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TUBULAR INSPECTION

RD Scan Inc. has developed and patented an instrument capable of indicating wall loss or abnormalities in tubing while it is pulled out of the well.

This instrument is called the “ScanNex”.  Basically, it works by creating a strong magnetic flux in the tubing. Detection shoes containing sensors ride on the outside surface of the tubing being scanned and the sensors detects changes in flux caused by any change in metal or tubing wall thickness. The sensor information is sent to the computer in the truck where the data is analyzed, graphed and interpreted by the operator.

 •      Increase public pressures concerning large volumes of heavy traffic on public roads.

•      Increase manpower and costs associated with trucking.

•      If the whole tubing string is sent off-site for inspection, then another whole tubing string is needed to put down the well. Therefore, there is a great increase of tubing inventory required.

•      Tubular which are graded as green (31-50% wear according to API standards) at an off-site location are seldom returned to be put down a well thereby increasing the number of replacement tubular needed.  However, if scanned at the well site, in many cases these same green tubing can be strategically placed within the tubing string thereby extending the useful life span of the tubing.

•      There is an increase rig time needed to lay down a whole string of tubing and to pick up a whole string thereby increasing rig costs. Also, there is an increase risk of an incident/accident occurring from having to manhandle such an increase in tubing volume.

•      As a whole there is a higher inspection cost per meter of tubing involved in rack inspection (washing, environmental impact of waste deposal of the washings, plastic caps on the ends of the tubing, etc.) than on-site scanning from RD Scan Inc.

•      The tubing from a particular well and possibly many wells are mixed among themselves at an off-site facility. As such, there is no direct indication of wear patterns in the wells which otherwise could be immediately addressed after examining RD Scan Inc.’s on-site well profile reports.

As can be seen above, there are many hidden and direct cost saving advantages of on-site inspections, however, what is becoming increasingly apparent to be the greatest long term cost savings to our clients is their utilization of RD Scan’s unique customized Management Information System (MIS) which is an online tool.   Working closely with oil company managers, the system, which is a password driven web-based software, was designed to allow oil company managers to make comparisons of various programs in order to manage production wells more effectively and efficiently. The biggest cost savings appear to be the management of the wells and not simply the detection of the wear in the tubing. Therefore, we are basically an information provider: we provide information on: 1) individual tubing (API grading); 2) individual wells (well profile report); and also 3) on groups of wells (MIS).

The picture on the right is an example of the easy to read well profile report that is printed immediately after the job and handed to the oil company’s representative. This report along with many others can be generated and easily viewed via the web-based MIS. These reports are excellent tubing string management tools that help oil companies manage production wells effectively and efficiently by: -    being able to identify problem areas which can be addressed o   this extends the useful life of the tubing string, which maximizes the tubular investments o   minimizes unexpected rupture of tubing and therefore, by being able to predict the tubing life the oil company can minimize unscheduled well downtime - being able to make comparisons of various programs such as well type, rod type, pump speeds etc.

In addition to the much lower costs for on-site scanning compared to off-site inspections, the oil company would have a well profile report and access to the MIS which would enable them to manage their wells much more efficiently.

Most of our work involved finding holes in tubing (tubing leaks) during our earlier years of operation. Today, our role has changed slightly in the sense that most of our work revolves around the oil companies’ policies of being proactive. As you can understand it is very expensive for the oil company to have a rig return to a well prematurely because of lost of production due to a tubing leak. Currently much of our work occurs whenever a rig is pulling tubing for whatever reason, in a sense much of our work is similar to providing insurance that the well will produce (not leak) after the rig leaves the well site. 

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