Potential Utilization of Settled Barite as Permanent Barrier Material
Master thesis
View/ Open
Date
2019-06-14Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
- Studentoppgaver (TN-IEP) [323]
Abstract
The focus on permanent Plug and Abandonment (P&A) has increased the last few years, due to aging infrastructure of many of the fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). Permanent P&A introduces significant expenses with no financial returns for the license holders, the state, and the Norwegian tax payers who contribute with 78% of the total costs of P&A. The dominant part of the P&A time is associated with cutting and pulling casing to be able to establish a cross-sectional barrier. To avoid the time-consuming operations of pulling casing out of barite and other settled solids in annulus, an investigation of barite as an annular barrier would be beneficial. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate barite settlement as an opportunity for the industry, and not a challenge. The thesis will highlight factors that are essential for considering barite as a permanent barrier material. To do so, a literature study on P&A and barite in general was conducted, and an experimental part was initiated.
The potential financial savings are enormous if utilization of barite as a permanent barrier material is feasible. To potentially utilize settled barite as a permanent barrier material, a method to identify the settled barite behind the casing must be established. After identification of settled barite, field verification of the barrier must be conducted. In this thesis methods for further investigation regarding identification and verifications procedures are described, to serve as a start point for further investigation. Adding to this, some preliminary laboratory testing has been initiated in to create some set point values for further research. The main experimental set-up consists of a 3.5 meter long pipe. In this pipe, a self-made barite plug is going to be pressure tested, with the aim of publishing the results to spike further interest for investigation on the subject.
Description
Master's thesis in Petroleum Engineering