20 June 2019
Astrimar to present at 9th SPE Well Abandonment Symposium
Technical director, John Strutt will be presenting with Brian Willis on our STEM-flow model used to evaluate long term well plug integrity for P&A design and new technologies, at the AECC on 26th June.
We are delighted to be presenting our STEM-flow model at the 9th SPE Well Abandonment Symposium taking place in Aberdeen on 26th and 27th June 2019 at the AECC. The STEM-flow model, which incorporates a probabilistic modelling approach to assessing long term well plug integrity, is particularly relevant for new P&A technologies and non-standard approaches to P&A design.
Many operators are looking to new technologies (materials and techniques) to reduce the huge projected costs for decommissioning North Sea assets. New materials, such as bismuth alloys, resins, and thermite offer attractive alternatives to cement. To effectively displace the use of cement, these materials will need to demonstrate that they offer at least the same performance as cement plugs, while costing less to deploy. This is extremely challenging to demonstrate, particularly industry requirement to achieve a 3000-year plug life.
Astrimar has developed STEM-flow, a risk-based plug integrity assessment model, to support this challenge by evaluating the performance of cement and new barrier materials over time, based on well data and materials test data. The insight provided by the analysis enables effective P&A design decisions to be made for current and new barrier materials.
Astrimar's presentation, titled: "How can new P&A technologies ever demonstrate they are good enough to meet industry requirements?", will examine the impact of uncertainties in barrier material properties and leak rate criteria on the reliability performance and predicted statistical life of plugs using STEM-flow. Comparisons will be made between cement and Bi alloy plugs. The importance of plug material qualification testing and its role in risk-based well P&A and integrity assurance will be discussed.