An Assessment Tool for Coiled Tubing.

An American Petroleum Institute (API) standard for the manufacture, testing and inspection of coiled tubing has been published and took effect 1 October 2010. API Spec 5ST covers API grades of coiled tubing, the testing and inspection tech-niques, including reference indicators, and includes a supplementary requirement regarding a final inspection after the mill hydrostatic test (API, 2010). Nondestructive testing (NDT) of coiled oilfield tubing is a challenging and much needed NDT application for the safe operation of oil and gas well servicing. In this paper, a tool for the assessment of coiled tubing is described, which can function either as a final mill inspection or during subsequent field inspections, and some recently found situations are presented. Knowledge of the condition of the tubing at all stages of its life should be of great importance to owners of tubing when deciding upon future tubing use. A review of results obtained with the new tool when used to assess both new and used coiled tubing will be presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]