Coiled Tubing - In use since 1960

Coiled tubing operations have been used since the 1960’s for simple pumping operations such as nitrogen kickoffs. Nowsco services along with Big Three Industries and in conjunction with Bowen Tools (wholly owned subsidiary of Big Three) developed the first coiled tubing units. These first units were developed to enable Nowsco to pump more nitrogen in well unloading applications. In fact, Nowsco was awarded a US patent for the process of pumping nitrogen through COILED TUBING and charged the industry .04 cents per/100SCF pumped for years. During the early development, COILED TUBING suffered a poor service quality due to tubing failures at the well site. Nowsco however, had developed the COILED TUBING strings with Quality tubing (another wholly owned subsidiary of Big Three) that were far superior to any other manufacturer from the 1970’s forward. In the mid-1980s, there was a dramatic improvement in the quality of the COILED TUBING with the availability of improved materials due to Competition coming in and several other manufacturers. As the reliability of COILED TUBING increased, new COILED TUBING applications have developed which are more demanding on COILED TUBING than the simple pumping operations mentioned above.

COILED TUBING has become an integral component of many work over and well intervention operations (During production phase of the oil well, there are a number of problems that can occur which will negatively affect operations, production and ultimately revenue generated, such as failure of mechanical equipment, changes in production characteristics, plugging and increases in injection pressure., these events may occur, requiring modification of the well in order to achieve optimal production) Coiled tubing use in these instances can limit the above issues with marginal cost.

While well service/work over applications still account for more than 75% of COILED TUBING use, technical advancements have increased the utilization of COILED TUBING in wide applications like drilling, completion operations, sand cleanouts, acidizing, fracturing, well testing, perforating, and other remediation activities are combined with the speed and convenience of COILED TUBING to provide even more benefit to well productivity.

According to industry experts, COILED TUBING use continues to grow at an average rate of 3.5% per year, and many oil and gas producers routinely use COILED TUBING techniques not only to remediate failing wells but also to complete new wells in a cost-effective manner. Many companies are aggressively developing equipment that leverages the multiple benefits of such activities and provides oil and gas producers with cost-effective alternatives.