American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2018 - 74

SpecialReport: Tubulars Technology
the connection has been adopted by customers in West Texas, and it is beginning
to be used in other plays.
Matthews says the design team kept
manufacturability in mind when designing
the connection. "We needed to make
sure we could deliver a connection that
could provide the needed torque capacity
at an affordable cost," he explains. "To
meet anticipated demand for the connection and our other premium products,
we are commissioning a fifth threading
line at our offshore operations facility
in Houston."
Semipremium Wonder

As lateral lengths continue to grow, so does the need for premium connections with high
torque ratings and fatigue resistance. To meet that demand, United States Steel Corp.
says it is opening a ﬁfth threading line at its offshore operations facility in Houston.

of industrial, service center and mining
solutions, says he is proud to be back
working with the oil and gas industry
more directly. In February, in addition to
his other responsibilities, Matthews became interim head of the company's tubular operations, which he led from 2009
to 2013.
"I am impressed by how much this
industry has managed to reduce breakeven costs over the past five years," he
says. "That is a credit to its members' innovation and persistence."
Because longer laterals will help operators get break-even costs even lower,
Matthews says U. S. Steel Tubular Products has introduced a new semiflush premium connection for high-torque applications. "This wedge-style connection
lacks a coupling, so it allows operators
to use casing with slightly larger outer
diameters without worrying about clearance issues. The extra space inside the
pipe reduces the amount of fluid friction
during hydraulic fracturing, enabling higher frac pressures."
In other applications, Matthews says
operators are using the connection's sleek
profile to reduce the borehole's size without
shrinking the inner diameter. "This reduces
the time and cost associated with drilling
74 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

by allowing them to drill with smaller
bits and less cement," he describes.
The premium semiflush connection
was developed in collaboration with operators drilling in the Haynesville Shale
and has helped increase drilling activity
there, Matthews relates. He says the company has been surprised by how quickly

As the need for high-torque connections
has grown, Hunting Energy Services has
adapted connection designs originally
proven in challenging offshore plays for
use in onshore horizontals, reports Aaron
Walsh, Hunting's manager of engineering
services. "We have taken the same philosophy needed to develop connections
for sophisticated well designs in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico to produce onshore
products that are tough and affordable,"
he details.
These semipremium connections have

Hunting Energy Services has developed a series of semipremium connections for use
in horizontal shale wells. To verify that these connections have the yield strength and fatigue resistance to survive intense hydraulic fracturing jobs and the many rotations
needed to push casing into lengthy laterals, the company says it had Stress Engineering
Services Inc. perform extensive testing on load frames.

American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2018

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