CASING SETTING DEPTH

DESIGN
Casings are set in a drilled hole for one
or more of the following reasons:
to protect contamination of underground
water formations,
to prevent drilling problems such as hole
collapse, differential sticking of pipes,
to prevent fracturing of subsurface formations,
to produce oil or gas from producing pay zone
or zones.
Three types of casings are used for these
purposes:
Surface casings,
Intermediate casings (and liners),
Production casings (and liners).
Surface casing setting depth:
As a drilling engineer you will not be in a position
to select a setting depth for surface casing.

This depth is provided by the authorities of local
government by considering depth of water table.

Surface casings should be set deep enough so that
drilling fluid can not contaminate underground
fresh water sources by mud filtration.
Production casing setting depth:
As a drilling engineer you
will not select setting depth
for a production casing
string.

Production divisions of oil
companies provide this
data for you.

They consider production
aspects of well such as pay
zone depth, well completion
type, etc.
You will be designing setting depths
for intermediate casings considering
safety of drilling only,

Properly designed intermediate
casings are the ones which help
drilling engineer reach to specified
target safely
How do I select proper depths for
intermediate casings?
Must meet following two criteria:

1. When you set your casing at depth C,
you should be able to contain 20 bbl of
gas kick at a deeper depth D.
2. You must not get differential sticking at
any depth in the open hole section of
well which is between C and D.
Containing 20 bbl of gas kick means
satisfing condition in the left figure
P
inside
<P
frac
@ shoe P
inside
>P
frac
@ shoe
Formations
should never be
fractured by
internal
pressures
Safe
Avoiding differential sticking
I nternal pressure
should never exceed
1000 psi formation
pressure across
permeable zones in
order to avoid
differential sticking
(P
mud
-P
formation
)<1,000 psi
Safe
(P
mud
-P
formation
) >1,000 psi
So, how do I select a setting depth
for the next casing set ?
You will be given
a depth at which
surface casing shoe
will reside, C.
You need to determine
maximum depth to
which you can drill while
satisfying previous two
criteria, D. This depth
will be the setting depth
for your next set of
casings.
Procedure
When you take 20 bbl CH
4

kick in the hole at D,
pressure inside the hole
at c must be less than
formation fracture
strength at C
P
inside @ C
=P
formation @ D

- 0.052
ki
L
ki

- 0.052 MW (D-C-L
ki
)
P
formation @ D
=0.052 (eP
f @ D
) D
eP
f @ D
is pressure gradient (ppg) at D
Satisfy the first design criteria by
selecting a formation, which will
satisfy following condition:
P
fracture @ C
> P
inside @ C


Note that, the formations get
stronger as you drill deeper.

Formation fracture gradients
(eP
ff
) can be determined
empirically as a function of
depth (see the example).

P
fracture @ C
=0.052 (eP
ff
) C

eP
ff @ C
is fracture gradient (ppg)
at C
P
fracture @ C
> P
inside @ C


0.052(eP
ff @ C
) C > 0.052 (eP
f @ D
) D-0.052
ki
L
ki
-0.052 MW (D-C-L
ki
)

( eP
f @ D
- MW ) > [C (eP
ff @ C
- MW) - L
ki
(MW -
ki
)]/D

eP
f @ D
-MW is known as kick tolerance (KT)

For a proper casing setting depth, the value of KT is recommended to be
0.052 eP
ff
C 0.052 eP
f
D 0.052 L 0.052 MW D C L ( )
eP
ff
C eP
f
D L MW D C L ( )
eP
ff
C eP
f
D L MW D MW C + MW L +
eP
ff
C MW C MW L L + eP
f
D MW D
C eP
ff
MW
( )
L MW L L
( )
D eP
f
MW
( )

C
D
eP
ff
MW
( )

L
D
MW L L
( )
eP
f
MW
( )
KT
C
D
eP
ff
MW
( )

L
D
MW L L
( )

Example
The pore pressure for a projected well are determined as in the
following table (see Dec 2000-newsletter). The surface casing is
set at 5,100 ft. what is the maximum depth to which the second
string may be set and maintain a kick tolerance of

Kick Volume = 20 bbl
Bit Size = 12 inch
OD
dp
= 5 inch
CH
4
kick
DCs = 8 x 3, 360
MW = pore pressure + 150 psi
Table of pore pressures
I assume, you already know how to estimate formation pore
pressures prior to drilling (see previous newsletter if you dont).
Depth, ft

Pore
Pressure,
psi









0

0









5,100

2,519.4









7,800

3,853.2









8,200

5,628.5









12,000

8,236.8









12,100

5,977.4









Calculate eP
f
= Pore Pessure/(0.052 x Depth)
Depth, ft

Pore
Pressure, psi

eP
f

ppg







0

0

8.6







5,100

2,519.4

9.5







7,800

3,853.2

9.5







8,200

5,628.5

13.2







12,000

8,236.8

13.2







12,100

5,977.4

9.5







for depth=0, eP
f
= 8.6 ppg

Calculate over-burden stress (s) based on Ben Eatons data:
Depth, ft

Pore Pr.
psi

eP
f

ppg

s





0

0

8.6







5,100

2,519.4

9.5

0.9097





7,800

3,853.2

9.5

0.9332





8,200

5,628.5

13.2

0.9363





12,000

8,236.8

13.2

0.9611





12,100

5,977.4

9.5

0.9617





s = 0.84753 + 0.01494 D/1,000 - 0.0006 (D/1,000)
2
+ 1.199 x 10
-5

(D/1,000)
3

Poissons ratio
is the negative ratio of transverse to axial
strain. When a material is compressed in
one direction, it usually tends to expand in
the other two directions perpendicular to
the direction of compression. This
phenomenon is called the Poisson effect.
Poisson's ratio (nu) is a measure of this
effect. The Poisson ratio is the fraction (or
percent) of expansion divided by the
fraction (or percent) of compression, for
small values of these changes.
Poissons Ratio (v) based on Ben Eatons data:
Depth, ft

Pore Pr. psi eP
f

ppg

s

v



0

0

8.6







5,100

2,519.4

9.5

0.9097

0.4088



7,800

3,853.2

9.5

0.9332

0.4360



8,200

5,628.5

13.2

0.9363

0.4384



12,000

8,236.8

13.2

0.9611

0.4546



12,100

5,977.4

9.5

0.9617

0.4545



v = 0.23743 + 0.05945 D/1,000 - 0.00668 (D/1,000)
2
+ 0.00035
(D/1,000)
3

- 0.671 x 10
-5
(D/1,000)
4

Finally, the formation fracture gradient, eP
ff
can be predicted
empirically
( )
eP
v
v
s eP eP
ff
f f
=

|
\

|
.
| +
1
0 052 0 052
0 052
. .
.
Depth,
ft

Pore Pr. psi eP
f

ppg

s

v

eP
ff

ppg

0

0

8.6







5,100 2,519.4 9.5 0.9097 0.4088 15.10
7,800 3,853.2 9.5 0.9332 0.4360 16.03
8,200 5,628.5 13.2 0.9363 0.4384 16.95
12,000 8,236.8 13.2 0.9611 0.4546 17.60
12,100 5,977.4 9.5 0.9617 0.4545 17.01
Remember, we are trying to find a value for D at which KT =
KT > [C (eP
ff @ C
- MW) - L
ki
(MW -
ki
)]/D

C = 5,100 ft and eP
ff @ C
= 15.10 ppg

L
ki
= 20 bbl/Capacity
DC-H


Capacity
DC-H
= 0.0836 bbl/ft

L
ki
= 20 bbl / (0.0836 bbl/ft) = 239 ft

since 239 ft < l
dc
(360 ft), L
ki
= 239 ft \
Trial & error solution, assume D = 10,000 . From 5,100 to 10,000 you
will be drilling open hole. So you will design a MW such that the mud
pressure must not fall below the maximum anticipated formation
pressure in the open hole section.
Determining the required MW
So, Mud Weight is
selected as MW = 13.55
ppg

finaly, assuming methane
kick,
ki @ D
= ?

real gas law

PV = z n RT

PV = z (m/MW) RT

P MW = z (m/V) RT

P MW = z () RT

ki@D
= (P
@D
MW)/( z RT
@D
)
molecular weight of CH
4
(MW) = 16
P
@D
= 0.052 (eP
f @ D
) D
= 0.052 (13.2) 10,000
= 6,864 psi

T
@D
= 65 + (3
o
f/1,000 ft) D
= 65 + (3
o
f/1,000 ft) 10,000
= 95
o
f or (460+95 = 555
o
R)

R = 80.186
z = a + (1-a) / e
b
+ c p
pr
d

a = 1.39(T
pr
- 0.92)
0.5
- 0.36 T
pr
- 0.101

b = (0.62-0.23 T
pr
) P
pr
+ { [0.066/(T
pr
- 0.86)] - 0.037 }
P
pr
2
+ (0.32 P
pr
6
) / [10
9 (T
pr
- 1)
]

c = (0.132 - 0.32 log T
pr
)

d = antilog (0.3106-0.49 T
pr
+ 0.1824 T
pr
2
)

T
pr
= T/343,

P
pr
= P/667.8
T= 555
P= 6,864
T
pr
= 1.62
P
pr
= 10.28
A= 0.48
B= 7.84
C= 0.07
D= 0.99
Z= 1.13

ki@10,000
=(6,864x16)/(1.13x80.186x555 )

ki@10,000
=2.184 ppg
substituting,
C=5,100 ft L
ki
=239 ft
eP
ff @ C
=15.1ppg
ki@10,000
=2.184 ppg
MW =13.55 ppg D =10,000 ft

into [C (eP
ff @ C
- MW) - L
ki
(MW -
ki
)]/D

[5,100(15.1-13.55)-239(13.55-2.184)]/10,000 = 0.519

0.519 > for your next iteration choose a greater depth (i.e. 10,500 ft).

Finally, iterate until KT =.