Acid treatment as a way to reduce shale rock mechanical strength and to create a material prone to the formation of permanent well barrier

Utilization of natural shale formations for the creation of annular barriers in oil and gas wells is currently discussed as a mean of simplifying cumbersome plugging and abandonment procedures. Shales that are likely to form annular barriers are shales with high content of swelling clays and relatively low content of cementation material (e.g., quartz, carbonates). Shales with large content of quartz and low content of swelling clays will be rather brittle and not easily deformable. In this paper we ask the question whether and to what extent it is possible to modify the mechanical properties of relatively brittle shales by chemically removing some cementation material. To answer this question, we have leached out carbonates from Pierre I shale matrix using hydrochloric acid and we have compared mechanical properties of shale before and after leaching. We have also followed leaching dynamics using X-ray tomography. The results show that removal of around 4–5 wt% of cementation material results in 43% reduction in Pierre I shale shear strength compared to the non-etched shale exposed to sodium chloride solution for the same time. The etching rate was shown to be strongly affected by the volume of fluid staying in direct contact with the shale sample.publishedVersio

Plug & abandonment of offshore wells: Ensuring long-term well integrity and cost-efficiency

There is an upcoming "P&A wave" of wells that need to be permanently plugged and abandoned, especially in mature, offshore areas such as the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico. It is important to ensure that plugged wells do not leak after abandonment, as there could be several potential leak paths such as microannuli in plugged wells. To ensure well integrity after abandonment, permanent well barriers must extend across the full cross section of the well. That includes establishing barriers in all annuli, which could however be quite time-consuming and thus costly. This paper is a review of challenges and technologies for P&A of offshore wells, with an emphasis on cost-effective solutions while establishing permanent well barriers. An overview of cement and other plugging materials is given, as well as a discussion of different types of potential leak paths and failure mechanisms in permanently plugged and abandoned wells. Moreover, recent technology developments such as utilizing shale as barrier for P&A are described. A discussion on the special considerations related to P&A of subsea wells is also included.publishedVersio

Relations between Static and Dynamic Moduli of Sedimentary Rocks

Static moduli of rocks are usually different from the corresponding dynamic moduli. The ratio between them is generally complex and depends on several conditions, including stress state and stress history. Different drainage conditions, dispersion - often associated with pore fluid effects – heterogeneities and strain amplitude are all potential reasons for this discrepancy. Moreover, comparison of static and dynamic moduli is often hampered and maybe mistaken due to insufficient characterization of anisotropy. This paper gives a review of the various mechanisms causing differences between static and dynamic moduli. By careful arrangements of test conditions, it is possible to isolate the mechanisms so that they can be studied separately. Non-elastic deformation induced by the large static strain amplitudes is particularly challenging, however a linear relationship between non-elastic compliance and stress makes it possible to eliminate also this effect by extrapolation to zero strain amplitude. To a large extent, each mechanism can be expressed mathematically with reasonable precision, thus quantitative relations between the moduli can be established. This provides useful tools for analyses and prediction of rock behavior. For instance, such relations may be used to predict static stiffness and even strength based on dynamic measurement. This is particularly useful in field situations where only dynamic data are available. Further, by utilizing the possibility for extrapolation of static measurements to zero strain amplitude, dispersion in the range from seismic to ultrasonic frequencies may be studied by a combination of static and dynamic measurements

Comparing mechanical and ultrasonic behaviour of a brittle and a ductile shale: Relevance to prediction of borehole stability and verification of shale barriers

Borehole collapse during drilling operations in shale formations is a well-known and costly problem within the petroleum industry. Recently it has become evident that shales may also form sealing barriers around the casing, reducing the need for cement jobs on new wells, and reducing costs for plugging and abandonment of old wells. The forming of such barriers involves large deformations of shale through creep and plastic processes. Hence, it is important to be able to characterize to what extent shales may fail in a brittle or ductile manner, in both cases causing possible hole instabilities during drilling, and in the case of ductile shales, enabling permanent sealing barriers. Triaxial failure tests, creep tests and tests tailored to follow the failure envelope under simulated borehole conditions have been performed with two soft shales. One shale fails in a more brittle manner than the other and fails to form a sealing barrier in the laboratory. The more ductile shale has been proved to form barriers both in the laboratory and in the field. By comparing their behavior, it is seen that the ductile shale exhibits normally consolidated behaviour, while the more brittle shale is overconsolidated. This points to the stress history and possibly cementation as keys in determining the failure mode. In addition, porosity, clay content, ultrasonic velocities, unconfined strength and friction angle may be used as indicators of brittle or ductile post-failure behaviour. Ultrasonic velocity and in particular attenuation measurements are shown to be sensitive to the failure initiation process, although stress sensitivity is much lower in the ductile than in the brittle case. The experiments provide values for anisotropic velocities as well as P-wave impedances that are necessary for open as well as cased hole log interpretation, in particular for barrier verification and possibly for monitoring of barrier formationpublishedVersio

Time-dependent closure of a borehole in a viscoplastic rock

The paper describes a model to predict and analyze the time-dependent closure of a borehole drilled in a soft rock subjected to an initial isotropic stress, and the build-up of stress on a rigid casing after contact with the deforming rock. The rock behaves as a viscoplastic material characterized by a Mohr–Coulomb yield criterion and plastic potential, and by a time-dependent stress–strain deviatoric response akin to a Bingham rheology. The model formulation recognizes the particular structure of the solution, namely that the borehole is encircled by an evolving viscoplastic annulus, itself surrounded by an infinite domain, where the rock is either elastic or is unloading elastically. Noting that the solution outside the viscoplastic boundary is given explicitly by the Lamé solution, the evolution problem is formulated as an initial boundary value problem in the viscoplastic region only, but with a free boundary — the growing or shrinking interface between the viscoplastic and the elastic domains. The equations governing the mechanical fields and the evolution of viscoplastic boundary are spatially discretized on a moving mesh with a fixed number of nodes. The final system of equations is a set of first order ODEs that are efficiently solved using the MATLAB routine ODE45. The numerical simulations reveal (i) the time-dependent deformation and stress state of rock in the viscoplastic annulus before and after the contact, (ii) the time of first contact between the deforming rock and the casing, (iii) the effective duration of the stress build-up on the casing, and (iv) the large time contact pressure, which is well approximated by the elastoplastic solution

Comparing mechanical and ultrasonic behaviour of a brittle and a ductile shale: Relevance to prediction of borehole stability and verification of shale barriers

Borehole collapse during drilling operations in shale formations is a well-known and costly problem within the petroleum industry. Recently it has become evident that shales may also form sealing barriers around the casing, reducing the need for cement jobs on new wells, and reducing costs for plugging and abandonment of old wells. The forming of such barriers involves large deformations of shale through creep and plastic processes. Hence, it is important to be able to characterize to what extent shales may fail in a brittle or ductile manner, in both cases causing possible hole instabilities during drilling, and in the case of ductile shales, enabling permanent sealing barriers. Triaxial failure tests, creep tests and tests tailored to follow the failure envelope under simulated borehole conditions have been performed with two soft shales. One shale fails in a more brittle manner than the other and fails to form a sealing barrier in the laboratory. The more ductile shale has been proved to form barriers both in the laboratory and in the field. By comparing their behavior, it is seen that the ductile shale exhibits normally consolidated behaviour, while the more brittle shale is overconsolidated. This points to the stress history and possibly cementation as keys in determining the failure mode. In addition, porosity, clay content, ultrasonic velocities, unconfined strength and friction angle may be used as indicators of brittle or ductile post-failure behaviour. Ultrasonic velocity and in particular attenuation measurements are shown to be sensitive to the failure initiation process, although stress sensitivity is much lower in the ductile than in the brittle case. The experiments provide values for anisotropic velocities as well as P-wave impedances that are necessary for open as well as cased hole log interpretation, in particular for barrier verification and possibly for monitoring of barrier formatio

Comparing mechanical and ultrasonic behaviour of a brittle and a ductile shale: Relevance to prediction of borehole stability and verification of shale barriers

Borehole collapse during drilling operations in shale formations is a well-known and costly problem within the petroleum industry. Recently it has become evident that shales may also form sealing barriers around the casing, reducing the need for cement jobs on new wells, and reducing costs for plugging and abandonment of old wells. The forming of such barriers involves large deformations of shale through creep and plastic processes. Hence, it is important to be able to characterize to what extent shales may fail in a brittle or ductile manner, in both cases causing possible hole instabilities during drilling, and in the case of ductile shales, enabling permanent sealing barriers. Triaxial failure tests, creep tests and tests tailored to follow the failure envelope under simulated borehole conditions have been performed with two soft shales. One shale fails in a more brittle manner than the other and fails to form a sealing barrier in the laboratory. The more ductile shale has been proved to form barriers both in the laboratory and in the field. By comparing their behavior, it is seen that the ductile shale exhibits normally consolidated behaviour, while the more brittle shale is overconsolidated. This points to the stress history and possibly cementation as keys in determining the failure mode. In addition, porosity, clay content, ultrasonic velocities, unconfined strength and friction angle may be used as indicators of brittle or ductile post-failure behaviour. Ultrasonic velocity and in particular attenuation measurements are shown to be sensitive to the failure initiation process, although stress sensitivity is much lower in the ductile than in the brittle case. The experiments provide values for anisotropic velocities as well as P-wave impedances that are necessary for open as well as cased hole log interpretation, in particular for barrier verification and possibly for monitoring of barrier formatio

Acid treatment as a way to reduce shale rock mechanical strength and to create a material prone to the formation of permanent well barrier

Utilization of natural shale formations for the creation of annular barriers in oil and gas wells is currently discussed as a mean of simplifying cumbersome plugging and abandonment procedures. Shales that are likely to form annular barriers are shales with high content of swelling clays and relatively low content of cementation material (e.g., quartz, carbonates). Shales with large content of quartz and low content of swelling clays will be rather brittle and not easily deformable. In this paper we ask the question whether and to what extent it is possible to modify the mechanical properties of relatively brittle shales by chemically removing some cementation material. To answer this question, we have leached out carbonates from Pierre I shale matrix using hydrochloric acid and we have compared mechanical properties of shale before and after leaching. We have also followed leaching dynamics using X-ray tomography. The results show that removal of around 4–5 wt% of cementation material results in 43% reduction in Pierre I shale shear strength compared to the non-etched shale exposed to sodium chloride solution for the same time. The etching rate was shown to be strongly affected by the volume of fluid staying in direct contact with the shale sample

Acid treatment as a way to reduce shale rock mechanical strength and to create a material prone to the formation of permanent well barrier

Utilization of natural shale formations for the creation of annular barriers in oil and gas wells is currently discussed as a mean of simplifying cumbersome plugging and abandonment procedures. Shales that are likely to form annular barriers are shales with high content of swelling clays and relatively low content of cementation material (e.g., quartz, carbonates). Shales with large content of quartz and low content of swelling clays will be rather brittle and not easily deformable. In this paper we ask the question whether and to what extent it is possible to modify the mechanical properties of relatively brittle shales by chemically removing some cementation material. To answer this question, we have leached out carbonates from Pierre I shale matrix using hydrochloric acid and we have compared mechanical properties of shale before and after leaching. We have also followed leaching dynamics using X-ray tomography. The results show that removal of around 4–5 wt% of cementation material results in 43% reduction in Pierre I shale shear strength compared to the non-etched shale exposed to sodium chloride solution for the same time. The etching rate was shown to be strongly affected by the volume of fluid staying in direct contact with the shale sample