The CTRM Newsletter. The Motley Fool for the CT Industry? Why CTRM? February 2008 Issue

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1 February 2008 Issue Coiled Tube Resource Management (281) The Motley Fool for the CT Industry? This is our first newsletter. We want to make it both interesting and informative. The Motley Fool of the coiled tubular industry? We are sending it out to a large number of recipients in the coiled tubular industries, a really diverse group. We have coiled tubular manufacturers, coiled tubing users, coiled line pipe users, consultants, and various interested parties receiving this newsletter In each issue, we will discuss recent news, and spotlight one of our associates. Why CTRM? 1 What are Coiled Tubulars? 2 What s Going on at API? 3 Coiled Tubing Inspection 4 CTRM News 5 Why CTRM? Both Ron and I were getting increasing numbers of requests to do things in the coiled tubular industry so we just got together and formed CTRM. We seem to have a tremendous amount of contact within the industry, and saw a need for an organization such as Coiled Tubing Resource Management. It didn t take long to pick a name, but we did have to search a little to find a web address that wasn t already taken. We are not a non-profit organization. Please have a look at our website ( and you will get some idea of who we are and where we are attempting to go. So if you have noteworthy items or pictures of something you are doing that you might want others to know about, please it to us at CTRM. We will be happy to publish it. Industry News 5

2 Page 2 of 5 What are Coiled Tubulars? Coiled Tubing (CT): As presently defined, coiled tubing is a coiled electric welded tubular that is used in various downhole applications such as well servicing. The idea behind the definition is to separate it from coiled line pipe. At this point in time, coiled tubing does not contain seamless tubing butt welded end to end and wrapped on a drum, which, of course is its origin. The definition is more restrictive than this. This is not to say that the definition cannot be expanded to include such material at a later point in time. Since this is an ongoing debate, we will keep you informed as it progresses through the API Resource Group for Coiled Tubulars. Coiled Line Pipe (CLP): This is a coiled tubular that is made by the ERW or laser weld process that meets the requirements of API Specification 5LCP. So you can have coiled line pipe made in a coiled tubing mill, by almost the same process that is used to make coiled tubing, but classified differently. Several years ago, we took the manufacturing process to American Petroleum Institute, and, after a great deal of work, got it through the Resource Group for Coiled Tubing and then through the API Line Pipe committee, to where there was agreement and eventually the standard for CLP was published in Now, since API has a 5 year review period for the documents that it publishes, the 2nd edition of Specification 5LCP appeared this last year. We know the timing on this doesn t work, but standards always take longer to write and review that might be anticipated. What s the Difference? Line Pipe is highly regulated, because as a pipe-line, it is a permanent installation. (Pipe mills make line pipe, not pipelines). Coiled Line Pipe is manufactured for higherpressure work, often where plastic line pipe cannot be used, and so its use as line pipe is also highly regulated. So for the manufacturing and testing processes, there is now a set standard. This standard contains the masses per unit length, grades, testing procedures, (both destructive and nondestructive), and some supplementary requirements that customers can call out if they feel that they need to. The standard also permits the use of the API monogram. At this point, we are looking at getting CLP into the DnV document for Line Pipe (DnV OS F101), because we believe that the material can pass all the tests that can be called out in this particular document. More will be written on this issue in a later edition. Coiled Tubing is presently not regulated in the manner that CLP is regulated, although we gather that some of its operations offshore will fall under a proposed new API document RP 16ST. CTRM applauds the work done by API subcommittee 16 to get to this point. We already know that CT used offshore in the Norwegian sector has to have a nondestructive inspection, prior to each use and we will address this issue in future newsletters.

3 Page 3 of 5 What s Going on at API? First, it is important to state that the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) picked the American Petroleum Institute (API) to write standards for use within the oil & gas industry, so now you will see ANSI referred to somewhere in all API standards, sometimes on the front cover. These API standards are also slowly being converted to ISO standards, although this will not happen to 5LCP for a while yet. The hope is, of course, that we will have one set of standards worldwide at some point in the future. At API, the Resource Group for Coiled Tubulars (RGCT) is writing a standard for coiled tubing, (i.e. just the manufacturing of coiled tubing, and not what people do with it). This group already wrote the Specification for Coiled Line Pipe (Spec 5LCP), which was just updated to its 2nd edition. Customers are now specifying coiled line pipe to this document. Three other documents deserve mention. First API RP 5C7 (Coiled Tubing Operations in Oil and Gas Well Services) was reaffirmed by API for a second time, because it was (and currently still is) the only API-published document on coiled tubing. We have just heard that some sections of it have been rewritten and placed in a proposed new RP 16ST document which is being written under sub-committee 16. This new document has not been published yet, but I do not think that we are too far away. The third is RP 5C8 (Care, Maintenance and Inspection of Coiled Tubulars) is being re-edited by API and may be published later this year. This document covers exactly what the title states, and includes a chapter on butt welding, which is treated as a maintenance issue. So what happens to RP 5C7? Some of it relating to manufacturing is absorbed into Spec 5ST. A lot of it, relating to coiled tubing operations, is superseded by the newer material in RP 16ST. That leaves a section on corrosion and one on collapse. These are taken into RP 5C8, so effectively all the 5C7 text will have either been accounted for or superseded in newer documents. At that point we will have a motion to withdraw 5C7 from publication and use. So if you were wondering why API has never updated it, now you have the answer. We have been working on replacing sections of it for quite a while now. Service, Nondestructive testing (RGNDT), Expandable Tubulars (working on Recommended Practice RP 5EX), and Performance Properties. Obviously, they may have some bearing on future coiled tubular development. For example, specially manufactured ERW casing is used for expandable tubulars, and so it is of great interest to see how the 5EX group tackles the problem of NDT of the seam weld for tubulars that will be expanded. The Sour Service group has been very active in determining methods for qualifying higher grades of materials (such as C- 110 casing) for permanent installation in deep high-pressure corrosive offshore wells. Are these methods of value for qualifying coiled tubing and coiled line pipe? There was much discussion on the applicability of the current NACE methods in relation to the operation of high-strength casing in mildly sour environments. The Resource group for NDT is looking at ways of sizing inclusions in strip, and lowering the notch length requirements for inspections At the last meeting (San Francisco, June 2007), the main Oil Country Tubular Goods sub-committee (to which the RGCT reports) discussed the need for a document that will serve the same purpose as the updated 5C3 and ISO 10400, i.e. present the performance properties of coiled tubing. This is because there are many in the oil industry who do not know what the performance properties of CT actually are, and it was thought to be essential to get them into an API publication. So action item 2345 was introduced to remedy this situation. This item will be run in the future in the Resource Group for Performance Properties. At the January 2008 meeting we will ask for volunteers to contribute to this important work. Is Coiled Tubing Considered Generic? This author reviews coiled tubing articles for the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and in looking at all the reviewed articles, barely was the grade of the CT ever mentioned by the users who wrote the articles. So is it considered generic by the users now? The next meeting is Jan at the Renaissance Hotel in Ft. Worth, and details are on the api.org site. The RGCT meeting Monday 21st at 1.00 p.m., but it is instructive and enjoyable also to attend meetings of the Resource Groups for Sour

4 Page 4 of 5 Inspections of OCTG are standard fare, so why should it not also be the case for CT? Coiled Tubing Inspection We have always maintained that there should be more inspection of CT, especially the seam weld. We were pleased to see that there is a great deal more inspection in the N. Sea area, where it all started, and to see new companies coming into the business of building CT inspection units. We are also pleased to see some oil companies paying a lot more attention to the quality of the used coiled tubing products they are using on their wells. The tubing degrades with use and it is not valid to expect that a string of CT80 is in the same condition on its 30th job as it was on 1st. Regular inspections of OCTG are standard fare, so why should it not also be the case for CT? The methods used are in RP 5C8. We fully support the use of theoretical models for incremental coiled tubing fatigue assessments in certain situations, but we believe that there is the need to include the effects of flaws in CT assessments. For example we don t believe that the wall thickness of CT degrades at a uniform rate, since we have looked at many failures that were the cause of puddled acidic fluids that collect under gravity in CT. Pitting, gouges, ovality, etc., all take their toll. Readers should be pleased to know that a new company (itrobotics, Stafford, Texas) has developed openable clam-shell technology to inspect CT strings or just sections of it. The technology measures everything in draft RP 5C8 wall thickness, diameter, ovality, etc. The company has also produced a small robot which was driven through some coiled tubing in Norway, and inspected it from the inside. A paper on our website shows some of the data from that run, with storage corrosion being readily detected. The technology is non-contact, thus magnetic flux leakage is used. itr are, however, studying the interface of coiled tubing and ultrasonics through their connections with Rice University. Visitors to the Woodlands SPE/ICoTA meetings may have seen one or more of itr s robots on display in previous years. Now they have developed one for crawling un-tethered through 5-in. boiler tubing. This robot will go around 90 deg. and 180 deg. bends in tubing, and is smart enough to know which direction it is going. It uses MFL for defects, and also measures the local wall thickness of the tubing. Readers may be interest to know that IOS-PCI have now inspected over 100 strings of CT and CLP in Houston, including some of the longest ever fabricated. 31,000-ft strings are popular candidates for final inspection. The inspection is covered in the supplementary requirements of API 5LCP for coiled line pipe, and in certain purchaser standards for coiled tubing. It also appears in draft 5ST as a final inspection after hydrostatic test for coiled tubing.

5 Page 5 of 5 CTRM News Award to CTRM Director CTRM director Rod Stanley gave the Mehl Honour lecture at the American Society for Nondestructive Testing at its Annual conference held in Las Vegas in November. The lecture was entitled 30 years in Pipe Inspection, and the cleaner parts of it are in January 2008 s edition of Materials Evaluation. Picture shows Rod receiving the award from the chairman of the ASNT, Marvin Trimm, of which Rod is a Fellow. Industry News Intervention and Coiled Tubing Association Meeting The next SPE/ICoTA CT and Well Intervention Conference will be held April 1-2, 2008 at the Marriott in The Woodlands, Texas. There will be many good papers to be heard. Find out more at The Directors at CTRM, Rod Stanley and Ron Clarke would appreciate receiving tidbits of news or details of new products and/or applications related to the CT Business for inclusion in future newsletters Greetings from Ron Clarke and Rod Stanley CTRM Directors Coiled Tube Resource Management CTRM Associate of the Month Our associate this first month is Donna Bennett. Donna has a B.S in mechanical engineering and is a level II in ultrasonic testing. She has knowledge of the radiographic and electromagnetic techniques used in coiled tubular inspection. She is also a Texas State journeyman electrician, and is well versed in computer engineering. She has a diverse background in engineering, manufacturing, procurement, sales support and workforce management. In her 25 years experience, she has worked both outside and inside the US for several years, including a period at one of the Coiled Tubing mills in Houston. She is conversant with all aspects of building facilities, and equipment installation. She has designed vessels under the ASME Section VIII design code, and has written quality procedures that are approved for use with ASME and ISO standards systems. Galleria Tower Post Oak Blvd. Suite 1400 Houston, TX us: info@coiledtube.com PHONE: (281) FAX: (281) We re on the Web! See us at: