Page 412 - Practical Well Planning and Drilling Manual

Section 3 revised 11/00/bc 1/17/01 12:00 PM Page 388

[ ] Practical Wellsite Operations
3.4.4

9. Joints of casing must have clamp-on protectors in place on the
pin end before picking up the V-door. If one drops off, the rig
crew must be told right away and the pin must be examined
before running.
10. It must be possible to circulate the casing in case of a well control
situation, or if the casing has to be washed past a tight spot. The
crossover from casing to WECO or other connection must be kept
on the drillfloor ready to use.
11. Highlight any special procedures, hazards, etc. with the crews.

3.4.4. Casing Running Procedures

Pick up the shoe joint and lower in the hole. Look into the joint
with a flashlight to see if the floats are allowing mud to pass from the
well into the casing—they should not. Fill with mud to roughly level
with the flowline, then pick up about halfway and lower in again.
Look down the joint and check the level again. This checks that the
floats allow mud to flow through but hold back pressure. Repeat
once the float collar is made up, to check that the float collar allows
passage of mud. If the floats do not allow mud to flow through, make
up the circulating head and try to circulate through them, then retest
as previously described. If they still do not work, the backups will
have to be used.
Buttress casing connections are made up to within ± /8 in from
3
the base of the triangle stamped on the pin. Make up several joints to
the triangle, then use an average from the resultant make-up torques.
If in any doubt, check a few more joints visually to the triangle. If you
feel a casing collar while being made up, it should warm up but
should not get hot. If it does get hot, it may indicate over-torquing or
galling and should be backed out and checked.
The shoetrack is normally secured with a pipelock compound on
the connections to reduce the likelihood of backing off while drilling
out. There is no point in pipelocking only one side of a collar. With the
shoe joint in the table, apply the safety clamp then remove the eleva-
tors. Using the rig tongs, carefully break out the collar. Clean pin and
collar threads thoroughly, applying pipelock to the pin end only. Start
to make up the casing collar with a large chain tong until the thread

388