A multi-year joint industry program (JIP) has been completed involving an experimental testing program to evaluate the fitness-for-purpose of high-strength low-alloy steel coiled tubing (CT) in underbalanced
drilling of sour oil and gas wells. The primary focus is the cold-worked material response to sour well conditions when subjecting the tubing to multiple cycles of plastic tension and compression strains in the range of 2% to 3%. The material performance and/or degradation parameters measured include low-cycle corrosion-fatigue (LCCF) life, critical stress corrosion cracking (SCC) stress intensity factor, KISCC, total plastic strain to failure, normalized fracture strain, sulfide stress cracking (SSC) and hydrogen induced cracking (HIC). Laboratory tests performed under the auspices of the JIP, consisted of low-cycle, axial-straining corrosion-fatigue with full body CT specimens submerged in aqueous H2S, H2S/CO2 varying pH, SSC corrosion inhibitors and NACE standard solution specified for determining the relative propensity for HIC and SSC. Various other testing was performed unilaterally by individual JIP sponsors, including double cantilever beam (DCB) and slow strain rate testing (SSRT). Coiled tubing samples comprised the 70 ksi and 80 ksi yield strength grades, pre-fatigued with varying exposure duration to the corrosive environment. The assessment for suitability of CT underbalanced drilling of sour wells, was made on basis of the various performance results and failure modes obtained in the laboratory testing. These results are also intended to further the development of industry
operational guidelines and coiled tubing material selection for under-balanced drilling of sour wells.
KEYWORDS:
Under-balanced drilling, sour wells, coiled tubing, low-cycle corrosion-fatigue, double cantilever beam tests, slow strain rate test, sulfide stress cracking.