case studies
The VICTREX® PEEK™ polymer family of thermoplastic products has helped make important advances in the exploration and production of energy, particularly oil and gas.
A range of applications incorporating VICTREX PEEK polymer have provided longer equipment service life in more severe conditions, including higher temperatures and pressures. It has been instrumental in helping companies achieve higher production rates, reduce downtime, and lower maintenance requirements.
Western Falcon: New High-Performance Liner For Downhole Applications
The Challenge
When Western Falcon of Houston, Texas, USA, a major manufacturer of tubular linings for downhole applications, wanted to design a new high-performance seamless thermoplastic liner, it chose VICTREX® PEEK™ polymer because of its unique combination of tensile strength, chemical resistance, ductility, temperature capabilities and resilience. The new liner, called Extremetube*, offers optimal resistance to damage from artificial lift rod wear, wireline and slickline, coiled tubing, and other common downhole tools.
The Solution
According to Rob Davis, Vice President, Western Falcon, "VICTREX PEEK polymer acts as a barrier isolating the corrosive and abrasive fluids and gasses from standard oil country tubular goods (OCTG). The unique mechanical properties of the polymer, together with its abrasion resistance, indicates that it will perform well as a long-term wear solution, protecting the tubing from internal rod wear and erosion from produced fluids and gasses. This is historically significant as Western Falcon liners generally extend the life of tubulars by more than 25 times the life of bare tubulars in highly corrosive and deviated wells.”
VICTREX PEEK polymer is one of the strongest high tensile (14,500 psi) and high temperature (260°C/500°F) polymers on the market today. It maintains short-term mechanical properties at temperatures approaching its melting point of 340°C/644°F and offers the broadest range of resistance to acids, surfactants, solvents and steam. Using VICTREX PEEK polymer enables the liner to offer a significant increase in temperature stability and tensile strength as well as outstanding long-term creep and aging properties. In addition, VICTREX PEEK polymer is highly abrasion and chemically resistant to well fluids, drilling fluids, and hydrocarbon mixtures while providing extremely low permeability to gasses such as H2S and CO2.
Extremetube liners have applications in a wide range of oil and gas applications including: steamflood operations, gas lift wells, water injection, and disposal wells, high pressure/ high temperature producing wells, submersible pumped wells and more.
< Back to Case Studies
