Assessing the Reusability of Legacy Wells for Ccs Projects: A Screening Framework, its Application and the Impact

10 Pages Posted: 9 Nov 2022

See all articles by Vedran Zikovic

Vedran Zikovic

TNO – Applied Geosciences

Maartje Koning

TNO – Applied Geosciences

Kaj van der Valk

TNO – Applied Geosciences

Rajesh Pawar

Los Alamos National Laboratory

John Williams

British Geological Survey

Nils Opedal

SINTEF Industry

Alexandra Dudu

National Research and Development Institute for Marine Geology and Geoecology

Laurent Cangemi

IFP Energies Nouvelles

Date Written: November 9, 2022

Abstract

Existing oil and gas wells have the potential to be re-used for geologic CO2 storage to reach climate goals in the reduction of CO2 emissions while potentially reducing costs associated with well construction for CCS. Currently there are no standard approaches or public tools available to aid in the evaluation of well re-use potential for CO2 storage.

The REX-CO2 (Re-using Existing wells for CO2 storage operations) project, funded by the ACT (Accelerating CCS Technologies) program, has the overall objective to provide decision makers with mechanisms and information to evaluate the re-use potential of existing oil and gas wells. The project has developed an assessment framework translated into a standalone well integrity screening tool based on state-of-the-art practices, standards, guidelines and international reference projects. The framework was supported by technical and regulatory requirements, and experimental well integrity research. The tool is designed to utilize available data on well construction, subsurface geology and well operational history to screen the reusability of the existing wells for CO2 storage operations. Each well is screened against five categories: risk of out of zone injection, well integrity primary barrier envelope, well integrity secondary barrier envelope, structural integrity, and material compatibility. For each of these pillars, decision trees have been developed that guide the user through the assessment process. The tool provides a thorough qualitative evaluation of the current reusability potential of the wells using a color-coding system and highlights the most important integrity issues, which can be used to design and select mitigation options. The tool has been applied to ten international case studies with dozens of wells, covering a wide range of well designs and subsurface settings, with the overall goal to test and demonstrate the evaluation process.

The tool allows a fast, consistent and complete screening of a large portfolio of wells, aiding the identification of promising candidates for potential re-use in a CO2 storage project. Ultimately, learnings from the framework development and case studies were used to develop recommendations for re-using existing wells for CO2 storage.

Keywords: Well integrity, Well re-use assessment, Reusing existing oil and gas wells, Well screening tool

Suggested Citation

Zikovic, Vedran and Koning, Maartje and van der Valk, Kaj and Pawar, Rajesh and Williams, John and Opedal, Nils and Dudu, Alexandra and Cangemi, Laurent, Assessing the Reusability of Legacy Wells for Ccs Projects: A Screening Framework, its Application and the Impact (November 9, 2022). Proceedings of the 16th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference (GHGT-16) 23-24 Oct 2022, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4272846 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4272846

Vedran Zikovic (Contact Author)

TNO – Applied Geosciences ( email )

Princetonlaan 6
Utrecht, 3584 CB
Netherlands

Maartje Koning

TNO – Applied Geosciences

Princetonlaan 6
Utrecht, 3584 CB
Netherlands

Kaj Van der Valk

TNO – Applied Geosciences ( email )

Princetonlaan 6
Utrecht, 3584 CB
Netherlands

Rajesh Pawar

Los Alamos National Laboratory ( email )

MS T003
Los Alamos, NM 87545
United States

John Williams

British Geological Survey

Nottingham
United Kingdom

Nils Opedal

SINTEF Industry ( email )

Post box 4760 Torgarden
Trondheim, NO-7465
Norway

Alexandra Dudu

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

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

Laurent Cangemi

IFP Energies Nouvelles ( email )

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

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