TechTAC’s Setting and Releasing Instructions provide essential guidance for realizing optimal performance from a tubing anchor. This article is the last in a three-part series where each post will highlight one key section from those instructions. This third piece focuses on important TAC best practices that should be followed when RELEASING the anchor.
Maintain Compression
This first TAC best practice can help avoid dulling the anchor’s slips during its removal. The key is to make certain the lower cone is completely retracted. To ensure that complete retraction when the slips lose their grip on the casing, the tubing anchor should be released with the tubing in slight compression. If this is not possible, however, the tool can be released without compression or even with the tubing string in tension.
Periodically Add a Right-Hand Turn
When releasing the TAC, the tubing should be rotated to the right 5-8 turns at the tool. To the LEFT if the anchor is right-hand set. Doing so retracts the cones from the slips and allows the slips to move back into the housing. However, just like when the TAC is being run downhole, when it is being retrieved, the movement of the anchor through the tubing can generate torque at the anchor. This is especially true as the anchor traverses bends, turns and deviations. That torque can start to push the slips outward again. When that happens, it can create unnecessary drag, dull the slips, and potentially cause the tool to set.
This second TAC best practice helps ensure the slips are all the way backed off while the tubing anchor is coming out. Specifically, it is recommended to occasionally put a right-hand turn in the tubing. Every 5-10 stands is a good rule of thumb. If you’re running a right-hand set TAC, then it would be a left-hand turn. Whenever possible, use a pipe wrench to add the right-hand turn in the tubing, not tongs. Using tongs to add an occasional right-hand turn can over-torque the TAC and damage the internal body nut, cones and housing.
In Case of Emergency
If the tubing anchor catcher does not release in the normal manner, the anchor can be sheared with a sufficiently strong upward pull. An up-strain greater than the total shear strength of the shear pins plus the weight of the tubing will shear the pins and release the TAC. The shear pins used in most TechTAC® anchors offer 5,000 lbs. of shear strength per pin (+/- 10%). The most common configuration uses 8 pins, totaling roughly 40,000 lbs. of shear strength.
The Value of Following TAC Best Practices
Following the best practices for tubing anchors noted above – as well as the other Setting and Releasing Instructions – provide two significant benefits to operators. First, the chance of breaking or damaging the TAC is greatly reduced. That means less downtime and less finger pointing. Second, with the TAC properly set, the entire downhole production string becomes more efficient, leading to better results. To learn more about TechTAC’s suite of tubing anchors, check out our Product Catalog.
