“This titanium alloy tube was developed by GDFW Titanium Alloy Technology Corporation in collaboration with multiple research institutes and enterprises in China. The R&D team has built a manufacturing and processing platform for titanium alloy continuous tubing, independently developed core process equipment such as intelligent fully automatic adaptive plate tube precision forming and ultra long efficient deep penetration stable welding. The entire manufacturing process adopts precise computer control, solving the problem of stable forming of titanium alloy ultra long welds.”
With the increasing degree of medium and shallow oil and gas exploration and development and the increasing difficulty of oil and gas discovery, the exploration and development of deep oil and gas and harsh energy wells are getting more and more attention. With the advantages of light weight, high corrosion resistance and high fatigue life, titanium alloy continuous tubing can be used as a substitute for steel continuous tubing to operate in deep layers, deep sea and other harsh environments. However, related materials and preparation processes have long been blocked by foreign countries.
In 2022, GDFW, together with China SY Engineering Materials Research Institute, China YY Science & Technology Group, BJTY Titanium Corporation, and XJXR Advanced Materials Technology Corporation, declared the project of “Development and Industrialization of Ultra-long Titanium Alloy Continuous Oil Pipeline”, which was supported by the state.
“The R&D team selected the best materials, overcame a series of technical problems, and formed a complete set of process technology for the preparation of titanium alloy continuous oil pipe. Welding process of ultra-long weld stable molding, no need to open the bevel, do not need to fill the wire, can realize the single-side welding double-sided molding, welding efficiency greatly improved.” China YY Science and Technology Group Limited titanium alloy expert Huisong Snap introduced.
“Continuous oil pipe down depth limit is affected by the weight of the oil pipe and the power of the processing operation vehicle and other factors.” Hui Songchu introduced that after the steel continuous pipe goes down to 7,000 meters, the power of the operation vehicle will not be able to meet the operation capacity of the pipe due to the weight of the pipe. If it is any longer, the self-weight of the steel pipe may pull the pipe off. Titanium alloy, with a density of only 60% of steel, can theoretically extend the limit of continuous pipeline depth from 7,000 meters to more than 12,000 meters.
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Huisong Snapdragon added that the steel continuous oil pipeline can also continue to extend the limit of the depth, but the strength of the steel material requirements are relatively high, accordingly, the production of steel strips and continuous pipe molding technology difficulties have increased, too high strength will lead to a significant decline in the plasticity and toughness of steel tubing, seriously affecting the fatigue life of the continuous oil pipeline. The lightweight titanium alloy material can circumvent these problems.
From 24 hours to 72 hours, 100 hours, 150 hours, 200 hours, 300 hours …… R & D team repeatedly on the welding stability of the many parameters affecting the theoretical analysis, experimental verification and optimization of iteration, and constantly extend the stability of titanium alloy continuous pipe welding time. Up to now, the continuous welding time has exceeded 500 hours, realizing the manufacturing of ultra-long (12,000 meters) titanium alloy continuous pipe. In addition, the R&D team conducted fatigue tests of titanium alloy continuous tubing under 8 MPa internal pressure and 35 MPa internal pressure, and the data showed that its fatigue life is much higher than that of steel continuous tubing.
“Previously, China has explored ultra-deep wells of 8,000 meters to 10,000 meters, but for the time being, there is no applicable continuous pipeline.” Ye Xiongyue introduced.
In October 2023, the ultra-long titanium alloy continuous oil pipe industrialization project was commercialized, and we expect the batch of ultra-long titanium alloy continuous oil pipe to help China’s oil and gas drilling of 10,000-meter deep wells.