WellLife Cementing Service

Advanced Technology for Long Term Zonal Isolation

CEMENTING

Executive Summary
Halliburtons WellLife Cementing Service is the analysis, design and delivery of an engineered cementing system that can withstand the stresses that occur from various operations throughout the life of the well. Conventional cement job designs focus mainly on dynamic slurry properties and occasionally on the compressive strength and permeability. The WellLife cementing service, in addition to designing for effective cement slurry placement, utilizes advanced Finite Element Method to analyze the casing, cement sheath, and surrounding formation to help determine the optimum mechanical properties that your sealant will need in order to go the distance..

Why do you need the WellLife cementing service?

It is becoming more and more apparent that a substantial percentage of wells that have maintained their annular pressure integrity after slurry placement are now showing sustained annular casing pressure due to damage to the cement sheath. In the Gulf of Mexico, the MMS (Minerals Management System) reports that sustained casing pressure occurs in over 11,000 strings in over 8,000 wells on the outer continental shelf. One recent North Sea operator forum listed their number one concern for wellbore integrity as the migration of hydrocarbons up the outer annuli. While ineffective cement slurry placement, due to poor hole cleaning of the drilling fluid and/or drill cuttings, contributes to zonal isolation failure, there is a growing number of wells showing sustained casing pressure due to damage to the cement sheath. Damage to the sheath could be in the form of: debonding at the casing and/or formation interfaces; cracking; and/or compressive shear. The damage could be caused by stresses on the cement sheath brought on by well events such as cement hydration, well completion, and hydrocarbon production. These events change the temperature and pressure under which the cement slurry is placed and cured. If these changes are severe, the cement sheath could be damaged, leading to zonal isolation

ROCK CEMENT CASING

The Finite Element Analysis grid shows the effect of stresses in the major down-hole structures.

Life of the Well Events

RESERVOIR

DRILLING

COMPLETION

PERFORATION

STIMULATION

PRODUCTION TO ABANDONMENT

Modes of Annular Sealant Failure

failure. During the drilling phase, the cement sheath should be able to withstand the continuous impact of the drill string, particularly in directional wells. During well completion, a heavyweight drilling fluid is often replaced by a light-weight completion fluid creating a negative pressure differential that can cause debonding at the casing-cement and/or cementformation interface. The cement sheath should be able to withstand stresses from perforating operations and resist cracking under the extreme pressures encountered during hydraulic fracturing operations. Production cycling in many HPHT wells has been the culprit for cement sheath damage and eventual casing failure. Unconsolidated formations are prone to subsidence and stress effects of drawdown and depletion should be accounted for in the sealant design.

Casing

Completion Fluid

This scenario depicts debonding of the cement sheath due to casing contraction caused by replacing a heavyweight drilling fluid with a light weight completion fluid.

Casing

Drilling Fluid

Above is a graphic depiction of a cement sheath that has shattered due to extreme pressure effects encountered during a fracturing operation. Depending on the length and location of the crush zone, interzonal communication could be a distinct possibility.

CEMENTING

A tri-axial cell is used to evaluate the stress-strain behavior of cement sheath.

Technical Details
3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Radial

Volumetric Axial

A tri-axial cell is used to evaluate the stress-strain behavior of the cement sheath. The tests are conducted unconfined, and also at different confining pressures. Hydrostatic and uni-axial strain (Oedometer) tests are also conducted. Cement sheath elastic parameters such as Youngs modulus (E), Poisson ratio (v) and Mohr Coulomb yield parameters such as cohesion (Co) and friction () are determined from the stressstrain data. Additionally, tensile strength, porosity and permeability are also determined. The material properties of the cement sheath, along with its thermal properties, are input into the WellLife Software to determine the integrity of the cement sheath. Other input into the WellLife software are rock and casing material and thermal properties, formation in-situ stresses and well events. The volumetric change occurring during cement hydration is an important parameter and determines the (initial) stress state of the cement sheath. The change in volume during hydration is input into the WellLife software.

Stress (psi)
Stress (psi)

Figure 1. Stress Strain Comparisons

3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03

Figure 2. Stress Strain showing Youngs Modulus

Figures 1 to 4 show stresses in the cement sheath when the pressure inside the casing is increased by 10,000 psi.
*1E8 0 -.2 -.4 -.6 -.8 -1 -1.2 -1.4 -1.6 0 .6 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
Figure 1. Radial Stress when pressure inside the casing is increased from Pi to P. Shows radial stresses in the casing, cement sheath, and the rock. The sign convention used is that negative values are compressive. This graph shows that the radial stress becomes more compressive in the casing, cement sheath, and the rock when the pressure inside the casing is increased.

Radial Stress, Pa

-ve: compressive

Rock Pi Pf > Pi

Cement Casing Length Rock Casing Cement Pf

3 2.5 2 1.5 1 .5 0 -.5 -1 1.5

Tangential Stress, Pa

Pf Pf > Pi Casing Pi
0 .5 1 1.5

Cement
2 2.5 3 3.5

Rock
4 4.5 5

Figure 2. Tangential Stress when pressure inside the casing is increased from Pi to P. Shows tangential stresses in casing, cement sheath, and the rock. This shows that the tangential stress becomes less compressive when the pressure inside the casing is increased. The tangential stress in the casing has become tensile. It should be noted that the tangential stress in casing is less than what would have been obtained without the cement and formation behind the casing. Hence, the burst resistance of the cemented pipe is greater than the un-cemented pipe.

Length
Tangential Stress, Pa -7 -7.2 -7.4 -7.6 -7.8 -8 -8.2 0 .25

Pf Cement

Pf > Pi

Pi
.5 .75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75 2 2.25 2.5

Figure 3. Tangential Stress in the current sheath when the pressure inside the casing is increased from Pi to P. Shows tangential stress in the cement sheath. As stated earlier, the tangential stress becomes less compressive as the pressure inside the casing increases. For a certain combination of the cement sheath properties, down hole conditions and well events, as the tangential stress gets less compressive, it could become tensile. If this value is greater than the tensile strength of the cement sheath then the cement sheath will crack and could lead to zonal isolation failure.

Length
+ve Tangential Stress

Pf Pf Pf

Cement is less elastic

-ve

Pi Length

Cement is more elastic

Figure 4. Qualitative comparison of tangential stresses in different cements when pressure inside the casing is increased from Pi to P. Gives a qualitative comparison of the tangential stresses of different cement sheaths. This shows that, for everything else remaining the same, as the cement sheath is more elastic, the tangential stress remains more compressive. This is why an elastic cement sheath is less likely to be damaged when subjected to changes in pressure and/or temperature.

Shear Stress,

Co UCS Normal Stress,

Once the WellLife software has provide an optimum set of mechanical properties for a particular well and casing string, tri-axial stress testing is employed to develop and confirm the specific cement/sealant system.

=Co+

Mohr-Coulomb yield parameters from stress-strain data

CEMENTING

Example Results from WellLife Analysis I Example of of Results from WellLife Software I
SM

Well One Events Hydration Cement Sheath Well Completion Fluid Swap Cement Sheath Hydraulic Fracturing Cement Sheath
Cement System One 4% Volume Decrease Cement System Two No Volume Change Cement System Three No Volume Change Cement System One 4% Volume Decrease

Well Two
Cement System Two No Volume Change Cement System Three No Volume Change

FAILED
3,775 psi Decrease

INTACT
3,775 psi Decrease

INTACT
3,775 psi Decrease

FAILED
6,656 psi Decrease

INTACT
6,656 psi Decrease

INTACT
6,656 psi Decrease

FAILED
10,000 psi Increase

INTACT
10,000 psi Increase

INTACT
10,000 psi Increase

FAILED
10,000 psi Increase

FAILED
10,000 psi Increase

INTACT
10,000 psi Increase

FAILED

INTACT

INTACT

FAILED

FAILED

INTACT

The figure illustrates the condition of three cement systems during different well operations.

In Summary
Example of Results from WellLife Software II The main deliverables of the Halliburtons WellLife cementing service is the optimum cement system to reduce the risk of damage to the cement sheath and hence zonal isolation failure. This should benefit the operator in the following ways: Minimize the safety and environmental risks associated with drilling for and producing hydrocarbons. Minimizing the risk of damage to cement sheath should reduce the risk of sustained casing pressure and hazardous material discharge to the surface. Maximize the commercial viability of the reservoir. Minimizing the risk of damage to cement sheath should reduce remedial costs, non-productive time, early water production and losses from individual zones. WellLife sofware evaluates the risk of damage to the cement sheath when subjected to various well events. The analysis, in combination with operator risk tolerance, can be used to select optimum cement systems to provide for safe and economic production of hydrocarbons.

CEMENT TYPE
Events: Curing Temperature Increase (200C) Pressure Increase (80MPa)

100 Remaining Cement Capacity (%) 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20

100% Intact

100% Intact

10 Failed 0 Cement System 1

Cement System 2

Cement System 3

Cement capacity remaining after an Event.

Related papers; SPE 56536, SPE 74497, SPE 75700, SPE 90068 August 5, 2002 Oil & Gas Journal, page 43 47, JPT August 2002 pages 60-61. For more information contact: Your nearest Halliburton representative.

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