vi i

PREFACE
Casing design has followed an evolutionary trend and most improvenieiit s have
been made d u e to the advancement of technology. Contributions to the tccliiiology in casing design have collie from fundanient al research and field tests. wliicli
made casing safe and economical.

It was t h e purpose of this book to gather iiiucti of the inforniatioii available i n

t h e lit,erature and show how it may be used in deciding the best procedure for
casing design, i.e., optimizing casing design for deriving maximuin profit froni a
particular well.
As a brief description of t h e book. Chapter 1 primarily covers the fuiidarrieiitals
of casing design and is intended as a n introduction t o casing design. Chapter 2
describes t h e casing loads experienced during drilling and running casing and includes t h e API performance standards. Chapters and 4 are designed to develop
a syst,ematic procedure for casing design with particular eniphasis oii deviated.
high-pressure, and thermal wells. hi Chapter 5. a systematic approacli in designing and optimizing casing using a computer algoritliiii has bee11 presented.
Finally, Chapter G briefly presents an introduction t o the casing corrosion and its
prevmtion.

The problems and their solutions. which are provided in each chapter. and t he
computer program ( 3 . 5 in. disk) are intended to ser1.e two purposes: ( 1 ) as illustrations for the st,udents and pract iciiig engineers to uiiderst and tlie suliject
matter, and ( 2 ) t o enable them to optimize casing design for a wide range of wc~lls
t o be drilled in t h e future.
More experienced design engineers may wish to concent rate only on t h e first four
chapters. The writers have tried to make this book easier to us? by separating tlic
derivations from t h e rest of the t,ext, so that the design equations and iiiiportaiit
assumptions st,aiid out more clearly.

An attempt was made to use a simplistic approach i n t h e treat iiient of various

topics covered in this book: however. many of the subjects are o f such a complex
nature that they are not amenalile to siiiiple mat hematical analysis. Despite this.
it is hoped that t h e inathenlatical treatment is adequate.

viii

The authors of this book are greatly indebted to Dr. Eric E. Maidla of Departamento De Engenharia De Petrdleo. Universidade Estadual De ('ampinas
Unicamp, 1:3081 Campinas - SP. Brasil and Dr. Andrew K. Wojtanowicz of the
Petroleum Engineering Departinent. Louisiana State Universily. Baton Rouge.
L.A., 7080:3, U.S.A.. for their contribution of ('hapter 5.
In closing, the writers would like to express their gratitude to all those who l:a\'e
made the preparation of this book possible and. in particular ~o Prof. ('..~IaI'x
of the Institute of Petroleum Engineering. Technical University of ('lausthal. for
his guidance and sharing his inm:ense experience. The writers would also like to
thank Drs. G. Krug of Mannesman \\~rk AG. P. Goetze of Ruhr Gas AG. and
E1 Sayed of Cairo [:niversity for numerous suggestions and fruitful discussions.
Sheikh S. Rahlnan
George' \:. ('hilingariaI: