Using Shale as a Barrier Simplifies Well Abandonment
Authors: Carpenter Chris 
Published: January 2021

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 199654, “Simplifying Well Abandonments Using Shale as a Barrier,” by Eric van Oort, SPE, and Maria Juenger, The University of Texas at Austin, and Munir Aldin, SPE, Metarock Laboratories, et al., prepared for the 2020 IADC/SPE International Drilling Conference and Exhibition, Galveston, Texas, 3-5 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

The complete paper presents the results of an investigation into the creep behavior of North Sea shales and their ability to form effective annular barriers. The large-scale laboratory results show that Lark-Horda shales will form competent low-permeability annular barriers when left uncemented, as confirmed using pressure-pulse-decay measurements. Experimental conditions were found to influence the rate of barrier formation. Higher effective stress, higher temperature, and beneficial manipulation of annular fluid chemistry all have a significant effect.

Introduction

An alternative to traditional plug-and-abandonment techniques presented it-self more than a decade ago, with observations that formations such as mobile salts and shales could creep into uncemented annular spaces and form competent annular barriers that could be identified on sonic and ultrasonic bond logs and verified using pressure testing. Shale particularly has the necessary characteristics that several guidelines require of a good barrier, being largely impermeable, nonshrinking, ductile, and resistant to chemicals and substances, all of which help provide long-term integrity.

Shales that appeared to be particularly well-suited to beneficial annular creep behavior were characterized by low strength and high ductility, high clay content with relatively high smectite content, low levels of quartz and carbonate cementation, relatively high porosity and low compressional wave velocity, and a tendency to yield wellbore instability problems while being drilled. Mechanisms other than creep were considered for the annular blockage behavior observed, but the mounting body of evidence indicates that the predominant mechanism is indeed creep (i.e., the viscoplastic behavior of argillaceous rocks). In the laboratory and field work published to date, stimulation of shale barriers through accelerated creep by pressure and temperature manipulation has received the most attention.

The authors investigate barrier activation not only by temperature and pressure activation but also by chemical activation, because it offers practical advantages and reduces risks associated with temperature and pressure activation. Temperature has a significant effect on the viscoplastic behavior of shale, but heating a long shale section (with a minimum barrier length of 50 m) through casing with an effective downhole heater presents considerable practical challenges. Pressure reduction in the annulus through reduction of the hydrostatic head in the wellbore brings with it well-control concerns, particularly when no functional annular barrier is in place. By contrast, circulating a chemical solution in place in an annular space through casing perforations with a workstring and packer arrangement is relatively straightforward and is routine when practicing the perforate, wash, and cement technique in the field.