Wesley
Both Mike and Olli make some very good points. Having someone on board with
local knowledge of completion, operating, intervention and abandonment
practices utilized at the time the wells were active is vital to
understanding what obstacles you may encounter plugging the wells. Also
plugging the well is only one step of abandonment. There will be challenges
will equipment, flowline, pit, and facility abandonment as well as site
restoration and environmental impacts. With that said, Olli's comments are
also well stated and can be of value in planning your abandonment strategy.
Another challenge will be finding actual records of the wells. All to often,
the regulatory records are not accurate concerning the final condition of
the wellbore or what equipment is downhole. Doing a thorough record search
and talking to people who were familiar with the wells, like former
operators or pumpers, can be extremely valuable. Also doing well inspections
and diagnostics before developing an abandonment plan can be of great value.
The challenges that your company and Alaska are facing is being shared
throughout the US as states are dealing with their orphan well programs and
utilizing the new Federal Grants that have been made available. Many people
do not understand that it takes a company with experience managing the
complexities of government contracts and large-scale project management to
meet the requirements requested, and most service companies are unable or
unwilling to take the risk.
One last comment I have is that make sure your organization has someone with
experience developing a well abandonment strategy and organization that
encompasses the entire abandonment process, safety, vendor selection, cost
control, document and quality control, and regulatory interaction.
Chuck Greer, President
CRG Consulting Group, a Division of CRG Oilfield Abandonment LLC
10319 Armstrong Dr, Iowa Colony, TX 77583
Cell: 832-792-0067
Email:
Chuck.Greer@crgoarn.com <mailto:
chuck.greer@crgoarn.com>
Web:
www.crgoarn.com <http:
www.crgoarn.com/=""> ,
www.crgconsultinggroup.net <http:
www.crgconsulting="">
Original Message:
Sent: 10/12/2022 12:19:00 PM
From: Oliver Coker
Subject: RE: US Well Abandonment funded by DOI
Mike
I would challenge that response. Wells are wells anywhere. Yes, there will be local differences, and practices -- and knowing those is paramount. But experiences from elsewhere and and other times are not totally useless. Its up to the user to discern what is useful.
My 'for what its worth' (and yes, maybe not worth anything).
In my 40+ years in the oilfield, I have been called upon to plug many wells with spud dates from 1929 - 1960. Here is some of the things I've seen below but the important thing to remember is that even if you spend time in old records and with experienced local folks, you are still probably going to encounter the unexpected, But-- you already know that.
For wells from that era, I recall some of the following:
1. A lot of wells had iron junk, cloth, paper, and rocks used for at least part of the plugging material.
2. 'Pine plugs' were often used - Trimmed wood plugs driven downhole, with a sack of cement dropped on top.
3. Some of the older wells and especially those during the WWII years had odd sized casing -- line pipe for casing, cast iron casing, and even wood or clay pipes used in the surface casing.
4. We encountered a lot of non-reservoir fractured zones with fresh and salt water, air, nitrogen and other effluents.
5. It was common in those days to simply cut sacks of cement and pour it into the wellbore. You can imagine what results from this up and down the wellbore.
6. As you are probably aware, many of the older wells (including those that did not produce) were 'tested' by 'stimulating' with nitroglycerin -- leaving large caverns at those depths. We encountered a few those where it was not in the records.
In some more recent north-slope wells, we had to dig out the surface casing to a failure point with a backhoe and dozers. Surface subsidence from melting permafrost was encountered early-on. I would refer you to a paper by Malcolm Goodman at Exxon on that. I have no idea if the early wells had that issue, but if so, you may encounter compression-damaged casing.
I hope this bit of history helps, or at least was entertaining.
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Olli Coker
Diamond C Enterprises
Manager
OlliC3@gmail.com
Former ConocoPhillips and Altus Well Experts
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-12-2022 09:58 AM
From: Mike Loudermilk
Subject: US Well Abandonment funded by DOI
Wesley,
I only say these things because there are a lot of people that would love to give you advice. But it has been in my experience that free advice is worth nothing. I have no idea the challenges you will face and for anyone to try to somehow bestow knowledge at this point when they know nothing about the wells would not be valuable. Best to hire people to do the job that have a vested interest and the experience to know that plugging old wells is not paint by numbers. One thing I do know is that your logistics problems of getting the right equipment to the right place on time is a problem not many face down here in the lower 48.
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Mike Loudermilk
COO
Volturo NRG
Spring Texas
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-11-2022 04:16 PM
From: WESLEY NASON
Subject: US Well Abandonment funded by DOI
Thanks, Mike. The State of Alaska is issuing an RFP for this work. The first tranche of twelve orphan wells are distributed as follows: 2 on North Slope (remote access), 2 in Southeast Alaska near Cordova (remote access), and 8 in Southcentral Alaska between Big Lake and Eureka. Many of these were drilled in the 1950's and 1960's.
.
We have a qualified petroleum/drilling engineer consulting with us. None of these 'wells' have produced. I don't believe the southcentral wells have any significant downhole pressure issues. I'm more interested in what to expect when entering wells this old and thought there could be some relevant information gained from some Lower 48 cases.
------------------------------
Wesley Nason
Technical Manager
Michael Baker International
wesley.nason@mbakerintl.com