Indonesia Well Abandonment Standard Gap Analysis; A Review and Suggestion

The old oil and gas wells of approximately 70% are found to have no economic value in Indonesia, leading to being abandoned during the end of their lifecycle, as ruled by the government. This is part of decommissioning an entire field with an environmental preservation program, known as an Abandonment and Site Restoration (ASR). The program involves the evaluation of international permanent abandonment standards, as references for the designs, comparisons, and assessments of Indonesia’s policies. It also provides contrast gap analysis and suggestions in ensuring a proper permanent plug and abandonment approach, to avoid any future leaks or re-abandonment operations. Therefore, this study aims to determine and evaluate the gap analysis between Indonesia and International Well Abandonment Standards, as well as OGUK and NORSOK D-010. The results showed that abandonment activities had improvement opportunities philosophy, and practice, used for plugging/isolations, control lines, as well as reservoir and annular barriers. In addition, literature studies were performed to understand the abandonment philosophy for all reviewed standards, to provide proper suggestions or improvements.

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Orphaned oil and gas well stimulus—Maximizing economic and environmental benefits

Elem Sci Anth ◽

10.1525/elementa.2020.20.00161 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Mary Kang ◽

Adam R. Brandt ◽

Zhong Zheng ◽

Jade Boutot ◽

Chantel Yung ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

The United States ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

Gas Wells ◽

Oil And Gas Wells ◽

Natural Gas Industry ◽

Canadian Provinces ◽

Well Abandonment

Orphaned oil and gas wells are abandoned wells for which the cost of environmental impacts usually falls on governments and the general public. Government agencies responsible for well plugging often face funding shortfalls and many orphaned wells remain unplugged. To address this and support the oil and natural gas industry, federal governments are already spending, or considering spending, billions of dollars to plug orphaned oil and gas wells. Here, we analyze oil and gas data for the United States and Canada and identify policy recommendations that can best address environmental impacts of abandoned and orphaned wells. At least 116,245 wells across 32 states and four Canadian provinces/territories are operated by companies filing for bankruptcy in the first half of 2020, which may be an indication that many wells will be orphaned in the near future. Moreover, there are 4,700,000 historic and active oil and gas wells in the United States and another 790,000 in Canada. Of these, 2,000,000 and 310,000 wells are active in the United States and Canada, respectively. Thus, three of five wells ever drilled in the United States are currently inactive (2,700,000 wells), but only one in three are plugged (1,500,000 wells). Plugging involves isolating zones containing oil, gas, and water and is the main strategy for well abandonment. If the orphaned well stimulus funding comes through, tens of thousands of wells will be plugged within a few years. Well plugging at this scale far exceeds current rates of plugging, and it is important that we work to ensure long-term environmental benefits of well abandonment to water, air, climate, ecosystems, and human health. Minimizing environmental impacts of the millions of abandoned and orphaned wells in the United States, Canada, and abroad will allow for an economically beneficial and environmentally safe transition to a carbon-neutral economy.

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Evaluasi Rigless Plug & Abandonment: Sebuah Studi Kasus

Jurnal Nasional Pengelolaan Energi MigasZoom ◽

10.37525/mz/2020-2/256 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 09-20

Author(s):

Cindy Clara Afrisca ◽

Keyword(s):

Oil And Gas ◽

Economic Value ◽

Mineral Resources ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Daily Production ◽

Coiled Tubing ◽

Electric Line ◽

Site Restoration ◽

The Government ◽

Operating Company

Oil was explored and found by Royal Dutch (Shell Group) geologist in early 1900. And since Indonesia’s independence, development in oil and gas projects was able to put Indonesia as one of major oil exporter country with daily production above 1 Million barrel per day in 1970 – 1990. With time as fields become mature, some of the fields have come to the end of its life cycle, where mostly 70% of Indonesia total old oil wells will have no economic value and has to be permanently Plug and Abandonment (P&A) as ruled by the government. It’s part of decommissioning an entire field with environmental preservation which called Abandonment and Site Restoration (ASR). As P&A will impact operating company investment as outlined in Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) No. 15, 2008, efficient P&A operation should be evaluated to ensure proper planning and executions. The subject of evaluation is X well located onshore at Y Field, Java, Indonesia. P&A operation with multiple cements plugs as barriers to ensure no fluids migrations from one formation to others, or to surface. Evaluation between workover rig and rigless P&A operation with coiled tubing unit (CTU) and electric line (E-line) will be presented in this paper to value the expenditures and achieving the result as standardize by the government with accordance of operating company standard. Results show that rigless operation is the preferable solution, which lead to cost effective operation. Rigless operation saves 25% of P&A operations even tough with longer operation days.

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