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

Safe

Formations
should never be
fractured by
internal
pressures

Pinside < Pfrac @ shoe Pinside > Pfrac @ shoe

 Avoiding differential sticking

Safe
Internal pressure
should never exceed
1000 psi formation
pressure across
permeable zones in
order to avoid
differential sticking

(Pmud-Pformation)<1,000 psi (Pmud -Pformation) >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 CH4
kick in the hole at D,
pressure inside the hole
at c must be less than
formation fracture
strength at C

Pinside @ C = Pformation @ D
- 0.052 ki Lki
- 0.052 MW (D-C-Lki)
Pformation @ D = 0.052 (ePf @ D) D

ePf @ D is pressure gradient (ppg) at D

 Satisfy the first design criteria by
selecting a formation, which will
satisfy following condition:
Pfracture @ C  Pinside @ C

 Note that, the formations get

stronger as you drill deeper.

 Formation fracture gradients

(ePff) can be determined
empirically as a function of
depth (see the example).

Pfracture @ C = 0.052 (ePff ) C

 ePff @ C is fracture gradient (ppg)

at C
Pfracture @ C  Pinside @ C

0.052(ePff @ C) C  0.052 (ePf @ D) D-0.052 ki Lki-0.052 MW (D-C-Lki)

( ePf @ D - MW )  [C (ePff @ C - MW) - Lki (MW - ki)]/D

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

For a proper casing setting depth, the value of KT is recommended to be ½

 0.052  ePff  C 0.052  ePf  D  0.052    L  0.052  MW  ( D  C  L)

ePff  C ePf  D    L  MW  ( D  C  L)

ePff  C ePf  D    L  MW  D  MW  C  MW  L

ePff  C  MW  C  MW  L  L ePf  D  MW  D

 
C  ePff  MW  L   MW  L  L 
D  ePf  MW 

 
  MW  L  L ePf  MW 
C L
 ePff  MW 
D D

KT
C
D

 ePff  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 ½

Kick Volume = 20 bbl

Bit Size = 12 ¼ inch
ODdp = 5 inch
CH4 kick
DC’s = 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 don’t).

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 ePf = Pore Pessure/(0.052 x Depth)

Depth, ft Pore ePf

Pressure, psi 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, ePf = 8.6 ppg

Calculate over-burden stress (s) based on Ben Eaton’s data:

Depth, ft Pore Pr. ePf s

psi ppg

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
Poisson’s Ratio (v) based on Ben Eaton’s data:

Depth, ft Pore Pr. psi ePf s v

ppg
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, ePff can be predicted
empirically

 v 
  
 s  0.052 ePf  0.052 ePf
1 v
ePff 
0.052

Depth, Pore Pr. psi ePf s v ePff

ft ppg 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 = ½

KT  [C (ePff @ C - MW) - Lki (MW - ki)]/D

C = 5,100 ft and ePff @ C = 15.10 ppg

Lki = 20 bbl/CapacityDC-H

CapacityDC-H = 0.0836 bbl/ft

Lki = 20 bbl / (0.0836 bbl/ft) = 239 ft

since 239 ft < ldc (360 ft), Lki = 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 ki@D = (P@D MW)/( z RT@D )
selected as MW = 13.55
ppg molecular weight of CH4 (MW) = 16

 finaly, assuming methane

kick, ki @ D = ? P@D = 0.052 (ePf @ D) D
= 0.052 (13.2) 10,000
= 6,864 psi
real gas law
T@D = 65 + (3of/1,000 ft) D
PV = z n RT = 65 + (3of/1,000 ft) 10,000
= 95 of or (460+95 = 555 oR)
PV = z (m/MW) RT
R = 80.186
P MW = z (m/V) RT
z = a + (1-a) / eb + c pprd
P MW = z () RT
a = 1.39(Tpr - 0.92)0.5 - 0.36 T pr - 0.101

b = (0.62-0.23 Tpr) Ppr + { [0.066/(Tpr - 0.86)] - 0.037 }

Ppr2 + (0.32 Ppr6) / [10 9 (Tpr- 1)]

c = (0.132 - 0.32 log Tpr)

d = antilog (0.3106-0.49 Tpr + 0.1824 Tpr2)

Tpr = T/343,

Ppr = P/667.8
 T= 555
P= 6,864
Tpr= 1.62
Ppr= 10.28
A= 0.48 ki@10,000’ = (6,864x16)/(1.13x80.186x555 )
B= 7.84 ki@10,000’ = 2.184 ppg
C= 0.07
D= 0.99
Z= 1.13
substituting,
C=5,100 ft Lki = 239 ft
ePff @ C=15.1ppg ki@10,000’ = 2.184 ppg
MW = 13.55 ppg D = 10,000 ft

into [C (ePff @ C - MW) - Lki (MW - ki)]/D

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

0.519 > ½ for your next iteration choose a greater depth (i.e. 10,500 ft).

Finally, iterate until KT = ½.