Casing Seat Selection – How To Select

Casing Setting Depth

By DrillingFormulas.Com | June 2, 2014 - 5:24 am | Casing Design

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From the previous article, you’ve learnt about overall of casing design process and in
this article we are going to discuss about how to select casing setting depth. The
selection of casing string and setting depth is based on formation pore pressure and
fracture gradient of the well.

For the casing setting depth determination, pore pressure and fracture gradient are
normally described in PPG (Figure 1).
 Figure 1 – Pore Pressure and Fracture Pressure Plot
 The solid lines in the chart are not accounted for safety factor; therefore, for the first
step of casing seat design, safety margin must be applied. For this example, we will add
0.3 ppg for safety for both pore pressure and fracture gradient (Figure 2). You need to
add the safety factor into formation pressure and subtract it from the fracture gradient.
What’s more, the safety factor value may depends on where you work and how much
confident in your data.
 Figure 2 – Pore Pressure and Fracture Pressure Plot with Safety Margin
The dashed lines are design range which will be used for the design. There are two
ways to determine casing setting depths which are bottom-up and top-down method.

Bottom Up Casing Design

This design will start from the bottom of the well up to surface and the setting depths are
designed within the safety factor limits (dotted lines). Starting at the bottom (formation
pressure dashed line – Point A), draw a vertical line upward to fracture pressure dashed
line – Point B (Figure 3). Casing should be set from 4,500’ TVD to 12,000’ TVD because
you can reach TD (12,000’ TVD) with highest equivalent mud weight and you will not
break the formation at shallow depth (4,500 TVD). We will apply this same concept to
another string.
 Figure 3 – Bottom Up Design Step#1
The next casing string is determined by drawing a horizontal line from Point B to
intersect the pore pressure dashed line at Point C. Then draw a vertical line from Point
C to the fracture gradient dashed line at Point D (Figure 4). The Casing must be set
from 1,800’ TVD to 4,500’ TVD.
 Figure 4 – Bottom Up Design Step#2
With the same idea, the next casing string is determined by drawing a horizontal line
from Point D to Point E and a vertical line from Point E to Point F (Figure 5). The Casing
must be set from surface to 1,800’ TVD.
 Figure 5 – Bottom Up Design Step#3
Based on the bottom up design concept, we will need to have 3 strings of casing set at
1800’ TVD, 4500’ TVD and 12,000 TVD (Figure 6).
 Figure 6 – Bottom Up Design Final
From the example, you can see how the bottom up casing design process is done. If
you have the different pore pressure/fracture gradient, you can repeat the process for
other casing strings until you reach surface casing.

Top Down Casing Design

This design will start from the surface of the well down to the bottom and the setting
depths are designed within the safety factor limits (dotted lines). We start by drawing the
vertical line from the facture gradient dashed line (point A) down to pore pressure
dashed line (point B). See Figure 7. The first casing should be set from surface to 3,000’
TVD.
 Figure 7 – Top Down Design Step#1
Next, draw the horizontal line from Point B to Point C located in the fracture dashed line
curve. Then draw the vertical line from Point C to intersect the formation pressure
dashed line curve at Point D. This is the section casing string which should be set from
3,000’ TVD to 6,000’ TVD (Figure 8).
 Figure 8 – Top Down Design Step#2
Applying the same concept to the next string, draw the horizontal line from Point D to
intersect the fracture gradient with safety factor chart at Point E and draw the vertical
line from Point E to the target depth at Point F. The last casing string should be set from
6,000’ TVD to 12,000’ TVD (Figure 9).
 Figure 9 – Top Down Design Step#3
 Based on the tow down design concept, we will need to have 3 strings of casing set at
3,000’ TVD, 6,000’ TVD and 12,000 TVD (Figure 10).
 Figure 10 – Top Down Design Final
From the example, you can see how the top down casing design process is done. You
can repeat the same process to determine the setting depth based on your fracture and
pressure plot.

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6 Responses to Casing Seat Selection – How To Select Casing

Setting Depth

1. Curd
JUNE 3, 2014 AT 4:37 PM
any pros/cons for bottom up & top down?
Reply

2. Victor RUS
JUNE 3, 2014 AT 5:37 PM
Gents, I completely agree with top down and bottom up method except that you should
use Bottom UP when you have reservoirs, if you don’t have reservoirs you should use
top down method and then choose the CSG depth depending on lithology. This is
simplest thing in CSG design, then we need to choose casing P110, L80, K55, etc. It
would be great if you show us biaxial collapse, triaxial burst calculations etc and kick
tolerance as well.
Reply

o DrillingFormulas.Com
JULY 14, 2014 AT 8:08 AM
Hi Victor,
We will have more article regarding casing design which will focus on biaxial, burst, collapse,
etc.
Reply

3. Soran
JUNE 4, 2014 AT 12:37 AM
well done, this is really excellent and well explained casing setting depth selection
procedure. However, would it be possible to demonstrate or provide us a real casing
design calculation scenario for surface and intimidate section. please advise