Cement Design Considerations & CBLs

 

Because I’m short on time, I’m revisiting some information presented at our most recent Mid-Year meeting at Flint Oak – production casing cement.  

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Eastern Kansas well construction is controlled by KCC Regulation Appendix B Surface Casing Order #133,891C(3) – “If a well is completed, the production or longstring casing nearest the formation wall shall be cemented from top to bottom.” And Regulation §82-3-101(a)(10) “’Cement’ means a Portland cement or blend . . . used in the oil and gas industry to support and protect casing and prevent the migration of subsurface fluids by the formation of an impermeable barrier.”  

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In 2025, cementing a well seems like common sense best-practices for well construction, but that wasn’t always the case.  In fact, early cement jobs were an attempt to seal off DOWNWARD migration of water, in other words, keep uphole water away from the production zone and save the expense of pumping extra water.  Early attempts to solve this problem included some very creative packer ideas including tying leather bags to the casing and filling with seeds so they would swell and create a seal against the wellbore (I never could find any information on what kind of seeds they tried).  

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Quickly, operators pivoted to trying cement, but early efforts were very rudimentary.  Mixing cement with hoes & shovels and pouring down casing was slow and tiring, shoving casing into the cement column was unpredictable, and early pumping methods relied on rig boilers.  

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Necessity is the mother of invention, and Erle Halliburton was the man for the job.  Working as a truck driver for Perkins Oil Well Cementing Company in California, learning oilwell cementing and his mind racing with ideas, he was hired and fired within a year for pestering his boss Mr. Perkins with too many suggestions.  Calling the job and the subsequent dismissal “the two best things to every happen to me” Halliburton soon founded the New Method Oil Well Cementing Company in 1919, later renamed Halliburton Oilwell Cementing Company in Oklahoma.  Founding a company based on a change in standard operating procedures wasn’t initially ideal, finding operators resistant to change, he had to offer money back guarantees to get work.  Time ultimately proved him right.  

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Throughout his career, Mr. Halliburton was awarded 38 patents most related to oilfield cementing procedures:  mixing cement with hoes and shovels is slow and tiresome, so he invented the jet mixer system (still in use today on HSI pump trucks in Garnett and Eureka); slicing open cement sacks is slow, so he invented the cutting table; handling one bag of cement at a time is inefficient, so he invented several bulk transportation trucks; and several other patents related to float equipment. One such patent for cementing oil wells can be seen on page 19.

Though Halliburton had field offices in Kansas into the 90s, Eastern Kansas’ closest connection to Halliburton was employing a young Edsel Noland in their cement department in Great Bend after WWII.  Following a similar career path to Mr. Halliburton, Mr. Noland founded Consolidated Oilwell Services (COWS) in 1956 in Chanute, and later had field office locations in Ottawa, Thayer, El Dorado, Eureka, Sedan, Oakley, and Bartlesville, OK – over time COWS offered pressure pumping services in cement, acid, frac, and nitrogen.  Mr. Noland was a past EKOGA president.  In 2019, HSI purchased COWS legacy assets and continues to offer pressure pumping throughout the state and Mid-Continent region.  

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Today, it seems like common sense to follow the KCC regulation to cement casing to surface under the ALT II completion method, but that hasn’t always been the case.  Time has proven some changes are for the better.  We lack the space here to dive into cement chemistry that has developed over time (maybe later), resulting in better slurries, more predictable outcomes, and better cement bonds over straight Portland cement, all ultimately providing better protection for your casing and well integrity.  

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Currently HSI offers cement service in five locations – Garnett, Eureka, Pratt, Oakley, and Bartlesville, OK – our cement managers and foreman have over 400 years of combined cement experience in the field – if you have a cement problem, we probably have someone who has experience with it and we’re happy to help you solve it.  
 

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