Case Study: Testing Tubular Connection Performance for Emerging Thermal Well Designs in Canada

_ Operators in Western Canada continue to evaluate opportunities to improve thermal well efficiency while maintaining well integrity in increasingly demanding environments. Among the concepts receiving greater attention are extended-reach thermal wells with shallow vertical depths. These wells have the potential to reduce surface footprints and simplify certain aspects of pad construction compared with traditional slant well developments, i.e., those that are drilled at an angle from the surface rather than vertically. However, the adoption of these alternative approaches introduces a technical challenge. Thermal wells are exposed to elevated temperatures, cyclic loading, and long service lives, all of which place significant demands on casing strings and threaded connections. When combined with aggressive well trajectories and operational practices such as casing rotation during cementing, these conditions can generate bending and fatigue loads that differ from those typically encountered in conventional thermal well designs. To better understand how premium connections perform under these conditions, Tenaris, a major thermal operator, and Noetic Engineering, the project partner, conducted a full-scale testing program focused on the behavior of thermal casing connections subjected to severe bending and low-cycle fatigue loading. The objective was to generate physical performance data that could support engineering decisions related to future thermal well architectures, as well as support safer, more efficient, and sustainable operations. This full-scale testing program explored new well designs that reduce land use, strengthened well integrity, and enabled more cost-effective well development. The results offer operators greater confidence to adopt next-generation thermal drilling strategies, backed by proprietary technical insight that supports performance, environmental stewardship, as well as capital efficiency across Canada’s evolving thermal oil sector. The findings also provide new insight into connection behavior under loading conditions representative of extended-reach thermal wells with shallow vertical depths and contribute to the industry's broader understanding of thermal well integrity. The results were presented jointly by the key stakeholders at the SPE Thermal Well Integrity and Production Symposium held in Banff, Alberta, in December 2025. The presentation emphasized the value of structured testing programs in reducing uncertainty associated with emerging well designs. It also highlighted the importance of incorporating physical testing into engineering decision-making when operating conditions extend beyond established design experience. Background The transition toward new thermal well architectures requires a detailed understanding of how critical well components perform under changing operating conditions. To address a recognized knowledge gap, Tenaris and the project partners set out to conduct a full-scale testing program examining the performance of the TenarisHydril Blue connection technology (Fig. 1) in 9⅝- and 11¾-in. intermediate thermal casing subjected to severe bending and low-cycle fatigue loading.