Development of High Integrity Well Abandonment Plugs

This project addresses the need for high integrity offshore oil and gas well abandonment plugs, required for the North Sea in the upcoming wave of platform removals (decommissioning). Currently, abandonment is achieved through plugging the well bore with two columns of cement up to 160 meters in length and there remain questions regarding its cost effectiveness and its ability to effectively seal long term.
The overall objective of the project is to develop a cost effective and high performing
alternative to the current system of cement plugs qualified to the appropriate industry
standards. Specifically, this is to be a range of metal alloy plugs to act as a highly reliable, lightweight plugging and abandonment solution for offshore facilities utilisation that will be simpler and cheaper to install than the current solution. The use of metal alloy plugs for well abandonment has already been demonstrated in the onshore environment in Canada and this project will show that the principles are transferrable to the more demanding conditions seen in the North Sea.
The development of the solution shall be split into two phases: -
i. Phase 0 – Material testing to confirm viability of a range of metal
alloys as a material suitable for use in well abandonment, proving the principal of casting this material under various conditions of: pressure, temperature and aqueous solutions and determining the as cast mechanical properties of the alloys to enable detail design to be progressed.
ii. Phase 1 - Prototype design, development and manufacture of a different
configurations of plugs that can be tested in accordance with the appropriate industry
standards determine the plug performance envelopes