SeaCure®

Ultimate Cement Placement

Advances in drilling technology are paving the way for unlocking challenging reservoirs and achieving the industry wide goal of maximising economic recovery. Ineffective cementation is one of the single biggest contributors to cost over-runs, poor life of well integrity and ultimate failure of well objectives.

SeaCure® is a revolutionary subsea cementing system, which delivers stabbed-in, inner string cementing for subsea wells, eliminating the need for shoe tracks and improving cement placement, drill out performance and removing the need for remedial cementing, allowing operators to achieve ultimate cement placement.

SeaCure® is a completely mechanical system, making it both robust and reliable. This technology is saving rig time by reducing costs, risk and unproductive time.

Stabbed-in, inner-string cementing involves drill pipe being run inside the casing or liner to be cemented and can enhance the efficiency of slurry placement due to enhanced control of fluid velocities, volumes and fluid interfaces (supressing the free-fall effects).

The SeaCure® system takes this process to the next level and provides a range of major operational, cost and time benefits to drilling and field development operations, whilst reducing or even eliminating many operational risks associated with cementing operations.

A standard latch-in float shoe is run on the bottom of the casing or liner with no requirement for a float collar. Once the required casing length is run, SeaCure® is run inside the casing until the latch in adaptor engages into the shoe. The SeaCure® tool can then be stroked partially closed to allow full rotation of the upper string and allow safe make-up of the casing running tool to the casing.

Once at cementing depth, cement is pumped into the casing annulus through the SeaCure® inner string. When the required slurry volume is pumped a drill pipe wiper plug can be launched and chased with a small amount of slurry, followed by displacement fluid until the wiper plug locks into the shoe.

The pressure is then increased to burst the latch-in rupture discs thus allowing the contents of the inner string and casing to be cleaned out through the running tool ball valve. Alternatively, the SeaCure® ball drop system is available to be used to execute the same process.

Casing pressure tests can be conducted immediately after this process and while the cement is still green, eliminating the risk of micro-annulus development. These tests are critical to ensure the integrity of the wellbore envelope.

With the casing tests completed as part of the cementing process, the inner string and SeaCure® tool can be recovered allowing the next section to be drilled with no cement plugs or shoe track to damage the bottom hole assembly (BHA) or drill bit.

In 2018, thanks to funding from The Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC), Expro completed successful trials both onshore and offshore, with the technology providing a range of major cost and time benefits to drilling and field development operations. This resulted in rapid acceleration of the technology’s adoption, from concept to commercialisation. Watch the SeaCure story.