Snubbing units have evolved into one of the most capable and efficient well servicing tools in

the oil & gas industry. In the 1920's, the need for a rig to work with pressures at surface
drove the invention of the snubbing unit. The first snubbing unit was primarily designed to
work in well control situations to "snub" drill pipe and or casing into, or out of, a well bore
when conventional well killing methods could not be used. The first snubbing unit relied on
the draw works of the companion rig to supply its' power. A series of sheaves, cables and
counter weights were rigged up so that as the rig's traveling blocks hoisted up, the snubbing
unit would snub in the hole. Conversely, when the traveling blocks on the rig were lowered,
the snubbing unit would snub out of the hole. As you can imagine, this required close
communication with several different contractors in order to perform the work safely and
efficiently.

Components of a Snubbing Unit

One of the main components of a snubbing unit is the slip. Stationary and travelling slips are
operated in sequence to grip the pipe as it is snubbed into the well. Typically, a minimum of
four slip bowls are used in snubbing operations. Two slip bowls are designated for "pipe
light" operations. Pipe light is when the well bore forces are greater than the tubular weight
in the well bore. The other two slip bowls are designated for "pipe heavy" operations. Pipe
heavy occurs when either enough pipe has been snubbed into the well bore and fluid weight
inside of the pipe is greater than the snub forces acting against the pipe in the well bore.

While snubbing into the hole, there is a transition point the tubular goes through from being
pipe light, to pipe heavy. This transition is an equilibrium typically referred to as the "balance
point". The balance point occurs when there is enough pipe weight in the wellbore to equal
the snub forces generated against the pipe. In certain instances, thousands of feet of pipe
can be moved with minimal effort since the pipe weight is at an equal state with the snub
forces. Snubbing contractors calculate this snub force and add in a friction factor from the
BOP and wall contact on either a casing or tubing string. If done correctly, the snubbing
contractor can predict when this balance point will take place and can properly prepare for it.

Modern snubbing units are powered by sophisticated hydraulic systems. These hydraulic
units typically supply all power required by the components of a snubbing operation. With a
better understanding of hydraulics and modern advances, companies have been able to
harness this hydraulic energy to develop precision controlled snubbing units. These units
move tubulars into and out of a well bore by use of a "multi cylinder jack"; a snubbing jack
comes in many sizes depending on the task at hand. They are usually denoted in size by the
snubbing unit description (i.e. 460K, 340K, 200K, etc). The 460K snubbing unit has the
ability to lift 460,000 LBS and a snubbing capacity of 230,000 LBS. Most snubbing units can
typically snub half of their lift rating. Assume you had a well with 10,000 PSI at surface and
wished to snub in a string of 2 3/8" tubing. The snubbing contractor can calculate the snub
force, add in their respective friction calculations and project the snub force to overcome will
be approximately 51,000 LBS. This would put a 120K snubbing unit to close to its maximum
capacity of 60,000 LBS snub loading. The safest bet would be a 150K or 235K snubbing
unit.

Well control is taken very seriously by snubbing contractors. The BOP is the only barrier
between the well bore and personnel. Depending upon well conditions, pressures and work
performed, the BOP stack configuration varies greatly; there can be a minimum of three
BOP's and in some cases, up to ten. All of this is determined in the pre-job phase of the
operation.

Pipe handling is performed by the snubbing units "gin pole" and "pipe winches". The gin pole
is typically telescoped out in excess of 40ft above the snubbing unit. With the use of dual
tubing winches, multiple joints of pipe can be handled simultaneously, speeding up the
operation.
The snubbing "basket" is the platform where the snubbing personnel work. The basket
contains all of the necessary hydraulic controls to operate all the features of the snubbing
unit, as well as a large bank of BOP's and hydraulic valve controls.

Snubbing Unit Applications

Today's snubbing units can be employed to provide a wide range of services. In essence, a
snubbing unit is a hydraulic rig that can do everything a rig can do, plus it can perform under
pressure in an under balanced live well state. This is especially critical to the operators in the
Haynesville Shale, which is known for HPHT wells. With the use of the snubbing units'
hydraulic rotary, the unit can be employed for fishing, milling, drilling, side tracking or any
task needed to remove bridge plugs, cement or deepen wells.
Advantages
The industry has become more aware of damages caused by heavy kill weight fluids and
mud. This has helped make snubbing units more popular in a completion and workover role,
versus its' traditional use as a well control response tool. With the advances in drilling
technologies in the unconventional shale market, the benefits of snubbing units have
become very apparent. These types of completions often have laterals extending out
thousands of feet. With costly stimulations used to help extract the gas more efficiently,
operators often times do not wish to turn around and load the well with heavy fluids to
complete the well dead.

Coiled tubing has its limitations in reach, due to wall to wall mechanical friction in horizontal
wells. Often times the coiled tubing units cannot reach TD or supply the needed weight on bit
to mill up composite plugs typically used in completions.
Another clear advantage to using a snubbing unit is its' small footprint, which is critical on the
tight locations in the unconventional shale's. Moreover, the small size and ease of mobilizing
is especially useful and cost effective with offshore wells.

In conclusion, with the snubbing unit's size, ability to handle pressure, rotary capabilities,
rigidity of jointed tubing and minimal wall contact, snubbing units have become the chosen
resource for these types of completions.

Snubbing is a type of heavy well intervention performed on oil and gas wells. It involves running
the BHA on a pipe string using a hydraulic workover rig. Unlike wireline or coiled tubing, the pipe
is not spooled off a drum but made up and broken up while running in and pulling out, much like
conventional drill pipe. Due to the large rigup, it is only used for the most demanding of
operations when lighter intervention techniques do not offer the strength and durability. Unlike
conventional drilling and completions operations, snubbing can be performed with the well still
under pressure (not killed). When done so, it is called hydraulic workover. It can also be
performed without having to remove the Christmas tree from the wellhead.

Rigup[edit]
A snubbing rigup is a very tall structure. It consists of a hydraulically powered snubbing unit,
which provides the force on a pipe, above a string of multi-layered pressure control components.
At the top of the snubbing unit is the basket, which serves as the control post for the rigup. Below
the basket are the hydraulic jacks, which power the pipe into and out of the hole. It consists of
two mechanisms for applying force to the pipe in either direction. Each mechanism consists of
travelling and stationary slips. The travelling slips are used to move the pipe, while the stationary
slips are used to hold the pipe while the travelling slips are repositioned between strokes.

Stripping the pipe[edit]

Unlike coiled tubing or wireline, where the wire or tubing is always the same diameter allowing for
a single unmoving primary barrier (stuffing box or stripper), snubbing uses a pipe, which will have
an enlarged collar at the connection between the joints. Therefore, the pressure control system
must be able to accommodate this variable diameter. The stripping rams accomplish this. The
first stage of lowering a collar through the stripping system is to close the lower rams so as to
seal off the mechanism above from wellbore pressure. The space between the rams can then be
bled off allowing the upper rams to be opened. The collar can then pass through the opened
upper rams. Once the collar is in between the rams, the upper rams are closed and pressure is
equalised either side of the lower rams. The lower rams are then safely opened and the collar is
lowered through the rams.
This process is repeated as successive collars are lowered into the well. When pulling out of
hole, this procedure is reversed.
Another popular method of stripping tubulars in/out of a wellbore is with the use of an "Annular"
Blow Out Preventer (BOP). An Annular BOP consists of a natural or synthetic rubber element
with encased metal reinforcement sections. A hydraulic piston pushes the annular element up
into a concaved cap which forces the element diameter to decrease in size. When the element
diameter is closed sufficiently it forms a seal around the body of the pipe. The upset or larger
diameter section of a pipe connection can be pulled or pushed through a closed annular element
without damage and while still maintaining a gas tight seal.
Annular BOPs come in various sizes and pressure ratings and are ideal for lower pressure gas
wells. Generally, the maximum pressure for stripping pipe through an annular is equal to 40% of
the maximum static pressure rating dry or 60% if the pipe is lubricated as it is being stripped
through the annular.

Heavy-pipe and light-pipe[edit]

Because snubbing is normally done under pressure, initially, the weight of pipe in wellbore is less
than the force due to the wellbore pressure. This is described as light-pipe: downward force is
required on the pipe to force it in against resistance. Once a sufficient amount of pipe has been
run into the hole, the weight becomes sufficient to overpower the wellbore pressure and the pipe
naturally wants to fall in the hole; this is heavy-pipe. At this point, the snubbing mechanism is
changed over to the one which provides upward force to hold the pipe and lower it controllably
into the well.
When pulling out of hole, upward force is initially used to lift the pipe until the equilibrium point,
whenceforth downward force is used to prevent wellbore pressure from blowing the light-pipe out
of hole.
Risks[edit]
The more complex method of pressure control, as compared to coiled tubing and wireline,
naturally invites more opportunity for things to go wrong. One such peril was seen in June 2007
on the Shearwater platform. Snubbing was being used to clean out large pebble, which had
entered the well through a collapsed liner. While pulling out of hole, one stripping ram was not
opened sufficiently and a collar on the pipe string caught on the ram. The excessive force applied
to the pipe caused it to break apart, dropping the string below the failure into the well. In the time
it took to prepare to fish out the pipe, the pebbles in the process of being circulated out, settled
on the pipe, preventing successful fishing.
Although problems such as the one described above can happen they are extremely rare and
always avoidable. In the case above, adequate supervision could have prevented this dramatic
consequence of operator error by limiting the hydraulic force allowable to be an applied to a level
below what was required to part the pipe string.

Note[edit]
Not all Snubbing units are large and time consuming to rig up. In the Canadian oilfield many
companies use small "Stand Alone" snubbing units which can be broken down and rigged up in
less than 3hrs. These Units consist of 4 segments which can be placed onto 4 separate trucks.
These 4 segments consist of the following:
PUMP TRUCK - The Engine of the truck is used to power the pump (which is a series of valves
mounted behind the cab).

-----> The Pump truck has a trailer which is the MUD

TANK

SNUBBING BASKET - Once again the trucks engine is used to power the unit's hydraulics. The
Basket lies on the bed of the truck behind the cab.
ACCUMULATOR TRUCK - The Accumulator Unit (or Coomie) is run off a PTO that is connected
to the trucks engine. The Coomie Unit also pulls a trailer.

------> The trailer off the Coomie Unit becomes the

CATWALK and PIPE RACKS.
------> Mounted on the trailer is the TOOL SHED (or
JUNK SKID - a small Shipping container full of tools), and also the LMS
(Load Management System), which is used
to support the weight of the basket while operational.

PICKER - The Picker, is a truck with a small crane (or Picker) on its back. This Picker is used to
Rig up the basket. It also tows a trailer.

------> The trailer for the Picker is the DOGHOUSE.

The Doghouse is then split into the TOILET BLOCK and OFFICE, and the
GENERATORS
(GEN-SETS) which provide electrical
power to the rig.
These units are set up in such a fashion so as to be able to cope with the harsh roads and
remote locations required in the Canadian winter.

Units structures and capacities[edit]

Units varies in strength, there are 95K, 120K, 150K, 170K, 225K, 340K, 460K, 600K The number
indicates their working strength in pulling force, and 150K means the unit is capable of pulling
maximal 150000 pounds. This is based on the hydraulic force acting on the size of the unit's
piston size. Also are there more complex special built unit to find as the CSU 160 a special build
rig assist unit, and stand alone units like

Special build containerized

stand alone 600K unit in the
jungle.

340K unit operational in the

field.
600K unit operational in
Germany.

See also