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Hussein Y. Ali
Basrah University for Oil and Gas

Collapse Forces

LECTURE Calculation for Lost Circulation

THREE
Calculation for Individual Casing Strings

Calculation Across Salt Section

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PART TWO
C O L L A P S E , B U R S T A N D T E N S I ON .
F OR CE S

INTRODUCTION

• There are three basic forces that exist in the wellbore which the casing is subjected to:
collapse, burst and tension.
• They must first be calculated and must be maintained below the casing strength properties. In
other words, the collapse pressure must be less than the collapse strength of the casing and
so on.
• Casing should initially be designed for collapse, burst and tension.
• Refinements to the selected grades and weights should only be attempted after the initial
selection is made.
• All wellbore pressures and tensile forces should be calculated using true vertical depth only.
• For directional wells a correct well profile is required to determine the true vertical depth
(TVD).
• The casing lengths are first calculated as if the well is a vertical well and then these lengths
are corrected for the appropriate hole angle.

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1 .CO L L APSE FORCES

COLLAPSE PRESSURE

• Its the pressure at which a casing will awfully deform as a

result of differential pressure acting from outside to inside a
casing Pi Pe

• Originates from the column of mud used to drill the hole, and
acts on the outside of the casing.
• Since the hydrostatic pressure of a column of mud increases
with depth, collapse pressure is highest at the bottom and
zero at the top.
• For practical purposes, collapse pressure should be
calculated as follows:
Collapse pressure = External pressure – Internal pressure

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COLLAPSE PRESSURE

• Until recently, the following simplified procedure was

used for collapse design:
1. Casing is assumed empty due to lost circulation at
casing setting depth (CSD) or at TD of next hole
2. Internal pressure inside casing is zero
3. External pressure is caused by mud in which
casing was run in
4. No cement outside casing

COLLAPSE PRESSURE

• Hence using the above assumptions and applying Equation, only the external pressure
need to be evaluated. Therefore:

Collapse pressure (C) = 0.052 x ρ x CSD….psi

where ρ is in ppg and CSD is in ft

• The above assumptions are very severe and only occur in special cases.
• The following sections will provide details on practical situations that can be
encountered in field operations:

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1. LOST CIRCULATION

• If collapse calculations are based on 100% evacuation, then the internal pressure is to
zero. The 100% evacuation condition can only occur when:
1. The casing is run empty
2. There is complete loss of fluid into a thief zone (say into a cavernous formation),
3. There is complete loss of fluid due to a gas blowout which subsequently subsides
• During lost circulation, the mud level in the well drops to a height such that the
remaining hydrostatic pressure of mud is equal to the formation pressure of the thief
zone.
• In this case the mud pressure exactly balances the formation pressure of the thief zone
and fluid loss into the formation will cease.
• If the formation pressure of the thief is not known, it is usual to assume the pressure of
the thief zone to be equal to 0.465 psi/ft (normally pressured zone).

1. LOST CIRCULATION

• The length of the mud column remaining inside the

casing can be calculated as follows (refer to Figure)
• Assuming that the thief zone is at the casing seat,
then during lost circulation:

Pressure in thief zone =CSD x Pf

Internal pressure at shoe=0.052 x ρm1 x L
The length of mud column remaining inside casing L:

𝐶𝑆𝐷𝑥𝑃𝑓
𝐿=
0.052 𝑥 𝜌𝑚1

Depth to top of mud column = CSD – L

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1. LOST CIRCULATION

• Where:
ρm1 = mud density used to drill next hole (ppg)
Pf = formation pore pressure of thief zone, (psi/ft) (assume = 0.465 psi/ft for most
designs)
L = length of mud column inside the casing
CSD = casing setting depth (TVD) of the casing string being designed, ft

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1. LOST CIRCULATION

Example
Calculate the collapse pressure for the following casing string assuming lost circulation
at the casing shoe:
Current mud = 15 ppg, Casing was run in = 11 ppg, CSD = 10,000 ft

Solution
First find the length of mud column remaining inside the casing:
L= (10,000 x 0.465) / 0.052 x 15 = 5962 ft
Then three points need to be considered for collapse calculations:

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1. LOST CIRCULATION

Solution
1. At surface
Both the external and internal pressures are zero. Hence the effective collapse at surface
is zero.
C1= Zero
2. At the top of mud column
The internal pressure is zero. This is where the new level of mud starts. Hence collapse
pressure is equal to the external pressure only.
C2= 0.052* ρm *(CSD-L)
C2 =0.052 x 11 x (10,000 –5962) = 2310 psi

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1. LOST CIRCULATION

Solution
3. At the CSD
Now both external and internal pressures must be calculated. The external pressure is
caused by the mud column in which casing was run. The internal pressure is caused by
the length of mud column (L) remaining after lost circulation.

C3 = 0.052*CSD * ρm - 0.052*L * ρm1

= 0.052 x 10,000x 11 – 0.52 x 5962x 15 = 1070 psi

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2. INDIVIDUAL CASING STRINGS

• In order the make the calculations more practical, it

will be necessary to present the collapse equations
for each casing type.

• Obviously, the given procedures may be modified to

suit local conditions.

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2. INDIVIDUAL CASING STRINGS

CONDUCTOR
• The conductor is usually set at a shallow depth ranging from 100 ft to 1500 ft.
• Assume complete evacuation so that the internal pressure inside the casing is zero.
• The external pressure is caused by the mud in which the casing was run.
• For offshore operations, the external pressure is made up of two components:

Collapse pressure at mud line=external pressure due to a column of seawater from sea
level to mud line

=(0.45 psi/ft) x mudline depth = C1 psi

Collapse pressure at casing seat =C1 + 0.052 x ρm x CSD

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2. INDIVIDUAL CASING STRINGS

SURFACE CASING
• Some designers assume the surface casing to be completely empty when designing for
collapse, regardless of its setting depth, to provide an in-built design factor in the
design.
• Other designs in industry assume a 40% evacuation level.
• Both approaches have no scientific basis and can result in overdesigns.
• This overdesign can be significantly reduced if partial loss circulation is assumed and
the pressure of the reduced level of mud inside the casing is subtracted from the
external pressure to give the effective collapse pressure.
• Apply the same equations of lost circulation.

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2. INDIVIDUAL CASING STRINGS

INTERMEDIATE CASING
• Complete evacuation in intermediate casing is virtually impossible. This is because during lost
circulation, the fluid column inside the casing will drop to a height such that the remaining fluid inside
the casing just balances the formation pressure of the thief zone, irrespective of the magnitude of
pore pressure of the thief zone.
• Three collapse points will have to be calculated using the general form:
Collapse pressure, C=external pressure - internal pressure
1. Point A: At Surface
C1= Zero
2. Point B: At depth (CSD-L)
C2 = 0.052 (CSD-L) ρm
3. Point C: At depth CSD
C3=0.052 CSD x ρm - 0.052 L x ρm1
where ρm the mud weight in which casing was run in.

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2. INDIVIDUAL CASING STRINGS

PRODUCTION CASING
• For production casing the assumption of complete evacuation is justified in the following
situations:
1. if perforations are likely to be plugged during production as in gas wells. In this case surface
pressure may be bled to zero and hence give little pressure support inside the casing.
2. in artificial lift operations. In such operations gas is injected from the surface to reduce the
hydrostatic column of liquid against the formation to help production. If the well pressure
were bled to zero at surface, a situation of complete evacuation could exist.
3. in air/gas drilling all casing strings should be designed for complete evacuation.
4. another situation which results in complete evacuation is a blowout which unloads the entire
hole.
• If none of the above situations are likely in a production casing then partial evacuation should be
used for collapse design (similar to the intermediate casing).

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3. ACROSS SALT SECTIONS

• There are several areas around the world where casing strings have to be set across salt sections.
• Salt is a sedimentary rock belonging to the evaporite group which is characterized by having no porosity and no
permeability. In most cases, salt is immobile and causes no problems while drilling or production.
• There are several types of evaporites:
▪ Halite NaCl
▪ Gypsum CaSO4 2H2O
▪ Anhydrite CaSO4
▪ Sylvite KCl
▪ Carnalite KMgCl3 6H2O
• When a salt section is made up entirely of sylvite or carnalite, then the salt section becomes mobile and behaves
like a super-viscous fluid.
• The mobile salt continues to move during drilling operations, in some cases, at the rate of one inch an hour
causing the pipe to be stuck.
• Salt movement also continues after the casing is set and in some cases results in casing collapse.

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3. ACROSS SALT SECTIONS

• Casing collapse failure caused by salt movement is a catastrophic failure, almost

always requiring sidetracking or redrilling of the well.
• Currently, there is no accepted analytical method for designing for collapse loads
resulting from salt movement.
• The accepted method is to use an external pressure of 1 psi/ft across the salt section.
The reason behind this is that in mobile salts, all the earth stresses become equal to 1
psi/ft.
• Hence when designing across mobile salt sections, determine the depth of the salt
section, say X, ft, then:
External pressure at depth X = 1 psi/ft x X
Internal pressure = pressure resulting from partial loss circulation

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THANK YOU

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