Credit: Darryl Peroni

“We need to be able to understand the market trends, and I think it's pretty clear to many that the activity level is increasing in the decommissioning and Plugging and Abandonment space,” Joppe told DecomWorld.

Although decommissioning growth has not been as fast as expected in the last five to 10 years, “it's the awareness of the market drivers that helps you to prepare for the future,” he said.

To prepare for this growth, Baker Hughes has brought to market new process improvements and is working on other innovations which will soon be announced.

“A lot of the focus has been on more effective casing removal - and although that's not necessarily what you want to do for well P&A, sometimes it's essential to reach those areas where well integrity is an issue. We've made a lot of advances in our cutting and pulling of casing with our Harpoon spear, and we're now developing additional sizes for that,” Joppe said.

With the new innovations and process improvements the company is looking to minimise the time spent over a well with a drilling rig or vessel, which can have a total spread cost of more than $300,000 a day.

The Harpoon technology uses familiar hydraulic cutting techniques coupled with a large number of high-tech improvements to make the spear re-settable, allowing multiple attempts with a single trip. Ultimately, the aim is to “work to that technological limit where every run is a success,” Joppe said.

Baker Hughes has also introduced more wear-resistant cutters to improve the mechanical milling process and has also been working on improving cement evaluation, Joppe added.

Millingis only recommended when you must reach a site without sufficient isolation and the company will soon launch a technique to better evaluate, for example, cases where there is a thick casing wall and lightweight cement, Joppe said.

“Our innovation is to create an acoustic wave directly on the casing rather than inside the logging tool. Pad-mounted sensors ensures log quality is not compromised by moderate decentralization. That makes it easier to evaluate wells with contaminated, lightweight or foam cement.”

This gives information on whether the cement is bonding to the casing, as well as information on the formation and if there is a leak path.

“It's absolutely crucial,” Joppe said.

Market placement

The growth outlook for the decommissioning sector remains uncertain, in particular the timing of when market interest will translate into project tenders. In some cases fields that appeared to be depleted, especially in the Norwegian sector, have carried on producing for 20 years, thanks to the success of enhanced recovery techniques.

There are differing market views on planning decommissioning activity in the low oil price environment.

Some participants argue decommissioning is discretionary spending and can be postponed in favour of activity that bring in or protects revenue, while others say is that it is a buyer's market right now, so why not take advantage of this in case oil prices rise again.

Joppe says both these views are fair to some extent but neither apply to the big projects, where planning has been under way for years, a schedule has been set and, in some cases, entire ships have been built to carry out the heavy lifting.

Whereas the smaller operators, often operating with different margins and smaller cash reserves, are putting the work back a year, the larger companies are sensing an opportunity, he said.

“In the Gulf of Mexico, the work that is happening on the shelf has reduced. Rig activity has subsided significantly, and if you look at the activity levels of the lift boats, there are a lot more available than there have been in a long time. So, we've started discussions with several operators to determine how we can take advantage of this opportunity,” Joppe said.

“Again, the requests will vary customer-to-customer,” he said.

Regulation needs

In terms of revolutionary technology, service companies have to do their research with one eye on the regulators, who will ultimately have to approve its operation, and another on the operators, who want proven solutions to reduce their asset retirement obligations.

“If you have to come back to the well because it has developed a leak all of sudden it becomes much more difficult and so it's going to be a lot more expensive. I agree that a faster solution would be better for the operators but it also needs to be robust and reliable, and tested and accepted by the regulator as well,” Joppe said.

Baker Hughes works closely with clients to ensure their well abandonment solutions are meeting all regulatory standards,” he added

“If you look at today's guidelines and regulations, it drives you towards a certain solution, and it's probably fair to say that the guidelines and regulations need to be reviewed from time to time to evaluate new developments and solutions in well abandonment.”

Operators sometimes go beyond regulatory requirements in the interest of doing a proper job, Joppe said.

In Brazil, for example, regulations do not specifically require the sealing of the outer annuli across the wellbore, but this is an advised step to achieve isolation across the wellbore, he said.

Plugging older wells

Most wells that are being plugged were drilled several decades ago, using different generation technology, working to different regulatory requirements, and a lack of data of the original process brings further challenges.

“These days…we've got a lot of modelling tools that will tell you where the cement is going and you look at the pressures and there's many reports that you can look at when you're trying to understand how the cement job went, so you've got a whole databank on how well the cement job went. [In] Records from just 10 or 20 years ago there's often not enough to go by to assume that you have cement where you need it,” Joppe said.

A recent operation involved a well that had not been looked at for the past 30 years, involving significant well integrity evaluation, all the way down to reach a conclusion on plug placement.

This is a process that can be carried out in several days on a platform, but requires much longer on a subsea well so the costs of simply evaluation can be large, Joppe said.

According to Joppe, the key to arriving at the best solution in this kind of environment with many unknowns, is communication, and collaboration between the service provider and operator to manage the operational risks and keep well abandonment cost-effective.

It may also be beneficial to bring the contractor in at an early stage in the planning process so the operator has a better idea of its options, he said.