Wellbore Integrity: From Theory to Practice

264 Pages·2023·15.522 MB·English

by  Arash Dahi Taleghani, Livio Santos

Arash Dahi Taleghani
Livio Santos
Wellbore
Integrity
From Theory to Practice
Wellbore Integrity
Arash Dahi Taleghani • Livio Santos
Wellbore Integrity
From Theory to Practice
Arash Dahi Taleghani Livio Santos
Energy and Mineral Engineering Energy Institute
Pennsylvania State University Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA, USA University Park, PA, USA
ISBN 978-3-031-19023-0 ISBN 978-3-031-19024-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19024-7
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
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Preface
In recent years (and for years to come), tremendous attention has been given to the
integrity of thousands of wells drilled around the world for different purposes rang-
ing from oil and gas to waste disposal or geological carbon sequestration. The Well
Integrity Management Program is not just about how we can prevent integrity prob-
lems, but rather how we can better manage our wells: knowledge of what we have
in the ground and their status, predicting what can happen, risk assessment and
consequence evaluation, and finally having plans for when the undesired happens.
The most important thing is to have a solid foundation and philosophy for how
you handle well integrity within the company, for instance, “How do you measure
your well integrity?” Well Integrity has for a long time been a buzzword, and many
people call their isolated tasks/products/services as well integrity without seeing/
creating the bigger picture. The green wave movement in the energy sector has
highlighted the significance of this technical area for practitioners, regulators, and
the public. The future generations of petroleum and subsurface engineers should
gain enough expertise in this area to address the growing expectations. This book is
prepared for engineers and graduate students interested in this topic. The back-
ground materials needed for different topics presented are provided to make this
book a self-sufficient resource for an interested reader.
This work was originally developed after late evening discussions with Prof.
Andrzej Wojtanowicz during the first author’s tenure at Lousiana State University.
The first author would also like to acknowledge Dr. Ted Bourgoyne for his encour-
agements and intriguing discussions. He would also like to thank several of his
postdoc and PhD students who contribute to this book and without their help com-
pleting this project would have been impossible: Dr. Livio Santos, Dr. Maryam
Tabatabaei, George Kwatia, Dr. Lu Lee, and Dr. Wei Wang.
Finally, it is worthwile concluding this preface by acknowledging that although
it seems that well integrity concepts and design are state of the art, we must keep in
mind that the industry will keep on evolving and so will well integrity. Consequently,
vii
viii Preface
what the future holds for this concept may be much different from what we see in
the present. In summary, well integrity will always be a “Work in Progress,” it is a
journey, not a destination.
University Park, PA, USA Arash Dahi Taleghani
Livio Santos
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Two-Barrier Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Risk Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Prescriptive vs. Performance-Based Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Technical Evolution of Well Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Unconventional Shale Reservoirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Geothermal Reservoirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Deepwater Drilling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Carbon Dioxide Sequestration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2 Well Integrity Assurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Well Barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Casing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Casing Setting Depth Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Casing Grade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Cement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Plug Bump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Compressive Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Shale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Packers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Tubing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Blowout Preventer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Wellhead and Christmas Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Tree Saver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Safety Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Surface Safety Valves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Subsurface Safety Valves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
ix
x Contents
Gas Lift Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Pneumatic Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Pneumatic Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Pneumatic Pumps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Fluid Migration Pathways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3 Cement and Leakage of Cement Barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Cement Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Cement Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Chemical Corrosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Chemical Degradation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Effects of Thermal and Mechanical Stresses on Cement Sheath . . . . 47
Strength Retrogression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Free Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Cement Bond Failure Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Types of Cement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Thixotropic Cement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Foam Cement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Latex Cement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Nanoengineered Cement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Cement Additives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Accelerators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Retarders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Density Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Viscosity Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Fluid Loss Additives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Lost Circulation Materials—Cements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4 Field Operations: Requirements and Impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Drilling Impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Hydraulic Fracturing Impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Production Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Gas Lift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Underground Natural Gas Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Geological Carbon Sequestration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Geothermal Wells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Hydrogen Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
HS Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
2
Hydrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5 Diagnostic Methods: Integrity Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Leakage Detection Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Testing for SCP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Contents xi
Cement Integrity Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Leakage from Cement Plugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Fiber Optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Tracer Injection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Atmospheric Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Reservoir Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Seismic Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Passive Seismic Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Satellite Based . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
6 Diagnostic Methods: Well Logging Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Cement Bond Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Evaluation Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Cement Bond Log (CBL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Cement Mapping Tools (CMTs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Ultrasonic Cement Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Recent Developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Cased-Hole Logging Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Temperature Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Nuclear Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Noise Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Oxygen Activation Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7 Integrity Assessment Through Numerical Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Stress Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Mechanical Earth Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Cement Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Interfacial Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Casing Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Incorporating Uncertainties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Finite-Element Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Predictability of Various Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Analytical Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
8 Elastomeric Sealing Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Elastomers in Oil and Gas Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Zonal Isolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Well Completion—Hydraulic Fracturing and Cementing . . . . . . . . . 166
Well Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Overview of Elastomer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168