Importance of drill string assembly swivel in horizontal drilling

Abstract

A part of the drill string – the swivel (rotational connector) – accomplishes an important task in the horizontal drilling. Its malfunctioning makes it impossible to draw in ( install) large diameter and length pipelines. The causes of the connector break-down during the horizontal drilling are investigated in the paper. The drilling has been made for twenty inches gas pipeline installation during reaming operations. A trouble was encountered making good work conditions of a system consisting of the drilling machine drill string reamer swivel tube shield of Cardan joint and the gas pipeline 500 m long. In this case, the swivel brokes down and the planned operation was not finished. The assessment of improper drilling conditions, selection of operation system components, and drilling parameters and the insufficient technological supervising have created an excessive risk of failure. A proper application of technical analysis would considerably decrease the hazard of failure which cause large costs, delays and decrease of confidence to the drilling contractor and pipeline installation.

Keywords

• swivel
• drill string
• horizontal drilling
• gas pipeline