Section 1

History and Overview of Coiled

Tubing Services

Table of Contents
Introduction to Coiled Tubing Services .................................................................................................1-3
History of Coiled Tubing Services ........................................................................................................1-3
The Beginning...................................................................................................................................1-4
Injector Development ........................................................................................................................1-4
Tubing Design...................................................................................................................................1-5
Quality Improvement ........................................................................................................................1-5
Halliburton’s Entry............................................................................................................................1-6
System Overview..................................................................................................................................1-7
Advantages of Coiled Tubing................................................................................................................1-8
Applications .........................................................................................................................................1-8

Halliburton 1•1 Coiled Tubing Essentials

© 1999, Halliburton
 History and Overview of Coiled Tubing Services

Halliburton 1•2 Coiled Tubing Essentials

© 1999, Halliburton

Introduction to Coiled
Tubing Services
Since its introduction in 1963, coiled tubing has been
heralded as a technology that has the potential to
Fig. 1-1: Coiled-tubing operations span the full range of Halliburton’s products and services
around the world.
History of Coiled Tubing
Services
Knowing a little about the history of coiled tubing
can help you to understand current perceptions.
Although coiled tubing has been in use for more than
30 years in oil and gas well operations, it is a
“relatively” new type of well servicing. As with any
new technology, the early days had their share of
Halliburton
© 1999, Halliburton
History and Overview of Coiled Tubing Services
revolutionize the oil field. Coiled tubing offers many
advantages over conventional jointed tubing,
including time savings, pumping flexibility, fluid
placement, reduced formation damage, and safety.
Coiled-tubing operations span the full range of
Halliburton’s products and services, drawing upon
the expertise of each.
failures as well as successes. Many times, fishing
tools and prayer were required to get the tubing out
of the hole. Given past performances of this type of
well servicing unit, operators could not help having
concerns when they had to run it in a well. However,
times and coiled tubing have changed.
When we look at the injectors that we previously
used and the way the tubing was handled and spooled
it becomes obvious that changes were necessary. The
following in this manual will discuss each piece of
equipment and point out why and how the equipment
1•3 Coiled Tubing Essentials

has changed to give us our modern coiled tubing
units.
The learning curve for coiled tubing surface
equipment is well into its peak. The industry is now
focusing its attention on tubing strength and tubing
life. With the move toward coiled tubing drilling that
began in the early 1990s, we now face learning the
operational processes of bigger surface equipment.
With injectors that can handle 100,000 pounds, it’s
becoming a whole new game. Not only is the surface
equipment changing, but the steel coiled tubing itself
may one day be replaced with tubing made from fiber
composites.
The Beginning
Coiled tubing services has its roots in Operation
PLUTO, an acronym for a World War II project,
“Pipe Lines Under The Ocean.” Prior to the Allied
invasion of Normandy in June 1944, several 3-in. ID
pipelines long enough to span the English Channel
were pre-fabricated from 4,000-ft sections. The pipe
was butt-welded together and coiled onto spools with
40-ft hub diameters.
These spools were buoyed in the water and towed
behind cable-laying ships. Using floating drums as
mid-line supports, a total of 23 lines was spooled out
into the channel. After the coast was secured, the
tubing was used to supply Allied forces with fuel to
sustain the liberation of occupied Europe.
Operation PLUTO was one of the earliest ideas for
spooling tubing and deploying it. It was this concept
that led Bowen Tools of Houston, Texas, and the
California Oil Company to pursue the idea of using
flexible tubing for light-duty oil well workovers.
Injector Development
The model for the modern injectors that we see today
can be traced back to the early 1960s, when a device
was developed to allow submarines to deploy radio
communications antennae to the ocean surface while
still submerged.
Bowen Tools developed a vertical, contra-rotating
chain tractor device called the “A/N Bra-18A
Antenna Transfer System,” which could deploy a
5/8-in. polyethylene encapsulated brass antenna from
as deep as 600 ft beneath the water. Fabric-reinforced
“saddle blocks” were installed down the middle
section of both sets of chains and secured the antenna
within grooved blocks that matched the tube
Halliburton
© 1999, Halliburton
History and Overview of Coiled Tubing Services
diameter. The antenna was stored on a spool beneath
the injector for easy deployment and retrieval.
The basic principals of this design concept aided in
development of the prototype Bowen coiled tubing
injector system. In 1962, the California Oil Company
and Bowen Tools developed the first prototype
“continuous-string light workover unit” for washing
out sand bridges in Gulf Coast oil and gas wells. The
original “Unit No. 1” injector head was designed as a
vertical, contra-rotating chain drive system built to
run a string of 1.315-in. OD pipe and operate with
surface loads of up to 30,000 lb. The tubing reel hub
diameter was 9 ft and was equipped with a rotating
swivel to allow continuous pumping down the tubing
throughout the workover.
The first spool of coiled tubing to be used was
fabricated from 50-ft segments of 1.315-in. OD, low
alloy Columbium tubing, which was butt-welded
together. The tubing was then spooled onto a service
reel to a 15,000-ft total length.
Bowen “Unit No. 1” worked on several inland and
offshore South Louisiana wells from mid-1963
through 1964. Services performed by this unit
included sand washing and fishing a storm choke out
of completion tubing.
The California Company sold the unit to a Louisiana
based company called “Reel Pipe.” The equipment
successfully performed concentric workovers for
several years using the 1.315-in. OD tubing.
In 1967, a downsized version of the original Bowen
Tool injector head was modified by Bowen to run
1/2-in. coiled tubing and was leased to NOWSCO to
backwash saltwater disposal wells using nitrogen.
Because of the success of this coiled tubing service
concept, NOWSCO contracted Bowen Oil Tools to
build 12 “5M” coiled tubing units capable of
handling up to 5,000 lb of 1/2-in. coiled tubing. In
late 1968, Bowen developed the “8M” coiled tubing
injector head, which was designed to run up to 8,000
lb of 3/4-in coiled tubing.
From the late 1960s through the mid 1970s, several
concept modifications were made by Bowen Tools
and Brown Oil Tools to their respective coiled tubing
unit designs. During this time period, the size of
coiled tubing in use throughout the industry increased
to 1-in. OD. Use of these coiled tubing units in oil
and gas operations increased rapidly during the early
1970s. More than 200 coiled tubing units were built
to perform sand cleanouts and nitrogen jet services.
Unfortunately, the success rate for services
performed through coiled tubing was poor and a
reputation for limited reliability would follow coiled
tubing equipment development for several years.
1•4 Coiled Tubing Essentials

Fig. 1-2: Bowen Unit # 1
Tubing Design
In 1962, oilfield use of coiled tubing technology was
pioneered when a spool of low-alloy, ductile
columbium steel was fabricated in Detroit by Great
Lakes Steel Co. and Standard Tube Co. The 1.315-in.
OD tubing was milled in 50-ft sections, butt-welded
into a continuous string, and spooled onto a 9-ft reel.
The next improvement was increasing the milled
length to 250 to 2,000-ft sections. Republic Steel’s
tubing fabricated from High-Strength, Low-Alloy
(HSLA) steel and had a yield strength of 40,000 or
50,000 psi. Tubing sections were butt-welded and
wound onto 4-ft diameter reels.
Southwestern Pipe began manufacturing continuous
pipe for coiled tubing in 1969. Material yield strength
was in the range of 50,000 to 55,000 psi.
Improvements in production techniques improved the
performance of the product.
Quality Tubing began manufacturing coiled tubing in
1976. Their manufacturing process was similar to
that of Southwestern Pipe at that time: 1500-ft tubing
sections were milled, stress relieved, and butt-
welded.
Halliburton
© 1999, Halliburton
History and Overview of Coiled Tubing Services
Quality Improvement
The 1980s ushered in many important improvements
in coiled tubing quality. The first 70,000 psi yield
tubing was manufactured in 1980. In 1983, Quality
Tubing began using 3,000-ft rolls of Japanese steel,
effectively halving the number of butt-welds in a
string.
Because of the deficiencies of the butt weld, Quality
Tubing introduced two new ideas. First to be
introduced was a patented strip bias-weld process for
joining two strips before the tube is manufactured.
Second, by purchasing premium class coils in strip
form, Quality was able to drastically reduce the
number of welds in a string of tubing.
These developments eliminated the weak links and
dramatically improved the reliability of coiled tubing
in the field.
In the late 1970s, additional coiled tubing equipment
manufacturers such as Uni-Flex Inc., Hydra Rig Inc.,
and Halliburton emerged with injector head designs
similar to that of Bowen Tools. The Uni-Flex head
design, introduced in 1975, offered an improved
saddle-block chain system, as well as enhanced drive
1•5 Coiled Tubing Essentials
 History and Overview of Coiled Tubing Services

motor performance. Several designs features In the 1990s, with coiled tubing yield strengths of
incorporated into the Uni-Flex injector head 100,000 psi yield and sizes from 1-in. to 3 1/2-in.
influenced future design concepts of most coiled coiled tubing, the possibilities are unlimited to what
tubing equipment manufactures. However, by 1978, we can do compared to conventional workover rigs.
all construction of Uni-Flex and Brown Oil Tools
coiled tubing systems were halted. Uses of coiled tubing in the 1990s include sand
washing, acidizing, paraffin removal, fishing, light
Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, numerous duty drilling, sand control, wireline type fishing
revisions in equipment design and maintenance operations, coiled tubing logging and perforating,
schedules were made for coiled tubing units built by coiled tubing conveyed video, nitrogen jetting,
Bowen Tools, Hydra Rig Inc., and Halliburton. These cement squeeze, drilling, siphon strings, scale
modifications improved the performance and removal, selective treating, coiled tubing
reliability of surface equipment, significantly completions, and extended reach capabilities.
reducing equipment failure rates.
Working for Halliburton we will find ourselves
Although surface equipment modifications increased traveling to different parts of the country from time to
coiled tubing unit reliability, the most dramatic time. Do not be surprised to run into a Bowen 12M
improvements came as a result of new continuous injector in your travels: these units have their place,
tube manufacturing methods and the introduction of usually working on shallow wells with low surface
quality control. pressure and running 1-in. or 1 1/4-in. tubing.
Halliburton has also purchased several new Hydra
Rig units, for the purpose of standardization it does
Halliburton’s Entry not make sense to purchase coiled tubing units from
too many manufactures.
In the early 1970s, Halliburton entered the market
with 1-in. OD units. During this time, the units were
used for sand washing, spotting acid, fishing, and
unloading wells with nitrogen and foam.
Because of the yield strength of the coiled tubing, the
units were depth and pressure limited to 50,000 psi
yield.
During this time conventional rigs were used for
fishing, cement squeeze, acidizing, recompletion,
casing repairs, replacing downhole components,
drilling deeper, and sand consolidation.
In the 1980s, coiled tubing yield strength increased to
70,000 psi yield, Halliburton introduced the heavy-
duty injector for 1 1/4-in. and 1 1/2-in. coiled tubing,
which increased utilization and created new markets.
During this time period, units were additionally used
for sand washing, nitrogen jetting, paraffin removal,
acidizing, fishing, cement squeeze, light duty drilling,
sand control, siphon strings, coiled tubing logging
and perforating, and scale removal. Fig. 1-3: Bowen Injector

Halliburton 1•6 Coiled Tubing Essentials

© 1999, Halliburton
 History and Overview of Coiled Tubing Services

Fig. 1-4: Halliburton Injector
System Overview
The coiled tubing unit is a portable, hydraulic-
powered unit designed to inject and retrieve the
coiled tubing workstring safely under pressure to
perform well maintenance and remedial services.
This is accomplished by a continuous coil of pipe that
range in sizes of 1, 1 1/4, 1 1/2, 1 3/4, 2, 2 3/8, 2 7/8,
and 3 1/2 in. and larger spooled on a hydraulically
driven reel. The system, adaptable to either land or
offshore applications, is designed so that components
can be taken off the trailer and placed on a barge for
water work.
A typical coiled tubing system has the following
components:
• Tubing injection head assembly
• Tubing reel with continuous tubing string
• Control console located in the operator's
enclosure
• Diesel-powered hydraulic power unit assembly
• Wellhead blowout preventer stack
• Crane
• In some cases, its own fluid pump and tank for
kill fluids, etc.
The Halliburton Coiled Tubing Unit for land
operations is mounted on a drop-deck tandem trailer.
The fuel tanks, side walkways, operator’s enclosure,
tubing reel power package, tool box, hose package,
and component hook-up lines are all built into or
fixed to the trailer for proper weight distribution.

Fig. 1-5: Halliburton Trailer Coiled Tubing Unit.

Halliburton 1•7 Coiled Tubing Essentials

© 1999, Halliburton
 History and Overview of Coiled Tubing Services

Coiled tubing units in common use today are trailers, trucks, boats, and for offshore platform work
installed on several types of conveyances such as skid mounted units.

Fig. 1-6: Halliburton Truck Mounted Coiled Tubing Unit and Crane Truck.

Tubing Size Range

80K/100K CTUs 1.50 to 3.50
60K CTUs 1.25 to 2.375
30K Split Bodyload 1.25 to 1.75
15K Single Bodyload 1.0 to 1.50

Advantages of Coiled • Computer prepares to optimize job design

• Fast
Tubing
• Tubing Management

Coiled tubing offers the following advantages: • Advance data acquisition system to monitor key
job parameters on tubing management
• Efficiency
• Self-Contained unit, requires no rig
• Saves time and money--do not have to kill well
Applications
• Can continuously pump fluids into well while
moving pipe Halliburton coiled tubing units have been used in a
variety of remedial functions:
• Land or offshore system designs
• Salt washing with water
• No workover rig required when using coiled
tubing • Squeeze, plug and abandonment cementing

• Reduced potential damage to formation • Sand washing with nitrogen, foam or other
media
• Can be and is typically used on live wells (no kill
fluids introduced into well) • Mud displacement and killing of wells

• Act as tool transport medium for deviated and • Injection of paraffin or corrosion inhibitors
horizontal wells • Unloading the tubing with nitrogen, foam or
• Performance other media

Halliburton 1•8 Coiled Tubing Essentials

© 1999, Halliburton
 History and Overview of Coiled Tubing Services

• Spotting acid • Light to intermediate fishing operations

• Sand consolidation and through-tubing gravel • Installing injection or siphon strings
packing
• Cleaning operations using a downhole motor,
• Halliburton HYDRA-BLAST operations hammer system, or acid wash
• Logging, running and pulling wireline tools in • Coiled tubing completions
deviated and horizontally completed wells
• Coiled tubing drilling
• Run, set ,and pull a variety of completion,
stimulation, and service equipment tools

Fig. 1-7: Coiled tubing drilling

Halliburton 1•9 Coiled Tubing Essentials

© 1999, Halliburton