PTRL 4017 – A

ASSIGNMENT NO: A1

DUE ON 15/07/2019

Question 1 (30 marks)

Design a casing program for a vertical development well. The regional pore pressure and fracture
gradients are given in Table 1.

1. Determine casing setting depths using the fracture/pore pressure profiles given in Table 1.
Check the likelihood of pipe-sticking due to differential pressures for all the casings and
the kick imposed pressure at surface casing shoe. Use 0.5 ppg as safety margin for mud
weight. (20)
2. List the mud weight used to drill each hole section. (5)
3. Determine hole (bit) and casing sizes for each section of the well. Use a 7 in OD
production casing. (5)

Table 1 Pore Pressure and Fracture Gradient Profile

Pore Fracture
Pressure pressure
Depth
gradient gradient
EMW EMW
(ft) (ppg) (ppg)
0 8.9 11.7
1000 8.9 12.2
1500 8.9 12.5
2000 8.9 12.8
4000 8.9 14
5000 8.9 14.6
6000 8.9 15.2
8000 9.2 16.2
9000 10 16.8
10000 11.5 17.3
11000 14.2 17.7
12000 15.8 18
13000 16.3 18.2
14000 16.6 18.4
15000 16.8 18.6
16000 17 18.7
18000 17.2 18.9

Note: EMW stands for Equivalent Mud Weight

1
Question 2 (70 marks)

The casing program for a vertical well is shown in Table 2:

Table 2 Casing Program for a vertical well

Casing Casing Setting Pore pressure Fracture Mud
Size Depth gradient @ gradient @ density
casing seat casing seat
(inch) (ft) (ppg) (ppg) (ppg)
Surface 13 3/8" 4000 8.9 13.60 9.4

Intermediate 9 5/8" 9000 12.4 15.6 12.9

Production 7" 16000 14.5 16.5 15

(1) Calculate the worst collapse and burst loads for:

• Surface casing (10)
• Intermediate casing (20)
• Production casing (10)

(2) Based on the collapse and burst loads above, design the intermediate casing string (other
casing strings are not required) by identifying casing outside diameter, grade, weight and
section length. Assuming that all API casing grades are available. （30）

You should consider:

a) Maximum collapse loading - use 1 as the safety factor.
b) Maximum burst loading - use 1.1 as the safety factor, assuming BOP rating 5000 psi.
c) Maximum tensile loading including weight, shock loading, pressure testing (60% of the
burst resistance of casing) and bending (with dog leg 3/100ft) – use 1.8 as the safety
factor.
d) Biaxial loading.
e) Using combination casing string to save casing cost if applicable.

Online submission on Moodle required.

Show all your calculations and assumptions.

Please note that this assignment is designed for your individual work, make sure to avoid
plagiarism, heavy penalty applies.