A portrait of wellbore leakage in northeastern British Columbia, Canada

Wisen, Joshua; Chesnaux, Romain; Werring, John; Wendling, Gilles; Baudron, Paul; Barbecot, F.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1817929116

Cited by 57 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…CVF testing is a common requirement in Canada, where regulators require that operators leave well annuli open to the atmosphere during normal operations. The CVF testing protocol established by the Alberta Energy Regulator is widely referenced and is the basis for testing requirements in other regions like British Columbia ( 8 , 23 ). CVF testing in Alberta begins with a check for gas or liquid leakage through an open annular valve.…”

Section: Scp and Cvf Testing Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consequently, SCP and/or CVF testing is often relied upon for routine well integrity assessment. Local regulations mandate how operators manage wellhead annular valves, which ultimately determines whether routine integrity testing focuses on SCP or CVF ( 8 , 16 , 17 ). SCP or CVF occurrence in an annulus outside the production casing of a well is typically considered indicative of a well integrity issue.…”

Section: Scp and Cvf Testing Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Oil and gas wells are considered to maintain “integrity” if they are installed and operated in a manner that prevents the uncontrolled upward migration of hazardous fluids ( 5 ). Most wells function as designed over their lifetime; however, the subset of wells that experience integrity issues can potentially leak fluids into groundwater aquifers and/or the atmosphere ( 6 – 9 ). Methane is the primary constituent of natural gas, which is the most common fluid released from leaking wells ( 1 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Currently, the most comprehensive assessments of onshore oil and gas well integrity have considered wells in Alberta and British Columbia, where regulators maintain publicly available databases that describe the results of province-wide well integrity testing programs in place since 1995. The Alberta and British Columbia well integrity datasets are unique because they collectively contain uniform integrity testing records for over 450,000 wells ( 8 , 9 , 16 ). While most US state oil and gas regulators have integrity testing requirements, testing practices vary widely between jurisdictions, and records are rarely aggregated in uniform databases ( 17 ).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Public data from three US states provide new insights into well integrity

Lackey

Rajaram

Bolander³

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Oil and gas wells with compromised integrity are a concern because they can potentially leak hydrocarbons or other fluids into groundwater and/or the atmosphere. Most states in the United States require some form of integrity testing, but few jurisdictions mandate widespread testing and open reporting on a scale informative for leakage risk assessment. In this study, we searched 33 US state oil and gas regulatory agency databases and identified records useful for evaluating well integrity in Colorado, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania. In total, we compiled 474,621 testing records from 105,031 wells across these states into a uniform dataset. We found that 14.1% of wells tested prior to 2018 in Pennsylvania exhibited sustained casing pressure (SCP) or casing vent flow (CVF)—two indicators of compromised well integrity. Data from different hydrocarbon-producing regions within Colorado and New Mexico revealed a wider range (0.3 to 26.5%) of SCP and/or CVF occurrence than previously reported, highlighting the need to better understand regional trends in well integrity. Directional wells were more likely to exhibit SCP and/or CVF than vertical wells in Colorado and Pennsylvania, and their installation corresponded with statewide increases in SCP and/or CVF occurrence in Colorado (2005 to 2009) and Pennsylvania (2007 to 2011). Testing the ground around wells for indicators of gas leakage is not a widespread practice in the states considered. However, 3.0% of Colorado wells tested and 0.1% of New Mexico wells tested exhibited a degree of SCP sufficient to potentially induce leakage outside the well.

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Section: Scp and Cvf Testing Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Scp and Cvf Testing Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Public data from three US states provide new insights into well integrity

Lackey

Rajaram

Bolander³

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Some chemicals used or associated with hydraulic fracturing, including volatile organic compounds and trace metals, may contaminate the soil by accidental spills, leaks, or during disposal of hydraulic fracturing fluids [3][4][5][6][7][8]. Leaky wells may also discharge gases to the atmosphere and/or liquids that will affect the quality of the surface water and shallow groundwater [9,10]. We recently investigated exposure to volatile organic compounds and trace metals in 29 pregnant women from Northeastern British Columbia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Density and proximity to hydraulic fracturing wells and birth outcomes in Northeastern British Columbia, Canada

Caron-Beaudoin

Whitworth

Bosson-Rieutort

et al. 2020

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

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Background Hydraulic fracturing, a method used in Northeastern British Columbia (Canada) to extract natural gas, can release contaminants with potential deleterious health effects on fetal development. To date, the association between hydraulic fracturing activity and birth outcomes has not been evaluated in this region. Objective To evaluate the association between the hydraulic fracturing well density/proximity and birth outcomes (birthweight, head circumference, preterm birth and small for gestational age (SGA)). Methods We used birth records from the Fort St John hospital between December 30, 2006 and December 29, 2016 (n = 6333 births). To estimate gestational exposure, we used inverse distance weighting (IDW) to calculate the density/proximity of hydraulic fracturing wells to pregnant women's postal code centroid. For each birth, we calculated three IDWs using 2.5, 5, and 10 km buffer zones around women's postal code centroid. We used linear and logistic regressions to evaluate associations between quartiles of postal code well density/proximity and birth outcomes, controlling for relevant covariates. Results No associations were found between postal code well density/proximity and head circumference or SGA. A negative association was found between postal code well density/proximity and birthweight for infants born to women in the 2nd quartile of the 10 km buffer (β [95% confidence interval (CI)]: −47.28 g [−84.30; −10.25]), and in the 2nd (β [95% CI]: −40.87 g [−78.01; −3.73]) and 3rd (β [95% CI]: −42.01 g [−79.15; −4.87]) quartiles of the 5 km buffer. Increased odds of preterm birth were observed among women in the 2nd quartile of the 2.5 km buffer (odds ratio (OR) [95% CI]: 1.60 [1.30; 2.43]). Conclusions This is the first epidemiological study in Northeastern British Columbia evaluating associations between hydraulic fracturing and health outcomes. Our results show inconsistent patterns of association between hydraulic fracturing, preterm birth and reduced birthweight, and effect estimates did not match expected dose-response relationships.

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Measurement of wellbore leakage in high‐pressure gas well based on the multiple physical signals and history data: Method, technology, and application

Zhang,

Pan,

Cao

et al. 2023

Energy Science & Engineering

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Leakage is one of the most serious challenges for the safe production of high‐pressure gas wells for its high risks, including abnormal annular pressure, natural gas accumulation, and environment pollution, but available methods can hardly accurately measure the leakage type and depth, which are the key parameters for the rigless leakage repair and risk assessment. Therefore, this paper proposes a method to measure the leakage based on the characteristics, which combines qualitative and quantitative measurement together. Qualitative measurement considers the annular pressure, tubing pressure, liquid level, cement quality, and workover history. Quantitative measurement is determined by noise logging, electromagnetic logging, pressure logging, and temperature logging. The logging should be optimized according to the qualitative measurement. The method was successfully applied in high‐pressure gas well belonging to Tarim Oilfield. Two potential leakage types are provided based on the annular pressure, liquid level, cement quality, and workover history, including tubing leakage and linger hanger leakage. Based on the potential leakage types, the pressure difference, logging devices string, stopping length, and time are optimized to make the engineering logging reliable. Through measurement, two leakage points are found in tubing string. One is tubing body crack at the depth of 2724 m and the other is tubing thread leakage at the depth of 5211.7 m, which well matches the production data.

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A portrait of wellbore leakage in northeastern British Columbia, Canada

Cited by 57 publications

References 15 publications

Public data from three US states provide new insights into well integrity

Public data from three US states provide new insights into well integrity

Density and proximity to hydraulic fracturing wells and birth outcomes in Northeastern British Columbia, Canada

Measurement of wellbore leakage in high‐pressure gas well based on the multiple physical signals and history data: Method, technology, and application

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