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9
CASING AND CEMENTING
Overview
An oil or gas well is a pressure vessel, a vertical pipeline thousands
of feet long that conducts hydrocarbons from a reservoir to the surface.
The integrity of this pressure vessel comes from the steel pipe that lines
the wellbore, which is called casing (fig. 9–1). This casing pipe has to
maintain integrity for the whole production life of the well, until the day it
is finally abandoned. That could be 40 years or more. It is vitally important
that the casing itself is properly designed, considering all the forces and
environmental factors that it will be subjected to.
Fig. 9–1. Some 9 ⁄8" casing ready to of oad to a rig
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