Procedural Bulletin PC-29.

1-2018Mar26-EXT
Rev. 1 – 22 April 2019

Grant Prideco™
NOV Wellbore Technologies
Product Management Dept.
10100 Houston Oaks Dr.
Houston, TX 77064
+1 (281) 921-3600 main
nov.com/grantprideco/

Recommended Best Practice for Running

Rotary Shoulder Connections
This bulletin summarizes recommended best practices to be adopted to run Rotary Shoulder
Connections as efficiently and effectively as possible. This Recommended Best Practice check list
has been used historically by Grant Prideco and its customers to help ensure consistent,
productive Rotary Shoulder Connection running for all users, where practices are adopted.

Alignment
Top Drive Bell Stabbing Guide
• Change/ adjust the top drive bell stabbing guide bore or flippers to tool joint OD.
• Bore to be no more than ½ inch maximum over the drill pipe box tool joint OD.
o When properly sized and adjusted per above, this guides the top drive saver
sub pin connection into the mating box without damaging the box shoulder/
face).
Stump Alignment
• Set drill pipe joint with matching box connection in the slips at the rotary.
• A rotation of the table to confirm that a straight joint of drill pipe is selected. If
wobbling occurs, another pipe must be selected.
• With correct top drive saver sub (TDSS) made up to the top drive quill, lower top
drive to box / stump in slips at rotary until pin nose is just inside box counterbore.
• Ensure pin nose is centered within the box counterbore in 4 quadrants.
• Otherwise, adjust top drive track until the pin nose is centered within the box.
o This is a good time to M&B top drive subs.

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Weight Compensators / Counter Balances

• Ensure proper calibration and operation to minimize weight on connections.

• It is imperative to ensure that the weight compensator / counter balance is
calibrated properly to ensure that excessive weight is not applied to the connection.
• Excessive weight during spin-up can damage any connection.
Doping

• It is imperative to ensure that all surfaces are properly doped as typical of industry
best practice.
• Common oversights are (1) the pin nose face, and (2) box internal make-up
shoulder.
Stabbing

• With alignment verifications above, Grant Prideco does not require the use of a
stabbing guide for most connections.
o For stabbing guide use requirements at the rotary, reference respective
connection Running & Handling Procedure.
• Ensure proper alignment during stabbing operations, i.e. – the pin nose stabs
centered into the box.
Spin-up

• after the connections have been stabbed, ensure proper thread engagement.
• after ensuring threads are engaged, you should be able to spin up to the connections
at normal spin-up speed to shoulder engagement.
o For recommended connection spin-up speeds, reference respective
connection Running & Handling Procedure.
Tonging

• ensure that the gripper tongs are not tonging in the area of the box counter bore.
• as typical of industry best practice, it is important that the box tongs are kept as low
on the box as possible.
o For specific connection tong placement recommendations, reference
respective connection Running & Handling Procedure.

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Proper Calibration of Torqueing Equipment:

• Improper calibration of torqueing equipment can lead to improper make-up torque,

typically under-torque, which results in not pre-loading the connections to the
proper level.
• Make sure the torqueing equipment is properly calibrated.
• Same can be verified against floor tongs with a calibrated load cell.

Torqueing Up Stands with a Top Drive System:

• While a set torque is applied between the top drive and the backup tool at the floor
level, this practice cannot guarantee that each connection between the Top Drive
and the Rotary receives the desired MUT.
• Best practice requires individual connection sets to be made up with a calibrated
torqueing unit at the rotary.
• Grant Prideco neither recommends nor supports torqueing up stands with the Top
Drive.

Applied Make-Up Torque

• Applied MUT = MUT x Thread Compound Friction Factor

o MUT from GRP Performance Sheet (verify that it is based on a FF of 1.0)
o Thread Compound Friction Factor from Label / MSDS

Author Field Services Dan Morgan

Approval Marketing & Product Management Guillaume Plessis
Product & Manufacturing Engineering John Price
Field Services Dan Morgan

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