Pipe Recovery and Tubing Cutting | SLB

Tubing cutting and pipe recovery

Solutions for recovering casing, drillpipe, coiled tubing, and tubing

3D illustration of ReSOLVE iX tubing cutter.
Photo of the ReSOLVE iX tubing cutter at SLB maintenance facility Damman, Saudi Arabia

Clean cuts and efficient pipe recovery for every scenario

Tubing cutting and pipe recovery are critical maintenance and well intervention operations that help ensure continued drilling and production with reduced downtime, costs, and risks.

Tubing cutting is performed with mechanical, explosive, electrical, or chemical cutters depending on specific well conditions and operational objectives. While the tubing can be severed in several places, most cuts are placed above the packer to simplify subsequent fishing and milling operations.

Pipe recovery involves retrieving stuck or broken pipe from the wellbore. After the free point is determined, stuck pipe can be loosened by using an explosive backoff or cut with severing or colliding tools prior to using a latching tool to pull the pipe to surface.

Our services

PowerCutter precision tubular cutter

With no moving parts or chemicals, the PowerCutter™ precision tubular cutter is the preferred approach for delivering clean cuts of tubing and drillpipe in all fluid environments, including dry gas. By employing the same effective principle used in shaped charge perforating, the PowerCutter cutter simplifies operations and improves safety and reliability.

ReSOLVE iX tubing cutter

A member of the ReSOLVE iX™ intelligent extreme wireline intervention services, the ReSOLVE iX tubing cutter delivers fully automated, depth-accurate, active CCL–based mechanical cuts even in complex completion profiles. This fully instrumented and surface-controlled tubing cutter can operate at great depths and in challenging environments—without the logistics and HSE challenges associated with explosives.

Our portfolio

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