Casing magnetization secures robust blowout contingency measures

Our casing magnetization specialists were assigned to provide the operator with assurance that robust blowout contingency measures were put in place to reduce environmental, safety and business impacts should an uncontrolled hydrocarbon release occur.

The challenge

A conventional relief well approach with active ranging and triangulation of the target well proved to be extremely challenging.

This is because a potential blowout from a shallow reservoir and a shallow set casing means that the relief well will have to be drilled directly to the target with a high attack angle (direct approach).

For shallow set casing, we recommended magnetizing a predetermined number of joints at the end of the casing string to create a strong electromagnetic field for passive ranging purposes.

What we did

We conducted a Blowout and Kill Simulation study to identify the blowout potential and kill requirements as well as the feasibility of a relief well.

The study concluded that for a potential relief well, the depth window from the seabed to the 9 ⅝ʺ liner shoe will be limited, adding constraints in terms of ranging methods. To enable passive ranging required for the well, our experts recommended and implemented the pre-magnetization of the casing (9 ⅝” liner) shoe track to be used in the target well.

The job required:

• The casing to be set up on a casing rack
• Adequate power supply
• A handler to push the coil along the casing length
• A forklift operator to lift the casing in each end, allowing the coil to pass the rack
• The coil was moved along the full length of the casing and electricity was sent through the coil at each step.

The solution

As the shoe track casing joints need to be prepared and ready before magnetizing can commence, there was a limited time window for getting the job done before the casing was shipped offshore.

• The remote aspect included data analysis, planning, preparation of written procedures with illustrations
• We performed the physical pre-magnetization with the numerical analysis being performed by Vector Magnetics LLC remotely