Chapter 20s Plug and Abandonment Procedures

Every well will eventually have to be plugged and abandoned. If the process is done correctly, it is a
permanent procedure, if not, the well fluids can leak to the surface, allow surface fluids to leak into the
reservoir or allow crossflow of produced fluids from one zone to another. Any of these problems can
cause extensive environmental and/or reservoir damage.

Leaks of brine and hydrocarbons into domestic water drinking supplies are an increasing problem
from producing or abandoned oil and gas wells. The information in the following paragraphs was gen-
erated in the U.S. by the General Accounting Office and reflects a problem which must be settled by
effective completion, monitoring, and abandonment of all types of wellbores.’ The most common
sources of contaminant entry into underground drinking water supplies were:

1. Cracks in injection wells. This may be splits in the casing with subsequent matrix injection or
uncontrolled fracturing that has linked perforated productive zones to fresh water aquifers or
other zones that allow cross flow to the aquifers. (It may also be channels in the cement. -
author’s note)

2. Injection directly into drinking water zones. This is generally the case where corrosion or acci-
dental perforations have opened up a channel into underground freshwater zones.

3. Injected brine cross flow through improperly plugged and abandoned wells. This method of entry
is most common in old fields where channels exist along the outside of casing through a poor pri-
mary cement job or where wells not in use allow brine to flow from the injected zone up to fresh-
water zones.

Of the approximately 1.2 million abandoned oil and gas wells in the United States12over 200,000 of
these wells have been judged to be not properly plugged.’ Since the volume of produced salt water
brine exceeds the volume of oil production by approximately 7:l in the U.S.,the brine leakage prob-
lem can be severe. Chloride concentration of most oil field brine ranges from a few hundred to over
150,000 ppm while the drinking water limit is 500 ppm, thus it does not take much chloride to effec-
tively contaminate a drinking water zone.

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) under the UIC (Underground Injection Control) program
has placed the following designations on disposal wells.

Class 1 - hazardous waste, non-hazardous industrial waste, and municipal waste. The disposal
zones of these wells must be located deeper than the deepest source of drinking water.

Class 2 - oil and gas operations.

Class 3 - special processes such as mineral production

Class 4 - hazardous waste above underground zones of drinking water. (These wells are now strictly
iIlegal.)

Class 5 - All other injection wells which do not fit in one of the above categories.

Of the 253,000 injection wells in the United States, 160,265 were a Class 2. These were located in 31
states.

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The guidelines for active injection wells are beginning to be tightened and the P&A procedures on
older wells are being reviewed in almost all U.S. areas to reduce the risk of underground contamina-
tion. The primary plan then for P&A procedures is to permanently isolate both the producing intervals,
the fresh water zones, and the zones of potential cross flow. Never depend upon the casing to form a
lasting barrier to flow.

Legal Requirements
Abandonment of any type of well is covered by very specific (and often inconsistent) regulations
designed to prevent pollution. Because this is a book on well completion, the reader is left to dig out
the local laws on plug and abandonment. The true purpose of the abandonment job is to stop all the
individual permeable zones from flowing or accepting fluid and that is where this book will focus.

There are a number of procedures and products that can be used for P&A jobs. The correct type to
use will depend upon local regulations and how long the well is to be abandoned and the severity of
the well conditions. The trend in all environmental regulations is for the rules to become tougher. The
best approach to P&A, therefore, is to do the job right. Initial plug and abandonment costs may be
high, but they are small compared to the costs of cleanup of problems caused by a leaking well.

Setting Cement Plugs

Downhole plugs of cement are usually set to seal off, either temporarily or permanently, a zone of
unwanted production or a zone that will be held in reserve for an extended period of time. Plugs are
also useful in sealing off an entire well when the well is to be plugged and abandoned. Cement plugs
are only one of several methods of sealing off a zone; however, if they are placed correctly, they rep-
resent the most leak proof and mechanically trouble free of the alternatives.

Plugging a well with cement may seem to be an easy task, but the correct use of cement to obtain a
usable plug requires skilled operators and good equipment. There are three basic factors which influ-
ence the setting and permanence of a cement plug: (1) the condition of the mud or drilling fluid in the
hole, (2) the volume and type of cement used, and (3)the placement technique used to set the plug.

The first thing considered in a plugging operation is the conditioning of the mud or wellbore fluid cur-
rently in the hole. Conditioning the mud in this case means bringing it to the correct density, viscosity
and chemical content. If fluids are not properly conditioned prior to contact of cement, the cement plug
may never be successfully set. A number of the additives which are currently used to give mud special
properties have the effect of retarding cement slurries to the point of not setting at all. The composition
of the mud in the hole must be known along with its general condition before a plug job can be suc-
cessfully designed. Most failures of plugging operations are due directly to mud contamination or
inability to “float” the cement on the mud in the hole.4~~ The best fluid that can be used to set a cement
plug is a freshly prepared, gelled mud slurry which has sufficient density or a high enough viscosity to
keep the cement plug from migrating up or down the hole due to the difference in density between the
cement and the mud. Cement has a density of approximately 16.4 Ib/gal for regular Class G and H
cement blends down to 11.5 Ib/gal or less for light weight blends. Mud in most P&A jobs range from 9
to 10 Ib/gal. If the density of an ungelled mud is more than the cement used for the plug, the cement
slurry will finger down the wellbore and a plug will not be created. The fingering of the cement through
the mud also mixes the mud with the cement (contaminating the cement) and may prevent the plug
from setting, even when very large volumes of cement are used. The only way to float a heavy cement
on top of a lighter mud is to increase the viscosity of the mud high enough to resist the intrusion of the
cement. This “resistance to intrusion” of the cement is similar to the yield point, or first resistance to
flow, in a Bingham plastic fluid. Although viscosity alone may work in a Newtonian fluid, the yield point
or “initial stiffness” of the Bingham plastic fluids will be an advantage in plug setting without requiring
unneeded and expensive viscosity.

The second factor of plug setting is the selection of the plug material. A cement slurry for a plug must
have durability in contact with the drilling fluids in the hole as well as good bonding characteristics to
the pipe or formation. A long enough column of cement should be used so that it is capable of with-

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standing the weight of drill pipe without being pushed out of position. The bond with the formation is
critical to the success of a plug both from a adhesion standpoint and from the elimination of any leak-
age into or out of the permeable zones. Increasing the bonding to the formation is accomplished by
cleaning the mud cake from the wall and selection of the proper place for setting the plug. Cleaning of
the mud cake and other natural accumulations from the bore hole wall requires scratchers or abrasion
by preflushes containing dispersants or other materials to facilitate cleaning of the wall. As with pri-
mary cementing, however, when the formation-masking deposits are removed, leakoff will be
increased. As an integral part of well completion, plug and abandonment procedures have the same
-
first goal: WELL CONTROL. Never assume that a P&A job cannot blow out high pressure salt water
flows are common and can be extremely damaging to surface environment and shallow fresh water
supply sands.

The primary objectives in plug and abandonment procedures are: (1) to prevent the contamination or
depletion of any formation based resource, (2) to prevent communication of subterranean fluids and
surface fluids, and (3) to safely secure the surface of the well so that accidental entry is impossible.
Many of the cave-ins around old wellheads result from the setting of poor quality or insufficient length
plugs. When the steel casing corrodes sufficiently, surface water leakage is possible and the flow of
water may carry very large volumes of soil into the well, creating surface and/or underground wash-
outs. Never expect the steel casing to be a long term, integral part of the plugging system in the well
unless it is both surrounded by and filled with cement.

The type of cement used should also match the formation characteristics. For instance, a salt satu-
rated cement is useful for plugs set in salt formations. In most cases, an API Class G or H cement with
a dispersant to allow low water content is the best cement blend. The low water content allows a
slightly more dense cement slurry which may achieve optimum strength and resist mud contamination.
The low water content cement also achieves strength more rapidly than a higher water content
cement and has better fluid loss control than other cements. It is often advantageous to use a swelling
cement when placing a plug to get the benefit of its better bonding characteristics caused by the slight
expansion of the cement while setting.

Placement of the plug is the third critical factor of plug procedures. The physical location of a plug may
differ with its intended location. The problem is usually caused by the higher density cement fingering
down through the mud. The plug and abandonment laws and designs usually specify a solid cement
plug extending from 50 ft above to 50 ft below any fresh water zone or other productive zone. In cases
where there is no cement behind the pipe or when the cement quality is unknown or even suspect, the
pipe must be perforated 50 ft below the deepest usable water zone and cement circulated through the
perfs and up the annulus to surface. Other considerations are setting plugs at liner tops and a thick
plug near the surface to prevent accidental entry or flow when the wellhead is removed. Placement of
a plug is generally done by one of three methods.

The balance method involves pumping the cement down the drill pipe or tubing and up to a calculated
height which would balance the pressure exerted from the cement in and outside the pipe. This pres-
sure balanced tubing effect can be used to create a stable plug; provided that the mud that is currently
in the hole will support the cement without allowing the cement to move through the mud by density
difference. When a lightweight mud is to be used to spot a 16.4 Ib/gallon cement slurry, then the mud
must be gelled to prevent the cement from moving through the mud. The balance calculation can be
accomplished with the following f o r m ~ l a . ~

H=- N
C+ T
where:

H = height of balanced cement column

N = ft3 of cement slurry used

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 C = ft3 per linear ft of annular space between tubing and casing or hole
T = ft3 per linear ft inside tubing
In the application of cement plugs for either temporary or permanent plug and abandonment proce-
dures, the failure rate of setting cement plugs is quite high. The most common field practice is to use
open-ended drill pipe or tubing to spot a 16.4 Ib/gal cement slurry onto a column of mud in the well-
bore. This type of treatment has several drawbacks, the most significant of which is severe plug failure
due to density differences and stringing of the cement down one side of the mud column, Figure 20.1.

et al., JPT, 1984)

Figure 20.1: Density segregation of cement through a

lighter mud when trying to set a plug.

In a paper that reported the results of a cement plug setting study, Smith, et used a model to spot
various types of cement on gelled and ungelled mud and studied the success ratio of the treatment. In
this work, it was found that when a gelled pill of mud was spotted in the wellbore and the cement was
spotted on top of the pill, the success of the plug setting procedure went up dramatically. In most
cases using the bentonite pill, a 13.6 Ib/gal cement slurry could be spotted on top of a 9 Ib/gal mud.
The bentonite pill which was spotted immediately below the section where the plug was to be set was
the same weight as the rest of the mud in the hole but heavily gelled to resist the viscous fingering
e f f e ~ t Even
. ~ with the higher viscous bentonite plug, the higher weight slurries such as 13.8-
17.5 Iblgal cement still fingered through the mud and collected near the bottom of the test borehole.
An improvement on the bentonite pill procedure was to use a diverter tool as shown schematically in
Figure 20.2. In this tool, the flow of the cement is turned 90"to the downward direction. By changing
the direction of the cement, the velocity component produced by pumping the cement is negated and
the cement could be set with almost a 100% success rate on the gelled pill, provided mud and cement
weights were within a 4 Ib/gal difference. Even with the diverter tool, when higher weight cements
were used, particularly those of over 4 Ib/gal difference from the mud, the cement plug would fail.

Even with the diverter device, the velocity of pumping should be relatively low to prevent setting up
pressure gradients that might lead to a flowing condition in the well during placement. If the well flows
during the placement of a cement plug, the gas or water flow percolating through the cement will hon-
eycomb the cement structure so that it is permeable or retard the cement to the point that it never
hardens. In a deviated well, there can easily be circulation within the wellbore: down the low side of
the pipe and up the high side. This condition has been seen repeatedly in tests of production logging
tools such as spinners and tracer profiling tools, especially when a small amount of gas is available to
lighten the fluids on the high side of the pipe and initiate the upward movement of fluid. With this type
of flow, unset plugs can be rapidly destroyed.

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 9.0 #/Gal Mud
Spacer
16.0 #/Gal Cement
Diverter Tool
9.1 #/Gal Bentonite
4 Holes Phased 4 5 O Pill Spacer

4 Holes

Bull Plug 9.0 #/Gal Mud

(Smith et al., JPT, 1984)

Figure 20.2: The diverter tool (left) used to deflect the cement
toward the borehole or casing wall. A bentonite spacer
helps prevent density segregation of the fluids.

An alternative to the open end tubing is the use of a cement retainer. The cement is squeezed under
pressure into the retainer, and the retainer itself helps prevent density segregation. Bridge plugs or
packers may also be set prior to the cementing operation to keep the cement from moving through the
mud. They are not commonly used due to their expense but they are very effective.

A second method of cement plug placement is with a dump bailer. The bailer, which is run on wireline,
is run to the necessary depth, and cement is flowed out of the bailer into the area used for the plug.
Normally, several bailer runs are employed to get the required volume of cement over the zone. Accu-
rate depth control is a necessity. Placement of cement with a bailer often leads to severe mud contam-
ination of the cement since the operation of the bailer continuously stirs up the mud and cement. The
technique should only be used where the mud in the hole will not affect the cement setting character-
istics. A thicker plug is also recommended. Time must be allowed between the bailer runs for the
cement placed by each run to take an initial set or to build some gel strength. The bailer method is
commonly used in shallower zones or for plugs other than those used for permanent abandonment of
the well.

The two plug method is the third positioning method for cement. This method involves a similar plug
design to that used in primary cementing. The bottom plug is used to isolate the cement and the mud
in the string as the cement is pumped down the pipe. At some point where the plug is to be set, a plug
catcher is placed in the tubulars to catch the plug as it is pumped out of the string. The cement follow-
ing then fills the annulus around the pipe. The top plug which follows the cement causes a pressure
rise when it hits the bottom of the pipe ensuring that a signal of cement positioning has been passed.
This string may then be pulled up out of the cement plug and the plug left to harden. Mud conditioning
is still required.

Additional equipment is available to help in setting the plug. This equipment usually involves the run-
ning of scratchers through the plug setting interval to help remove mud cake. Regardless of the plug
setting methods used, two operations should follow the plugging operation: (1) tagging the plug to
make sure it is in the right place and (2) pressure testing the plug to make sure that there are no leaks.

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 a
Ground

Cement plug
--- -.

Y
Mud-fllled hole ---
Freshwater strata below surface casing
Cement plug

Open hole, mud fllled

Cement plug
Casing stub, may or may not be in hole

Open hole, mud fllled

Cement plug ---.---.

Production strata, may be with casing and perforations
L -- - -.
(McNally, PEI, Sept. 1990)

Figure 20.3: An idealized case of plugs set during a plug and abandon-
ment operation. in real cases, plug thicknesses may be
much in excess of what is required by law. Cement tops
are always tagged to make sure of the location.

Other Plugging Processes

Cement is by far the most durable of the plugging methods, but it is not the only method. The pro-
cesses divide into two categories: settable liquids and mechanical tools. Soft gels of sodium silicate
and hard plastics are available for temporary or permanent sealing of annulus or formation. Various
mechanical isolation tools, such as bridge plugs, are also available.

Settable liquids include the cement slurries described in the preceding section, plus the organic res-
ins, polymer gels and inorganic gels. The advantages of the non-cement liquids is that they can pene-
trate the permeable formation to some distance and set up a secondary seal. The ability to invade the
formation is particularly important when extensive natural or hydraulically created fractures exist.
Cement will not extend into a thin natural fracture or a proppant packed fracture because of its high
viscosity and fluid dehydration properties. Since fractures may extend far above and below the pay; to
get a complete shutoff requires either filling the wellbore to a point above the uppermost reach of the
fracture, or plugging the fracture. When two or more permeable zones have been linked by a fracture,
the fracture itself needs to be plugged. Plugging a proppant packed fracture can be accomplished by
permanent gelling resins or inorganic gels, injected at just below the fracture extension pressure of
the formation. Most organic polymers should be avoided for permanent plugging since the seal needs
to be permanent and not susceptible to decomposition of the organic structure or bacterial attack.

Mechanical tools are usually used in the placement of cement or other fluid based, plugging mediums.
The tools are usually packers, bridge plugs, and blanking plugs that can positively position or isolate
the treatment. Although these tools represent an acceptable method of temporary abandonment, their
use in a permanent abandonment should be studied carefully to be certain that the corrosion charac-
teristics on metal and elastomer seals are acceptable. Besides corrosion limits, the mechanical tools
can only seal at the wellbore; fractures and channels beyond the casing can not be affected.

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Milling a Packer
When a permanent packer must be removed, a milling operation is necessary. The explanation and
figures used in this description is courtesy of Camco.’ The objective is to remove all of the packer
without damaging the casing. There are three basic methods.

1. Mill over the outer portion (slips and packing element) and retrieve remains or push them to bot-
tom.

2. Drill packer up completely with a flat bottom mill.

3. Chop up packer with a sand line drill.

Milling the outer portion of the packer is the most common. Milling up the entire packer takes more
time than overshot milling. Sand line drills are drill collars (for weight) with a chisel tip (cable tool drill).
The assembly is attached to the rig’s sand line (braided winch cable). The method is used in very shal-
low wells where it is not possible to apply enough weight for effective rotary milling. The packer is
tagged with bit (location marked on the sand line at surface) and then the rig operator will pick up the
sand line about 30 to 40 ft and let it drop. The packer is chopped up by the bit.

When the outer parts of the packer are to be milled, an overshot mill is used. The packer spear is run
through the bore of the packer and unjayed. Pulling up on the string then drives the teeth out and
catches the bottom of the packer. The mill shoe is unjayed from the spear allowing the spear to remain
stationary as the mill burns over (cuts) the packer. The overshot design of the upper part of the mill
shoe housing allows remaining sections to be swallowed. After the seals and bottom slips are milled
through, the remnants of the packer can be pulled.

-
References Plug and Abandonment
1. Government Accounting Office: “Safeguards and Not Preventing Contamination From Injected
Oil and Gas Wastes,” Report GAOIRCED 89-97, July 1989.

2. American Petroleum Institute Data.

3. Oddo, J. E.,Tomson, M. B.: “A Discussion of the Calcium Carbonate Scaling Problems and Solu-
tions with Respect to Produced Brines,” SPE 19763, SPE Annu. Tech. Mtg., San Antonio, Oct. 8-
11, 1989.

4. Herndon, J., Smith, D. K.: “Setting Plugs: A State-of-the-Art,” Pet. Eng. Int. (April 1978), 56, 60,
62, 64, 69, 71.

5. Scott, J.: “Completion Technology Includes Plugging Too,” Pet. Eng. Int. (Feb. 1971), 46-48.

6. Smith, R. C., Beirute, R. M., Holman, G. B., Jr.,: “Improved Method of Setting Successful
Cement Plugs,” J. Pet. Tech. (Nov. 1984), pp. 1897-1904.

7. Fredrickson, S.E., Broaddus, G. C.: “Selective Placement of Fluids in a Fracture by Controlling

Density and Viscosity,” Paper SPE 5629,50th Annual Meeting, Dallas, September 28-October 1,
1975.

8. Camco: “Permanent Packer Milling Procedure,” Camco Products and Services Co., Copyrighted
1991.

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