Accepted Manuscript

Plug & abandonment of offshore wells: Ensuring long-term well integrity and cost-
efficiency

Torbjørn Vrålstad, Arild Saasen, Erling Fjær, Thomas Øia, Jan David Ytrehus,
Mahmoud Khalifeh

PII: S0920-4105(18)30917-3
DOI: 10.1016/j.petrol.2018.10.049
Reference: PETROL 5412

To appear in: Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

Received Date: 21 September 2018

Accepted Date: 16 October 2018

Please cite this article as: Vrålstad, Torbjø., Saasen, A., Fjær, E., Øia, T., Ytrehus, J.D., Khalifeh, M.,
Plug & abandonment of offshore wells: Ensuring long-term well integrity and cost-efficiency, Journal of
Petroleum Science and Engineering (2018), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2018.10.049.

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
Plug & abandonment of offshore wells: Ensuring long-term well integrity and
cost-efficiency

Torbjørn Vrålstad,1 Arild Saasen,2 Erling Fjær,1 Thomas Øia,1 Jan David Ytrehus,1 Mahmoud Khalifeh2

1
SINTEF Industry, Trondheim, Norway
2
University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway

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Keywords:
Plug and abandonment, well integrity, cost-efficiency, barriers, subsea

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Abstract
There is an upcoming "P&A wave" of wells that need to be permanently plugged and abandoned,

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especially in mature, offshore areas such as the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico. It is important to
ensure that plugged wells do not leak after abandonment, as there could be several potential leak
paths such as microannuli in plugged wells. To ensure well integrity after abandonment, permanent
well barriers must extend across the full cross section of the well. That includes establishing barriers

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in all annuli, which could however be quite time-consuming and thus costly.
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This paper is a review of challenges and technologies for P&A of offshore wells, with an
emphasis on cost-effective solutions while establishing permanent well barriers. An overview of
cement and other plugging materials is given, as well as a discussion of different types of potential
leak paths and failure mechanisms in permanently plugged and abandoned wells. Moreover, recent
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technology developments such as utilizing shale as barrier for P&A are described. A discussion on the
special considerations related to P&A of subsea wells is also included.
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1. Introduction
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When a well reaches the end of its lifetime, it must be permanently plugged and abandoned.
Such plug and abandonment (P&A) operations usually consist of placing several cement plugs in the
wellbore to isolate the reservoir and other fluid-bearing formations. Permanent P&A of wells has
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been an important topic for several years (Calvert and Smith, 1994; Jordan and Head, 1995; Barclay
et al., 2001), but there has been an increased focus in recent years which is probably due to the large
number of old offshore wells in mature areas such as the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico (Liversidge et
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al., 2006; Saasen et al., 2013; Rassenfoss, 2014; Davison et al., 2017). Operators are now informally
talking about an upcoming "P&A wave" of wells that need to be permanently plugged.
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Depending on well conditions, P&A operations can however be quite time-consuming and
thus very costly. Moreover, offshore wells are considerably costlier to abandon than onshore wells
(Oil & Gas UK, 2015a). In the North Sea for example, approximately two thousand wells are planned
to be permanently plugged and abandoned in the upcoming decade. Up to £3 billion each year is
forecasted to be spent on decommissioning activities in the North Sea during the upcoming years,
where about 50 % of these costs are on well P&A operations alone (Oil & Gas UK, 2016).
Furthermore, an essential aspect of P&A is to ensure well integrity after abandonment (King
and Valencia, 2014). In earlier years, not too much emphasis was put on ensuring that wells were
properly plugged since regulations covering P&A operations were vague and inadequate (NPC, 2011).
Several old, plugged and abandoned wells are therefore leaking (Watson and Bachu, 2009; Vielstädte
et al., 2015, Kaiser 2017). Catalyzed by the 2010 Macondo accident and subsequent serious oil spill,

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changes in technology and regulatory regimes have caused the industry to make some significant
shifts in their attitude towards P&A in recent years (Smith and Shu, 2013). The focus of P&A
operations is now on environmental issues such as preventing leakages, in addition to cost-efficiency.

1.1 Plug and abandonment operations

Figure 1 shows a simplified illustration of a typical production well before and after P&A.
The details of an operational P&A procedure may differ significantly from well to well, depending on
the type of well and the actual well conditions. There are however several common steps, and a
typical P&A operation can be briefly summarized as follows:

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First, the well is prepared for P&A by circulating high density drilling fluid and installing deep
set mechanical plug, before the barriers towards the reservoir are installed. A well-regulated area
such as the North Sea requires two independent barriers towards the reservoir (NORSOK D-010,

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2013; Oil & Gas UK, 2015b), where the primary and secondary barriers shall not have common well
barrier elements. Secondly, any fluid-bearing formations in the overburden, such as high-pressure
zones and hydrocarbon-containing formations, are also isolated with two independent barriers.

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Furthermore, an openhole-to-surface plug (also called the "environmental barrier") is installed below
the seabed, which prevents any residual fluid contamination to the environment. Finally, the
conductor and wellhead are removed.

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Figure 1: Simplified illustration of a typical offshore production well before and after P&A. The color
coding of primary barriers (blue), secondary barriers (red) and surface plug (green) are based on
current Norwegian well barrier definitions (NORSOK D-010, 2013)

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Oil & Gas UK (2015a) have divided the operational sequence of P&A operations into three
distinct phases: Phase 1 is defined as "Reservoir abandonment" and includes installing primary and
secondary barriers towards the reservoir. Phase 2 is defined as "Intermediate abandonment" and
includes installing potential barriers towards flow zones in the overburden and the surface plug.
Phase 3 is defined as "Wellhead and conductor removal" and includes cutting and retrieval of casing
strings and conductor, as well as wellhead removal. In addition to these three phases, Moeinikia et
al. (2014) have suggested to include a fourth phase as well, entitled Phase 0 "Preparatory work",
which includes pre-P&A work such as killing the well and installing deep set mechanical plugs. Table 1

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lists these different phases of the P&A operation and summarizes their respective contents.
An important benefit of dividing the full operational P&A sequence into different phases is
that this approach highlights the opportunities for performing simpler parts of the P&A operation by

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rigless methods, instead of more traditional and costly rig-based methods. For example, for P&A of
subsea wells, considerable costs can be saved by performing Phases 0 and 3 by a riserless well
intervention (RLWI) vessel instead of a drilling rig (Sørheim et al., 2011; Moeinikia et al. 2015a; Varne

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et al. 2017a; Canny 2017).

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Table 1: Different phases of P&A operations for typical well with vertical Xmas tree
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Operational phase Contents
Phase 0: Preparatory work Retrieve tubing hanger plugs, kill well, install deep set mechanical
plug, punch/perforate tubing, circulate well clean
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Phase 1: Reservoir abandonment Rig up BOP, pull tubing hanger and tubing, install primary barrier
with its base at top of influx zone (i.e. reservoir), install secondary
barrier where the base of barrier can withstand future anticipated
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pressures
Phase 2: Intermediate abandonment Remove casing strings (if necessary), install primary and secondary
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barriers towards potential flow zones in overburden, install surface

plug ("environmental barrier")

Phase 3: Wellhead and conductor removal Cut conductor and casing strings below seabed to avoid
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interference with marine activity, retrieve casing strings, conductor

and wellhead
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1.2 Potential leak paths in plugged and abandoned wells

Placing a cement plug in a cased wellbore is in most cases not sufficient to prevent leakages
from the well after abandonment, as leakages may also occur in the annulus outside the casing.
Especially for old wells where the annulus cement is likely to be damaged, since cracks and
microannuli (i.e. debonding) may form in the cement sheath due to forces occurring in normal well
operations such as pressure testing, injection, stimulation and production (Boukhelifa et al., 2005;
Bois et al., 2011; Therond et al., 2017). For example, for a well after 30 years of CO2 injection,
prominent leak paths at both the cement-casing and cement-formation interfaces were found after
coring (Carey et al. 2007).
As illustrated in Figure 2, there are several potential leak paths in a plugged and abandoned
well (Gasda et al., 2004; Carrol et al., 2016; Kiran et al., 2017). For the cement plug, leakages may go

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through the plug itself, depending on cement matrix permeability or presence of internal cracks, or
around the plug at the cement-casing interface, due to microannuli formation during cement
shrinkage or poor mud removal. Similarly, for the annulus cement, leakages may go through the
cement sheath, or around the cement sheath at the cement-casing interface or at the cement-
formation interface. It is assumed that the casing itself does not represent a potential leak path,
since it is covered and protected by cement at all sides, although this assumption may be incorrect in
the extreme long-term.
Norwegian well barrier requirements therefore state that "permanent well barriers shall
extend across the full cross section of the well" (NORSOK D-010, 2013), which means that the barrier

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starts and ends at the formation surrounding the wellbore and includes all annuli as well as the
cement plug. For example, the primary well barrier envelope towards the reservoir shown in Figure
1, consists of the in-situ formation, annulus cement, casing and cement plug. In other words, all

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these well barrier elements must seal sufficiently for the well to be properly abandoned, and if one
of them fails the whole well barrier envelope is breached and the well may start leaking. The
wellbore must therefore be sealed off from rock to rock, and this point has been elegantly expressed

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by Oil & Gas UK (2015b), when describing that the aim of P&A operations is "restoring the cap rock".

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Figure 2: Illustration of potential leak paths in a plugged and abandoned well:

Through the cement or around the cement.
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2. Plugging materials
Although Portland cement is by far the most commonly used plugging material, there are
other types of alternative and emerging plugging materials (Oil & Gas UK, 2015c; Khalifeh et al.,
2013). A description of some of these materials is given in the following, with an emphasis on
Portland cement. Table 2 provides an overview of these different plugging materials.

2.1 Portland Cement

Throughout history, setting materials have played an important role and were used widely in
the ancient world (Blezard, 2007). For example, the Romans found out that a setting material could

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be made which sets under water and it was used for the construction of marine structures such as
harbours. In 1824, Joseph Aspdin patented a setting material he produced by calcining a mixture of
limestone and clay at 1450°C. The cured produced material looked like Portland stone, a widely-used
building stone in England and a building stone preferred by London's famous architect and church
builder Christopher Wren, a century before Aspdin's invention. Because of the similarity with
Portland stone, Aspdin called his invention "Portland cement".
The major components of Portland cement clinker, being the material leaving the cement
kiln, are CaO, SiO2, Al2O3, and Fe2O3. The clinker mainly contains four major mineral phases: 50-70%
tricalcium silicate (3CaO·SiO2 or “C3S”), 15-30% dicalcium silicate (2CaO·SiO2 or “C2S”), 5-15%

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tricalcium aluminate (3CaO·Al2O3 or “C3A”) and 5-10% tetracalcium aluminoferrite (4CaO·Al2O3Fe2O3
or “C4AF"). The calcium silicates are amorphous unstable material that will re-crystallise or develop
stable amorphous forms after blending with water. First, there is a reactive period where water

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reacts with the mineral surfaces and creates a gel like layer that prevents further reaction. This
creates a dormant period, i.e. an induction period, where it is possible to pump the cement. When
the calcium concentration in the mix water is sufficiently over-saturated, further curing reactions

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occur and the calcium silicates and the mentioned gel starts to form and build strength, i.e. the
cement sets to become a solid material. For the aluminates there are no dormant period. To control
setting of these minerals, calcium sulphate minerals (gypsum, anhydrite, hemi-hydrite, etc) are

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added. As long as there is gypsum left, metastable crystals (ettringite) will be formed onto the
aluminate, and an artificial dormant period is created. The ferrite phase reacts similarly as the
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aluminate but very much slower. For a more thorough description of cement curing, the reader is
referred to Lea's Chemistry of Cement and Concrete (Hewlett, 1998) and Taylor (1992).
Use of Portland cement in well cementing is described by Nelson and Guillot (2006), and
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there are now several different types of Portland cement. In the early days of well construction,
cement was a material available from the construction industry. Thus, in absence of other zonal
isolation or plug back material, this cement was accepted without any of the present qualification
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programmes. Originally, plain construction cement types were used. Hence, these became API
classes A, B and C cements, dependent on their reactivity and sensibility for other present materials.
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As the wells became deeper, and the temperature increased, there was a need for materials that did
not solidify equally rapid. The simple solution was to grind coarser material. This would delay the
cement thickening time, and the results were API classes D, E and F cement. As cement production
technology developed, these types, D, E and F, are seldom used because specialised oil well cements
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for general application were developed; the API cement types classes G and H. The essential
difference between these two types is again, fineness. Class G cement is somewhat finer than class
H. These two cements dominate as material for current offshore cementing operations.
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Portland cement is rarely used as neat cement without any additives, so a description of
cement is incomplete without also mentioning necessary additives. These include:
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- Barite, ilmenite, hematite or manganese tetra oxide to increase slurry density

- Bentonite (pre-hydrated or dry), hollow glass spheres or pozzolans to reduce density or
increase cement yield (cemented volume per volume of cement)
- Microsilica or latex to make the cement slurry gas tight
- Silica flour to make the cement tolerant for temperatures above 110oC
- Flexible particles to reduce stiffness and improve flexibility
- Expandable agents such as magnesium oxide and calcium oxide
These additives will affect both the short- and long-term properties of the placed cement volume as
well as interfere with the placement itself. A brief review of cement additives has been given by
Nelson et al. (2006).

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2.2 Alternative and emerging plugging materials

2.2.1 Blast Furnace Slag (BFS)

Blast Furnace Slag (BFS) is a by-product of steel manufacture during operation of a blast
furnace. The BFS is accumulated on top of the molten iron in the furnace, and consists of lime, silica,
alumina, magnesia and iron oxides. Depending upon the cooling process, this waste product can be
used as hydraulic binder material (i.e. cement), both by itself and as additive to Portland cement, and
has been used in well cementing applications (Saasen et al., 1994).

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In the late 1980s and the following years, a technique was developed for converting drilling
fluid to cement. Cowan et al. (1992) developed the Mud-to-Cement system based on adding BFS to
certain water-based drilling fluids, where BFS was used partly as weight material and partly as fluid

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loss control material. When cementing was to be performed, the BFS concentration was increased
while alkali activators were added. The BFS formulated mud-to-cement was used in several onshore
fields in Texas, US (Daulton et al., 1995). The initial response was that the cementing operations were

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reasonably successful, and the following offshore experience was similarly promising (Nahm et al.,
1995).
Later, the drilling industry abandoned use of BFS in well cementing. According to Bensted

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(2007), this was because the cured slag cement was vulnerable for crack development. Furthermore,
the logistics around the application was complex. The use of BFS as sole plug material may thus be
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limited. Also, the wide application of oil-based drilling fluid may restrict the use of BFS for cementing
operations.
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2.2.2 Bentonite
Concentrated bentonite has been applied as material for P&A of oil and gas wells due to its
ability to swell and its low permeability (Englehardt et al. 2001; Clark and Salsbury, 2003). The
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material has been tested and used successfully for P&A operations in several wells in the US and
Australia in recent years. According to Towler et al. (2016) laboratory tests have shown that the
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concentrated bentonite would re-heal itself if cracks occurred.

2.2.3 Low melting point metal alloys

Low melting point eutectic metals have been tested for removing sustained casing pressures
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both in presence of oil-based and water-based drilling fluids (Carpenter et al., 2004). Also, in the
formulation of the low melting point eutectic metal plug, bismuth was one of the ingredients. This is
beneficial for proper bonding to the well and pipe surfaces, since this metal expands significantly on
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solidification, thereby creating a good metal-to-metal bond. Recently, bismuth alloys have been
suggested as plugging material for permanent P&A (Carragher and Fulks, 2018).
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2.2.4 Thermosetting polymers (resins)

Thermosetting polymer (resins) are particle-free fluids which solidify into an impermeable
material upon curing. The curing process is temperature-activated and occurs at a predefined
temperature. In addition, viscosity and density can be tailored for various applications by addition of
particles. Resins have been used as plugging material both in the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico
(Beharie et al., 2015; Davis, 2017). With respect to durability, laboratory tests have shown a loss of
strength in downhole environments such as crude oil and H2S (Beharie et al., 2015). Other uses of
resins are in squeeze operations in the annulus between two casings to regain zonal isolation (Al-
Ansari et al. 2015), and repair of casing leaks (Sanabria et al. 2016).

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Table 2: Overview of different plugging materials; both currently used and alternative/emerging

Plugging material Description

Portland cement Most commonly used plugging material worldwide. Consists mainly of
calcium hydroxide ("portlandite") and various calcium silicate phases.
Addition of selected additives enables a wide range of different specialized
cement systems such as expandable cements and flexible cements.

Blast Furnace Slag (BFS) This waste product from steel manufacturing process has been used in well

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cementing applications, by itself and as additive to Portland cement. Not
widely used as plugging material.

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Bentonite Bentonite has been applied as plugging material due to its ability to swell
and its low permeability.

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Low melting point metal alloys Bismuth containing low melting point metal alloys has been suggested as a
potential plugging material. An advantage would be a good metal-to-metal
bond to casings.

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Thermosetting polymers (resins) Resins are particle-free fluids which solidify into an impermeable material
upon curing. The curing process is temperature-activated and occurs at a
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predefined temperature. Have been used as plugging material.

Unconsolidated sand slurries Sand slurries as plugging material fills the well with a deformable, low
porosity, non-permeable and non-shrinkable material, that is easy to
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remove. Well-suited for temporary abandonment, and has also been used
for permanent abandonment.
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Geopolymers Geopolymers are a type of inorganic, rock-like, materials that can be

described as "artificial stone". Were originally developed as construction
material for the civil engineering sector but several laboratory studies have
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shown their potential in oil well applications as well, including as an

alternative plugging material.
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Thermite Potential step-change technology where burning thermite is used to melt

the casing, cement and rock to form an impermeable plug. A potential
concern is whether any leak paths are formed around the plug after
cooling.
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2.2.5 Unconsolidated sand slurries

Unconsolidated sand slurries have been used for permanent plug and abandonment (Saasen
et al., 2011), and the permeability should theoretically be less than 0.01 mDarcy. The purpose of
sand slurries as plugging material is to fill the well with a deformable, low porosity, non-permeable
and non-shrinkable material. If a system with solely monodisperse particles was used, the maximum
sand concentration would be just a bit larger than 50%, leaving the rest to a permeable pore volume.
However, if particle sizes are selected carefully, it is possible to fill the pore volume with successively
smaller particles, to create a high solids fraction slurry. These high solid fraction slurries will be easily
mobile but will behave like a fluid with reasonably high yield stress.

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Such a sand slurry was developed and originally qualified for temporary abandonment
(Saasen et al., 2004), and it is well-suited for such an application due to its non-setting and thus easily
removable nature. In this example, the sand concentration was around 80%. Care must be taken to
hinder access to additional water, since addition of water can trig an internal segregation process
that will make the sand slurry paste-like and thus not pumpable. Change of fluid properties must be
conducted by addition of solids (Godøy et al., 2004).

2.2.6 Geopolymers
Geopolymers are a type of inorganic, rock-like materials that can be described as "artificial

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stone". They are alkali-activated aluminosilicate materials with low calcium content (Davidovits,
2011). Geopolymers are based upon different raw materials (i.e. precursor materials) such as fly ash,
kaolinite and various types of rocks. By varying the type of raw material, different types of

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geopolymers with selected properties can be obtained.
Three main mechanisms are distinguished, which result in solidification of aluminosilicate
material: dissolution or depolymerization, transportation or orientation and geopolymerization or

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polycondensation (Provis and van Deventer, 2009). In dissolution process, alkaline activator (known
also as hardener) attacks precursor materials and depolymerizes the silicates. As a result, small
species of inorganic polymer units, oligomers, are formed. These oligomers have the opportunity to

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be transported through the liquid phase and rearrange themselves. In the geopolymerization stage,
these oligomers make covalent bonding together and form long chains of molecules, known as
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geopolymers. The geopolymerization process is a fast reaction and difficult to control.
Geopolymers were developed and are used as construction materials in the civil engineering
sector (Davidovits, 2011), and has not yet been used in plug cement operations or other well
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applications. However, several studies have shown their potential as well cement material (Khalifeh
et al., 2014, 2018; Salehi et al., 2017). Properties such as low shrinkage, low permeability, strength
development, stability at elevated temperatures, and tolerance to contamination with oil-based mud
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(OBM), suggest geopolymers to be an alternative to Portland cement for many oil well cementing
applications including P&A (Khalifeh et al., 2016, 2017; Salehi et al. 2016). There are currently some
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unanswered questions regarding their usability, such as controlling pumpability while optimizing
waiting on setting. Others have observed self-healing properties of geopolymer solutions (Liu et al.,
2017), which may be beneficial in a long-term perspective.
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2.2.7 Thermite
A recent, emerging development from Norway is the potential use of thermite to
permanently plug wells. To our knowledge, no publications exist yet that describes this procedure,
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although it was mentioned by Stein (2018). The concept is to initiate slow burning of a thermite plug
at selected depth, which is an exothermic reaction that reaches thousands of degrees Centigrade.
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The reactants melt through the wellbore, including casing, cement and formation, and bond with the
surrounding rock formation. After cooling, the result will be a solid and impermeable barrier that
extends across the full cross section of the well.
This concept could be a major game changing P&A technology if it works as intended. At
present, the technology is still under development and is being tested and validated. A potential
drawback and current concern is whether the rock around the formed plug is damaged; i.e. if any
leak paths are created around the plug after cooling.

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3. Ensuring plug integrity
To fulfil the objective of "restoring the cap rock", the plug itself must seal the wellbore and
retain its integrity for the future. NORSOK D-010 (2013) lists the following characteristics of
permanent well barrier materials, and a similar list is also given by Oil & Gas UK (2015b):
- Provide long term integrity (eternal perspective)
- Impermeable
- Non-shrinking
- Able to withstand mechanical loads/impact
- Resistant to chemicals/substances (H2S, CO2 and hydrocarbons)

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- Ensure bonding to steel
- Not harmful to the steel tubulars integrity
For simplicity, it is assumed in this section that cement is used as plugging material, since cement is

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used in most plugging operations. However, most of the discussion is relevant for other plugging
materials as well.
As shown in Figure 2, potential leakages related to the wellbore plug can occur through the

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plug or around the plug. Leakages through the plug is mostly determined by the permeability of the
plugging material. Chemical or thermal degradation of the plugging material due to downhole
conditions may influence the integrity of the plug, and thus potentially increase the leak rate through

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the plug. Whereas leakages around the plug occurs between the plug and casing (or formation), i.e.
in so-called "microannuli", and could be caused by debonding due to shrinkage during cement curing
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or by poor mud removal during plug placement.
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3.1 Plug placement

There are several methods available for placement of cement plugs inside wellbores and an
overview of plug placement methods has been given by Daccord et al. (2006). Most commonly used
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is the balanced plug method, where cement is pumped through the work string and placed at the
designated depth. However, placement of good cement plugs can be an operational challenge.
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A critical issue during cement plug placement is to prevent flow of cement further down into
the well, due to instabilities of the lower interface towards the fluid below caused by differences in
density or viscosity (Calvert et al., 1995; Crawshaw and Frigaard, 1999; Malekmohammadi et al.,
2010). This phenomenon is known as Rayleigh-Taylor instability. It is therefore important to have a
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good base or foundation for the cement plug to ensure good placement. Gel plugs or viscous pills
have been used as foundation for cement plugs, but Harestad et al. (1997) has shown that the use of
viscous pills underneath a denser cement will be insufficient to hinder downwards cement flow.
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Mechanical bridge plugs are often used as foundation and these devices ensure a good base for the
cement. In fact, in some countries like Norway, the required cement plug length is halved when a
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mechanical plug is used as foundation (NORSOK D-010, 2013), since it is believed that the cement
plug integrity will improve due to its good base. A disadvantage with this approach is that the bridge
plug will resist the testing pressure after cement placement, and there is thus no method to directly
verify the cement quality. A soft packer on the other hand, like the umbrella tool developed by
Harestad et al. (1997), only prevents motion of the fluid across the packer, and therefore allows for
pressure testing of the cement plug.

3.2 Durability of cement at downhole conditions

For wellbore plugs to retain their sealing ability over time, the plugging material should be
unaffected by the ambient downhole conditions. In other words, the plugging material should not

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degrade thermally or chemically. Typical potentially detrimental downhole chemicals include CO2,
H2S and hydrocarbons, but water (i.e. brine) should perhaps also be included to this list since it is
usually always present downhole. The durability of plugging materials such as cement can be
determined by performing controlled ageing tests in the laboratory, but as Zhang and Bachu (2011)
have pointed out, the specific test conditions used in ageing tests can have a major impact on the
obtained results. Care should therefore be taken when designing a test procedure for ageing tests,
and Oil & Gas UK (2015c) has suggested a guideline on how to perform durability tests of plugging
materials.
Durability of well cement in CO2-rich environments has been studied rather extensively in

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recent years as part of research on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), and the degradation
mechanisms of Portland cement due to CO2 are relatively well-known (Kutchko et al., 2007; Zhang
and Bachu, 2010; Carrol et al., 2016). It is beyond the scope of this paper to give a comprehensive

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overview of this work, but a brief description of the degradation mechanisms can be summarized as
follows: Degradation of Portland cement by CO2 occurs in two main steps, where the first step is
reaction of calcium hydroxide (portlandite) with CO2 where calcium carbonate is formed. This step is

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called "carbonation" of cement, and leads to a decrease in cement porosity and permeability, but not
necessarily a decrease in mechanical properties. The next step is called "bi-carbonation" of cement,
where calcium carbonate is dissolved in CO2-rich (i.e. low-pH) water. The resulting silica-rich,

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degraded material is highly porous, which may be unsuitable as barrier material due to its high
permeability. It should however be noted that since CO2 degradation of Portland cement is a
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diffusion-driven chemical reaction, the actual degradation kinetics is very slow and can thus be a self-
decelerating process. For example, the decrease in permeability caused by the carbonation step
significantly slows down the reaction rate of the second step, and local equilibria of Ca2+ ions inside
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pores also prevent the second degradation step (Zhang and Bachu, 2010). A full degradation of a
cement plug of tens of meters by CO2 will therefore be extremely slow, i.e. occur over thousands or
hundreds of thousands of years. Furthermore, the service industry has developed cement systems
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that are more CO2-resistant than neat Portland cement (Barlet-Gouédard et al., 2009; Brandl et al.,
2011; Garnier et al, 2012), by including selected additives such as different pozzolans and by
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decreasing the permeability of the cement matrix to decrease CO2 diffusion further.
There exist some durability studies of cement in other relevant downhole environments such
as H2S and crude oil as well (Noik and Rivereau, 1999; Lecolier et al., 2006, 2007; Garnier et al., 2012),
but these studies are rather few. Recently, Vrålstad et al. (2016) performed durability tests of well
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cement in crude oil, brine and H2S, respectively, at downhole temperatures and pressures. For crude
oil, they found no significant effect on cement properties, which was consistent with the findings of
Lecolier et al. (2007). For brine, they found an increase in volume (i.e. swelling), possibly due to
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further cement hydration, which indicates an improvement in sealing ability. For H2S, they found a
detrimental effect of the exposure; the cement decreased in weight and lost most of its mechanical
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strength. This is consistent with the findings of Garnier et al. (2012) and Lecolier et al. (2006) and is
due to a process called "calcium leaching", where the calcium hydroxide (portlandite) is dissolved by
acid. However, Vrålstad et al. (2016) also found that the H2S resistance of Portland cement was
considerably improved when silica flour was included as additive, which was possibly due to the
pozzolanic nature of silica. Cement additives may therefore improve the H2S resistance of well
cement. Furthermore, as for CO2 degradation, H2S degradation of cement is also a diffusion-
controlled process and actual degradation of a plug in the field will be quite slow.
Regarding ageing tests of cement and other plugging materials, it should be noted that most
quantitative results obtained from chemical degradation tests cannot be directly transferred to field
conditions. This is because the chemical degradation reactions occur several orders of magnitude
faster in laboratory ageing tests than in a well. In laboratory tests, the material samples are

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submerged directly into the reactive fluids, which creates a large reaction surface area and an
unrestricted supply of reactive compounds. Whereas in the field, all reactive compounds (such as CO2
or H2S) have to diffuse through a porous material such as sandstone to be able to reach the reaction
surface at the cement. Degradation reactions in the field are therefore diffusion-limited and occurs
quite slowly. The quantitative results obtained from ageing tests can thus vary quite significantly,
depending on how realistically the tests are performed. For example, Zhang and Bachu (2011)
reviewed ageing tests of cement exposed to CO2 and found that the predicted carbonation depth
after 30 years exposure varied between 1 mm to over 2500 mm. There is a need for more data on
realistically performed ageing tests of cement, also over longer time periods than one year, to better

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understand the actual long-term durability of well cement. Recently, Ichim and Teodoriu (2017)
reported the development and establishment of a cement repository that stores cement samples
under downhole conditions for minimum 5 years, to improve the understanding of long-term

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behavior of cement.

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3.3 Microannuli: Leakages around plugs
Leakages around cement plugs occur through microannuli, where the cement has fully or
partially debonded. Experimental determination of the sealing ability of cement plugs is in principle

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relatively straightforward, as illustrated in Figure 3: a cement plug is placed inside a steel casing with
a pressure difference across the plug, and the corresponding fluid flow rate is measured.
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Figure 3: Illustration of a typical laboratory set-up for determination of cement plug sealing ability: a
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cement plug is placed inside a steel casing with a pressure difference across the plug (P1 < P2) and the
resulting flow rate is measured by flow meters. (After Opedal et al., 2018)

Among the first to perform a systematic study on cement plug sealing ability were Nagelhout
et al. (2010), who performed laboratory tests in both small-scale and large-scale on two different
cement systems. They found that the measured leak rate depended on the radial scale of the cement
plugs and that the leak rate increased with increasing pressure difference across the plug.
Furthermore, for a non-expanding cement system, they found an "equivalent permeability" in the
milli-Darcy range, which is considerably higher than the permeability of good cement and thus
indicates that the measured leakage occurs through microannuli around the cement and not through
the cement itself. However, they found a significantly improved sealing ability for an expanding

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cement system. Recently, van Eijden et al. (2017) further developed and improved the methodology
described by Nagelhout et al. (2010), and they also provide more details on the laboratory set-up and
experimental procedure. They describe both a small-scale set-up and a large-scale set-up, where plug
size is 2 in. diameter and 38 cm length in small-scale and 6 or 8 in. diameter and 114 cm in large-
scale, and they also found that an effect of radial size on sealing ability; where small plugs seal better
than large plugs (van Eijden et al., 2017). During sample preparation, the cement is placed inside a
casing and left to cure for several days under N2 pressure. At the start of the test, the pressure is
decreased at one side of the plug, to obtain a pressure difference across the plug and to avoid
potential ballooning of casing. The gas flow across the plug is subsequently measured by flow meters.

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By using such a laboratory set-up and experimental procedure, it is possible to determine
both the breakthrough pressure, i.e. the lowest required pressure difference needed for detecting a
flow rate, and the "equivalent permeability", i.e. the measured flow rate for different pressure

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differences. The sealing ability of a specific cement system can thus be determined in a systematic
manner and different cement systems can be compared. Oil & Gas UK (2015c) has therefore included
the small-scale and large-scale set-ups described by van Eijden et al. (2017) as examples on how to

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perform functions tests on zonal isolation for different plugging materials. Furthermore, Opedal et al.
(2018) has also built a small-scale set-up based on the one developed by van Eijden et al. (2017) with
the objective of performing systematic studies on cement plug integrity. Their initial findings show

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that the sealing ability of neat Portland cement plugs improve significantly when the cement has
access to external water during curing (Opedal et al., 2018).
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In addition to laboratory tests, cement plug integrity can also be estimated by modelling
tools. For example, Bois et al. (2018) present a model that predicts the hydraulic integrity of cement
plugs, where microannuli formation is predicted based upon cement shrinkage during hydration and
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the initial state of stress in cement. They show a sensitivity analysis that demonstrate that the
hydraulic plug integrity is dependent upon different cement properties such as Young's modulus, and
they validate their model with field data from pressure testing of cement plugs (Bois et al., 2018).
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However, a challenge during modelling of microannuli leakages, is which geometry and

thickness to use as input data. Is the microannulus uniformly present around the entire
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circumference of the plug, or not? It is often assumed that microannuli are homogeneous with a
uniform thickness, and although incorrect, this assumption about microannulus uniformity is also
used for simplicity in experimental studies when estimating corresponding "microannuli thicknesses"
from leak rate studies (Boukhelifa et al., 2005; Nagelhout et al., 2010; Aas et al., 2016). Recently, x-
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ray computed tomography (CT) has been used to visualize and quantify cement integrity (Vrålstad et
al., 2015; De Andrade et al., 2016; Skorpa and Vrålstad, 2018). It is found that microannuli and cracks
in cement start from initial, random defects and that microannuli are not homogeneous nor uniform.
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Figure 4 shows two such examples of CT visualizations of experimentally obtained cement

microannuli and it is seen that the microannuli are non-uniform and somewhat random.
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Furthermore, Skorpa and Vrålstad (2018) performed CFD simulations of fluid flow through such
experimentally obtained leak path geometries, and they found a non-linear (i.e. non-Darcian)
relationship between pressure difference and flow rate for fluid flow through connected cracks and
partial microannuli. However, there was a linear relationship when the microannulus was uniform
(Skorpa and Vrålstad, 2018). Uniform microannuli therefore provide more easily predictable leak
rates.

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Figure 4: Two different examples of x-ray computed tomography (CT) visualizations of experimentally

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obtained, non-uniform microannuli. The blue colour shows debonded cement.

3.4 Risk-based approach to P&A?

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An important issue regarding plug integrity is the plug length. Currently, requirements for
plug length varies between different countries and regulatory regimes (Barclay et al., 2001; van der
Kuip et al., 2011). In the North Sea for example, at the Norwegian side of the border the required
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plug length is 100 meter (50 meter if a mechanical plug is used as foundation), whereas the required
plug length is 30 meter (100 feet) at the UK side of the border.
As an alternative to this "one-size-fits-all", prescriptive approach to plug length (and the
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number of plugs), a risk-based approach to P&A has been suggested (Buchmiller et al., 2016; Fanailoo
et al., 2017; Arild et al., 2017). This approach accounts for the fact that all wells are different with
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respect to for example flow potential and pressure difference, and provides a "fit-for-purpose"
alternative. In such a risk-based approach, different P&A solutions are evaluated in terms of the
probability that the permanent barrier system will fail within a given time-frame (Arild et al., 2017).
The methodology for risk-based assessments consists of five steps: establishing the risk context,
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identifying well barrier failure modes, performing a risk analysis, performing a risk evaluation, and
conducting qualification for well abandonment design (Buchmiller et al., 2016; Fanailoo et al., 2017).
The P&A procedure can therefore be tailor-made to fit each unique well, and an advantage of such a
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risk-based approach is the potential for considerable cost savings, as less stringent requirements may
be sufficient for "simple" wells. Furthermore, as an extension of this approach, the resulting leakage
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rates for different P&A scenarios may also be estimated (Arild et al., 2017; Ford et al., 2017; Ford et
al., 2018). However, there is currently a lack of sufficient amounts of good quality experimental
results that can be used as reliable input data to such models. For such an approach to be reliable,
more experimental studies on plug sealing ability are needed.

4. Establishing annulus barriers

To obtain a full cross-sectional barrier from rock to rock, zonal isolation must also be ensured
in the annulus. Figure 2 shows that although the cement plug maintain its integrity, there are still
several potential leakage pathways in the well, i.e. in the annulus. Such leakage paths in the annulus
cement sheath are caused by formation of microannuli and radial cracks, which can form due to

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pressure testing and injection (Goodwin and Crook, 1992; Jackson and Murphey, 1993; Shadravan et
al., 2015) and/or due to temperature variations during production and injection (Bois et al., 2011;
Vrålstad et al., 2015; Therond et al., 2017). Such cement sheath failure is one of the reasons why
many wells experience well integrity problems such as sustained casing pressure as they age
(Bourgoyne et al., 1999; Vignes and Aadnoy, 2010).
If the annulus cement is of insufficient quality to be qualified as a barrier element for P&A,
then this cement must be removed, or the barrier quality otherwise restored. Several methods and
technologies exist for establishing annulus barriers, depending on whether the annulus is cemented
and on the quality of the annulus cement, if present. The right part of Figure 5 shows a cemented

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annulus of good quality, where the cement provides zonal isolation and there is no need for further
action. However, if the cement is of poor quality, then the cement and casing must be removed by
section milling before a cement plug is placed in the milled wellbore, as shown in the left part of

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Figure 5. If the annulus is uncemented or poorly cemented, then the annulus can be cemented by the
perforate-wash-cement method, which results in a cemented annulus as shown in the right part of
Figure 5. A special option exists for openhole, uncemented annuli, where creeping shale formation

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potentially can be used as annulus barrier. These methods will be discussed in more detail below.

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Figure 5: Illustration of good annulus cement (right) and establishing annulus barrier by section
milling (left)

4.1 Section milling

Section milling is a method to create a cross-sectional barrier directly towards formation
where the annulus material disqualifies as an annular barrier (Figure 5 left). Special milling blades
and cutters are used to mill out, i.e. remove, designated well sections in situations where the casing
string is fully or partly cemented. Section milling is a time-consuming and thus costly operation,

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especially in regulatory regimes with substantial required plug lengths. The milling operation creates
small metal cuttings called "swarf" that cause several operational problems. Swarf can accumulate as
so-called "bird nests" in the well and if the bird nest occurs inside the BOP, it can damage the well
control equipment and cause potential well integrity problems if the BOP malfunctions. Furthermore,
the section milling tool can get stuck when pulling out of hole, and it should be noted that retrieved
swarf at surface can create HSE problems.
Section milling is used in many P&A operations throughout the world and there is
considerable focus on technology development to increase milling efficiency and operational safety.
Some examples include improvement of cutter and milling blade technologies (Scanlon et al., 2011;

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Stowe and Ponder, 2011), development of dual string section milling tools (Deshpande et al., 2016;
McTiffen et al., 2017), saving rig time by single trips instead of dual trips (Hogg et al., 2014), and
development of plasma-based tools (Gajdos et al., 2015). A recent development is the upwards

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milling tool (Joppe et al., 2017a; Nelson et al. 2018), which leaves the swarf in the well below the
milled section and thereby probably avoiding swarf-related problems.

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4.2 Perforate-wash-cement
Perforate-wash-cement is a method that can be used to establish annulus barriers when the

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annulus is uncemented or partly filled with poor cement. The method consists of perforating the
casing to obtain access to the annulus, washing the annulus with fluids to clean out mud, debris,
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settled barite or poor cement, and then subsequently pumping new cement into the annulus. There
is thus no need to section mill or cut-and-pull the casing to place cement in the annulus, so the
method can be very time efficient and cost effective (Ferg et al., 2011). In Figure 1 for example, the
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perforate-wash-cement technique has been used to establish annulus barrier elements as part of the
primary and secondary barrier envelopes towards the flow zone in the overburden.
The perforate-wash-cement technique is routinely used by several operators during P&A
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operations in the North Sea (Ferg et al., 2011; Stokkeland et al., 2017; Joneja et al., 2018) and has
also been used to establish annulus barriers in wells in the Middle East (Ansari et al., 2016a; 2016b;
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2017). Furthermore, Norwegian operators have developed barrier acceptance criteria for the
perforate-wash-cement process, which is suggested for implementation in NORSOK guidelines
(Delabroy et al., 2017).
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4.3 Shale as annulus barrier

In well sections running through shale formations, it is occasionally found that the annulus is
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closed even though it was left open during the completion process (Williams et al., 2009; Fjær and
Larsen, 2018). This is revealed by sonic or ultrasonic logs that can distinguish between solid and fluid
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behind the casing (Allouche et al. 2006; Wang et al., 2016; Fjær and Larsen, 2018), and the sealing
efficiency of these naturally occurring barriers can be verified by pressure tests. Such "shale barriers"
may extend over hundreds of meters along the well and eliminates the need for additional sealing of
the annulus. This simplifies the plugging operations and implies significant cost reductions during
P&A operations. For example, operators in Norway are currently routinely using shale as annulus
barrier (Williams et al., 2009; Kristiansen et al., 2018), thereby considerably reducing their costs
during well abandonment.
A shale barrier is formed as the rock surrounding the borehole is pushed towards the casing
by the compressive in situ stresses. In other words, the shale "creeps" into the casing and thus fills up
the annulus. This process has been reproduced in downscaled laboratory tests (Fjær et al., 2018)
where it has been found that the ability of different shales to form a sealing barrier depends upon

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the properties of the respective shale such as mineral composition and mechanical properties.
Furthermore, post-test micro-CT scans show that the rock in the vicinity of the hole has suffered a
permanent, plastic deformation (Figure 6). The micro-CT scans also reveal that the permanently
deformed region extends several borehole radii into the formation. The porosity of this deformed
region is higher than that of the intact shale, hence the permeability of the shale barrier tends to be
higher as well. The sealing efficiency of a shale barrier is therefore less than it would have been if the
space around the casing were filled with intact shale. However, the relevant comparison is rather
with the realistic alternative, that the annulus is filled with cement with permeability that is typically
3-4 orders of magnitude higher than the intact shale (Fjær et al., 2018).

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Annulus closure due to formation creep is a well-known process in salt formations (Willson et
al., 2003). However, salt behaves essentially like a highly viscous fluid and will in the end always close
the annulus given reduced annulus pressure and sufficient time. Shale on the other hand has a finite

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shear strength and is able to maintain a stable arch around the hole if the in situ stresses are not too
high. Even if the arch is broken, the shale may not be able to establish a sealing barrier, as the rock
may break up into separated pieces rather than deforming uniformly maintaining a low permeability.

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However, self-sealing may to some extent occur in fractured shale due to creep and various other
mechanisms (Blümling et al., 2007; Bock et al, 2017). Over time, the sealing efficiency of a shale
barrier is therefore likely to improve rather than deteriorate.

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Figure 6: micro-CT images of a shale barrier, formed in a laboratory test on a field shale core. Side
view (left) and top view (right). The red dash-dot lines indicate the hole size prior to the test.
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5. Casing cut and pull

Occasionally, during P&A and slot recovery operations, there is a need to remove a casing
string fully or partly. Section milling can be used for this operation, but an alternative and sometimes
preferred method is to cut and pull the casing (Abshire et al., 2013; Obodozie et al., 2016). However,
a major problem that can occur during casing cut and pull operations is that the casing can get
"stuck" due to settled barite in the annulus outside the casing (Joppe et al., 2017). For example, a
North Sea operator recently needed nearly 40 cuts and over 70 days to cut and pull 3000 meters of a
single production casing from one well (Abshire et al., 2013).
Settled barite is a sediment phase that is formed during gravity separation when the drilling
fluid is left static in the annulus for several years. The number and properties of different sediment
phases that are formed during gravity separation depend the type of drilling fluid (Vrålstad et al.,

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2018). It is likely that friction and/or bonding between the sediments and casing create a significant
portion of the problems when trying to pull the casing. However, it is also quite possible that the
casing collars could be the most important cause of the stuck casing. For example, recent laboratory
tests on casing pulling have shown that casings without collars are significantly easier to pull than
casings with collars (Taghipour et al, 2018). This point is illustrated in Figure 7: If the annulus
sediments do not "flow" around the collars when the casing is pulled upwards, the casing is stuck.
The consistency and rheological properties of the sediments can therefore determine how easily the
casing is removed (Vrålstad et al., 2018).
Due to such problems with stuck casing, the service industry develops technologies such as

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downhole hydraulic pulling tools and other improvements (Abshire et al., 2013; Hartman et al., 2017;
Melder et al., 2017). Recently, Joppe et al. (2017b) presented case studies with different methods of
casing removal. The considered methods were use of jack-up rigs, rig-less intervention systems and

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jacking units. They concluded that the optimal solution must be selected based the availability of
tools, actual scope and the capabilities of the surface equipment. Pre-planning on a detailed level
was emphasized as crucial, since cost escalation due to unforeseen events can be a challenge that

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prevents cost-effective solutions.

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Figure 7: Schematic illustration of possible cause of stuck casing during casing pulling operations: if
the annulus sediment (settled barite) does not flow around the casing collars during pulling, the
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casing is stuck (After Vrålstad et al., 2017)

6. P&A of subsea wells

Subsea wells are different from platform wells in several ways that affect P&A operations.
For example, due to the wellhead arrangements on subsea wells, it is only possible to monitor the
annulus pressure between the production tubing and production casing, i.e. the A-annulus, and not
possible to monitor the pressures in the outer annuli, i.e. in B- and C-annuli. The well integrity status
of subsea wells is therefore partly unknown prior to P&A, which may significantly affect encountered
problems during P&A operations and thus resulting durations. Technologies for wireless monitoring
of B-annulus pressure is therefore currently under development (Rodriguez et al., 2017).

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However, the main difference between platform wells and subsea wells is the "wetness" of
the x-mas trees, i.e. subsea wells have the x-mas tree and all their production equipment at the
seabed. Subsea wells therefore require mobile offshore units (MOU) such as semi-submersible
drilling rigs to perform P&A operations. Due to the high spread rates of such units, subsea P&A
operations can be much costlier than platform P&A operations (Oil & Gas UK, 2015a).

6.1 Use of rigs vs vessels for subsea P&A

Several field examples have shown that considerable cost savings can be obtained by

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performing part of subsea P&A operations with lighter vessels such as riserless light well intervention
(RLWI) vessels instead of drilling rigs (Sørheim et al., 2011; Varne et al. 2017a; Canny 2017). The
technologies used for subsea P&A by RLWI vessels, such as well control package, lubricator and RLWI

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stack, are essentially the same as those used during conventional subsea riserless well interventions
(Munkerud and Inderberg, 2007; Jøssang et al., 2008; Fjærtoft and Sønstabø, 2011, Varne et al.,
2017b).

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Regardless of type of MOU, the unit must adjust and hold its position to ensure that it is in-
line with the subsea wellhead before and during a P&A operation. This is achieved either by
anchoring or with an integrated dynamic positioning (DP) system. Figure 8 shows a simplified

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illustration of use of rig and vessel for subsea P&A, where these two positioning approaches are
included. A semi-sub rig can hold its position by either being anchored (depending on water depth)
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or by a DP system, whereas a RLWI vessel only relies on DP system. A significant difference between
a semi-sub rig and a RLWI is the well control equipment and how they securely connect to a subsea
well to allow fluid transport and intervention, as briefly illustrated in Figure 8. The semi-sub uses a
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subsea BOP together with a workover riser (for high pressure) or a marine riser (for low pressure) to
act as a conduit and ensure safe operations, whereas the RLWI vessel uses a riserless system.
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Figure 8: Illustration of subsea P&A with semi-submersible rig and RLWI vessel, with respective
available positioning alternatives (After Øia et al., 2018)

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As described in Table 1, the Oil & Gas UK (2015a) has divided the operational sequence of
P&A operations into three different phases; Phase 1 "Reservoir abandonment", Phase 2
"Intermediate abandonment" and Phase 3 "Wellhead and conductor removal". In addition, a fourth
phase, Phase 0 "Preparatory work", has been suggested as well (Moeinikia et al., 2014). Furthermore,
it can also be convenient to divide Phase 2 into two parts as well, where Phase 2a consists of placing
primary and secondary barriers towards flow zones in the overburden (i.e. "overburden
abandonment"), and Phase 2b consists of placing the openhole-to-surface plug. Such an approach of
dividing the full P&A operation into different phases and sub-phases is especially fruitful for subsea
wells, since it elucidates the possibility for cost reductions by moving parts of the P&A operation to

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lighter vessels. Table 3 lists all these phases together with which type of MOU that can be used for
the respective P&A work (based upon present technology). A semi-sub rig can be used for all phases
of P&A operations, whereas a RLWI vessel can normally be used for all phases except Phases 1 and

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2a, since these usually require drill string and heavy lifting capacity to perform operations such as
section milling and pipe pulling. A simple operation such as wellhead and conductor removal, that
does not require well control equipment, can be performed by a light construction vessels (LCV). It

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should be noted that the operability is higher for semi-sub rigs than light intervention vessels,
allowing semi-subs to operate through the winter season with less waiting on weather (WOW).

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Table 3: Current applicability of semi-submersible rig, riserless well intervention vessel (RLWI) and
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light construction vessel (LCV) for different phases of subsea P&A operations.

P&A operational phase Semi-sub rig RLWI LCV

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Phase 0: Preparatory work OK OK Not ok

Phase 1: Reservoir abandonment OK Not ok Not ok

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Phase 2a: Overburden abandonment OK Not ok Not ok

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Phase 2b: Openhole-to-surface plug OK OK Not ok

Phase 3: Wellhead and conductor removal OK OK OK

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6.2 Planning and coordination of multi-well P&A campaigns

Since subsea wells are located at different locations around the seabed, and not located at a
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single point, i.e. a platform, then the MOU must physically move from wellhead to wellhead (or
template to template) to perform the necessary operations. This continuous MOU relocation is time-
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consuming and significant time and thus costs can be saved by abandoning several adjacent subsea
wells together in multi-well campaigns. For example, Clyne and Jackson (2014) present a field case
where 19 subsea wells were abandoned together in two consecutive multi-well campaigns. As
lessons learned, they emphasize the need for thorough preparations and planning, the importance of
knowing the well integrity status of the wells prior to P&A, and to use light vessels with ROV for pre-
P&A work and for removing the wellhead (Clyne and Jackson, 2014).
This final point on using light vessels for parts of the P&A operation highlights a logistical
advantage when performing multi-well P&A campaigns: it is not necessary to perform full P&A on
one well before moving to perform full P&A on the next well, it can be more efficient to separate the
operations into the different phases listed in Table 1, where each respective phase for all wells is
performed before moving on to the subsequent phases. Such an approach enables use of different

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types of MOUs for the different P&A operational phases as described in Table 3. For example, a
multi-well campaign could start with a RLWI vessel performing Phase 0 for all the wells, a semi-sub
rig performs Phases 2 and 3 for all the wells (perhaps several months later, depending on rig
availability), and then finally an LCV or RLWI vessel performs Phase 3 for all wells at a suitable time,
depending on vessel availability and weather conditions. Sørheim et al. (2011) emphasized such an
approach when they used a dedicated light vessel to cut and retrieve the wellhead from a subsea
well, i.e. Phase 3. They estimated that it was not cost efficient to use a dedicated vessel to remove
the wellhead from only one well, but if two or more wellheads were removed together in a multi-
well campaign then the use of such a dedicated vessel was cost beneficial (Sørheim et al., 2011).

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Moreover, Varne et al. (2017a) exemplify this approach when they performed pre-P&A work (Phase
0) on several subsea wells for a Norwegian operator before a semi-sub rig performed the remaining
P&A operations.

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However, accurate time and cost estimations for the operational sequence are crucial during
planning of multi-well P&A campaigns. Moeinikia et al. (2014; 2015a; 2015c) developed a
probabilistic Monte-Carlo simulation tool that estimated time and cost-savings of rig-less P&A

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technologies for subsea wells. They used this approach to demonstrate the cost efficiency of
performing Phases 0 and 3 by RLWI vessels instead of rigs. Furthermore, Aarlott (2016) and Bakker et
al. (2017) introduced methods from operations research by using an optimization model for P&A

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planning of a simple subsea field. The optimization approach allows planners to evaluate how
different strategies for vessel allocation, changed rental rates and effects of improved technology
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affect decisions and the impact on total cost. Due to the large number of possible scenarios when
considering use of both semi-sub rigs and light vessels for a multi-well campaign, an optimization
model can analyze the different possible scenarios and suggest optimal solutions for MOU allocation
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and routing for the entire campaign (Bakker et al., 2017).

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6.3 Full P&A of subsea wells by RLWI vessels?

Further costs could perhaps be saved if all phases of the P&A operation were performed by a
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light vessel instead of a rig. As seen from Table 3, it is currently not feasible to perform the full P&A
operation with a RLWI vessel. It could however be possible in the near future, and Valdal (2013)
described potential scenarios for such an approach. Recently, Øia et al. (2018) presented several
constructed cases on how existing technologies could be used for full P&A of subsea wells by RLWI
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vessels. They found that for wells of low to medium complexities, it could be possible to perform full
P&A by using RLWI vessels, but for complex wells where for example section milling and heavy lifting
is required, a semi-sub rig is still needed. They also found that although considerable costs could be
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saved by performing the operation by RLWI vessel instead of semi-sub rig, the semi-sub would in
most cases be the least risky option, due to the large uncertainties in time estimations for RLWI
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vessel P&A operations (caused by the lack of experience for these operations).
A prerequisite for full P&A by RLWI vessel will in many cases be that the production tubing is
left in the well, due to the limited lifting capacity on most vessels. If achievable in practice, then
considerable costs can be saved by not removing the tubing (Moeinikia et al., 2015b). If the tubing
string is left in the well, then the control lines will constitute a potential leak path (Dahmani and
Hynes, 2017). The control lines must therefore be cut or retrieved, or the barrier placed at a depth
with no control lines. Furthermore, a potential challenge with leaving tubing in the well, will be to
place cement in the annulus between the tubing and casing, since the tubing is not centralized.
However, Aas et al. (2016) have shown by large-scale experimental tests that it is possible to obtain
good cement placement in this annulus when the tubing is left in hole.

20
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
7. Conclusions
To fulfil the objective of "restoring the cap rock", permanent barriers in plugged and
abandoned wells must extend across the full cross section of the well. This includes establishing
proper annulus barriers and preventing leak paths such as microannuli around plugs, which may
cause P&A operations to be time-consuming. However, recent technology developments such as the
perforate-wash-cement technique and utilizing shale as annulus barrier have significantly reduced
the time spent on P&A operations. Furthermore, risk-based approaches to determining plug length
and the number of plugs may further reduce time-consumption while maintaining well integrity.
There is still need for further technology developments however. Operators, service

PT
companies, vendors, research institutes and universities are all working on reducing risk of leakages,
developing new technologies and improving P&A operations further. For example, while cement has
been used as plugging material for a century and new and improved cement systems are still being

RI
developed, completely new plugging materials and approaches such as bismuth-alloys and burning
termite may perhaps change the industry. And in a few years' time, it may be possible to perform full
P&A of subsea wells without using a drilling rig.

SC
Acknowledgements

U
This paper was prepared as a part of the project "Economic Analysis of Coordinated Plug and
Abandonment Operations" (ECOPA), financed by the Research Council of Norway through the
AN
PETROSAM2 and PETROMAKS2 programs (p-nr: 247589). Also, the authors acknowledge the
Research Council of Norway, Aker BP, ConocoPhillips, Equinor and Wintershall for funding part of the
work through the research centre SFI DrillWell.
M

Abbreviations
D

API American Petroleum Institute

BFS Blast Furnace Slag
TE

BOP Blowout Preventer

CFD Computational Flow Dynamics
CT x-ray Computed Tomography
DP Dynamic Positioning
EP

HSE Health, Safety and Environment

LCV Light Construction Vessel
MOU Mobile Offshore Unit
C

P&A Plug and Abandonment

RLWI Riserless Light Well Intervention
AC

ROV Remotely Operated Vehicle

WOW Waiting on Weather

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