A high-pressure gas field in Egypt includes eight development wells drilled and completed: three wells in the West and five wells in the East. The reservoir management team had considered increasing the reservoir recovery by lowering the reservoir abandonment pressure below the initial design value. The eight wells in the field had slightly different production casing ratings and different liner hanger suppliers with different ratings and mechanisms. The impact of lowering the reservoir abandonment pressure had to be checked against all the eight wells in the field in terms of design assumptions and casing/equipment ratings. The main challenge was to lower the reservoir abandonment pressure while maintaining the wells integrity and reliability. The production packer splits the production pipes into two pressure regimes: above and below the packer. The production pipe section and liner hanger above the production packer will be exposed to the reservoir abandonment pressure in case of communication below and above the packer (e.g., a packer leak near depletion). During the planning phase, the main limiting factor for the reservoir abandonment pressure was the liner hanger in most of the wells. When re-evaluating the potential for a lower abandonment pressure, multiple well barrier elements were considered in their as-installed condition, including pipe collapse, hanger hold-down capacity, and liner top packer differential pressure. The conclusion of these assessments showed that the weak point was still the liner hanger system in most of the wells, so a further failure-based analysis was conducted on the liner hangers. The results defined an updated reservoir abandonment pressure that maintains well integrity. This paper outlines the thorough well barrier elements design check and methodology used to support the decision to lower reservoir abandonment pressures and maximize reservoir recovery for the field.
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