Sunday, January 11, 2015

The Casing Puller And Where It Is Used

By Enid Hinton


One of the steps in dealing with oil extraction is the drilling of a well. Once drilling has been done, there is the need to have the well cased and the casing of the well requires the casing puller, also termed lift nubbin or the lifting cap. The well needs to be cased to prevent the leaking of the oil into the soil during pumping and the contamination of the oil by fluids or mud from the sides of the well.

Around the area where well has been dug, a copious amount of pressure is built up in order to reach the oil below the earth. The drilling will go well below the solid outer part of the earth, called the lithosphere.

The oil which comes out of the well is called crude oil and it needs to be of consistently high quality. One threat to this is that underground water may flow into the reservoir and get mixed into the oil stream. This can be prevented by having the casing done from the outset. This way the quality of your crude oil output can be guaranteed. The use of steel pipes in the well will prevent any and all fluids from mixing with the oil.

Crude oil needs to be of the same consistent high quality as that which is in the earth's reservoir. You have to be careful that underground water does not find its way into the oil reservoir, and becomes mixed with the oils stream. To prevent this, as well as contact with any fluids and substances, the casing of the drilled hole needs to take place before you start extracting the oil. If the steel pipe is not installed in the borehole, the quality of oil extracted will be compromised.

Once the pipes are placed in the well all the way to the reservoir, a test run is done. This is to make sure that the casing works and to clear away any debris that may be in it. In order to accomplish this, the drill bit is positioned in the pipes along with drilling fluid. A considerable amount of fluid is pumped to clean it.

Between wall of the well and the steel pipes there is a small space. The pipes cannot be left exposed and unsupported, so they must be fixed in order to be able to stay in position over a long period of time. To set the pipes, cement is poured into the space between the wall and the pipes (annulus) and then allowed to dry.

After each stage of the drilling process casing is carried out. It therefore means that cement is also added and that the drilling is also done in stages in conjunction with the inserting and cementing of the steel. This results in having the casings uniformly matched to fit from one stage to the next.

While the drilling is being done, any need for an extra case will be spotted. The steel pipe installed in the borehole at this juncture is called intermediate casing. It is done at the first sign of any weakness in the original casing caused by the drilling. The intermediate casing is supposed to strengthen that area.




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