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Permalink Reply by Gunner Ostergard on December 31, 2013 at 10:43am

Didn't mean to be so lazy,  I guess I could have googled this first

Scheduled Date and Time of Plugging.

Section § 3220 (c) of the 2012 Oil and Gas Act requires that this scheduled plugging time be no less than three days nor more than 30 days after this notice is received by DEP. This is to allow the Department to arrange for a field inspector to be present during the plugging work. The Department may verbally waive this required waiting period.

Checklist

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Permalink Reply by Gunner Ostergard on December 31, 2013 at 11:20am

Has anyone ever seen it done?  What equipment do they bring in?

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Permalink Reply by Brian Powers on January 1, 2014 at 3:29am

Gunner-

In my experience plugging wells, the process included several elements and equipment:

1) Ascertaining the equipment that could be salvaged, refurbished and reused, such as surface valves, pipe, casing (above the top of cement) and tubing. A small derrick/hoist is used to pull the tubing and casing after wire line electric logging tools help determine the "free-point" of the pipe. A variety of mechanical or chemical cutting tools are available to sever the pipe. The pipe is threaded and screwed together while running into the hole; it is removed in the same manner.

2) most states have specific plugging requirements including mechanical/hydraulic isolation of formerly productive zones and fresh water zones. Cement blending and pumping equipment is used to pump and deploy cement plugs via coiled tubing or small diameter jointed pipe. Drilling mud is usually left between the plugs, which hydraulically isolate zones to prevent cross-contamination.

3) the cellar around the wellhead and uppermost outer casing is excavated and the upper casing/wellhead is removed. A steel cap is often placed over the casing stub with identifying marks etched into the cap, such as well name, API number, plugging date, etc. in case a re-entry is attempted later.

4) after cement plugs are set, equipment removed to surface and removing the wellhead, the surface location is reclaimed to allow use of the surface for farming or other purposes.

The above describes the basic process for plugging an onshore well. Offshore, it is similar with only a few differences.

Brian

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Permalink Reply by Gunner Ostergard on January 1, 2014 at 3:33am

Thank Brian,  I really appreciate when you guys in the field share first hand knowledge

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