Liner Hanger Selection

A Guide for Drilling and Completion Engineers

DisclaimerThis document has been developed to help drilling and completion engineers identify the liner hanger equipment best suited for their applications. All information, ratings, and recommendations are based on assumptions that may not apply to your specific objectives or well conditions; therefore, Weatherford recommends that you use this document only as a starting point for communications with Weatherford about your liner needs. Then contact the authorized Weatherford representative for liner systems in your area to design the system that is best for your application: www.weatherford.com.

This document does not cover all of Weatherford's liner hanger equipment; it covers the most readily available equipment that is suited for conventional liner applications. Your area's Weatherford liner systems representative may recommend other equipment that is better suited to the region or the application.

Liner Hanger Selection 1st ed. May 2006

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Liner Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Intermediate (Drilling) Liners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Production Liners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Drill-Down Liners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Extended-Reach Liners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Components of a Liner Hanger System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Liner-Top Packers/Liner Setting Sleeves and Tie-Back PBRs. . . . . . . . 6

Liner-Top Packers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Liner Setting Sleeves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Liner Hangers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Mechanical Liner Hangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Hydraulic Liner Hangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Cement Displacement Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Cementing Packoffs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Liner Wiper Plugs, Drillpipe Darts and Landing Collars . . . . . . . . . . 14

Liner Accessories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Holddown Subs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Centralizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Multi-Stage Cementing Accessories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

ACP Annulus Casing Packers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Float Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Reamer Shoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

DrillShoe Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Liner Tie-Backs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Tie-Back Seal Stems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Tie-Back Packers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Liner Hanger Selection Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Contents

2006-2010 Weatherford. All rights reserved. 1

3 2006-2010 Weatherford. All rights reserved.Liner Hanger Selection 1st ed. May 2006

Introduction

Designing a liner hanger installation can be complex because it involves many variables; but the following selection criteria are essential:

Size, weight, grade, and setting depth of casing

Size, weight, grade, connections, and length of liner

Setting depth of liner hanger

Inclination of liner hanger

Proposed trajectory of liner wellbore

Size and weight of drillpipe

Liner application

Completion/stimulation operations after the liner is installed

Loads applied to the liner hanger from the liner weight and from hydraulic operations

Completion and/or wellbore fluids to which the liner may be exposed

Pressures and temperatures to which liner equipment may be exposed

All of these considerations must go into the design of a liner system that will meet your needs while remaining within the operational capabilities of the equipment.

Introduction

Liner Hanger Selection 1st ed. May 2006 5 2006-2010 Weatherford. All rights reserved.

Liner Applications

Liners have many applications and are run for various reasons. For example, they may be the best technical or operational alternative; they may be a cost- or time-saving alternative to casing; or they may help mitigate risk to the well or the environment.

Intermediate liners (also called drilling liners) hang or support an intermediate casing string. The liner shoe is meant to be drilled out so that another liner or casing string can be conveyed through it.

Because intermediate liners are drilled through, it is possible for them to have a drilling tie-back seal stem stabbed into them. The effective flow area at the liner top changes drastically, without a drilling tie-back seal stem, which will cause inefficient removal of the cuttings; using a tie-back seal stem aids removal of cuttings.

These liners are almost always cemented to isolate formations behind them from wellbore fluids. Most are run with a liner-top packer to improve the isolation. Changing wellbore fluids may generate additional load on this type of liner; depending on how the production casing, liner, and tubing are deployed, it is possible that these may see additional forces during completion operations.

Production liners are used to hang production casing. Depending on the final well configuration and any completion or stimulation requirements, production liners will probably be exposed to more loads and for longer periods than any other type of liner.

Production liners must be compatible with completion products such as completion packers. They must be able to withstand additional loads imposed by completion/production enhancement operations (frac jobs or temperature cycles). They must also be compatible with all fluids and gases to which they will be exposed, including kill fluids, acid, hydrogen sulfide (H S), and carbon dioxide (CO ).2 2

Production liners may be cemented, or they may carry pre-perforated pipe or screens. These liners are usually (but not always) run with a liner-top packer, depending on the completion and the type of well.

Drill-down liners are used to drill some of the hole in which they are deployed. They are run with a DrillShoe drilling assembly rather than a guide shoe or float shoe. In addition to hanging capacity and loads applied to the system, considerable torque is applied to the running tool, liner-top packer/liner setting sleeve, and liner hanger with liner in compression.

Extended-reach liners are extremely long production liners. The biggest challenge they pose is deployment. In many cases limiting factors will be the rig, the pressure to which you can expose the formation, and the pressure piston effect and collapse pressure of the liner.

Intermediate (Drilling) Liners

Production Liners

Drill-Down Liners

Extended-Reach Liners

Liner Applications

6 2006-2010 Weatherford. All rights reserved. Liner Hanger Selection 1st ed. May 2006

Components of a Liner Hanger System

Components of a Liner Hanger System

A typical liner hanger system consists of the following components:

Liner-top polished bore receptacle (PBR), also known as a tie-back sleeve or tie-back extension

Liner-top packer or liner setting sleeve

Liner hanger

Cement displacement system consisting of cementing packoff, wiper plug, drillpipe dart, and landing collar

Float collar

Float shoe

Running tools are also required for running the liner hanger to bottom, setting it, executing a cement job, and setting the liner-top packer (if applicable). A typical liner running-tool string will consist of the following:

Debris protection system

Packer setting tool

Liner running tool

Retrievable cementing packoff

Plug adaptor

Wiper plug

Liner-Top Packers/Liner Setting Sleeves and Tie-Back PBRs

All liners consist of either a liner-top packer or a liner setting sleeve, which connects the liner to the running tool. All liner-top packers and most setting sleeves also are used in conjunction with a tie-back polished bore receptacle (PBR).

For many reasons liner-top packers are used to isolate the liner top after the hanger is set and cementing operations are completed:

Isolation of formation pressure below the liner-top from the casing ID above

Isolation of treating pressures below the liner-top during fracture or acid work

Isolation of formation fluids while the cement sets, helping to stop gas migration

Isolation of lost-circulation zones

The only isolation above the production zone in uncemented liners

The liner-top packer can also be used as a tie-back completion or production packer.

A liner setting slee