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6 REINFORCEDplastics Februar y 2003
applications
A LIGHTWEIGHT, flexible, fila-ment-wound carbon fibre com-posite drill pipe is enteringcommercial use after passingUS Department of Energy (DoE)field tests.
Based in Huntington Beach,California, Advanced Composite
Products and Technology(ACPT) produces the pipe fordrilling into deep and difficult-to-access oil reserves.
Tubes are manufactured bywinding carbon fibres and epoxyresins around a mandrel and thepipe system’s metal box and pin
connections. Once cured, themandrel is removed and the pipemachine finished and coated forabrasion resistance.
According to the DoE, theflexible and tough nature of thecomposite drill pipe will enableusers to re-enter existing vertical
wells and drill horizontally totap into new supplies of oil andgas. It says reaching these addi-tional reserves often requires thedrill pipe to curve sharply at aradius of 6-24 m, which cancause stress and fatigue in a steelpipe and reduce its serviceablelife. In contrast, the developerssay the composite pipe canremain bent for extended peri-ods of time without being dam-aged. Despite having a higherinitial cost than a steel pipe, theDoE says overall drilling costs arereduced because fewer pipe fail-ures occur, its flexibility makesshorter radii possible and there-fore less pipe is required to reacha reserve, and it can be reusedmany times.
During recent tests, US oilcompany Grand Reserves usedthe pipe to reach a well thathad stopped producing in1923. After being fed to a depthof 365 m, a new borehole wasdrilled with a 6 cm diametercomposite pipe. The holecurved in a 21 m radius until itbecame horizontal, then drill-ing continued for another305 m until the pipe hit oil.The renewed well is expected toproduce 30-50 barrels of oil perday for the forseeable future.
Following the success of the6 cm diameter pipe, the DoEsays a larger 14 cm diameterversion may be produced fordeep water applications.
In deep drilling, the weightof the drill pipe is extremelyimportant. At less than half theweight of a steel pipe, the DoEsays composite pipes create lesstorque and drag, and longerlengths can be stored on off-shore platforms where weightrestrictions apply.
Brad Tomer, DOE NationalEnergy Technology Laboratory; tel:+1-304-285-4692; e-mail: [email protected]; website: http://fossil.energy.gov.RES No. 306 – USE THE FAST NEW ENQUIRY SERVICE @ www.reinforcedplastics.com
Flexible pipe puts oil well back in use
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