Experimental Study of Concept to Ease Pipe Pulling Through Settled Barite

Abstract Drilling and well construction is one of the main cost drivers for offshore field development. Drilling new wells is also needed during the field production life. Drilling offshore wells are normally limited to the availability of free slots in the subsea template. Subsea slot recovery for drilling through an existing well is an option for reducing the overall field development costs. Removing parts of the existing cased sections is needed for drilling such sidetrack wellbores. In addition, removing casing may be needed as part of the plug and abandonment operations. Casing removal can be complex since pulling a tubular out from an annulus filled with settled particles can be challenging. The solid particles from initial annular drilling and completion fluids are likely to settle over the years. This makes it difficult to later pull out the casing sections. The results from pipe pulling tests in the down-scaled setup show significant pulling force reduction with integrated holes located above the casing collar. The experimental results provide an evaluation of a novel concept for reducing the casing pulling force. Furthermore, the results improve understanding of the dominating factors during pipe pulling through the settled barite.