Casing Design

1.8-1

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 1.8-2 Casing Design

 Why Run Casing?

 Types of Casing Strings
 Classification of Casing
 Burst, Collapse and Tension
Effect of Axial Tension on Collapse Strength

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1.8-3 Casing Design
What is casing? Casing

Why run casing? Cement

1. To prevent the hole from caving in

2. Onshore - to prevent contamination of
fresh water sands
3. To prevent water migration to
producing formation
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 1.8-4 Casing Design
4. To confine production to the wellbore
5. To control pressures during drilling
6. To provide an acceptable environment for
subsurface equipment in producing wells
7. To enhance the probability of drilling to total
depth (TD)
e.g., you need 14 ppg mud to control a lower zone,
but an upper zone will fracture at 12 lb/gal.
What do you do?
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 1.8-5 Types of Strings of Casing
Diameter Example
1. Drive pipe or structural pile
{Gulf Coast and offshore only}
16”-60” 30”
150’-300’ below mudline.

2. Conductor string. 100’ - 1,600’ 16”-48” 20”

(BML)

3. Surface pipe. 2,000’ - 4,000’ 8 5/8”-20” 13 3/8”

(BML)

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 1.8-6 Types of Strings of Casing
Diameter Example

4. Intermediate String 7 5/8”-13 3/8” 9 5/8”

5. Production String (Csg.) 4 1/2”-9 5/8” 7”

6. Liner(s)

7. Tubing String(s)

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1.8-7 Example Hole and String Sizes (in)
Hole Size Pipe Size
36” Structural casing 30”
26” Conductor string 20”

17 1/2 Surface pipe 13 3/8

12 1/4 IntermediateString 9 5/8

8 3/4 Production Liner 7

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 1.8-8 Classification of CSG.

1. Outside diameter of pipe (e.g. 9 5/8”)

2. Wall thickness (e.g. 1/2”)

3. Grade of material (e.g. N-80)

4. Type to threads and couplings (e.g. API LCSG)

5. Length of each joint (RANGE) (e.g. Range 3)

6. Nominal weight (Avg. wt/ft incl. Wt. Coupling)
(e.g. 47 lb/ft)
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1.8-9


 9
1.8-10 Casing Threads and Couplings

API round threads - short { CSG }

API round thread - long { LCSG }
Buttress { BCSG }
Extreme line { XCSG }
Other …

See Halliburton Book...

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Burst, Collapse, and Tension

1.9-1

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 1.9-2 API Design Factors (typical)

Required Design

10,000 psi Collapse 1.125 11,250 psi

100,000 lbf Tension 1.8 180,000 lbf

10,000 psi Burst 1.1 11,000 psi

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1.9-3
Abnormal

Normal Pore Pressure Abnormal Pore Pressure

0.433 - 0.465 psi/ft gp > normal
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 1.9-4 Casing Design
Tension Tension
Depth
Burst

Collapse

Collapse
STRESS
Burst:
Burst Assume full reservoir pressure all along the wellbore.
Collapse: Hydrostatic pressure increases with depth
Tension: Tensile stress due to weight of string is highest at top
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 1.9-5 Casing Design
Unless otherwise specified in a particular
problem, we shall also assume the following:

Worst Possible Conditions

1. For Collapse design, assume that the
casing is empty on the inside (p = 0 psig)

2. For Burst design, assume no “backup”

fluid on the outside of the casing (p = 0 psig)
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 1.9-6 Casing Design
Worst Possible Conditions, cont’d
3. For Tension design,
assume no buoyancy effect
4. For Collapse design,
assume no buoyancy effect
The casing string must be designed to stand up to the
expected conditions in burst, collapse and tension.
Above conditions are quite conservative. They are also
simplified for easier understanding of the basic concepts.
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 1.9-7 Casing Design - Solution

Burst Requirements (based on the expected pore

pressure)
PB  pore pressure * Design Factor

Depth
 6,000 psi *1.1
PB  6,600 psi
Pressure
The whole casing string must be capable of
withstanding this internal pressure without failing in
burst.
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 1.9-8 Casing Design - Solution

Collapse Requirements
For collapse design, we start at the bottom of
the string and work our way up.

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 1.9-9 Tension Check

The weight on the top joint of casing

would be
(6,369 ft * 47.0# / ft )  (1,631 ft * 53.5# / ft )

 386,602 lbs actual weight

With a design factor of 1.8 for tension, a

pipe strength of
1.8 * 386,602  695,080 lbf is required
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