CEMENTING

Oil Well cementing is the process of mixing a slurry of cement and

water and pumping it down through steel casing to the critical points
in the annulus between casing and open hole.

There are types of oil well cementing

1. Primary cementing.
2. Secondary cementing or remedial cementing.

PRIMARY CEMENTING

The cemetation take place soon after the lowering of casing is called
the primary cementations.

The several objectives of Primary Cementing are:

1. To bond and support the casing.

2. Protect the casing from corrosion.
3. To restrict fluid movement between formations.
4. Protecting the casing from shock loads during drilling deeper.
5. Sealing-off problematic zones.

Cementing Materials

Cement slurry used in oil industry consist of:

Cement
Additives
Water

Cement used in cementing oil-wells is basically Portland cement. It is

composed of Limestone, Clay, Alumina & Iron.

American Petroleum Institute(API) has the classified oil-well cements

in 9 classes based on intended use and depths, pressure.
The common types of API cements are:

API Class A, Class C, Class G, and Class H.

In ONGC Class G with HSR is used.

Cement Additives

Cement additives have been developed to:

Allow use of Portland cement in many different applications.

Obtaining required performance properties relatively easy.

Additives are classified according to their functions.

Accelerators: Accelerators are used to:

Shorten the thickening time.

Shorten set time of cement slurries or accelerate cement
setting.
Used at low temperatures to reduce time waiting on
cement(WOC)

The most common accelerator is:

Calcium chloride- commonly used at 3% or less by weight of cement.

Retarders: Retarders are used to:

Increase set time of cement slurries or to retard cement

setting.
They do not decrease nultimate compressive strength of
cement but do slow rate of strength development.
They also lengthen the thickening time.

Most common retarders are natural lignosulfonates and sugars.

Newest retarders are made from various synthetic compounds.
Extenders: Are used to reduce density or cost of slurry.

Bentonite is most common type of extender.

Fluid-loss additives: Reduce rate at which water from cement is

forced into permeable formations when a positive differential
pressure exits. Fluid-loss additives are normally Polymers.

Lost-circulation additives: Are used to plug zones that gave a

tendency to draw in fluid because they are unconsolidated or week.

The most common materials are ground coal, ground Glisonite, and
ground walnut hull.

Dispersants: These are used to reduce the viscocity of cement slurry.

Anti-gas migration additives.

Weightning agents- allow the formulation of high density slurries.

This are heavy particulate materials such as iron oxide, barite.

Anti-foam agents- Surfactants that alter surface tension

The most common anti-foam agents are polyglycols.

Techniques are used for primary cementing are:

1. Single stage cementing.

2. Multistage cementing.
3. Liner cementing.

SINGLE STAGE CEMENTING

Single stage cementing is most commonly used for primary

cementing. The single stage primary cementing is normally
accomplished by pumping one batch of cement down the casing
between two rubber plugs.
The bottom plug is placed in the casing , followed by cement slurry.
When the batch of cement has been pumped into the casing, a top
plug is released. The top plug is pumped down until it lands on the
top of float collar. Thus completing the cement job.
 Multistage cementing.

Cementation is required to be done in two/more stages because of

following reasons:

1. When hydrostatic head of long column of cement cannot be

supported by down hole formation.
2. To cement wells having two or more zones of interest separted by
long intervals , there by reducing the quantity of cement
required.
3. When a long column of cement cannot be handled with the
limited cementing equipments.
4. To cement deep wells with high bottom hole temp, where
cements slurries of different thickening time for different stages
can be used.
5. For cementing of high pressure gas zone & water producing
horizons.
 Regular Two stage Cementing.
In addition to conventional casing equipment ( guide shoe, float
collar, etc.), a stage cementing collar is run to the desired depth. A
Conventional stage equipment consists of the following .
Stage cementing collar: Basically a casing joint with ports which
are opened and closed or sealed off by pressure-operated sleeves.
Rubber seal-off plate: installed in the top float collar to assure a
positive shutoff.
First-stage plug: used to separate the slurry from the
displacement fluid, it gives a positive indication of the end of
displacement.
Opening bomb: dropped after the first , it is allowed to gravitate
to the opening seat in the stage collar; subsequent application of
pressure will move the sleeve downward, opening the collars
ports.
 Closing Plug; pumped to a shutoff on the closing seat.

LINER CEMENTING

A liner is a string of standard casing which does not extended all the
way to the surface, but is hung from inside the previous casing string.
The overlap depends on the purpose of the liner, and cloud vary
from 50 ft (15 m) for drilling liners to as long as 500 ft (152 m) for
production liners.

Liners can be classified as follows:

Production Liners: Run from the last casing to total depth , they
replace production casing. Cementing is usually critical as zonal
isolation is essential during production and any subsequent
stimulation treatments that may be necessary.
Drilling or Intermediate Liners: These are set primarily to case off
and isolate zones, sloughing shales, or plastic formations, so that
 drilling may be continued. Cementing these liners is often difficult
due to circumstances mentioned.
Tieback Stub Liners: These extended from top of an existing liners
to a point up hole inside another casing. They are generally used
to repair damage , worn.

Cementing Equipmement
Generally used equipment and aids are:
Cementing unit
Cementing mixer
Cementing bunker/silo
Floating equipment
Casing attachment
Wiper plugs
Cementing heads
MOBILE CEMENTING UNIT
MOBILE CEMENTING SILO

CEMENTING HEAD
FLOAT COLLAR

CENTRALIZER

GUIDE SHOE
 CARRYING OUT A PRIMARY CEMENT JOB
For carrying out a cement job , the detail planning for the
cementing operation begin far in advance of reaching casing
setting depth.
The major area of consideration for job planning are
Cement slurry design
Blending & loading of cement
Well preparation
Slurry mixing, pumping and slurry displacement.
 SECONDARY CEMENTATION

Any cementing operation that occurs after the primary cementing

operation is refferd to as Secondary cementing.

The main two types of secondary cementing process are:

Squeeze cementing
Plug back cementing

PLUG-BACK CEMENTING

Plugin is the second major form of secondary cementing that is

performed during the production life of a well. In plug cementing, a
cement plug of a specified length is placed across a selected interval
in open or a cased hole. The cement is normally pumped through
open-ended drill pipe or tubing.

APPLICATION OF A CEMENT PLUG:

1. To step lost circulation during drilling

2. Directional drilling and side tracking
3. To plug back a depleted zone/ Zonal isolation
4. Abondonment
5. To provide anchor for open hole test tool

PLUG PLACEMENT TECHNIQUES:

There are three common techniques for placing cement plugs.

Balance plug method

Dump bailer method
Two plug method
 SQUEEZE CEMENTING

Squeeze cementing is defined as the process of forcing cement

slurry , under pressure through holes or splits in the casing / well
bore annular space.

APPLICATIONS : Squeeze cementing has many application during

both drilling and completion phases . Most common are:

Repair a Primary cemented job that failed due to cement

bypassing mud (channeling) or insufficient cement height in the
annulus.
Eliminate water intrusion from above, below or within the
hydrocarbon producing zone.
Reduce the producing gas/oil ration (GOR) by isolating the gas
zones from adjacent oil intervals.
Repair casing leaks due to corroded or split pipe.
Abandod a non-productive or depleted zone
Plug all, or part, or one or more zones in a multi zone injection
into desired intervals.
Seal off lost-circulation zones.
Protect against fluid migration into a producing zone.
 SQUEEZE CEMENTING PLACEMENT TECHNIQUES
Low pressure squeeze: The bootomhole treating pressure is
maintained below the formation fracturing pressure.
High-pressure squeeze : The bottomhole treating pressure
exceeds the formation fracturing pressure.

With these two classes, there are two basic techniques:

Bradenhead squeeze technique

Squeeze tool techniques

The two pumping methods are:

Running squeeze and

Hesitation squeeze.