Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas | Drilling and Well Engineering
Casing Design and Well Integrity Engineering
Format and Duration:
5 days
Casing design plays a fundamental role in ensuring well integrity throughout the well lifecycle—from drilling and completion to production and eventual abandonment. A well-structured casing design is critical for maintaining well stability, pressure containment, and operational safety.
This course provides a comprehensive understanding of casing design principles, focusing on engineering compliance with international well integrity standards such as API, ISO, and NORSOK. Participants will learn how to design casing programs based on geomechanics, wellbore pressure profiles, material selection, and stress analysis. This course can be delivered at an Foundation or Skilled level, depending on the audience’s experience and technical requirements.
This course is delivered in partnership with Black Reiver Consulting Ltd.
Schedule
Duration and Training Method
This is a classroom course comprising a mixture of lectures, discussion, case studies, and practical exercises.
- Hands on calculations and case studies using industry standard formulas and design tools.
- Step by step explanations of casing selection, load cases, and well integrity engineering.
- Instructor led sessions combining PowerPoint, whiteboard explanations, and group exercises.
- Interactive discussions and Q&A sessions to clarify complex engineering concepts.
- Real-world scenarios to demonstrate common casing design challenges and solutions.
Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn how to:
- Understand and apply well integrity standards (API, ISO, NORSOK) to casing design.
- Analyse pressure profiles and stress loads to optimize casing seat selection.
- Calculate casing loads and assess triaxial stress conditions for wellbore integrity.
- Evaluate casing wear, collapse resistance, and tensile strength under different well conditions.
- Understand the basis of corrosion in OCTG products
- Select appropriate casing materials, corrosion resistant alloys (CRAs), and thread connections.
- Implement proper procurement, inspection, and running procedures for casing strings.
- Apply well integrity principles throughout the entire well lifecycle.
Course Content
1. Well Integrity & Casing Design Fundamentals
- OCTG tubular manufacturing and testing.
- Well Integrity Standards – API, ISO, and NORSOK compliance.
- Testing & Documentation – Verifying casing performance and life of well integrity.
- Conventional Casing Design Approach
- Pressure integrity and casing seat selection.
- Pore pressure & fracture gradient curves.
- Mud weight window & kick tolerance considerations.
2. Modified Casing Design Considerations
- Geomechanics, collapse gradient, and stress conditions.
- XLOT minimum stress values and leakoff tests.
- Directional well considerations and tortuosity effects.
3. Forces Acting on Casing Strings
- Uni-axial, bi-axial and tri-axial casing loads.
- WME envelope and using it to design withing a safe operational envelope.
- Buoyancy, cementing effects, and axial load variations.
- Pressure testing and stuck pipe influences on casing selection.
- Practical Exercise: Basic casing seat depth design.
4. Casing Load Cases & Stress Analysis
- Understanding Load Cases in Casing Design
- Basics of stress and strain in casing materials.
- Uniaxial, biaxial, and triaxial stress conditions.
- Von Mises Equivalent (VME) Envelope
- Constructing VME envelopes for casing analysis.
- Design Factors & Safety Margins
- ISO and API standard safety factors.
- Casing Wear & Derating Factors
- Thermal effects on casing performance.
- Casing wear models and monitoring techniques.
- Practical Exercise: Evaluating casing collapse, burst, and tensile strength.
5. Steel Properties, Manufacturing & Failure Mechanisms
- API & ISO Standards for Casing Materials
- Chemical & physical properties of steel.
- Manufacturing processes for Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG).
- Post Manufacturing Treatments & Effects
- Normalization, quenching, and cold treatments.
- QA/QC & Mill Certification
- Steel testing requirements and mill documentation.
- Casing Failure Mechanisms
- Tensile failure – brittle, ductile, and creep.
- Burst failure & collapse failure modes.
- Torsional and compression induced buckling.
- Practical Exercise: Assessing casing failure risks and selecting appropriate safety factors.
6. Geological & Corrosion Considerations in Casing Design
- Geological Impacts on Casing Design
- Casing seat placement in different formations.
- Challenges with salts, squeezing shales, and fluid migration.
- Corrosion Mechanisms in Casing Materials
- Sweet (CO₂) corrosion and sour (H₂S) corrosion.
- Stress corrosion cracking and microbial corrosion risks.
- Corrosion Resistant Alloys (CRA) & Material Selection
- CRA selection for CO₂ and H₂S environments.
- Combined CO₂/H₂S considerations for casing durability.
- Casing Connections & Thread Forms
- API vs. proprietary connection designs.
- Thread leak resistance & torque makeup considerations.
- Practical Exercise: Selecting casing materials based on environmental conditions.
7. Casing Procurement, Inspection & Running Procedures
- Casing & Tubing Procurement Best Practices
- QA/QC requirements for casing materials.
- Nonstandard tubular lead times and supplier selection.
- Storage & Transport of Casing Strings
- CRA handling considerations and supply chain awareness.
- Casing Inspection & Rigsite Preparation
- API inspection levels and selection criteria.
- Rigsite casing handling and preparation for running.
- Casing Running Procedures & Wellhead Considerations
- Float shoe selection & cement placement strategies.
- Wellhead growth & tension loading considerations.
- Hanger design and load verification.
- Practical Exercise: Planning a casing running procedure and risk assessment.
This course provides a comprehensive, practical approach to casing design and well integrity. With a strong engineering and operational focus, participants will acquire the skills and confidence to design casing programs that enhance well safety, integrity, and performance. Participants will be equipped with the knowledge and tools to design and optimize casing programs, ensuring well integrity, safety, and cost efficiency.
Who Should Attend and Prerequisites
This course is ideal for:
- Drilling Engineers, Wellsite Supervisors, Tool Pushers, and Rig Managers involved in casing selection and installation.
- Geoscientists & Reservoir Engineers looking to better understand well integrity and casing constraints.
- Field Support Personnel & Well Integrity Engineers working on wellbore stability and casing design optimization.
- Anyone responsible for ensuring well integrity in drilling operations.
Instructors
Kevin Gray
Kevin can offer the experience of over 5000 days of operational experience and operations support positions from an oilfield career of over 31 years as well as working as lead trainer for a multi award winning ERD engineering team based in Perth Scotland. Kevin has been consistently the highest rated drilling training instructor in a major multinational training company over the last four years and throughout his offshore career was repeatedly graded in top 5% within both offshore and onshore positions for the largest oilfield service company.
Kevin has designed and overseen the delivery of multi week training programs for offshore drilling, well intervention and fluid supervisors for a number of clients. This has included competency assessment and skills gap analysis throughout the programs. Kevin is also able to draw on his well documented teaching skills to deliver courses or programs in directional drilling and surveying, stuck pipe, extended reach drilling and various other drilling related subject areas. He wrote the first Operation support centre SOP for directional drilling which was later adopted globally. In addition, he has designed and delivered various 'Real Time Centre' training courses including human dynamics training. In his former role as directional drilling coordinator, based in Aberdeen he still holds a number of world records for drilling achievements with motor and RSS tools.
In his earlier career he led an offshore team that developed the first multi axis drill vibration measurement tool to report measurements in real time, and subsequently wrote the core documentation on vibration control for D&M. Later he was responsible for the introduction and field testing of Powerdrive RSS tools and had considerable input into their re-design as the X5 variant. Kevin has led many teams into both new fields and mature field redevelopment. Outside the industry he enjoys skiing and exploring, taking these two activities to the extreme in 2015 when he skied to the South Pole dragging a sledge behind him.
Courses Taught
- N687: Advanced Directional Drilling and Advance Surveying Techniques
- N688: Drillstring Design
- N689: Drilling Fluids
- N690: Stuck Pipe, Design and Operational Practices for Avoidance
- N691: Well Integrity Management & Barrier Verification
- N692: Well Cost Control & Forecasting
- N693: Casing Design & Well Integrity Engineering
- N694: Basic Drilling Technology
- N695: Introduction to Drilling, Completion, and Workover Operations
- N696: Drilling Rig Selection & Inspection for Performance Optimization
- N697: Extended Reach Drilling (ERD) Program
- N698: HPHT Well Engineering
Accreditation and Certification
CEU: 3.5 Continuing Education Units
PDH: 35 Professional Development Hours
Certificate: Certificate Issued Upon Completion
RPS is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU. We comply with the ANSI/IACET Standard, which is recognised internationally as a standard of excellence in instructional practices.
We issue a Certificate of Attendance which verifies the number of training hours attended. Our courses are generally accepted by most professional licensing boards/associations towards continuing education credits. Please check with your licensing board to determine if the courses and certificate of attendance meet their specific criteria.