Safety

Approach Allows Safe, Environmentally Sound Well Abandonment in Urban Setting

This paper presents a low-impact solution for well abandonment with fully electrified equipment that mostly uses grid power in an urban area.

Exterior of a sound wall designed to minimize noise pollution in urban areas.
Fig. 1—Exterior of a sound wall designed to minimize noise pollution in urban areas.
OTC 31394.

In the Netherlands, many onshore wells are near urban areas or close to forests where emissions and noise reduction are important to consider. A depth of collaboration is required to ensure minimal impact upon the local community and the environment. The operator, together with Baker Hughes as the project management lead, formulated a low-impact solution with fully electrified equipment that mostly uses grid power.

Scope of Work

The project consists of plugging and abandoning (P&A) onshore oil and gas wells in 23 locations across the Netherlands. The main objective is to abandon all planned wells without any remaining liabilities; reduce cost burdens upon taxpayers; and minimize the impact on people, environments, and assets (PEA).

Before the execution phase, the wells are categorized as simple or complex.

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