Optimizing Rotary Shoulder Connection for Drilling Program

Abstract

The drill string may be considered a minute component of the complex drilling program; however, it is more essential to the program than often thought. It has also become more challenging to select the right rotary shoulder connection when many are available to the drilling engineer. There is a wide choice of technologies available that have different functionalities and limitations. One may also be hard-pressed with selecting the right drill pipe as choices can be quite confusing even to specialists, yet the drilling engineer must select the correct drill string and drill pipe connection. If not properly optimized, he/she may either over-engineer or under-engineer the drill string design for the said program and have to deal with the consequences. Often enough, original equipment manufacturers (OEM) are involved in application work, helping drilling engineers find a workable solution for a project they are working on. Finding an optimized selection of components to be assembled in as string that will be used to drill and complete a field development is essential. It requires choosing tools that will be able to resist the torsional, tensile, pressure loads, optimizing hydraulics as well as resisting fatigue and exposure to corrosive fluids. A number of technologies are available that will help to deliver challenging prospects or help maintain the cost of operation as minimum as possible. This paper lists field-proven solutions that are trending in the industry, with the hope that adopting the appropriate ones will deliver results by improving drilling and completion efficiency.