Premium Anti-Rotation Casing Connector with Metal-to-Metal Seal Optimized for High Fatigue Performance to Meet Market Needs by Reducing OPEX and Risk Exposure

The oil and gas industry continues to face the need to reduce risk exposure and OPEX as a means to compensate for market volatility and lower oil prices. Typical casing connector designs and methods of running casing are becoming less viable as the industry struggles to lower installation costs and reduce HSE concerns. This dilemma leads manufactures to provide practical solutions to reduce the risk exposure while driving costs down by reducing installation time and required rig personnel. This paper outlines how this innovative and fully qualified technology lowers overall risk exposure while reducing OPEX during the installation of casing connectors. A new premium threaded connector named BADGeR™ has been designed and fully qualified and its features have been patented. State of the art verification techniques utilizing finite element analysis were used to fully simulate the combined load conditions during the qualification program that mimic field conditions and meet and exceed industry standard requirements. Special consideration was given to connector make-up and metal-to-metal sealing technology, superior fatigue performance, welding, coating, galling, surface finish, and lubrication. After a lengthy iterative design process, the final design was fully qualified following ISO 13679 / API 5C5 with additional fatigue performance testing. Details of the design features, analysis methodology and results, structural and sealability test results, and fatigue test results are presented. Advantages of this casing connector design relative to traditional industry casing connectors are highlighted. BADGeR includes an innovative hands-free anti-rotation mechanism that significantly reduces rig time and HSE risk exposure. The connector has automatic make-up with gas tight metal-to-metal seal performance that is not impacted by increased tension to the string. The fatigue performance of this connector exceeds the current market offerings. This combination of features incorporated into the connector has gained the attention of the industry and the opportunity to use this technology for critical service wells applications.