Plug & Abandon
As wells near the end of their life cycle they must be decommissioned and the land returned to its original state. Unfortunately, the current P&A practices of the oil and gas industry are cost prohibitive, resulting in delays to abandonment (as companies attempt to avoid the high cost), and poor abandonment practices that may be harmful to the environment.
Fortunately, there are solutions to this problem. Our ambition is to use new and innovative technologies to P&A the wells in a more effective and sustainable manner, and first to extend the period our wells may service the community by re-purposing them for geothermal energy .
P&A The Ryedale Way
Third Energy is looking to use its depleted gas wells to test new well abandonment tools and methods. The result will be a safer and less expensive P&A process. And that would benefit onshore operators and their communities. It would also allow offshore operators and technology providers to adopt the techniques in the North Sea.
Alternative plug and abandon (P&A) methods have the potential to:
1) Reduce cement use in abandonment (and the associated high carbon footprint of cement).
2) Reduce local disruption onshore through rig-less methods (reducing the need for HGVs and equipment on site).
3) Reduce the costs of abandonment, (encouraging companies to progress abandonment projects rather than delay).
4) Improve the sealing effectiveness of the well barriers (to avoid gas leakage in later years).
5) Speed up the P&A process (thereby reducing disruption to local communities).
P&A Projects-Live Work Streams
Third Energy is leading an effort to pull offshore operators, technology providers, and service firms together to test innovative technology in Ryedale. We are being supported in this effort by the Net Zero Technology Centre.
The NZTC has been tasked with carrying out the Oil & Gas Authority’s strategic aims within the P&A sphere, which include developing:
· collaborative execution models.
· an enhanced decommissioning supply chain.
If you are a technology provider or O&G operator and want to get involved, please Contact Us
MNA isol8 Deployment
As part of this innovative approach to well abandonment, Third Energy is working with isol8, (www.isol8.com) the market leader in alloy barriers and pioneers in metallurgically bonded-alloy downhole technology, to deploy an alloy barrier at its MNA wellsite (Habton Road, Great Habton, Malton, North Yorkshire, YO17 6XS). Work commenced the week of March 1st 2021 and test deployments were undertaken on March 16th 2021 and again on April 7th 2021. As is usual with innovative technologies such as this, testing identified problems with deployment and the tools and Isol8 are currently finessing the deployment mechanism and Third Energy and it’s partners in the project are considering a return to the well once this work has been completed. The deployments were tested without the use of a rig or large machinery and without the use of cement. Once a deployment is completed, monitoring and testing will be undertaken by Third Energy, isol8 and industry partners to enable this new technology to be qualified as a barrier and used across the industry to lower the costs of abandonment, reduce the need for cement and provide better protection against fugitive emissions in the future. Throughout the work there were no shows of natural gas from the well.