Oil & Gas Well Plug and Abandonment

XIV Lillehammer Energy Claims Conference

24-26 February 2010

John Reid

Plug & Abandonment

All wells at the end of their life cycle will
undergo permanent plug & abandonment
Entails setting cement and / or mechanical
plugs to seal of pay zones, potential leak
points, fresh water zones, and at surface

Well P & A Statistics

Up to 6,500 offshore platforms worldwide with total
decommissioning costs estimated to be in excess of
US$50,000,000,000
Between 2000 and 2010 an estimated 25,000 offshore
wells have / will undergo permanent P & A
The majority are planned as part of an Asset or Field
decommissioning programme
Many however are necessitated prematurely as a result
of facilities and / or wells being damaged.

P & A Requirement Hierarchy

Industry Standards / RP

Regulatory Authority

Operator Best Practices

World Wide Oil & Gas Real Estate

NEBC / CNOBP / CNSOBP / ERCB

NPD
UKOOA

MMS
PNGRB
DPR
ANP
APPEA

MMS

Permanent P & A Tasks

Plugging Cement and / or Mechanical

Cement retainers
Cement plug - displacement
Cement squeeze
Profiled / Bridge Plug

Tubing / casing cement displacement

Perforation / punch / milling / cutting

Tubing / casing site clearance

Cutting, removal and recovery
Wellhead removal and recovery

Surface Wells Solutions

Platform with surface wells.

Topsides rig via riser.
Cost Circa USD$1-2mm

Tender jack up rig via riser.

Cost Circa US$1.5-5mm

Sub-Surface Wells - Rig Solution

Sub-surface wells. Mobile rig via subsea

riser. Cost Circa USD$6-10+mm

Sub-surface Wells Rigless Solution

Sub-surface wells. Rigless, from a DPSV

via subsea intervention lubricator.
Cost Circa US$2-5mm

M.S.L
Seabed

Typical 5 Stage P & A

Well Head Retrieval

Permanent P & A Challenges

Inability to re-enter well wellhead damage

No vertical access
Well condition - corrosion and integrity issues
Inability to establish effective flow path for cementing
Temporarily abandoned well problems
Reservoir / formation problems
Lack of accurate historical information

Formation Issues

XIV Lillehammer Energy Claims Conference