A Screening Tool for Assessing Feasibility of Re-using Existing Oil and Gas Wells for CCUS Operations

12 Pages Posted: 8 Apr 2021

See all articles by Rajesh Pawar

Rajesh Pawar

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Logan Brunner

TNO – Applied Geosciences

Kaj van der Valk

TNO – Applied Geosciences

Lonneke van Bijsterveldt

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Dylan Harp

Government of the United States of America - Los Alamos National Laboratory

Bailian Chen

Government of the United States of America - Los Alamos National Laboratory

Laurent Cangemi

IFP Energies Nouvelles

Alexandra Dudu

National Research and Development Institute for Marine Geology and Geoecology

Nicolas Guy

IFP Energies Nouvelles

Nils Opedal

SINTEF Industry

John Williams

British Geological Survey

Date Written: April 5, 2021

Abstract

An increasing number of oil and gas fields around the world are coming to the end of their production lifetime and have been earmarked as potential targets for deploying large-scale carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) operations. Existing oil and gas fields offer several advantages such as availability of existing infrastructure including wells as well as significant prior knowledge about the field through characterization and operational data. Existing wells at these fields could potentially be used as CO2 injection wells, monitoring wells or production wells for pressure management. Re-using existing oil and gas infrastructure may be particularly crucial for offshore environments where new well development costs could otherwise be prohibitive. Prior to converting the existing oil and gas wells, feasibility of their use as part of a CO2 storage operation will have to be evaluated while taking into consideration operational and safety requirements. Currently there are no standard approaches available for assessing the potential of converting existing wells for re-use in CCUS operations, and no public tools are available to aid the assessment process.

As part of the REX-CO2 (Re-using EXisting wells for CO2 storage operations) project funded by the ACT (Accelerating CCS Technologies) program, we have developed a workflow and a well screening tool that will aid in evaluating the feasibility of repurposing existing wells as CO2 storage site wells. The workflow was informed by applicable standards such as ISO 27914, regulatory requirements such as the US-EPA’s Class VI regulation and publicly available information from projects that have performed detailed assessments of using existing oil and gas wells for CO2 storage, including the Peterhead, Kingsnorth and PORTHOS projects. Our assessment approach and the tool are designed to simultaneously save CO2 storage projects resources and time by identifying existing infrastructure that is safe to re-use, while determining which wells must be remediated to ensure safe, long-term storage. The functionality of the tool will be evaluated and validated on six case study sites, one in each of the REX-CO2 project’s partner countries (France, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, the UK, and the USA).

Keywords: reuse, existing infrastructure, repurpose hydrocarbon wells, well integrity assessment

Suggested Citation

Pawar, Rajesh and Brunner, Logan and van der Valk, Kaj and van Bijsterveldt, Lonneke and Harp, Dylan and Chen, Bailian and Cangemi, Laurent and Dudu, Alexandra and Guy, Nicolas and Opedal, Nils and Williams, John, A Screening Tool for Assessing Feasibility of Re-using Existing Oil and Gas Wells for CCUS Operations (April 5, 2021). Proceedings of the 15th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference 15-18 March 2021, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3819822 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3819822

Rajesh Pawar (Contact Author)

Los Alamos National Laboratory ( email )

MS T003
Los Alamos, NM 87545
United States

Logan Brunner

TNO – Applied Geosciences ( email )

Princetonlaan 6
Utrecht, 3584 CB
Netherlands

Kaj Van der Valk

TNO – Applied Geosciences ( email )

Princetonlaan 6
Utrecht, 3584 CB
Netherlands

Lonneke Van Bijsterveldt

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Dylan Harp

Government of the United States of America - Los Alamos National Laboratory ( email )

Los Alamos, NM 87545
United States

Bailian Chen

Government of the United States of America - Los Alamos National Laboratory ( email )

Los Alamos, NM 87545
United States

Laurent Cangemi

IFP Energies Nouvelles ( email )

1 & 4, avenue de Bois-Préau
Rueil-Malmaison
Paris, 92852
France

Alexandra Dudu

National Research and Development Institute for Marine Geology and Geoecology ( email )

Str. Dimitrie Onciul, Nr. 23-25
Bucharest, RO-024053
Romania

Nicolas Guy

IFP Energies Nouvelles ( email )

1 & 4, avenue de Bois-Préau
Rueil-Malmaison
Paris, 92852
France

Nils Opedal

SINTEF Industry ( email )

Post box 4760 Torgarden
Trondheim, NO-7465
Norway

John Williams

British Geological Survey

Nottingham
United Kingdom

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