Application Prospect of Non-magnetic Casing in Unconventional Oil & Gas Drilling Industry

Non-magnetic casing refers to the casing with weak magnetism or non-magnetism. It has the function of conventional casing without affecting the measurement accuracy of magnetic measuring instruments and can be used in unconventional oil & gas complex structure wells. This paper analyzes the magnetic measurement requirements for wellbore trajectory control in complex structure wells in unconventional oil & gas and their application requirements for non-magnetic casing, and clearly pointed out that non-magnetic casing has broad applications in the development of shale oil & gas which was developed by using dense horizontal well clusters. The non-magnetic casing made of Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP), aluminum alloy, nickel base alloy and titanium base alloy and their performance characteristics are investigated. The results show that FRP casing as the non-magnetic casing has the most potential application in the drilling of dense horizontal well clusters, but it needs further improving the mechanical properties of the casing, thermal conductivity, temperature resistance and service life. The application of aluminum alloy casing as non-magnetic casing in shale horizontal well cluster drilling needs to further improve its temperature resistance and mechanical properties.