Introduction to

Hydraulic Workover &

Snubbing Solutions
 History of Hydraulic Workover

Hydraulic Workover “HWO” is a well

workover performed using a hydraulic
workover (snubbing) unit to run and/or pull
tubulars – with or without surface pressure
present on the wellhead.

Hydraulic Workover Techniques in use since

1920’s

First Hydraulic Units developed in 1959

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 Definition of Snubbing

Snubbing is the process of running and pulling tubing, drillpipe, or casing with
surface pressure present on the wellhead.

Snubbing also describes a force-balance condition (or the “pipe-light”

condition) where an external force is required to prevent the workstring from
being force out of the hole.

In some situations, Hydraulic Workover (HWO) may also be used to trip

tubulars into and out of wells with no existing or anticipated surface pressure.

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Reasons for Utilizing HWO
 When CT or Wireline is incapable of performing the task
 When reservoir damage is anticipated
 When platform infrastructure is inadequate
 Cost considerations
 HPHT/Critical Deviation - Emergency Work

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 Benefits of HWO Services

 Operations are completed while under pressure, well does not need to be
killed.
 Reduces Costs by eliminating need for kill fluids
 Eliminates risk of damaging producing formation with kill fluids
 Compact size, mobile, fast rig up/rig down
 Reduces overall costs
 Well remains in production
 Versatile - Rotational ability allows drilling/milling

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Misconceptions for Using HWO Services

Ø For “Last Ditch” effort on problem/critical wells in emergency

situations.
 Can be used for all applications - routine or critical.

Ø For only “live” well remedial services.

 Can be used on “live” or “dead” wells.

Ø For only high pressure applications.

 Can be used on low pressure applications as well.

Ø Very expensive.
 Can be a very cost effective tool.

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Safety Considerations For HWO

 Thorough Pre-Job Planning

 Required Employee Training & PPE
 Perform Preventive Maintenance Service to Equipment
 Location Safety Meetings Conducted
 Location Standards Adhered To
 Engineering Calculations Considered
 Location Layout of Equipment

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Hydraulic Workover Unit

Conventional Stand Alone Hydraulic

Workover units are self contained
operating systems consisting of modular
equipment groups that are easily
transported and rigged up

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Components of HWO Unit
 Work Basket and control panel
 Hydraulic Jack assembly
 Traveling Slips
 Rotary Table
 Guide Tubes
 Stationary Slips
 Hydraulic power pack,
accessories, and hydraulic
hoses
 Circulating swivel, kelly hose,
and pumps
 BOP Stack

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 Workbasket

The workbasket, located on top of

the jack, is used as a work platform.
Controls for the jack, traveling and
stationary slips, BOPs, and
counterbalance are located in the
work basket.

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 Control Panel

Typically there are two control

panels, one for the jack operator
and one for the helper. The operator
controls the vertical movement of
the jack and the operation of the
slips. The helper operates a
counterbalance that lifts and lowers
joints of pipe to and from the
basket.

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Traveling and Stationary slips

Traveling Slips – located on the

traveling assembly, which moves
vertically up and down as the
cylinder rods are extended and
retracted

Stationary Slips – attached to the

base of the jack and are used to
hold the pipe while the traveling
slips are not engaged

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Hydraulic Jack Assembly

 Hydraulic jack – one or more

hydraulic cylinders configured to
move the pipe into and out of the
hole

 Guide Tube – placed in the bore

of the jack to provide the lateral
support necessary to prevent
buckling of the workstring

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Rotary Table
 Hydraulically driven 22000ft/lb Rotary used for milling / Drilling and
fishing operations

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 Power Tongs

 Power tongs – rigged up in

the basket to make up
pipe connections

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 Hydraulic power pack,
accessories, and hydraulic hoses

 The power pack, located

on the ground or deck,
supplies the hydraulic
pressure necessary to
operate the jack, BOPs,
rotary, counterbalance and
power tongs.

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Circulating Swivel, Kelly Hose
and Pumps
 A circulating swivel is
placed on top of the
tubing and allows fluid to
be pumped through the
tubing during milling or
washout operations

 The swivel is connected to

the pumps with flexible
hose or chicksan lines.

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 Hydraulic Workover “Basic Jack”

TELESCOPING
GINPOLE W/ DUAL POWER TONG
COUNTERBALNCE SUPPORT ARM
WINCH
POWER TONGS

WORKBASKET

TRAVELING HEAD W/
BASKET RISER ROTARY AND TRAVELING
SLIPS
GUY WIRES GUY WIRES

TELESCOPING TUBING
JACK FRAME
GUIDE

STATIONARY
SNUB SLIPS

STATIONARY
HEAVY SLIP

WORK WINDOW

STRIPPER BOWL
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 Stand Alone Units

Advantages

High Available Lift/Snub Capacity - to 460,000 lb.

High Available Rotary Torque Capacity - to 20,000

lb/ft

Compact (smaller footprint)

Handles Widest Range of Tubulars - 3/4” - 13 3/8”

Vertical RU

Unit can operate as stand alone

Unit can operate as Rig Assist

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 HWO Stand Alone Unit Specs

Data 235k 460k

Maximum Hook Load (lbs) 235,000 460,000

Maximum Snub Load (lbs) 150,000 230,000

Block Speed Down, Max (ftlmin) 178 137

Block speed Up, Max (ftlmin) 223 112

Jack Weight (lbs) 22,000 27,000

Power Unit Weight (lbs) 10,500 11,000

Horsepower (hp) 600 600

Engine (Mitsubishi) S6A3 S6A3

Tubing Size Range (in.) 3/4" to 7-5/8" ¾” to 7-5/8"

Thru Bore Size (in.) 24" 24"

Jack Stroke (ft) 10ft 10ft

Rotary Torque (ftllbs) 11000ft/lbs 22,000ft/lbs

Jack Leg Number & Size (in.) 4 Legs, 5" 4 Legs, 7"

System Pressure (psi) 3,000 3,000

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Snubbing Unit in Drilling Rig

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 460k HWO System

2” CT vs. 2 3/8” or 2 7/8”

Coiled Tubing
460k JACK Drilling
Drilling
Margin of Over pull 0-30,000 lbs 70-130,000 lbs

Hydraulics* 4700 psi 2400 psi

Rotation Not possible 6000 - 20000 ft-lbs

Buckling >1000 lbs WOB >4000 lbs WOB

Jar Placement Only above BHA Optimally placed

Component Weight Less than 35 tons Less than 11 tons

* @ 2 bbl/min

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 Applications
Fishing or Milling Inside Tubing or Casing
Cleaning out formation plugs in production tubing, liner, or casing
Drilling out Cement and Bridge Plugs
Washing out Frac Materials
Pressure Control / Well killing
Circulating Out Heavy Mud or Fluids
Running and Pulling Retrievable Plugs for Selective Treatments
Acidizing and Washing
Removing Ice and Hydrates from Christmas Tree or Tubing
Running Macaroni Tubing to Pump Nitrogen in Wells where Depth and
Pressure are too Great for Coiled Tubing
Completing Under Pressure
Gravel Packing (Sand Consolidation)
Squeeze Cementing or Plugging Back
Plugging and Abandoning
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Solids Removal
 Washing sand bridges
 Washing proppent materials
 Foam/Nitrogen washes
 Washing with formation compatible fluids
 Washing out plugged drill strings
 De-scaling operations

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Drilling – Extended Reach
 Drilling out from under surface (complete wellbore package)
 Conventional sidetrack
 Through tubing sidetrack
 Re-entry
 Underbalanced drilling
 Drilling into underground blowout

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Plug and Abandonment
 Pull/fish existing completions
 Set/squeeze cement plugs
 Set CIBP
 Cut/pull casing
 Mill out cement plugs under pressure

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Completion Operations, Live/Dead, Single or Dual

 Running bit and scraper assembly

 Milling cement
 Tubing conveyed perforating guns
 Setting packer(s)
 Run completion string(s)
 Gravel packing and other sand consolidation task

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Recompletions and Workover, Live or Dead Well

 Pull/fish existing completions

 Mill packers
 Pump/squeeze cement
 Straddle assemblies
 Repair casing problems
 Run bit & scraper assembly
 Tubing conveyed perforating guns
 Set Packers
 Run completion strings
 Gravel packing and other sand consolidation task
 Run/pull ESP

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 MECHANICS OF
HYDRAULIC WORKOVER
Mechanics of Hydraulic HWO
Primary pressure control during hydraulic workover
operations is provided by a self-energizing stripper and
through an assembly of stripping rams. The stripping rams
consists of two sets of rams, one on top of the other. There
are opened one at a time to allow the collar of the
connections between joints of pipe to pass through the rams.
Below the stripping rams are the safety rams, which may
consist of a shear/blind blowout preventer and an annular
BOP. The tertiary barrier, a shear/seal BOP, sits below this
directly above the Xmas tree.

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 Mechanics of Hydraulic Workover
 A HWO rig-up is a very tall structure. It consists of a hydraulically powered
HWO unit, which provides the force on a pipe, above string of multi-layered
pressure control components.

 At the top of the HWO unit is the basket, which serves as the control post for
the rig-up. Below the basket are the hydraulic jacks, which powers the pipe
into an out of the hole. It consists of two mechanisms for applying force to
the pipe in either direction. Each mechanism consists of traveling and
stationary slips. The traveling slips are used to move the pipe, while the
stationary slips are used to hold the pipe while the traveling slips are
repositioned between strokes.

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 Mechanics of Hydraulic Workover

 The Rotary and Traveling Slips

can work simultaneously.

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Mechanics of Hydraulic Workover
 Stationary and Traveling Slips are
both engaged at beginning of
snubbing stroke.

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Mechanics of Hydraulic Workover
 Stationary Slips are disengaged
 With Traveling Slips engaged, the
hydraulic cylinders are extended
retracted - lowering the tubing -
and completing the stroke.

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Mechanics of Hydraulic Workover

 Process is repeated as the tubing

is snubbed through the BOP
Stripper rams or annular

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 Ram to Ram HWO Procedures

STEP1: With tree valve

open, BHA is lowered
through snubbing stack –
All BOP rams are open.
PV#1, PV#4, PV#7, PV#8
are closed

BOP #2 Stripper rams are

closed around tubing
above BHA

Tubing is snubbed until tool

joint/connection is between
BOP #1 rams and BOP#2
rams

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 Ram to Ram HWO Procedures

STEP 2: Close BOP#1

stripper rams

STEP 3: Open Hydraulic

PV#1

STEP 4: Allow pressure

under BOP #2 stripper
rams to equalize below
BOP#1 stripper rams

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 Ram to Ram HWO Procedures

STEP 5:Open BOP#2

stripper rams
STEP 6: Snub tubing into
the well bore until tool joint/
connection is below BOP
#2 stripper rams

STEP 7: Close PV#1

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 Ram to Ram HWO Procedures

STEP 8:Close BOP#2

stripper rams
STEP 9: Open PV#4 and
allow pressure between
Bop#1 ans BOP#2 stripper
rams to bleed off

STEP 10: Allow pressure to

bleed to -0- between
stripper rams

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 Ram to Ram HWO Procedures

STEP 11:Open BOP#1

stripper rams
STEP 12: Close PV#4

STEP 13: Again, tubing is

snubbed until joint/
connection is between
BOP#1 and BOP#2
stripper rams
REPEAT THE PROCESS

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ENGINEERING
 Theory
Pressure – Area Calculations
 To snub pipe into a pressured well,
a downward force greater than the
well pressure force must be applied
to the tubular. The well pressure
force is a function of the surface
pressure and the size of the pipe.

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Engineering Calculations For HWO Applications

 Collapse / Burst Calculations for Tubing - Based on

Anticipated Compression and Tension Loads
 Critical Buckling Load Limitations Calculated - Based on
Unsupported Length & Snub Force
 Required Snubbing Force
 Required Hydraulic Snub / Lift Pressure - Jack Forces
 Well Control Considerations

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Calculations

 Calculate Snub Force P= F/A

F= P x A

P= Pressure (psi)
F= Force (lbf)
A= Area (in2)

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 Example Snub Force Calculation

A well has 1200 psi surface pressure.

What is the well pressure force when
the seal is:

a) Applied to the tube body

b) Applied to the connection

Workstring: 1-1/4” 3.02 lb/ft CS-Hydril N-80

Tube OD = 1.660”

Connection OD= 1.927”

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Frictional Forces

 Force is required to overcome the frictional resistance of the BOP (or

stripping rubber) through which the pipe is being moved. The magnitude
of the frictional force depends on the pipe size and surface roughness and
the BOP operating pressure. Because the frictional force always acts to
oppose motion, it acts upwards when snubbing into a well.

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 Total Snub Force
The weight of the pipe itself acts downwards and
therefore helps to lower the pipe into the well. When
first snubbing into the hole, the weight of the
snubbing string is usually negligible and may
generally be ignored. Therefore, the maximum
required snubbing force occurs as pipe is first started
in the hole.

Max Snub Force (lbs) = Well Pressure Force (lb) + Friction

Force (lb)
F MAX SNUB = FWP + FFRIC

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Tri-axial Stress

There is more than one stress that can be exerted on the tubing
 Axial Stress (compression or tensile)
 Radial Stress (burst and collapse)
 Hoop Stress (shear)
 Torque

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Von Mises Distortion Energy Theory

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Buoyancy

As more pipe is run into the hole, the buoyed weight of the snubbing
string increases. Eventually, the buoyed weight equals the well pressure
force. When this happens, the pipe will no longer be forced out of the
hole by the pressure-area force. This is generally known as balance point.
At balance point :

Buoyed string weight(lb) = Pressure Area Force(lb)

W = FWP

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Required Hydraulic Pressure
The snubbing and lifting forces required to run and pull
the workstring are produced by a multiple hydraulic
jack cylinders. When snubbing, the cylinders are
pressured on the piston rod side; when pulling pipe,
the cylinders are pressured on the opposite side.

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 Pipe Buckling- Inelastic/Elastic

After the required snubbing force is established,

it must be confirmed that the workstring can
support this compressive load without buckling.

With increasing compressive load, buckling will

first occur in the maximum unsupported length
of the workstring.

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Engineering Calculations For HWO Applications

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 Downhole Tools for HWO

Working against pressure requires

special tools in the snubbing string. To
enable making and breaking of pipe
connections as the workstring is
tripped into and out of a pressured
well, fluid flow through the string
must be prevented. This is
accomplished with backpressure
valves located near the end of the
workstring.

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 Backpressure Valves

Backpressure valves (BPVs) serve as check valves in the

workstring. They permit fluid flow in one direction only. Two types
of BPVs are typically used in HWO:

 Ball and Seat BPV

 Flapper-type BPV
 Profile nipples provide a measure of pressure control redundancy
incase the BPVs should fail

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 Bottomhole Assembly (BHA)

The BHA can be designed for specific applications.

 Overshot assemblies when conducting fishing operations
 Mills for working through damaged wellbore or pipe
 Jars and bumper subs for sticky conditions
 Specifically designed jet nozzles for HP cleanouts and scale
removal
 Pump-off assemblies
 Sliding sleeves
 Completion BHAs

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 Workstring

During HWO operations, the workstring is routinely subjected to

compression loads that can be much more severe than those
encountered in normal workover situations. Consequently, there is
a greater risk of tubular failure due to buckling.

Due to these concerns, workstrings are specifically designed for

the application.

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 Workstring Connections

All connections must be properly made up. (Stabbing guide, Thread

dope etc.) Over torque or under torque should not be permitted.

Torque supplied from rotary, power swivel, PDM must not exceed
minimum make-up torque.

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 Stabbing Valves (TIW)

 Stabbing valves should be full opening valves and have an inside

diameter at least equivalent to the workstring inside diameter.
 Must have the same connection threads as the workstring
 Must be tested with BOPs

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 Why Safety is such a concern?

 SAFETY is the PRIMARY concern in Hydraulic Workover

Operations.
• Working under pressure
• Working at elevated heights
• Working around heavy equipment and pressurized lines
• Working with hazardous fluids and gases (Zinc Bromide, H2S, N2)
• Working in hazardous environments (extreme weather conditions,
noise)
• Pinch Points
• Tubing Handling Procedures

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 Designing a Job

 Identify the proper Hydraulic Workover unit for application (max

70% of snub/pull force)
 Design proper workstring/tools for applications
 Design proper fluid and pump program
 Pre-job models (hydraulic and force)
 Equipment design (BOPs, flowback iron, choke manifolds etc.)
 Running procedures

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 Safety / Escape Devices

 PPE
 H2S Equipment
 Escape devices
 Stair Towers
 Ant fall devices
 Slides
 Low Speed Decenders
 Fall arrest poles
 Work Platforms

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Questions and Answers

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