scholarly journals Impact of Casing Eccentricity on Cement Sheath

Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kui Liu ◽  
Deli Gao ◽  
Arash Taleghani

Sustained casing pressure (SCP) in shale gas wells caused by cement sheath failure can have serious impacts on safe and efficient gas production. Considering the fact that horizontal wells are widely used for production from shale, the cementing quality and casing centricity is barely ensured in these wells. Among other indications, the casing eccentricity is identified very often in wells with SCP problems in the Sichuan field in China. Hence, the objective of this study is to analyze the effect of the casing eccentricity on the integrity of the cement sheath. To better understand stress distribution in eccentric cement sheaths, an analytical model is proposed in this paper. By comparing the results of this model with the one’s with centric casing, the impacts of the casing eccentricity on the integrity of the cement sheath is analyzed. During fracturing treatments, the casing eccentricity has a little effect on stress distribution in the cement sheath if the well is well cemented and bonded to the formation rock. However, on the contrary, the casing eccentricity may have serious effects on stress distribution if the cementing is done poorly. The debonding of casing–cement–formation interfaces can significantly increase the circumferential stress in the cement sheath. At the thin side of the cement sheath, the circumferential stress could be 2.5 times higher than the thick side. The offset magnitude of the casing eccentricity has little effect on the radial stress in the cement sheath but it can significantly increase the shear stress. We found that the risk of cement failure may be reduced by making the casing string more centralized, or increasing the thickness of the casing. The results provide insights for design practices which may lead to better integrity in shale gas wells.

SPE Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Kui Liu ◽  
Shidong Ding ◽  
Shiming Zhou ◽  
Qian Tao ◽  
Linhai Zhang ◽  
...  

Summary Annulus pressure buildup (APB) problems in shale gas wells seriously affected on the safety and efficient exploitation of shale gas all around the world. The sealing failure of the cement sheath on interfaces caused by periodically changed fluid pressure in casing during hydraulic fracturing is treated as the main reason for APB in shale gas wells. Many methods are put forward to solve the APB problem in the field, and fortunately, the preapplied annulus backpressure (PABP) method shows an excellent utility. In this paper, an analytical model is established to explain the mechanism of the PABP method increasing the sealing ability of the cement sheath. The residual strain of the cement sheath and radial stress on interfaces are considered to analyze the factors that affect the effectiveness of the PABP method. In addition, based on the field data, an experimental device is established to test the validity of the PABP method and to certify the accuracy of the analytical model established in this paper. The analytical results show that the thickness of the casing has little effect on radial stress on interfaces. The outer diameter of the casing and the thickness of the cement sheath can temperately affect the radial stress. The elastic modulus of the cement sheath and the formation rock can significantly affect the radial stress. The higher elastic modulus of the cement sheath can dramatically increase the radial stress on interfaces. On the contrary, the higher elastic modulus of formation rock will induce smaller radial stress on the interfaces. In the field, the number of newly added shale gas wells with APB problems has dramatically decreased by using the PABP method. The work in this paper can be significantly useful for researchers and engineers to reduce the APB in shale gas wells.


2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salim Taoutaou ◽  
Jorge Andres Vargas Bermea ◽  
Pietro Bonomi ◽  
Bassam Elatrache ◽  
Christian Pasturel ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 671-679
Author(s):  
Yuanhua Lin ◽  
Kuanhai Deng ◽  
Hao Yi ◽  
Dezhi Zeng ◽  
Liang Tang ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-49
Author(s):  
Boling Pu ◽  
Dazhong Dong ◽  
Ning Xin-jun ◽  
Shufang Wang ◽  
Yuman Wang ◽  
...  

Producers have always been eager to know the reasons for the difference in the production of different shale gas wells. The Southern Sichuan Basin in China is one of the main production zones of Longmaxi shale gas, while the shale gas production is quite different in different shale gas wells. The Longmaxi formation was deposited in a deep water shelf that had poor circulation with the open ocean, and is composed of a variety of facies that are dominated by fine-grained (clay- to silt-size) particles with a varied organic matter distribution, causing heterogeneity of the shale gas concentration. According to the different mother debris and sedimentary environment, we recognized three general sedimentary subfacies and seven lithofacies on the basis of mineralogy, sedimentary texture and structures, biota and the logging response: (1) there are graptolite-rich shale facies, siliceous shale facies, calcareous shale facies, and a small amount of argillaceous limestone facies in the deep - water shelf in the Weiyuan area and graptolite-rich shale facies and carbonaceous shale facies in the Changning area; (2) there are argillaceous shale facies and argillaceous limestone facies in the semi - deep - water continental shelf of the Weiyuan area and silty shale facies in the Changning area; (3) argillaceous shale facies are mainly developed in the shallow muddy continental shelf in the Weiyuan area, while silty shale facies mainly developed in the shallow shelf in the Changning area. Judging from the biostratigraphy of graptolite, the sedimentary environment was different in different stages.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaowen Liu ◽  
Wei Pang ◽  
Jincai Shen ◽  
Ying Mi

Abstract Fuling shale gas field is one of the most successful shale gas play in China. Production logging is one of the vital technologies to evaluate the shale gas contribution in different stages and different clusters. Production logging has been conducted in over 40 wells and most of the operations are successful and good results have been observed. Some previous studies have unveiled one or several wells production logging results in Fuling shale gas play. But production logging results show huge difference between different wells. In order to get better understanding of the results, a comprehensive overview is carried out. The effect of lithology layers, TOC (total organic content), porosity, brittle mineral content, well trajectory is analyzed. Results show that the production logging result is consistent with the geology understanding, and fractures in the favorable layers make more gas contribution. Rate contribution shows positive correlation with TOC, the higher the TOC, the greater the rate contribution per stage. For wells with higher TOC, the rate contribution difference per stage is relatively smaller, but for wells with lower TOC, it shows huge rate contribution variation, fracture stages with TOC lower than 2% contribute very little, and there exist one or several dominant fractures which contributes most gas rate. Porosity and brittle minerals also show positive effect on rate contribution. The gas rate contribution per fracture stage increases with the increase of porosity and brittle minerals. The gas contribution of the front half lateral and that of latter half lateral are relatively close for the "upward" or horizontal wells. However, for the "downward" wells, the latter half lateral contribute much more gas than the front half lateral. It is believed that the liquid loading in the toe parts reduced the gas contribution in the front half lateral. The overview research is important to get a compressive understanding of production logging and different fractures’ contribution in shale gas production. It is also useful to guide the design of horizontal laterals and fractures scenarios design.


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