Challenges in Setting Cement Plugs in Deep-water Operations

Bogaerts, Martijn; Kanahuati, Alia Iza; Khalilova, Polina R.; Moretti, Fabricio; Voon, Eric; Dighe, Shailesh

doi:10.2118/155736-ms

Cited by 14 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…If the space of pipe is filled by fluid, then there will be contamination of the cement plug and leakage pathways created. The pulling speeds are regulated at 480 ft/hour (0.04 m/s) to avoid drilling fluid mixing with the slurry (Bogaerts et al, 2012). Thus, there is a need to choose the correct diameter for stinger tubing.…”

Section: Summary Of Current Panda Technologies and Their Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Past, Present, and Future Technologies for Permanent Plugging and Abandonment of Wellbores and Restoration of Subsurface Geologic Barriers

Achang

Radonjic

2020

Environmental Engineering Science

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Leakage of oil & gas during fossil fuel exploration, production, and transportation poses a major environmental challenge that impacts the quality of air, water, soil, and ultimately the life on Earth. The result of uncontrolled spills & leakages may cause the contamination of groundwater as well as methane emission into the atmosphere increasing global warming, while the spills in open waters in the case of offshore wellbores impact fragile marine ecosystems. The United States alone has *1.7 million wellbores with an American Petroleum Institute (API) number indicating that they have not been permanently plugged and therefore require Plugging and Abandonment (P&A) in the future. However, there remain thousands of wells drilled before the 1950s that were not properly P&A.Improper P&A of boreholes are potential pathways for leakage as well as already existing leaky plugs. The objective of this literature review is to (1) assess subsurface conditions where P&A materials need to be placed, (2) assess the challenges encountered during barrier placement in wellbores under current P&A technologies, (3) appraise contaminations of barrier materials by drilling fluid and possible mitigation, and (4) discuss the future requirements of P&A materials and technology involved in restoring subsurface sealing barriers interrupted by drilling. The review indicates that to achieve permanent P&A in the future, two major challenges must be addressed: (1) innovation & improvement of the barrier materials, and (2) advancements and innovation of the placement methods. The major insight from this article is that re-establishment of a permanent seal capable of withstanding subsurface geomechanical and geochemical changes will involve engineered materials and processes providing sealing in the early stages (1-50 years) and geomaterials and geological processes take over and provide permanent seals, for thousands of years to geological times. Thus no single solution can be successful for future P&A campaigns.

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Section: Summary Of Current Panda Technologies and Their Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Past, Present, and Future Technologies for Permanent Plugging and Abandonment of Wellbores and Restoration of Subsurface Geologic Barriers

Achang

Radonjic

2020

Environmental Engineering Science

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“…High‐strength resin systems, such as epoxies, phenolics, and furans, have been utilized to achieve sand control, water/gas shutoff (Kapustin and Makhin, 2012; Lu et al, 2011; Xiao et al, 2014; Zhang, 2007), diverting agent acidification (Crowe, 1971; Smith et al, 1965), casing leak repair, and zonal isolation in chemical disposal wells. Specifically, issues involving water incompatibility associated with common aromatic epoxy resins have been solved through developing a water‐dispersible epoxy‐resin system (Bogacrts et al, 2012; Beharie et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seepage Characteristics of Emulsion with Phase Transition Behaviors

Jiang

Sun³

et al. 2020

J Surfact & Detergents

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Petroleum resins have excellent thermal tolerance and selective plugging capability. As the environment temperature exceeds their softening point, petroleum resins transform from a solid into a viscous Newton fluid, accompanied by the transformation of the system from particle dispersoid to emulsion. The presence of phase transition decides that the seepage regularity and plugging characteristics of petroleum resins are different from either particle dispersoid or emulsion. Herein, rheological measurements and physical model flooding experiments were performed to investigate the injection and plugging performance of petroleum resins. A correlation chart of the injection pressure, formation permeability, and the ratio of resin particle size to pore diameter is established. The dispersoid is demonstrated to present good injectivity when the ratio of the resin particle size to the pore‐throat diameter of the porous media is lower than 0.35. Moreover, when the environment temperature is lower than or around the petroleum resin softening point, the injection performance of the dispersoid is not affected by temperature. Comparably, while the environment temperature is 30 °C higher than the resin softening point, the injection pressure increases due to phase transition. As indicated by the plugging experiment, the presented petroleum resin dispersoid plugging agent manifests excellent performance even in the case that the permeability of water‐channeling paths is up to 20 μm2, reaching a water plugging efficiency of over 85%. For water‐channeling fractures with widths of 0.05–0.5 mm, the plugging pressure gradient can exceed 5 MPa m−1. As suggested by combined analysis of injection and plugging performance, the disperse system should be optimized in accordance with the formation condition during field practice. Specifically, the ratio of the resin particle size to the formation pore diameter should be kept lower than 0.35, while the softening point of the petroleum resin should be 10–20 °C lower than the formation temperature.

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“…The general plug cementing process involves selecting the location for the plug, positioning the end of the work string at the bottom of the desired plug depth, mixing and pumping a cement slurry down the work string into the wellbore, removing the work string from the cement column and allowing the cement slurry to harden [51][52][53]. The plug cementing is in general used for well or zone abandonment and to ensure zonal isolation or well stability.…”

Section: Cementing Jobsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemo-Physico-Mechanical Behavior of Class G Oil Well Cement Pastes

LIMA¹

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Challenges in Setting Cement Plugs in Deep-water Operations

Cited by 14 publications

References 1 publication

A Review of Past, Present, and Future Technologies for Permanent Plugging and Abandonment of Wellbores and Restoration of Subsurface Geologic Barriers

A Review of Past, Present, and Future Technologies for Permanent Plugging and Abandonment of Wellbores and Restoration of Subsurface Geologic Barriers

Seepage Characteristics of Emulsion with Phase Transition Behaviors

Chemo-Physico-Mechanical Behavior of Class G Oil Well Cement Pastes

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