CASING DESIGN FOR EXTENDED REACH WELLS BY USING CASINGSEAT AND STRESSCHECK SOFTWARE

Today, the wells drilled by the petroleum and other energy development industries cover
a wide range of drilling conditions. Significant advances in drilling technology have
been made it possible to drill horizontally in almost any situation by using specialized
tools. Highly deviated and even directional wells with high horizontal departure (ERD
wells) are being drilled to complete reservoirs which otherwise could not be produced
economically. These types of wells require substantial engineering work compared to
conventional directional drilling. Besides that, there are some inherent weaknesses still
exist, like casing design. Because, severe drilling and borehole conditions place
additional requirements on casing design. As a result, it is often difficult to meet
API requirements for principal design loads such as collapse, burst and tension.
In this report author have tried to capture the best of casing design practices and
available technologies for extended reach wells. Author have done a thorough analyzes
about this topic from various sources such as books, SPE papers and from International
Oil and Gas Companies casing design manuals. From the reading, it was observed that
horizontal section of Extended Reach wells requires higher collapse and axial strength.
Author has conducted a software simulation in CasingSeat and StressCheck and
compared the design with manual calculation from MS Excel. Author has also proposed
a methodology for successfully designing an Extended Reach Wells. This document
encompasses a background of the study, a problem statement, the objectives and scope
of study, the outline of the research methodology, the results and discussion and a
conclusion.