Temperature is usually the dominant effect and the one most often underestimated. Cold stimulation fluid pumped down a hot well contracts the tubing hard enough to unseat seals or part connections; a shut-in well heats up and raises pressure in sealed annuli; a steam or carbon dioxide injector cycles through temperature ranges that fatigue connections and load wellheads.

Annular pressure build-up follows from the same physics. Fluid trapped between cemented casing strings expands when the well heats on production, and because the annulus is sealed the pressure can rise to levels that collapse the inner string or burst the outer. In deepwater and thermal wells, mitigation such as rupture discs, nitrogen caps, vacuum insulated tubing or compressible foam is a design requirement rather than an option.

Analysis quality depends on load case definition more than on software. A string that passes every case the engineer thought of will still fail in the case nobody listed. Building a comprehensive, justified load case matrix, with the pressure and temperature profiles behind each case, is the core skill this course develops.

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Construct a complete load case matrix for the life of a casing or tubing string.
• Build pressure and temperature profiles for each load case.
• Calculate piston, ballooning, buckling and thermal length changes and forces.
• Determine tubing movement, seal stroke and packer forces for different seal arrangements.
• Perform triaxial analysis and interpret design envelope plots.
• Analyse connection performance under combined loading.
• Calculate annular pressure build-up and evaluate mitigation options.
• Analyse thermal wells and injectors, including cyclic loading.
• Assess wellhead growth and its consequences.
• Verify, document and review a casing and tubing stress analysis.

The course is instructor-led and calculation-based. Participants build load case matrices and work through the length and force calculations by hand before examining how software performs the same analysis, so results can be checked rather than accepted. Real failure cases are analysed to identify the load case that was missed. Prior knowledge of basic casing design is assumed.

Organisations sending participants to this training will:

• Reduce tubular failures caused by unanalysed load cases.
• Design thermal, deepwater and high pressure wells with adequate margin.
• Manage annular pressure build-up risk at the design stage.
• Improve the review quality of stress analyses from contractors and software.
• Document design verification to audit standard.

Participants will:

• Be able to build a defensible load case matrix.
• Be able to calculate tubing movement and packer forces by hand.
• Understand triaxial analysis and its interpretation.
• Be able to analyse and mitigate annular pressure build-up.
• Be able to review and challenge stress analysis results.

• Drilling and well engineers
• Completion engineers
• Well integrity engineers
• Thermal and injection well engineers
• Technical authorities reviewing well designs
• Engineers using tubular design software

Upon successful completion of this training course, delegates will be awarded an official Certificate of Completion issued by the Petroleum Engineers Association (PEA), an ISO 9001:2015 certified training organization. The certificate carries 10 Credits and formally records the total learning hours completed.

Each certificate is signed by the Course Facilitator and the CEO of the Petroleum Engineers Association, and serves as verifiable proof of professional training that delegates can present to employers and professional bodies worldwide.