TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Wellbore Tubulars
Robello Samuel, SPE, Technology Fellow, Halliburton

This month, I would like to bring out Sometimes, while flying
some thoughts on the advancements that
have been made in the tubular area, an at an altitude of 35,000 ft,
important and complex system that has I think of a drillstring and
a very, very small diameter/length aspect
ratio and a high slenderness ratio, mak-
the fact that, if I could
ing it a thin wall. holdit from the plane,
Sometimes, while flying at an alti- it would be touching
tude of 35,000 ft, I think of a drill-
string and the fact that, if I could hold theground.
it from the plane, it would be touching
the ground. Amazingly, we are trying ogies. Tubular manufacturing, recom-
to predict the health of this long string mended practices for material strength,
in a constrained wellbore with a few and wear are important for drill-
sensors at the bottom. It is like saying string integrity. We have seen in recent
I will touch your toe with a few instru- yearsmanytechnological advancements
ments and then predict the health of in tubular-manufacturing technology.
your whole body. The greatest challenge Tubulars also have become part of the
is being able to bring together all aspects data-transmission network and slowly
of tubulars to advance in lockstep with will converge with the data-handling and
one another. We have advanced tremen- data-transmission systems. Common
dously not only in the modeling but also thoughts for drilling engineerswhen
in materials and manufacturing technol- it comes to planning and drillingoften
Robello Samuel, SPE, is a technology fellow at Halliburton based
in Houston. He has more than 30 years of multidisciplinary expe-
rience in domestic and international oil and gas drilling and, for
the past 12 years, has held concurrent adjunct-professor appoint-
ments at the University of Houston. Samuel has published 12
books and more than 150 technical papers. In 2013, he received
the SPE Gulf Coast Section Drilling Engineering Award, and, the
following year, he was named an SPE Distinguished Lecturer.
Samuel holds BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering and MS and PhD
degrees in petroleum engineering from The University of Tulsa and is a member of
the JPT Editorial Committee. He can be reached at robello.samuel@halliburton.com.
focus on torque and drag, which concern
tubulars. Even though we have advanced
in the prediction of torque, drag, and
hookload estimation, challenges remain
concerning drillstring integrity, such as
prediction of tool failures, buckling, and
stringstability.
Can we couple fewer casings? Vari-
ous underlying arguments could be made
to answer this question. In the world of
exponential technologies, there are many
opportunities where we are breaking the
status quo to reduce nonproductive time
by providing shorter connection times.
One of the emerging technologies is braz-
ing of the connection, leading the way to
coupling fewer casing runs, which can be
automated very well in the future with an
autowelding tong on the rig floor instead
of casing tongs as the casings are run into
the hole.
I have selected papers that present a
balanced perspective on the advance-
ment of tubulars technology. Also, I
would like to encourage attendance at
the tubular session in the upcoming SPE
Annual Technical Conference and Exhibi-
tion in San Antonio.JPT
Recommended additional reading
at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
SPE 180437 Structural-Casing/Soil
Interaction Effects on Wellhead Motion
by Udaya B. Sathuvalli, Blade Energy, et al.

72 JPT JUNE 2017