Well Integrity - Next Developments

Abstract

Abstract Step changes in the area of Well Integrity is often based on HSE, production regularity and intervention cost. Well Integrity is a relatively new area of expertise, where small and larger quantitative and qualitative improvements can be expected. With change in technology comes procedural changes. With more significant improvements comes organizational changes. This paper shed some lights on some improvements in the pipeline for future Well Integrity Management. Some step changes are more evident as new equipment are qualified. Other improvements may be more intangible, like procedural or organizational changes. An overview has been made per phases a well is subjected to, in an approach to understand where it is likely to see progress in the area of Well Integrity. The overview follows a typical life cycle of a well to map out the processes and work where a well's barriers, integrity and containment are either planned, established or active. One important issue learned from making an overview of the Well Integrity activities through the life cycle of a well is how the work is divided between different groups in an organization with different responsibility and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Updating and reporting integrity status, providing performance and reliability data across lines is in itself a challenging task. The Integrity of a well is often tied to the capacity to contain fluids. The processes which happen on the outside of the barrier envelopes are also important. It can be gas migration leading to sustained casing pressure, exposure to mobile corrosive fluids, subsidence or formation collapse. Traditionally, monitoring pressure in the production annulus has been the main indicator of integrity and source of information. Many operators acknowledge that monitoring the other annular pressures are important and have long desired automatic surveillance of the next annulus.