American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2015 - 114

cation, the new manufacturing process can
double the actual life of the pipe," he says.
"Importantly, the life is predictable
and consistent," he adds. "In the past,
one problem for completion operations
was the degree of uncertainty in coiled
tubing life. To prevent failures, companies
had to use extremely conservative estimates of tubing life and stop using a
string early. With BLUECOIL technology,
there are so few manufacturing variations
that the life is predictable, so companies
can push a CT string to its limits without
worrying about surprises."
Mitre says Tenaris has completed extensive testing to validate the coiled tubing's capabilities. "During development,
we tested 400,000 feet of pipe on both
our machines and on third-party machines," he details. "After those tests, we
conducted field trials where the pipe was
fatigued until it broke to confirm that
field results matched performance documented in the lab."
The new manufacturing process allows
Tenaris to produce CT that offers exceptional yield strength for its weight, Mitre
reports. "The pipe can have 10-20 percent
less weight than traditional CT grades at
a given yield strength," he says. "This is
an important feature, because it will allow
the tubing to be used in places where
weight is a concern, such as offshore
platforms."
The tubing's high strength can make
ballooning less likely, Mitre says, adding
that it performs well in sour environments.
"With traditional CT, the higher the
strength, the more susceptible the tubing
becomes to hydrogen sulfide," he allows.
"With the new manufacturing process,
we can approach sour conditions with
strengths that are 20-30 ksi higher than
traditional CT."

So far, BLUECOIL technology has
been used primarily to mill out fracture
plugs in South Texas. However, Mitre
predicts it will be applied to a range of
applications and environments. "We see
it introducing coiled tubing to wells that
demand a high and previously impractical
strength, particularly offshore, where operators need strength without compromising performance," he says.

New Grades, Connections
Vallourec USA Corp. is focused on
developing new OCTG grades and connections that improve overall well economics, reports Stuart Cole, the company's
senior technical sales manager for oil
country tubular goods. "In 2014, we spent
$100 million developing products to meet
producers' changing needs," he relates.
One of the company's newest innovations is Shale Drill PipeTM, says Wendell
Bassarath, a global product line manager
with Vallourec Drilling Products USA.
"We introduced the pipe to address the
many operational challenges encountered
when drilling in horizontal wells, the
biggest of which is drill string buckling,"
he relates. "Because of buckling, we
often see inadequate transfer of weight
on bit, as well as stick-slip and drill string
vibration problems that are detrimental
to both penetration rates and pipe durability."
The new pipe has an outer diameter
of 41⁄4 inches. "This is small enough that
it can be run in the same borehole size as
4-inch pipe, but it is stiffer, so there is
less chance of buckling," Bassarath says.
"As a result, it typically provides a 65
percent improvement in maximum allowable WOB in the vertical section and
a 15 percent improvement in the horizontal
section."

Vallourec has been hard at work developing new pipe grades and connections. These
include the VAM® Express M2M™ connection, which employs a tapered thread design
with a dual seal-gas-tight metal to metal connection to withstand the extreme pressures
encountered in deepwater applications.

114 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

The tool joints have a dual diameter
of 47⁄8-inches by 51⁄4-inches to increase
standoff, he adds. "With the extra standoff,
the operator will see a 40 percent decrease
in side forces, which reduces midbody
pipe wear," he explains.
"In a 2015 field trial, five horizontal
wells in western Oklahoma were drilled
with Shale Drill Pipe and 10 were drilled
with conventional pipe," Bassarath says.
"Four of the five fastest wells used Shale
Drill Pipe!"
For drilling and completion in deepwater Gulf of Mexico wells, Vallourec is
introducing a metal-to-metal connection
called VAM® Express M2MTM. "With
an internal pressure rating of 30,000 psi
and an external pressure rating of 25,000
psi, it has the highest available pressure
rating," Bassarath maintains. "As a result,
the operator can use it not only to drill
the well's final section, but also to complete the well. Not having to break down
the drill string and pick up a new one can
save a day or more of rig time."
Because of the connection design,
there is no risk of gas getting trapped
inside and causing a safety incident as it
expands near the surface, Bassarath reports.
"The design is based partly on the proven
VAM ExpressTM, so it inherits many of
that connection's benefits," he adds. "For
example, it has an elliptical thread root,
which improves fatigue resistance. Also,
because of the taper of the thread crest
design, it is easy to make up and stabs
deeply, with little chance of cross-stabbing."
Vallourec's casing and tubing division
also has been working to respond to operators' needs, Cole says. "As operators
drill more onshore wells deeper with
longer laterals, there is the potential for
getting exposed to hydrogen sulfide. So
we have developed a new grade that has
additional elements added to standard
P110 for mild sour service capability.
The grade, P110 MS, is more competitive
than the C110 often used for sour service
applications, and it improves onshore
economics for wells that are mildly sour,"
he illustrates.
"In the Gulf of Mexico, one of the
driving forces is high external pressure
loads," Cole continues. "To help operators
drill deeper wells in that environment,
we continually are developing grades
with higher performance, including collapse values. For example, our 14-inch
outer diameter, 0.820-inch wall thickness
VM125HYHC has an external pressure
rating of 12,500 psi."
Cole adds that Vallourec is introducing
several casing connections for onshore
and offshore:

American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2015

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