Cementing

Cementing is performed by circulating a cement slurry through the inside of the casing and out into the
annulus through the casing shoe at the bottom of the casing string. In order to precisely place the cement
slurry at a required interval on the outside of the casing, a plug is pumped with a displacement fluid behind
the cement slurry column, which "bumps" in the casing shoe and prevents further flow of fluid through the
shoe. This bump can be seen at surface as a pressure spike at the cement pump. To prevent the cement
from flowing back into the inside of the casing, a float collar above the casing shoe acts as a check valve
and prevents fluid from flowing up through the shoe from the annulus.

Casing string is a long section of connected oilfield pipe that is lowered into a wellbore and cemented.
The pipe segments (called "joints") are typically about in length, male threaded on each end and
connected with short lengths of double-female threaded pipe called couplings. (Some specialty casing is
manufactured in one piece with a female thread machined directly into one end.)

Specification 5C3 of the American Petroleum Institute standardizes 14 casing sizes from to outside
diameter ("OD"). This and related API documents also promulgate standards for the threaded end finish,
the wall thickness (several are available in each size to satisfy various design parameters, and in fact are
indirectly specified by standardized nominal weights per linear foot; thicker pipe obviously being heavier),
and the strength and certain chemical characteristics of the steel material. Several material strengths—
termed "Grades" and ranging from to minimum yield strength—are available for most combinations of OD
and wall thickness to meet various design needs. Finally, the API publications provide performance
minimums for longitudinal strength ("joint strength") as well as resistance to internal (bursting) and
external (collapsing) pressure differentials.

A typical piece of casing might be described as 9-5/8" 53.5# P-110 LT&C Rg 3: specifying OD, weight per
foot (53.5 lbm/ft thus 0.545-inch wall thickness and 8.535-inch inside diameter), steel strength (110,000
psi yield strength), end finish ("Long Threaded and Coupled"), and approximate length ("Range 3" usually
runs between 40 and 42 feet).

Casing is run to protect or isolate formations adjacent to the wellbore. It is generally not possible to drill a
well through all of the formations from surface (or the seabed) to the target depth in one hole section. For
example, fresh-water-bearing zones (usually found only near the surface) must be protected soon after
being penetrated. The well is therefore drilled in sections, with each section of the well being sealed off by
lining the inside of the borehole with steel pipe, known as casing, and filling the annular space (or at least
the lower portion) between this casing string and the borehole with cement. Then drilling commences on
the subsequent hole section, necessarily with a smaller bit diameter that will pass through the newly
installed casing.

A liner is a casing string that does not extend to the surface, being hung instead from a liner hanger set
inside of the previous casing string but usually within about of its bottom. Other than the obvious cost
savings, the liner installation allows larger drill pipe or production tubing to be used in the upper portions of
the well. (A disadvantage is the occasional difficulty in effecting a pressure seal by squeeze cementing the
casing-liner overlap zone.)

Depending on the conditions encountered (e.g., zones of differing formation pressure gradients), three or
four casing strings may be required to reach the target depth. The cost of the casing can constitute 20-
30% of the total cost of the well. Great care must therefore be taken when designing a casing programme
that will meet the requirements of the well.