Well construction has relied on two main elements—casing and cement—to achieve well goals while maintaining the highest possible well integrity. Can cementless well construction achieve similar goals? The complete paper investigates various well-construction concepts and analyzes the ability of cement to withstand long-term well loads.
Introduction
Well integrity is a fusion of several disciplines with the ultimate purpose of preventing well-control incidents during the life cycle of the well. The best chance of minimizing well integrity challenges is during the well-construction phase. In a situation in which the basis of design has established discrete criteria, however, any associated modification must be highly controlled because failure to do so may have an ultimately detrimental effect on long-term well integrity.
