SPE-191973-MS

How to Run Casing Efficiently in Extended Horizontal Wells Using Buoyancy

Reza Rastegar, Mohammed Munawar, and William Tait, National Oilwell Varco

Copyright 2018, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Asia Pacific Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition held in Brisbane, Australia, 23–25 October 2018.

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
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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
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Abstract
Due to drilling economics, operators prefer extending the lateral section over drilling a new well. It presents
a challenge to run casing strings to the target depth in wells where horizontal section is longer than the
vertical section. Although alteration of casing weight or installation of liner may present as solutions, they
are hardly economical compare to selective buoyancy methods. This paper aims to take an engineering
approach on optimizingly palceing a buoyancy barrier which traps lighter fluid in the horizontal section
for thepurpose of reducing friction. As seem to not have been presented in SPE conferences before, the
aim of this paper is to engineeringly identify the optimum placement of the barrier, measure the efficiency
improvement and identify the cases for which running a barrier is essential to run the casing string to the
target depth. Operators usually run a torque and drag to measure the improvemet made by placing a barrier
in kick off point. In this paper we intended to verify this practice and offer a simple rule of thumb method
that can help an operator to decide on weather it is needed to run a barrier.
Referred to in this paper as flotation collar, it is installed as part of the casing string. It employs a
mechanical barrier that traps the air or lighter completion fluid in the mostly horizontal section and separates
it from the heavier completion fluid in the mostly vertical section of the casing string. Identifying the best
position of the barrier is important to achieve the maximum hook-load. In this paper, numerous cases are
studied by gradually expanding the air section and monitoring the hook-load to identify the best position
for which the hook-load is maximum.
As per its physics, there is only one position of placement which results in the highest axial tensile force,
also known as hook-load, when forces of gravity and friction engage. Placing the tool too high or too low
in the string misuses the available tensile axial force and will not provide the best results. By using casing
flotation tools as a barrier, a spectrum of thirty to eighty percent tensile improvement in the axial load
are observed and more than fifty percent reduction of buckling effects in vertical section. For some cases,
running a flotation tool was the only option to reach to the target depth with the casing string.
Flotation tools in long string wells are the only economical alternative to changing casing weights or
running liners when it is to completing wells with extended horizontal sections. A flow-chart is presented
to help with simplifying the process of choosing a flotation tool and finding its best position of placement.
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Introduction
Extended wells are wells in which the horizontal section is longer than the vertical section and therefore
it presents higher frictional forces due to larger contact surface. There are two major forces which act on
a casing string when it is run in a wellbore assuming no rotation. Gravitational forces from the weight of
the casing string and fluid in the vertical section and frictional forces from the weight of casing string and
fluid in the horizontal section. When the casing string travels downward in the wellbore, both the weight
of the casing and the weight of the fluid filling the casing down to the float shoe are positively contributing
in keeping the axial force in tension. Assuming the vertical section being truly vertical, the friction force
between the casing and wellbore wall in the vertical section is negligible as the normal force vector is coaxial
with the wellbore and parallel to the wall. As soon as the string enters the transitioning bend to horizontal
section, large frictional forces begin acting against the string due to the normal force equivalent to the entire
weight of the string and fluid above it. In the horizontal section, the downward force exerted by the fluid
and casing also contribute the friction forces as the casing contacts wellbore.

Casing Buoyancy
The flotation collar is a tubular collar that is run in as part of the production casing and has an embedded
glass barrier which is to trap air or lower density fluid in the downhole section of the casing and separate it
from higher density fluid above. The light-weighted section of the casing reduces the normal stress thereby
reducing the frictional force, while heavier-weighted fluid contributes positively by increasing the axial
force. A specially designed glass disc is the platform with which hydrostatic pressure transforms into the
axial force. Axial force is desired to be in tension rather compression to drive the casing string downwards
and that is the reason positioning of the flotation collar in the casing string is important.

Figure 1—Ultra Reach Flotation Collar-Courtesy of National Oilwell Varco

At the beginning of running casing string, wellbore is filled with drilling mud and casing joints coupled
together and to the float shoe and run into the hole dry or with lighter fluid. Once calculated number of
joints run to account for the needed length of buoyant section, then the flotation collar is coupled in with
casing joints to be run as part of the production string and now the wet section starts. This section and
above the flotation collar will be filled with heavier density fluid to start contributing to weight factor.
Once production casing is reached to the target depth, pressure is applied, and the glass barrier is shattered
into fine pieces establishing a full-bore flow path for the cementing operation. The particles range in size
between 5 – 10mm in diameter.
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Figure 2—5-10 mm is the range of glass particles after glass barrier is shattered

Placing the flotation collar too high may limits the hydrostatic pressure that is converted to force through
the surface of the disc and placing it too low may increase the frictional force so there is an optimum which
will result in the maximum hook-load. In the next section a method of placement is discussed.

Optimized Air-Section Length

Wells with long lateral lengths in relationship to vertical depth have more difficulty reaching the target
depth, as smaller gravitational force from a shallow fluid head is not enough to overcome the frictional
forces in the long lateral casing in the horizontal section. The well we consider in this study was drilled in
Elk County, Pennsylvania and had a relatively long TD of 16,000 ft compare to a relatively shallow TVD
of 6,000 ft. The well makes two bi-planar turns to get to the pay zone and was completed with 5.5" 20lb
casing string. The two following diagrams show the well projection in 3D and 2D.

Figure 3—Well projection in 3D view shows the two bi-planar turns

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Figure 4—Well projection in 2D shows relatively long lateral length

of more than 10,000 ft compare to the relatively short TVD of 6,000 ft.

Figure 5—Dogleg severity graph shows the two significant turns in the wellbore projection
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Sensitivity Analysis
The approach we took in this study was to increase the length of the air section measured from the toe
incrementally every 1,000 ft and calculate the hook-load at the target depth and at the landing point. The
case of not running a flotation collar or default case is represented by air section length of zero or imaginary
placement of the flotation collar at the toe shown in Figure 6. For this well, the next 16 diagrams represent
the hook-load versus depth for 16 different air section lengths, as air section gradually expands every 1,000
ft to fully taking up the entire casing string which has an overall length of approximately 16,000 ft. This
means 16 different locations of the flotation collar along the casing string. The shift-point which appears on
all graphs at the depth of around 6,500 ft. is where the casing string enters the horizontal section, referred
to as landing point in this paper. For the default case, shown in Figure 6, the hook-load at the target depth is
around 1,200 lbf. On Figure 7, with the introduction of the first 1,000 ft of air from the toe, the hook-load
at the landing point reduces to 9,600 lbf. while the hook-load at the target depth increases to 12,000 lbf. It
is nearly 10 times improvement with only including 1,000 ft of air.

Figure 6—Casing string hook-load of ~200 lbf. at target depth

with no air-section. This is the case of not using a flotation collar.
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Figure 7—Casing string hook-load of ~12,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 1,000 ft. from the toe

Figure 8—Casing string hook-load of ~22,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 2,000 ft. from the toe
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Figure 9—Casing string hook-load of ~28,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 3,000 ft. from the toe

Figure 10—Casing string hook-load of ~34,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 4,000 ft. from the toe
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Figure 11—Casing string hook-load of ~39,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 5,000 ft. from the toe

Figure 12—Casing string hook-load of ~42,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 6,000 ft. from the toe

Decrease in hook-load at landing point and increase at the target depth continues as the air section
continues to expand for 1,000 ft at a time. On Figure 13, the air section for the first time is longer then the
vertical section which means casing string enters the horizontal section while it is "dry", meaning filled with
trapped air. The first shift point on the Figure 13 is the landing point, the second shift point is the location
of the flotation collar above which the casing string starts to fill up with completion fluid and the third shift
point is where the flotation collar and simultaneously wet casing enters the horizontal section. Hook-load at
the target depth continues to rise to its maximum on Figure 16 where the air section is 10,000 ft measured
from the toe. Expansion of air section above this optimum length reduces the weight component in the
SPE-191973-MS 9

vertical section and therefore starts to contribute negatively to the overall hook-load at the target depth as
seen on Figure 17 to Figure 22.

Figure 13—Casing string hook-load of ~46,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 7,000 ft. from the toe

Figure 14—Casing string hook-load of ~50,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 8,000 ft. from the toe
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Figure 15—Casing string hook-load of ~54,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 9,000 ft. from the toe

Figure 16—Casing string hook-load of ~55,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section
length of 10,000 ft. from the toe. Optimum placement results in maximum hook-load.
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Figure 17—Casing string hook-load of ~49,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 11,000 ft. from the toe

Figure 18—Casing string hook-load of ~41,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 12,000 ft. from the toe
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Figure 19—Casing string hook-load of ~33,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 13,000 ft. from the toe

Figure 20—Casing string hook-load of ~25,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 14,000 ft. from the toe
SPE-191973-MS 13

Figure 21—Casing string hook-load of ~17,000 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 15,000 ft. from the toe

Figure 22—Casing string hook-load of ~9,500 lbf. at target depth with air-section length of 16,000 ft. from the toe

Advantages of Optimum Air-Section Length

The method above applied to a well from Mid-Con USA. This well has an MD of 22,476 ft and TVD of
only 7,800 ft. The long lateral had made it challenging for previous wells with similar projection to run
casing in. The table below shows the wellbore construction followed by hook-load and axial force versus
depth for evaluating the axial force at the target depth and assessment of buckling.
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According to conducted sensitivity analysis on hook-load versus string depth presented in Figure 23,
maximum hook-load was expected at the air section length of approximately 13,400 ft from the toe. With
flotation collar installing at such depth to trap the mentioned air section length, the hook-load at the target
depth improves from 12,000 lbf. to 100,000 lbf. as shown on Figure 24. The buckling effect reduced for
more than 85% by comparing the area of the graph covered on the left side of the sinusoidal and helical
buckling limit with default case as shown on Figure 25.

Figure 23—Optimum air section to achieve the maximum hook-load is 13,400 ft from the toe.
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Figure 24—Hook-load vs. string depth for the cases of running a flotation collar at the optimized depth vs default case

Figure 25—Reduction of buckling effect for more than 85% with running a flotation collar compare to the default case
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Figure 26—Sensitivity analysis on hook-load with variation of air section length

Figure 26 shows hook-load for different air section lengths to offer more options in case of any limiting
factors. With the mud weight of 10.5 ppg, for this case, the hydrostatic pressure acting on the flotation
collar is 4,955 psi. Including a margin of safety, a flotation collar with shearing pressure of 5,500 psi was
recommended.

Dimensionless Analysis
A sampling of 28 wells were studied, out of which 11 of them necessitated a flotation collar to reach to
the target depth due to the high compressional axial forces. Negative hook-load represents axial force in
compression. For all the wells which required a flotation collar, the ration of TVD to MD was less than 0.5
which means the measured depth is more than or equal to two times longer than the TVD. For almost all
these wells, the optimum air section length was near to or longer than the length of the lateral.
SPE-191973-MS 17

Table 1—Dimensionless parameters of several wells with flotation collar

Conclusion
As discussed in this paper, casing flotation is a simple means to improve installation efficiency in extended
wellbores. The physics of placement and effects of poor placement are discussed, and a methodology is
outlined for properly placing the flotation collar in the casing string. Future work interests by authors are
to focus on edge cases for which sensitivity analyses suggest placement of a barrier other than at kick off
point and execute a deviation analysis to look for patterns and identify a safe margin of installation from
the kick off point. Flowchart below underlines important factors when considering casing flotation.
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Flowchart 1—Logics of selecting a flotation collar

References
Streeter Victor.L., Wylie Benjamin E., Fluid Mechanics, 8th Edition, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.
Guo Boyun, Liu Gefei, Applied Drilling Circulation Systems, 1st Edition, Gulf Professional Publishing Company.
Bourgoyne Jr. Adam T., Millheim Keith K., Chenevert Martin E., Young Jr. F.S, Applied Drilling Engineering, Vol. 2,
SPE Text Book Series.