A regulator's perspective: well integrity considerations in decommissioning

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 633
Author(s):  
Claire Hick ◽  
Derrick O’Keeffe ◽  
Mark Bourne

With several petroleum fields in offshore Australia approaching the end of their economic life, it is widely recognised that there is an upcoming wave of well decommissioning. Decommissioning of wells (also known as ‘plug and abandonment’ or well abandonment) presents well integrity and, in some instances, well control challenges. Deferral of well abandonment is likely to make the task more difficult; wells are continually ageing and, meanwhile, the benchmark for what constitutes a compliant abandonment tends to get higher over time. It is a common objective of industry, government and society that wells are decommissioned properly so that they do not present future safety or environmental risk. Decommissioning a well safely requires that it has been maintained properly with a reliable dataset and documentation history. A clear framework for managing and monitoring well integrity in all phases of the well lifecycle is a prerequisite, as demonstrated in international standards and guidelines such as ISO 16530. Well decommissioning requires collaboration across industry partners to foster research and development, reduce risk and lower cost.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fianti Ramadhani ◽  
Syaiful Nurdin ◽  
Michael Olu Etuhoko ◽  
Yang Zhi ◽  
Sugeng Mulyono ◽  
...  

Abstract Four high-pressure-high temperature (HPHT) and sour gas wells are currently operating at Madura offshore as the only productive assets for Husky-CNOOC Madura Limited (HCML). Each well performance is very crucial to fulfill the demand of the gas customers in East Java, Indonesia. Since starting production in 2017, the wells experienced two main well integrity challenges, high annulus pressure and wellhead growth. Both challenges are very dependent to the well flow rate and the flow duration. A continuous operation monitoring is highly required in order to keep the wells operating safely. To overcome the challenges, HCML established a Well Integrity Management System (WIMS) document that approached several international standards as its basis. As company grows, development plan challenged the WIMS to perform faster and more efficient as compared to the existing manual system. From there, the journey of WIMS digitalization began. The journey started with the alignment of the existing WIMS document to the ISO-16530-1 at Operational Phase with more stringent boundary to operate the wells safely. The alignment covers, but not limited to the organizational structure, well barriers and criteria, monitoring and surveillance, annulus pressure management, and maintenance. The document also covered risk assessment and management of well integrity failure, which was the backbone of the WIMS digitalization. The current digital solutions allow production data to be accessed and retrieved directly from the system for analysis purposes. It compares the recorded data with pre-determined rules and parameters set in the system. It triggers a notification to the responsible personnel to perform the required action should any anomaly occurs. It also can send a reminder to users to schedule and complete a well Integrity test to ensure that a well is always in compliance with the WIMS. All test reports and documentation are stored in the system as preparation for any future audit. A key requirement of the expert software system was access to future developments that can offer enhanced functionality of the well integrity platform through additional near time capabilities such as predictive erosion and corrosion for downhole flow wetted components. This is being developed to enhance workover scheduling for existing wells and material selection for new wells and is planned to update automatically critical well integrity criteria such as tubing burst, collapse and MAASP.


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-181

Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is a procedure used as an analytical tool for the evaluation of the environmental impact caused by a material, a manufacturing process or product. For an end product, LCA requires both the identification and quantification of materials and energy used in all stages of the product’s life, together with their environmental impact. It requires therefore a huge amount of data about materials, components, manufacturing processes, energy consumption and the relevant environmental impacts. For this reason, a number of software and databases have been developed, in order to facilitate LCA users. These are the so-called Eco-Tools, used in an effort to minimize the environmental impact of a product from the materials and the energy used for production. In this paper, LCA is conducted for solar thermosyphonic systems, with the aid of three commercially available Eco-Tools, usually used by LCA practitioners, namely: Eco-It, GEMIS and SimaPro, and the results are compared. Although all three tools claim accordance with the international standards and guidelines, differences do exist. A typical solar thermosyphonic system (DSHWS) with a 4 m2 collector area and a capacity of 150 dm3 that covers the hot water needs of a three person family in Thessaloniki is used as case study. The results of the three tools are compared for each component of the solar system as well as for each material used and for the conventional energy substituted by the system.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tonje Winther ◽  
Guillermo Andres Obando Palacio ◽  
Amit Govil

Abstract Thousands of wells will enter the plug and abandonment (P&A) phase across the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), either for permanent well abandonment or section abandonment with subsequent sidetracks. In the medium and long term, more wells will be added to follow the same path as exploration, drilling, and production continues. The cost of abandonment operations demands improvement of how P&A operations are performed. A critical, and often time-consuming operation, of well or section abandonment is to cut and pull (C&P) some of the casing strings. Uncertainties about the status of the annular contents and the material within it, such as settled solids, contaminated cement, or well geometry might pose restraints that could hinder the C&P efficiency. The uncertainties may cause operations to deviate from the plan, increasing the time and the costs required. New-generation ultrasonic tools, in combination with sonic tools, provide information about the annulus material with a detailed map of the axial and azimuthal variations of the annulus contents. The geometric position of the inner pipe can be determined relative to the outer casing or borehole using advanced measurements. Logging with ultrasonic and sonic tools is a noninvasive method that can increase the efficiency of C&P operations. In this paper we discuss three case studies of wells ranging from 2 to 40 years old. Some of the wells have reached the end of their economic life and are now ready for permanent plug and abandonment (PP&A) or slot recovery. Each case is unique with different casing sizes being retrieved, along with varied annulus contents observed from ultrasonic and sonic log data. The innovative use of the data interpretation with advanced workflows decreased uncertainties about the annulus contents and enabled following an informed C&P strategy. In all three cases, the casing sections were retrieved without difficulties from the recommended depths of the analysis. Casing milling was performed in intervals where C&P was not supported by the data analysis.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 52-57
Author(s):  
Nadiya Tymkiv

Abstract The article deals with the problem of interdisciplinarity impact on higher petroleum education in Ukraine. Different views on the essence of interdisciplinarity, especially in the context of higher petroleum education, have been presented. It has been indicated that many scholars have studied the essence of interdisciplinarity within higher education systems of different countries and identified that interdisciplinarity encompasses a combination or interrelation of various sciences that are embodied in engineering training process. Interdisciplinarity is considered as one of the effective tools to support enthusiasm of young generation for petroleum engineering; to increase motivation of future petroleum experts; and to enhance the efficiency of collaboration between professionals from different fields. In reality, interdisciplinary approach is very often confused with multidisciplinarity when educators give students knowledge from various disciplines without making the link between them into a coordinated whole. It has been concluded that interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary approach can be regarded as a natural training context in which boundaries between knowledge systems tend to be erased and a new teaching paradigm is required. It has been revealed that implementation of interdisciplinary approach in engineering programmes necessitates the development of such an educational framework that would provide educators with the relevant methods, tools, and models for design of interdisciplinary engineering curricula regarding specific learning outcomes and ensure support for faculty members to improve their own competence in the interdisciplinary issues. The standards and guidelines of international educational interdisciplinarity of degree programmes in petroleum engineering are analyzed in the article.


Electronics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmet Aksoz ◽  
Yipeng Song ◽  
Ali Saygin ◽  
Frede Blaabjerg ◽  
Pooya Davari

In this paper, a virtual positive impedance (VPI) based active damping control for a slim DC-link motor drive with 24 section space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) is proposed. Utilizing the proposed control and modulation strategy can improve the input of current total harmonic distortion (THD) while maintaining the cogging torque of the motor. The proposed system is expected to reduce the front-end current THD according to international standards, as per IEC 61000 and IEEE-519. It is also expected to achieve lower cost, longer lifetime, and fewer losses. A permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) is fed by the inverter, which adopts the 24 section SVPWM technique. The VPI based active damping control for the slim DC-link drive with/without the 24 section SVPWM are compared to confirm the performance of the proposed method. The simulation results based on MATLAB are provided to validate the proposed control strategy.


2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Archer ◽  
Geert Seynaeve

AbstractThe continued professionalization of the humanitarian workforce requires sound underpinning by appropriate educational programs.The international disaster medicine and emergency health community requested the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM) develop international standards and guidelines for the education and training for disaster medicine. The Working Group of the WADEM Education Committee prepared and circulated an Issues Paper to structure input on this significant international task. Subsequently, the Working Group facilitated an Open International Meeting convened in Brussels, Belgium, 2004. The “Issues Paper” also was used as a framework to structure this International Meeting, which utilized case studies selected to represent the scope of disaster medicine, and prepared a meeting consensus on a framework for disaster health and for related educational programs.The two-day Brussels meeting attracted 51 participants from 19 countries, representing 21 disciplines.Participants reinforced the need to address the development of international standards and guidelines on education and training in this emerging discipline.Participants supported the view that the term “Disaster Health” suggested a multidisciplinary approach that is a more inclusive contemporary and appropriate term to describe this field, although there were dissenting views.The meeting formulated a consensus view in support of a framework for “Disaster Health”, which included: (1) primary disciplines; (2) support disciplines; (3) community response, resilience, and communication; and (4) socio-political context. The participants considered that this model lends itself to facilitating the development of educational programs in this field and believed that standards and guidelines initially should be developed in the “Core of Disaster Health” for undergraduates in relevant professions, for practicing professionals wishing to expand their practice in this field, and in the “Breadth of Disaster Health” for those wishing to be recognized as “Disaster Health Specialists” as academics, professionals, or policy leaders in this field at a University multidisciplinary Masters Degree level. A community-level and higher-specialist doctoral level would follow.Although the view of the participants was that the establishment of international approval/endorsement processes for education programs may have some benefits, there was less comfort in identifying which body/agency should be charged with this responsibility. The WADEM, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the World Health Organization were identified as potential lead agents.The outcome of this international meeting is an important step toward meeting the challenge given the WADEM and will be developed further in consultation with the international disaster and emergency health community in order to improve education and training standards and professional practice.


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