A REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO REDUCING WELL COST

A REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO REDUCING WELL COSTS

R.M. Tessari, Tesco Corporation

Abstract Casing Drilling™1 is an emerging technology for simultaneously drilling and casing a well where the casing is used to
transmit mechanical and hydraulic energy to the bit, instead of using a conventional drillstring. A drilling assembly, positioned in the
lower end of the casing, replaces the tools normally located on the lower end of the conventional drillstring. This assembly is
retrieved with a wireline to access bits, motors, underreamers, MWD/LWD, and other components while leaving the casing in place.

The Casing Drilling process has been used on portions of ten wells during a field trial phase. The system is still undergoing
development but these wells have demonstrated the functionality of the casing drilling system.

Introduction
The conventional drilling process for oil and gas utilizes a
drillstring made up of drill collars and drill pipe to apply
mechanical energy (rotary power and axial load) to the bit, as
well as to provide a hydraulic conduit for the drilling fluid.
The drillstring is pulled out of the hole each time the bit or
Bottom Hole Assembly needs to be changed or the final casing
depth is reached. Casing is then run into the hole to furnish
permanent access to the wellbore.
The Casing Drilling System (CDS) provides an alternative to
the conventional drilling system by using ordinary casing for
the drillstring. Thus the well is cased as it is drilled which
may reduce well costs or enable problematic hole sections to
be drilled. The CDS may eliminate costs related to
purchasing, handling, inspecting, transporting, and tripping the
drillstring, reduce hole problems that are associated with
tripping, and save on rig equipment capital costs and operating
costs.
While the potential savings from reducing drillstring tripping
and handling times are important, the savings from reducing
hole problems may be more significant. There are many
situations where problems such as lost circulation, well control
incidents, and borehole stability problems are directly
attributed to tripping the drillstring and other situations where
these problems prevent the drillstring from being tripped.
Since the CDS process provides a continuous ability to
circulate the well, it is inherently safer than leaving the well
static without a means of circulating it while a conventional
drillstring is tripped. Reduced pipe tripping with the CDS
should also reduce surge and swab pressure fluctuations.
Sometimes it is difficult to run the casing after the drillstring is
tripped out because of poor borehole quality. A portion of
these problems may be directly attributed to drillstring
vibrations causing borehole enlargement. The Casing Drilling
System may reduce these incidents by eliminating the tripping
and providing a drillstring that is less prone to vibrations.
The CDS has been under development for three years. In
addition to drilling two directional test wells, it has recently
been used to drill portions of ten wells as part of the first field
trials. These wells were chosen to prove and refine the
technical aspects of the CDS. In the following sections the
system is described, engineering considerations for key
technical areas are discussed, and key learnings from the field
trials are presented.
CDS Equipment
The casing drilling process eliminates the conventional
drillstring by using the casing itself as the hydraulic conduit
and means of transmitting mechanical energy to the bit. A
short wireline retrievable Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA)
consisting of at least a bit and expandable underreamer (Fig.
1) are used to drill a hole of adequate size to allow the casing
to pass freely.
The BHA is attached to a drill lock that fits into a full bore
landing sub on the bottom of the casing in such a way that it
can be retrieved with a wireline unit without needing to trip
pipe out of the well. The wireline retrievable drill lock
assembly is the heart of the Casing Drilling System.
It lands in a lower section of casing consisting of a casing
shoe, torque lock profile and axial no-go and lock profile
located in a specially machined collar section (Fig. 2). The
drill lock engages both a fluted profile to transmit rotational
torque from the casing to the drilling assembly and an internal
flush no-go and axial lock profile to transfer compressive and
tensional loads to the BHA. A stabilizer on the BHA
positioned opposite the casing shoe reduces lateral motion of
the assembly inside the casing.
The casing shoe is normally dressed with hard material to
ensure that a full gauge hole is drilled ahead of the casing, but
it also provides a torque indication if the underreamer drills
undergauge. Centralizers on the casing stabilize it within the
borehole and prevent wear on the couplings.

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 A REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO REDUCING WELL COSTS

The BHA generally consists of a pilot bit and underreamer, Figure 3 shows the drilling time improvement that occurred
but may include other tools needed to perform almost any while drilling these wells. They were the first wells drilled
operation that can be conducted with a conventional drill with the rig as well as being the first drilled with the Casing
string. The pilot bit and underreamer pass through the drill- Drilling System. Over the four wells there was a considerable
casing and drill a hole that provides adequate clearance for the improvement in the performance, but after four wells the
drill-casing and subsequent cementing. overall drilling time was still about the same as with a
conventional drilling system. There were time reductions in
the casing running and cementing, but these were offset by
slower ROP.
Retrieving Head
The surface hole (12-1/4”) was drilled on four deeper US
wells in the same field with 9-5/8” casing and a purpose built
Seal elements Casing Drilling rig. Figure 4 shows the time required to drill
the surface holes from spud to release of the cementers,
Centralizer compared to the same time for the best offset well in the field
(motor drilled). In the first well the BHA could not be pulled
Bypass ports at a survey point because one of the Convertible Buttress
Axial casing torque rings had become dislodged and obstructed the
Lock Axial & Torque casing. This required the casing to be pulled before the
Lock
remainder of the hole was drilled. The operational procedure
Stop dogs was changed to prevent this from happening again.

Torque lock The first three surface holes were drilled with a milled tooth
pilot bit and a roller cone underreamer, while the final hole
Spacer Collar was drilled with the same pilot bit and a PDC underreamer.
Over the course of drilling the four surface holes the drilling
Casing Shoe efficiency became progressively better and eventually
Stabilizer exceeded the conventional practice.

Under reamer The production hole (8-1/2”) for the first of the US wells was
also drilled to a depth of 6480 ft with the Casing Drilling
Bit
technique using 7” casing. The production hole of the second
well was drilled with the same rig, but with a conventional
Figure 2: drillstring.
Figure 1: Wireline retrievable Exterior Casing
BHA. components. In the process of drilling these wells the equipment was
refined, a number of problems were identified and resolved,
and a better understanding of both the technical and economic
criteria for the CDS was gained.

Conventional directional tools (bent housing positive

Hours from spud to rig release

60
displacement motors, MWD tool, and isolation non-magnetic
drillstring50members) and LWD tools can be suspended below
the drill casing shoe for directional drilling. A conventional
core barrel40can be run for coring. Conventional
Drilling Time
30
Casing Drilling Field Trials
The casing 20 drilling system has been used on portions of ten
wells located in the US and Canada. The wells were chosen
mainly to10provide a venue to prove and refine the system
equipment. Four of the shallow (1700 ft) Canadian wells were
0
located in the same field 2nd
1st Well andWell
had surface casing4thpre-set
3rd Well Well before
moving a trailer mounted Casing Drilling rig on location to
drillFigure
the 6-1/8”
3: Learning
productioncurve
holefor
withwells
4-1/2”
drilled
casing.
with 4-1/2”
casing.

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 A REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO REDUCING WELL COSTS

Summary
Hours from spud to plug down

70 The CDS has been run in portions of ten wells to prove and
60 refine the tools and operational procedures. Although there
have been numerous stumbles along the way, the overall
50
Casing Drilling System has proven to drill effectively and
40 work is still ongoing to define economic applications for the
30
system. The performance of the PDC underreamer behind a
roller cone bit in relatively hard rock has been quite
20 encouraging. Penetration rate performance in softer rock still
10 needs to be enhanced, but more drilling experience is likely to
provide this improvement.
0
Best 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Offset
Increased confidence has been gained in the method used to
cement the casing in place and buckling does not seem to be a
significant problem when the casing to hole clearance is small.
Figure 4: Learning curve for drilling 12-1/4” surface holes An effective casing centralizer for use while drilling has been
drilled with 9-5/8” casing. developed. Overall the work done to date with the CDS has
proven that a casing drilling system has merit, but more
experience needs to be gained with the system to improve
reliability and better define the best economic applications for
the CDS.

1 Casing Drilling™ (or Casing Drilling as it appears throughout this document) is a trademark of Tesco Corporation, its affiliates and
subsidiaries.

158