Tech 101

Permanent Well Abandonment

Kenny Campbell and Rod Smith, Schlumberger

Introduction delivers less than the operating areas that contain mature fields and
Well abandonment is nothing new to the expenses, it is time to consider aging infrastructure. As a result, both
oil and gas industry—it is an activity abandonment. In fact, in some cases the the North Sea (regulated in the UK by
that has been associated with well decision is made with the knowledge the government’s Health and Safety
construction since the very beginning that considerable reserves remain, but Executive and in Norway by NORSOK
of the search for hydrocarbons. One the cost to extract these resources is standards implemented by independent
thing that is changing, though, is the more than the projected income. organization, Standards Norway, which
sheer volume of wells and fields that The cost to P&A a well can vary by is a member of CEN and ISO) and the
are currently shut-in, suspended, or many millions of dollars depending GOM (regulated in the US by the federal
reaching the end of their economic on location, and whether the well government’s Bureau of Safety and
life. Worldwide, governments and is offshore or onshore. In the UK, Environmental Enforcement [BSEE])
legislative authorities are encouraging abandonment from a fixed platform have well-defined legislation and
the oil and gas industry to seal and will be around USD 2 million, whereas practices regarding how abandonment
permanently take offline unproductive abandonment from a semisubmersible operations should be conducted.
wells to prevent them from impacting or dynamic positioning drilling unit can For example, the BSEE introduced
the environment. be USD 10 million. “Idle Iron” regulations and guidelines
In certain mature basins In an effort to reduce the cost of for nonproducing wells in the GOM
the decommissioning of aging abandonment operations, operators in a Notice to Lessees (known as an
infrastructure is creating such a and regulators strive to improve how NTL), effective October 2010, which
significant volume of wells to be P&As are performed and the service aims to provide oil and gas companies
abandoned that these are now being companies are continually developing with some clarity about the required
treated as standalone projects rather tools and techniques to increase standards and outcomes expected as
than the responsibility of existing asset efficiency without compromising safety. part of an abandonment philosophy.
teams and contract models. For the Minimizing costs, without The UK offshore oil and gas
service companies this large potential sacrificing well integrity, is critical advocacy organization, Oil & Gas UK,
business opens up the possibility of to operators, who make a significant offers (for a price) Guidelines for the
the development of tools that can be investment with no financial return in Suspension and Abandonment of Wells, in
used to limit the economic impact to the case of P&A operations. which it states the following: “All Distinct
operators and also enable fulfillment of Permeable Zones penetrated by the
the abandonment obligation. Legislation and Design well should be isolated, both from each
With regard to global offshore markets, other and from the surface or seabed by
Managing the Cost of two areas that today have an established a minimum of one Permanent Barrier.
Abandonment and growing portfolio of continuous well Two Permanent Barriers from surface
The decision to plug and abandon abandonment activities are the Gulf or seabed are required if a Permeable
(P&A) a well or field is invariably of Mexico (GOM) and the North Sea. Zone is hydrocarbon bearing or
based on economics. Once production Both are long-established producing overpressured and water bearing.”
In addition, the same guidelines
state the following for subsea wells:
• “ Redundant subsea equipment
Kenny Campbell has over 30 years of experience in the field of well must not present a hazard to other
abandonment and workover. Currently he is the well abandonment & users of the sea.”
decommissioning technology manager for the Schlumberger Integrated • “It is seen as good practice to
Project Management Segment. Before this Campbell served in several retrieve all casing strings to
technical and managerial roles in the industry including region product minimum of 10 ft below seabed.”
line manager with Weatherford, Middle East manager with Norse Cutting • “All subsea equipment and
and Abandonment, and owner of Deepwater Abandonment Services. debris should be retrieved
where  practical.”

Vol. 9 // No. 3 // 2013 25

 Tech 101
MD TVD INC ID
Formation CURRENT WELL STATUS COMMENTS FINAL WELL STATUS
(ft) (ft) (Deg) (in)
D C B A A B C D D C B B C D

11.0 ppg OBM

9.0 ppg WBM

9.0 ppg WBM

10.0 ppg WBM

10.0 ppg WBM

Sea

6.184 7", 29#, L80, NVAM Tubing

600 600 0 20" csg TOC at 600ft

800 800 1 30" Shoe

1,250 1,248 5 13-3/8" csg TOC at 1250ft

1,500 1,480 8 20" Shoe - LOT @ 13ppg EMW

1,700 1,680 15 5.750 7" SCSSSV

1,800 1,770 17 4.650 7" x 5-1/2" x/o

2,000 1,980 18 Top of cement abandonment plug #3| P/T and W/T Plug #3
2,500 2,450 20
Shale
2,700 2,650 20 Section mill from 2700ft to 2800ft

2,850 2,800 20 13-3/8" Bridge plug

2,900 2,830 20 9-5/8" casing cut @2900ft

3,000 2,900 25 9-5/8" TOC @ 3000ft

4,400 4,200 30
Shale 4,500 4,300 30 13-3/8" Shoe - LOT @ 14ppg EMW
4,600 4,400 32 Top of cement abandonment plug #2| P/T and W/T Plug #2

5,500 5,300 45 9-5/8" Bridge plug

4.670 5-1/2", 23#, NVAM Tubing

6,350 6,250 53 4.000 x-nipple

6,390 6,290 55 6.000 9-5/8" PBR shared with 130klbs O/P

6,400 6,300 55 4.750 9-5/8" Permanent packer

ELTSR

6,500 6,400 55 Top of liner

6,550 6,430 58 4.000 x-nipple

6,600 6,450 60
6,900 6,480 60 4.500 5-1/2" Mule shoe
7,000 6,500 60 9-5/8" Shoe - LOT @ 15ppg EMW
Shale

8,200 7,900 75 Top of cement abandonment plug #1| P/T and W/T Plug #1

8,950 8,380 85
9,000 8,400 88

9,100 8,500 90 Top of perforation

Reservoir 9,700 8,500 90 Gun Top of sh at 9700ft

9,900 8,500 90 Bottom of perforation

10,000 8,500 90 7" liner shoe (CBL ran)

Fig. 1—An example of a well before and after the abandonment process has been completed.

26
 The basics of a permanent well 95/8 -in. casing, and section-milling materials and long-term monitoring
abandonment (PWA) operation will 133/8 ‑in. casing in order to isolate all solutions to provide verified evidence
vary little whether the well is on land the required intervals. Not all wells will of lasting isolation.
or offshore. You begin by removing the require this level of deconstruction, but
completion or production string, then the principal objectives will be similar. Summary
set the necessary plugs and cement In general, a large number of well The industry globally is facing its
barriers at specified depths across the abandonment operations could be busiest period ever in relation to
producing and water-bearing zones to carried out in a rigless manner. This abandonment work. With drilling
act as permanent barriers. It sounds will invariably save cost overall but can activity adding thousands of wells per
so simple, but it is crucial to remember increase the operational time required. year, the volume of this type of work
that the key to a successful operation Rigless abandonments include the use will only continue to grow. The industry
will be a solid plan. Unfortunately, many of highly mobile equipment spreads, needs to address PWA requirements
times this is hampered by lack of data such as pumping skids and jacking by assigning appropriate resources in
and/or outdated files. The wellhead and units. However, the complexity of both operators and service companies
subsea hardware (if applicable) are the initial well design, coupled with to ensure that a skilled and competent
removed last. possible well issues such as multiple workforce along with fit-for-purpose
When operators abandon a annular pressure issues and lack of technology solutions are in place to
well they are obligated to leave it wellbore access, may dictate that a rig- meet the challenge. The perception
in a condition that protects both the based approach is required. that well abandonments involve just a
downhole and surface environment simple reverse-engineering workflow
in perpetuity. Technology Opportunities and require only the most basic of tools
In all parts of the world, Within the scope of well abandonment, is far from reality. Well abandonment
regulatory bodies have, to varying many techniques used today can represents a true challenge that will be
degrees, defined procedures and be considered evolutions of those here for decades. TWA
responsibilities for a PWA. employed for many years. Cement is
Despite disparities around the still used as the primary barrier. Logs
world, the intent of all abandonment generated by cement-bond logging
operations is to achieve the following: tools are still used to evaluate cement
• I solate and protect all quality. Milling and fishing tools remain
freshwater zones. similar in nature.
• I solate all potential future With the continued increase in Are you reAdy to
commercial zones. the volume of wells to be abandoned, explore the frontiers
• P revent in perpetuity leaks from it is reasonable to suggest that the of knowledge?
or into the well. pace of technology development and
• C ut pipe to an agreed level deployment around abandonment
below seabed and remove all operations should and indeed must
surface equipment. accelerate in order to increase
the efficiency and effectiveness of
Fig. 1 illustrates an example of a abandoning wells. Opportunities exist
well before and after the abandonment for the development of alternatives
process has been completed. In this to milling, for more advanced
case, the well abandonment procedure measurements to see through multiple subscriptions available.
could be considered quite complex annuli before the removal of tubing
OnePetro brings together specialized technical
due to the need to remove tubing and and casing, and for alternative isolation libraries serving the oil and gas industry into one,
easy-to-use website—allowing you to search and
download documents from multiple professional
societies in a single transaction. With more than
Rod Smith is currently manager of the Schlumberger Well 150,000 technical papers, one search can help you
locate the solutions you need. A range of subscription
Abandonment Business Unit in the North Sea, part of the options make accessing the results easy.
company’s Integrated Project Management Segment. He has
been with Schlumberger for the past 15 years and has
served in several field, sales, personnel, and managerial www.onepetro.org
roles. Smith took on his current role in March 2012, before
which he was a group account manager for several North A constellation of libraries.
Sea-based customers. An astronomical number of papers.
Stellar search results.

Vol. 9 // No. 3 // 2013 27