Primary Cementing

•  Concepts

•  Casing and Cement Job Types

•  Cement placement and job design

•  Equipment

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 Primary Cementing
Placement of cement in the
annulus between casing and
open hole or previous casing to
provide Aquifer

–  Hydraulic Isolation
–  Support and protect casing Natural barrier
–  Support the borehole

Salt zone or Hydrocarbons

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 Basic Cementing Method

•  Cementing is basically:
–  Two-plugs methods to pump and displace cement
–  Job ends with an pressure increase at surface and
displacement ends
–  Well remains shut-in to allow cement to set in
place before drilling resumes or completion starts

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 Two-plugs Method

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 Casing Types
Caising are steel pipes used in
oil and gas wells to allow deeper
drilling by enclosing a hole
section.

•  Conductor
•  Superficial
•  Intermediate
•  Production casing or liner

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 Conductor
•  The conductor pipe is most commonly Size & depth:
“driven” in (no cement).
30” casing x 36’’ hole
•  The main reasons for running this type of
casing are to prevent washing out of the weak 20” casing x 26” hole
formations just at surface, and to provide an
@
elevation to connect a flow nipple to allow for
flow back to the rig tanks. 30 ft - 100 ft
•  The conductor pipe is usually a large size
pipe ranging from 36” to 16” and they can be
threaded or welded - when they are driven,
they are typically welded pipes.

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 Surface Casing
•  The main reasons for cementing Surface Size & depth
casings are the following:
16” casing x 20’’ hole
–  To protect surface fresh water formations,
–  To case off unconsolidated or lost 13 3/8” casing x 17 1/2”
circulation zones near surface, hole
–  To support later casing strings, @
–  To provide a means of connecting the 100 ft – 3000 ft
BOP.
•  Typical casing sizes range from 20” to 9 5/8”.
They can be set at any depth, the restriction
usually being the weight limits of the rig and
the types of zones deeper in the well.

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Thru-Drill Pipe Cementing (Stab-in)
•  Cement contamination and channelling inside
the casing is greatly reduced.
•  Smaller displacement volumes and job time.
•  No need to worry about the correct cement
excess, you can continue mixing and pumping
until you have good cement to surface. The
only cement that will return is the displacement
volume (volume of the DP) which is typically
small.
•  This technique is used for most large casing
sizes (OD > 13 3/8) and typically shallower
than 1000 ft

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 Top Job
•  Since the first casing is cemented in weak or
unconsolidated formations, losses are common
or excess cement may not have been enough.
This causes the top of cement to be below
surface. In these cases, “top jobs” may be
performed to ensure good cement at surface to
support the casing.
•  A small OD pipe or “spaguetti” tubing is used.
Usual maximum depths range from 100 to 250
feet.
•  Friction pressures are usually very high while
pumping and care must be taken to avoid
bursting the pipes or the connections (usually
made up by the rig welder)
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 Intermediate Casing
•  Intermediate casings are set between the surface casing and
the top of the reservoir. Theses sections might be long, with
deviated portions. These casings are usually set to isolate
problems zones and sometimes requiring especific solutions:
•  Multi-stages jobs
•  Light weight cement (cenosphere-based or foamed
cement)
•  All drilling events will translate into challengues to cementing

Size & depth

Size & depth would
13 3/8” casing x 17 1/2’’ hole
depend on well
9 5/8” casing x 12 1/4” hole objective and
prosence of problems
@ zones
3000 ft – 15000 ft(*)

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 Tieback Cementing
•  The dimensions of the tie-back tool shall be properly measured and any restriction to flow shall be
properly identified and considered in the cement job simulation.
•  The position of the tie-back receptacle before cementing shall account for casing elongation, including the
cement column weight, to prevent obstruction or excessive restriction at the circulations ports.
•  Plan for adequate number of short joints of casing to prevent the cement head is placed too high on the
rig floor.
•  The ECD generated during the tie-back cementing operation could leak downwards and/or exceed
formation pressure.
•  The use of washes and spacers ahead of cement
slurries will prevent cement contamination and
mixing with the fluid in the hole.
•  The condition of the outer-casing shall be properly
access. For the cementing simulation, safety
factors shall be applied for the outer-casing burst
pressure.
•  Parameters such as TOC, cement density and
rheology shall be selected accordingly to lower the
maximum ECD.

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Basic Cementing Process

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Basic Cementing Process
Before

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Basic Cementing Process
Bonus: Centralizers Placement
No Expansion on Centralizers due to
contact against casing collars or shoe

Clearance
No Contact with
Casing Collar

½ Joint

Running

Pulling

Clearance.
shoe shoe No Contact with
Shoe

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Do you see the Rig? Or me?

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 Two Stage Cementing
•  Two stage cementing is a technique where a tool called
stage collar is placed in a casing string - this collar allows
ports or holes to be opened and circulation can be
performed through them.
•  The stage collar allows to cement the portion below first to
isolate a losses or weak formation and then open the
ports to cement the part above.
•  This is very useful in the following circumstances:
–  To isolate two problems zones within one open hole section,
e.g. a high pressure zone and a low fracture pressure zone,
–  To reduce the hydrostatic pressure in the well when a weak
formation.
–  In multilateral wells or certain type of completions, it allows to
cement only the bottom or upper portion of the casing - with
two stage cementing, some part of the hole can be left
uncommented.

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 Liner cementing
•  The main reasons for running
production casing and liners:
–  To isolate the pay zones and the fluids in them from other
zones
–  A liner allows to save on casing cost
–  To provide a protective housing for subsurface production
equipment (completions).
–  To cover worn or damaged intermediate casings.
–  Good cementing practices are required
–  Care should be taken when cementing liners as the annular
clearances are very small and rates and pressures are usually
restricted to avoid overpressuring the well causing losses.

Diámetros comunes: Size & depth Size & depth would

depend on well
4 ½”, 5”, 7’’, 9 5/8” 4 ½”, 5” or 7”
objective and
prosence of problems
1500 ft – 25000 ft
zones
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 Liner Basic Schematic

Drill pipe Wiper

Dart

Liner Hanger
Running Tool
Pins Wiper plug

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 Liner Cementing

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 Liner Volume Calculations
9 5/8” casing 47 lb/ft

3 1/2” DP 13.3 lb/ft

9 5/8” casing shoe @ 6500 ft

7” liner 29 lb/ft
Top @ 6200 ft

7” liner shore @ 10500 ft 1

2
4 1/2” liner 16.6 lb/ft
Top @ 10100ft 6” open hole + 20% Excess

Float Collar liner 4 1/2”

@ 14320 ft
3
4 1/2” liner show @ 14400 ft

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 Bonus: Plug Calculations
Vsp.  behind DP1

Vsp.  ahead L1 Length  of  fluids  at  end  of  displacement  to  
balance  the  cement  plug  ?
L2
L3
DP2
L4
Known  variables:
DP3 L5 Open hole diameter, Casing and work-
string sizes and weights
Desired
L  cement = Cement → V  cem
Plug  Depth
Length
Required to prevent cement slurry
Vsp.  ahead = contamination and/or contact with brine
Calculation  Target:
Doh =  Average Hole size
1st Displacement volume VDisplacement
Required ONLY to balance
2nd Vsp.  Behind   length of spacer ahead

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 Bonus: Plug Calculations
Vsp.  behind VDisplacement =  (Plug  Depth  -­‐ L5 -­‐ L4 -­‐ L3 -­‐ L2 -­‐ L1 )*  CaDP1 (7)
DP1

Vsp.  ahead Vsp.  behind =  CaDP1  *  L1 +  CaDP2 *  L2 (6)

L1
L2
Vsp.  ahead -­‐ Vann2
L1 =   (5)
L3 Caann1
DP2
L4
Vann2 =  Caann2 *  L2 (4)

DP3 L5
Vcem – V5 – V4 (3)
L3 =  
Caann3 +  CaDP2
Plug  Depth
(2)

(1)
Doh =  Average Hole size

Determine Volume by:

V5,4 =  (Caann5,4 +  CaDP3,2)  *  L5,4

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 Cementing Equipment
… Oops missing some new `pictures

F ill

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 Cement Job design Considerations
•  The fluids that are pumped have varying densities and relatively high “viscosities”. Ensuring that
the cement will be placed without fracturing the formation while maintaining all permeable
formations overbalanced during all phases of the job.
•  It requires accurate pressure predictions that are complicated due to the U-tube - or free fall - effect
caused by the difference in density between the various fluids.
•  In intermediate casings, the long distance between the shoe of the previous casing and the hole
depth produce relatively big temperature differences between the top of the cement and its bottom.
•  Very good temperature predictions are therefore required that remain accurate for this complex
heat transfer problem. These temperature predictions are used to verify, in the lab, that the cement
slurry will not set too soon nor too late.
•  When the hole is deviated, the casing has a tendency to lie on the bottom side of the hole, trapping
immobile mud underneath it making difficult the mud removal.
•  Good centralization ensures good mud removal. A key drawback is that they induce drag force
when running the casing in the hole. Specific software is used to help find the best compromise
between cost and stand-off while making sure the drag force will not prevent running the string to
total depth.

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