Life Cycle Well Integrity of CO2 Storage Wells:

Engineering Imperatives for Success

AADE - IETG Conference – March 25, 2021

Talib Syed, P.E.

www.talibsyed-assoc.com
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1 720.877.1272 (m)
Outline of Presentation – Life Cycle Well Integrity of CO2 Storage Injectors

• Well Integrity
- Definition and Importance
- Life Cycle Well Integrity
• Life Cycle Well Integrity – Key Engineering Imperatives for Success
- Well Design and Construction Phase
- Casing design
- Cement design/ primary cementing
- Material selection/tubulars/completion
- Operations/Production Phase (including well interventions/workovers)
- Maintaining Well Integrity
- Plugging & Abandonment
• Summary

2
 Global CCS
Overview of existing and projects EUROPE
planned CCS facilities 1. Leilac
2. Port of Antwerp
12. Aramis (Den Helder)
13. Sleipner CO2 Storage
3. CO2 EOR Project Croatia
14. Snøhvit CO2 Storage
4. iCORD
15. Northern Lights
5. Bio-Refinery plant
16. Acorn
6. Lacq
17. Caledonia Clean Energy
14 7. DMX Demonstration
18. Preem CCS
in Dunkirk
19. H21 North of England
8. ERVIA
20. Liverpool-Manchester
15 9. Porthos (Port of
Hydrogen Cluster
Rotterdam)
1 16 21. Net Zero Teesside
13 10. Athos (Ijmond)
2 17 18 22. Humber Zero Carbon
3 20 21 11. Magnum
4
Cluster
19 (Eemshaven)
5 8
22 9 10
2
11 12 ASIA PACIFIC
7 1
12 20 3 1. Gorgon Carbon Dioxide Injection
4 5
18 6 2. CarbonNet
4
10 13 6 3. South West Hub
11 9
21 19 16
23 8 10 5 14 4. Jilin Oil Field CO2-EOR
14 6
24 12
22 7 7
5. Sinopec Qilu Petrolchemical CCS
9 11 17
15 6. Yanchang Integrated
1 CCS Demonstration
2 4 8
3 13 7. Sinopec Eastern China
NORTH AMERICA CCS
8. China Resource Power
1. Quest (Haifeng) Integrated CCUS
13. Shute Creek Gas Processing Plant
2. Boundary Dam CCS Demonstration
14. Enid Fertilizer
3. Alberta Carbon Trunk Line 9. Huaneng Greengen IGCC
15. Terrell Natural Gas Processing
(ACTL) with North West Project (Phase3)
Plant (formerly Del Verde)
Redwater Partnership's 10. Shenhua Ningxia CTL
Sturgeon Refinery CO2 Stream 16. Wabash CO2 Sequestration
11. N/A
4. Lehigh’s Edmonton plant 17. Lake Charles Methanol
5. Alberta Carbon Trunk Line 18. Dry Fork Integrated Commercial
MIDDLE EAST 12. Sinopec Shengli Power Plant
CCS
(ACTL) with Agrium CO2 CCS 1. N/A
Stream 13. N/A
19. CarbonSAFE Illinois -Macon 1 2. Uthmaniyah CO2-EOR Demonstration
6. Illinois Industrial Carbon County 14. Korea-CCS 1 & 2
3. Abu Dhabi CCS (Phase 1 1
Capture and Storage (ICCS) 20. Project Tundra being Emirates Steel 3
7. Petra Nova 21. Integrated Mid-Continent Stacked Cindustires)
8. Coffeyville Gasification Plant Carbon Storage Hub 4. Abu Dhabi CCS Phase 2 - Natural 2
9. Air Products Steam 22. Oxy and White Energy Ethanol EOR Gas Processing Plant
Methane Reformer Facility CENTRAL AND
23. Oxy and Carbon Engineering Direct
10. Lost Cabin Gas Plant
11. Century Plant
Air Capture and Eor Facility SOUTH AMERICA
24. Project ECO2S: Early CO2 Storage 1. Petrobras Santos Basin Pre-salt
12. Great Plains Synfuels Plant
Complex in Kemper County Oil Field CCS
and Weyburn-Midale

3
 Well Integrity - Definition

• “Application of technical, operational, and organizational

solutions to reduce the risk of an uncontrolled release and/or
unintended movement of well fluids throughout the life-cycle of
a well” (NORSOK Standard D-010 and API RP 90)

• “Containment and the prevention of the escape of fluids to

subterranean formations or surface” (ISO 16530-1)

Note: Well integrity differs from wellbore integrity (borehole

instability) – open hole interval that does not retain its gauge
and/or structural integrity

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 Well Integrity vs. Wellbore Integrity
• Well integrity differs from Wellbore integrity (Borehole instability) – open
hole interval that does not retain its gauge and/or structural integrity
• Types of borehole instabilities:
 Hole closure/narrowing;
 Hole enlargement/washouts
 Fracturing
 Collapse
• Borehole instability prevention:
 Maintain proper mud-weight; borehole fluid compatible with drilled
formation
 Use proper hydraulics to control equivalent circulating density (ECD)
 Select proper hole trajectory

5
 Why is Well Integrity Important?
(Skinner – http://www.worldoil.com/January 2003)

Blowout during workover to clean out fill Blowout showing effects of expansion cooling
in miscible CO2 injector when pressure containment is lost –dry ice
6
• Include unique CO2 phase
behavior in well and piping CO2 Phase Behavior (Oilfield Review September 2015)
design, operations and in
well intervention

• Low corrosion risk when

injected stream is dry (CO2
purity > 95%) and in
supercritical stage

• Long-term stability of
wellbore materials is
complex. Incorporate
material and reservoir
properties into well
design/completion programs

7
Well integrity – Life cycle governance (ISO 16530-1)

References: (1) ISO 16530-1-2017 – Well Integrity Part 1: Life cycle governance – www.iso.org;
(2) https://oilandgasuk.co.uk/product/well-life-cycle-integrity-guidelines; (3)
www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/ed-well-integrity.pdf; (4) http://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/wells.htm

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 Well Integrity
• Complex loads/stresses on casing/tubing and cements from CO2 injection handled with
appropriate software
• Impacts of CO2 corrosion on well tubular and cements handled with appropriate selection
of materials of construction (MOC)
• Minimize thermal cycling (on-off injection and CO2 supply disruption) to avoid potential
cement debonding and injectivity effects
• Annular pressure monitoring – primary concern is loss of well control (SCP etc.) (API RP-
90, NORSOK D-010, ISO 16530-1)
• Proper maintenance of CO2 injection wells necessary – well integrity surveys, improved
BOPE maintenance, crew training and awareness, contingency/emergency response
• User-friendly, complete and up-to-date well data (including handovers)
• Analyze data, audit losses due to well integrity
• Monitoring – flowing and annular pressures; gas and fluid rates/composition
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 Well Integrity (Continued)

• CO2 transported and injected at a high pressure (above 1,100 psi)

- danger from its high coefficient of thermal expansion

• Loss of well control (LWC)/blowouts during workovers is significant

concern from CO2 phase behavior and high pressure
- Failures from CO2 – related corrosion of well materials can cause LWC

• High injection pressures with low injection fluid temperatures can induce
hydraulic fracturing – geo-mechanical models to determine in-situ
stresses and fault activation hazard

• Locate CO2 storage wells far away from faults

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Why Mechanical Analysis?

A well is a stressful environment

Production/Injection

Temperature changes in upper

casings during production/injection
Pressure changes: drilling, production
injection

Permanent well abandonment

Formation changes/tectonic activity

Well completion/perforation/stimulation
(Kirksey, 2013)

11
Common Well Integrity Challenges

Weatherford, 2014

12
Overview of State-of-Art Casing Design Software

Casing
Design

Multi-string Drill
Design Design
Integrated
Modules

Tubing Production
Design Design

13
 Good Cementing Practices
• Wellbore geometry
• Centralization
• Hole conditioning and mud displacement
• Proper use of spacers and plugs
• Casing movement
• Accurate BHCT and downhole pressure
• Cementing software - CemCADETM, OptiCemTM, IntegraStarTM
- Cover all potential flow zones. Uncemented zones may not flow in short-term but may lead
to SCP (sustained casing pressure) over long term
- Pressure tests – to confirm isolation at shoe (FIT/LOT)
- Post-job information: Cement top (TOC), evaluation of recorded job data – pressure, rate,
density, other problems
- Data from logging tools

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 Stresses on the Cement Sheath
Tensile cracks De-bonding steel/
•Wellbore pressure cement interface
increase
•Wellbore pressure
•Wellbore decrease
temperature
•Temperature
increase
decrease
•Cement shrinkage
•Casing movement
•Cement expansion

De-bonding cement/
Potential Results
rock interface
•Loss of Well Integrity
•Formation stress
decrease •Sustained Casing
Pressures
•Wellbore pressure
decrease •Collapsed Casing
•Hydraulic fracturing
•Cement shrinkage (Kirksey, 2013)

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 Cement job evaluation – Indirect Methods
Since proper primary cementing is critical to well integrity, cement job evaluation is
“indispensable”.
General indicators of success: full returns, lift pressure, and on-time plug landing

Full returns – volume of mud returns during cement job equals volume of fluids (spacer,
cement and mud) pumped into well (if not lost returns or lost circulation)

Lift pressure – steady increase in pump pressure observed at appropriate time after
cement is pumped. Indicates cement has “turned the corner” and is filling up annulus (and
not being lost to formation)

Plug landed or bumped – pressure spikes on rig gauges when expected, indicates plugs
landed properly and cement flowed out of shoe track into annulus (and not contaminated
with mud)

Pressure and volume indicators will not show channeling or TOC (run CBL/USIT) 16
 Cement job evaluation techniques – Hydraulic Testing
Pressure testing - most common technique to confirm zonal isolation

• Casing Integrity Test – performed first to verify mechanical integrity of casing. Straight line –
good test, otherwise indicates poor cement job at shoe – requires remedial cementing

• Leak Off Test (LOT) and Formation/Pressure Integrity Test (FIT/PIT) – Objectives: (1) verify
cement seal around shoe and (2) determine wellbore capability to withstand pressures below the
casing shoe to determine setting depth of next casing (include SF in case of kick). LOT and FIT
are basically the same – former carries pressure increase to the formation fracture point – latter up
to pressure required to drill ahead but not to fracture. If tests are not good, may require a squeeze
job or drilling liner in extreme cases

• Inflow testing (also known as dry testing) is a drill stem test (DST) to assess the isolation.
Essentially opposite of a pressure test – the pressure inside casing is reduced and the well
monitored to detect ingress of formation fluids. Successful dry test shows no downhole pressure
change during the opening of the downhole valve or during the following shut-in period

17
Cement Job Evaluation with Acoustic Logs – Current Techniques
• Ultrasonic Imaging Tool (USIT), CAST-V (Circumferential Acoustic
Scanning Tool – Visualization) and UltraView - continuously rotating pulse-
echo type tool with nearly 100% coverage of the casing wall (acoustic
impedance – Z).

• The Segmented Bond Tool (SBT) measures quality of cement effectiveness,

vertically and laterally around the circumference of the casing in 6 segment.
Generally, run with VDL (variable density log)

• The Isolation Scanner combines pulse-echo technology with ultrasonic

technique of flexural wave imaging to evaluate cement job and casing condition.
Covers a wide range of cements – heavy, traditional to light weight cements.

• Other logs used to determine top of cement and channeling: Temperature,

Radioactive tracer (RTS), Boron – Pulsed Neutron, Oxygen activation (OA)

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 Cements for CO2 - Rich Environments
Cements for CO2 EOR and CO2 GS
• CO2 -laden waters can degrade the structural integrity of set Portland cement and
lead to a loss of casing corrosion protection and zonal isolation. Addition of
pozzolans and latex can reduce the set cement permeability and lower the
corrosion rate by as much as 50%.
• Specialty CO2 -resistant cements (EverCRETETM) are in increasing use for CO2 GS
wells (to demonstrate long-term well integrity) and can be used for both primary
cementing as well as for P&A purposes
• Self-healing cements for CO2 service showing promise – engineered particle size
distribution (EPSD) blend containing a reactive material that swells upon contact
with CO2. Swelling allows closures of micro-fissures, heals the cement sheath and
reestablishes well integrity

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 Cement Design Flow Path (Kirksey, 2013)

Roles:
Conventional
Lab Testing Cementing Engineer Drlg Engineer
WLLog
LWD Data Petrophysicist Wireline Engineer
Contamination Project Coordinator Lab Engineer
Tests
Caliper
Processing

Final Cement Job Final

Initial Real-Time (RT) Iterative Client
Design and Post job Evaluation of Results of
Cement Updates to Cement Job Cement Execution Review
Centralizer Cement
Design Design
Arrangement Isolation

Cement
Properties
RTSurvey RT Cement Job Report
RTCaliper Petrophysics Execution CBL*/USI* or
Isolation Scanner*
Drilling Log
Adjustments

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 Well Design & Construction (Drilling/Workovers)

• CO2 EOR and CO2 storage well designs are similar, with latter more stringent in some
cases (CO2 -resistant tubular and cement)

• Due to unique CO2 phase behavior, be aware of potential for loss of well control
(especially during well intervention/workovers)

• CO2 stored for a long period (decades). Specific requirements for well design and
monitoring and abandonment (MMV – monitoring measurement and verification)
depending on jurisdiction

• Drilling in CO2 injection environments results in complex loading conditions on

casing/tubular/cements etc. Use casing design software such as WELLCATTM , DrillPlanTM
and also appropriate materials of construction for CO2 service (tubulars and cements)

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 Material Selection & Specifications

• Material selection for CO2 injection wells depends on high strength combined with
high corrosion resistance. Use appropriate corrosion resistant metallurgy
• Run chemical analysis of reservoir fluids; run temperature and pressure profiles
and stresses on tubulars
• Consider contact with wet CO2 especially in deeper sections of well
• Consider performance at low temperatures (brittle materials may not stop CO2
leakage), and O2 – related impacts
• Use appropriate corrosion resistant metallurgy
• Cementing is critical for mechanical performance and life cycle well integrity.
• Use appropriate cements/specialty cements for zonal isolation and well integrity.
• Use current industry best practices for successful cement design, execution and
evaluation

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 Injectivity and Regularity

• Injectivity and injection regularity critical for success of a CCS storage project
(storage of millions of tons of CO2 in a 50-year time frame)
• For CO2 EOR objective is to maximize oil recovery, while for storage wells is to
maximize injection volumes/storage capacity with minimum number of wells
• Large scale CO2 storage requires good/sufficient capacity reservoirs with good
petrophysical properties (dissipate pressure buildup and avoid interference with
adjacent O&G operations, if present)
• Injection can alter mechanical rock properties by inducing chemical reactions
• CO2 EOR project economics greatly impacted with injectivity loss and
corresponding reservoir pressure loss
• Injectivity loss factors: wettability, trapping, salt/halite precipitation, increased
scaling, paraffin and asphaltene precipitation. Additional factors: fines migration,
borehole deformation, fault intersection, facies variation and shale swelling
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 Typical Well Plugging & Abandonment
• Quality of a P&A evaluated by
type of plugging material and
plug placement technique

• Plugging materials: cements,

formation, grouts, thermosetting
polymers(resins), gels, metals
(bismuth/thermite)

• Placement techniques:
Balanced plug, Dump-bailer,
Two-plug and Jet grouting

• Successful P&A protects

environment, with downhole
integrity, regulatory compliance Source: Randhol and Carlsen/SINTEF, 2001
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 Summary
• Imperatives for Success in Maintaining Life Cycle Well Integrity of CO2
Storage Wells: Industry has the technology, knowledge, experience:

 To safely handle and manage CO2 operations; to avoid potential

catastrophic impacts to safety, human health, environment, economic
loss; and maintain Social License to operate

 Original well design and conversions must meet critical casing and
cementing requirements with appropriate materials of construction
(tubular and cements)

 Implement best practices/sound engineering for well

design/construction/injection

 Implement appropriate well integrity testing and monitoring procedures

and compliance with stringent regulatory requirements
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