ABANDONMENT OF OIL AND GAS FACILITIES

[Chenry1]

Hi.,
Has anyone participated in the Abandonment of oil and gas facilities (Land based or swamp) e.g Flow stations, Artificial gas lift compressor stations, gas plants.

Would like to get information on facility location and how the waste streams were handled and the site was restored to green.

Chenry

 

[Cockroach]

Typically, there are provincial and federal regulations regarding environmental laws that fall under the jursidiction of the Energy Conservation Board, in Alberta Canada for example. I would expect similar laws or at least an indication of contact in other regions across Western Canada.

I'm not totally familiar with the United States, but Mexico and South America practice a similar procedure. We are talking Bridge Plug with cementing above the perforated zones in most cases. You will need to address leakage through various monitoring stages in order to prove total closure. For example, monitoring of ground water for contaminants is virtually mandatory within the above mentioned territories.

I would suggest approaching the situation using information from Royal Dutch Shell. In my humble opinion, they are perhaps the best at abandonment. Exxon Mobil is pretty good and a few of the juniors are above average. This would be a great web based search.

Best of luck with it. Nice to see this thread pop up in a forum dedicated to design and development.

Kenneth J Hueston, PEng
Principal
Sturni-Hueston Engineering Inc
Edmonton, Alberta Canada

 

[zdas04]

Virtually every jurisdiction will have very prescriptive rules for abandoning a well, but the record for regulation on abandoning pipelines and surface facilities is really spotty. Some (I think that Alberta is one of them) have quite clear rules, others (most US states) are either silent or contridictory. I saw one set of rules (I can't remember whose) that required abandonded pipelines to be filled with cement and anyting above ground to be removed and the surface returned to original contours and vegitation. Others want the burried lines filled with nitrogen. Some want burried lines to be left open to rot.

I've found company policies to be as confused/missing as the state regulations.

The best I've ever done has been to document abandonment plans in original design and state the reasons for the choice (e.g., remove pipe from the ground because it is required by the land-use agreement on private surface, or leave the line open-ended to reduce the risk of the line becoming a bomb).

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

http://www.muleshoe-eng.com

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

The harder I work, the luckier I seem

 

[Hookem]

Remove pressure, displace hydrocarbon liquids (push with water or nitrogen into waiting vacuum trucks), check sedimentation in bottom of vessels and tanks for NORM, check protective coatings for lead based paints, unflange and remove all above-ground piping & concrete, remove caliche, rock, geotextile fabric, fences, restore original countours, place organic soils, seed, water, go away.

 

[tsb15]

Possibly check with the Minerals Management Service (MMS)

http://www.mms.gov

for regulations or suggestions.