # 14 13 11

Failure Type/s Radial Crack Radial Crack & Disking Radial Crack & Disking &
Combinations of Both
8 SPE-168321-MS

Substantial number of experiments was conducted to find the fatigue failure cycles under different stress magnitudes. Figure
14 is a plot of differential stress between the casing pressure and confining pressure versus failure cycle at HPHT conditions.
This plot shows the behavior of class H cement with 35% Silica which was cured at 15,000 psi and 330 ̊ F for 15 hours. In
this process, the temperature stayed constant in order to independently investigate the effect of cyclical loading at HPHT
conditions. Higher pressure differentials have caused the cement sheath to fail more catastrophically and at a lower cycle
number. The failure behavior of class H cement plus 35% Silica does not linearly change with varying pressure (stress)
magnitudes at HPHT conditions. The line in the below figure represents the failure threshold of class H cement with 35%
Silica; the cement sheath would not fail before reaching this threshold.

6000

5000

4000

Differential Stress
3000
(psi)

2000

1000

0
10 11 12 13 14 15
Cement Sheath Failure Cycle

Figure 14. HPHT cement sheath fatigue failure envelope under cyclical loading.

Crack Detection and Evaluation

Since visual observation was the basis of crack detection in this study, some samples were randomly chosen from different
sets and CT scanned after their failure. Figure 15 shows multiple CT scan slides of a failed sample (radially cracked) from
Set A after being tested at HPHT cyclical loading. The full continuity in the radial crack, shown in slides 11, 21, 39, 51, 62,
71 and 80, depicts the existence of a permeable flow path in the cement sheath after failure due to cyclical loading at HPHT
conditions. During the slurry preparation, and despite the effort, air was inevitably trapped in the slurry, represented by the
circles in the below slides.

Figure 15. CT scanned sample shows a radial crack in a cement sheath after HPHT cyclical loading.
 SPE-168321-MS 9

Conclusions:
1) There are several well events in which the stress and thermal cycles affect the cement integrity. To prevent cement
sheath failure and find the fatigue endurance limit, a HPHT cement integrity evaluation system was introduced.
Effective zonal isolation could be achieved by evaluating the set cement's tolerance to cyclical loading.

2) Samples of class H cement plus 35% silica were cured under 15,000 psi and 330 ̊ F for 15 hours. They failed at cycle
# 11 under 5,000 psi pressure differentials, at cycle # 13 under 2,000 psi pressure differentials and at cycle # 14
under 1,000 psi pressure differentials. Higher stress magnitude (pressure differential) caused more catastrophic
failures when the fatigue endurance limit (cycle) was reached.

3) Radial failures (cracks) occurred before or along with other types of cement sheath failures. In all the experiments,
radial failure is likely to be the primary failure that takes place under cyclical loadings at HPHT conditions.

4) Class H cements is not a good comparison criterion for evaluating cement integrity at HPHT conditions due to the
unstable chemistry (cement retrogression). Modifying the slurry by adding 35% silica considerably adds to the
performance of cement sheath integrity under cyclical loadings at HPHT conditions.

Acknowledgment
Authors would like to appreciate Baker Hughes, Chandler Engineering and CSI Technologies. This research was made
possible by the NPRP award [NPRP 09-489-2-182] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of The Qatar
Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.

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