Diagnostics of the technical condition of wells drilled through freshwater horizons using active thermometry

Abstract

Relevance. Recently, ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) principles have been given an important role in the agenda of oil and gas companies – this is an actively developing global trend in the modern business environment. One of its key aspects is a responsible attitude to the environment, increasing the priority of solving environmental problems arising from the extraction of hydrocarbons. A significant environmental problem is, in particular, pollution of freshwater horizons during oil production due to their poor-quality insulation during well cementing. At the same time, in the space of the well behind the casing, there is a flow of borehole fluid to freshwater horizons, which has a negative impact on the environmental situation in this region. In this regard, monitoring the technical condition of wells crossing freshwater horizons is an important and urgent task. Object. An operational well drilled through freshwater horizon, in which geophysical studies are carried out by the method of active thermometry – local heating of the casing section is carried out and the dynamics of the temperature field in it is studied. Aim. To identify qualitative patterns and obtain quantitative estimates of the effect of the fluid flow in the space behind the casing (column space) on the temperature field in the casing. Methods. Numerical mathematical modeling of thermal and hydrodynamic processes in a well using the software package Ansys Fluent (ANSYS Academic Research CFD license, agreement with Bashkir State University dated 06/15/2020). Results. The authors have studied the influence of a plane-parallel horizontal fluid flow of the freshwater horizon on the azimuthal temperature distribution of the casing string during induction heating. It is shown that in the case of leakiness of the cement ring in the interval of the freshwater horizon, an inhomogeneity of the azimuthal temperature distribution of the column is observed, reaching a value of few more K. The authors carried out the simulation of induction heating in the well with liquid column flow to the interval of the freshwater horizon. It is shown that the sign indicating the overflow is the occurrence of a temperature disturbance area vertically above the induction heating interval with a length of more than 1 m. In general, the results of the performed studies show the informativeness of the active thermometry method in relation to the diagnosis of the technical condition of wells drilled through freshwater horizons.