Aquaterra Energy has launched legacy well re-entry and re-abandonment services that will help enable offshore CCS and hydrogen storage projects.
Aquaterra’s Recoverable Abandonment Frame (RAF) Technology is newly released and has the potential to reduce abandonment costs by up to £20 million per well, while also cutting project timelines by 50%. It can address challenges when it comes to locating, re-entering and re-abandoning legacy wells that either penetrate or pass through offshore oil and gas reservoirs or saline aquifers that have been earmarked for repurposing to carbon dioxide or hydrogen storage.
Aquaterra is currently having conversations with major oil and gas operators and specialist carbon capture and storage (CCS) operators in several global regions for the deployment of their legacy well re-entry services and RAF technology. This includes the North Sea and the Asia Pacific region.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen storage projects intending to use previously penetrated oil and gas or saline aquifer formations could be derailed because of the significant economic and technical challenges associated with re-abandoning problematic legacy wells that pose a risk beneath the seabed. That is where Aquaterra’s technology comes in. Using advanced seabed and subsurface surveying technologies, well imaging, marking and tagging, it can precisely locate wells.
This allows the RAF technology to adjust to an exact well position and install conduits below the seabed, re-engaging the legacy well and then back to the surface, allowing for successful re-abandonment through a vertical well re-entry tieback method. The technology also protects the legacy well components from environmental, lateral and axial loading generated by wave action on the tieback conduits and the re-abandonment operation itself, including by directing them into the frame and surrounding seabed rather than the potentially corroded and fatigued damaged legacy well.
Aquaterra envisages the technology as being for repeated use across multiple wells or locations. It has flexibility built in, allowing it to cate for differing seabed conditions. The modular design means it can be shipped worldwide or via road transport for quayside assembly. This is potentially significant, enabling the effective abandonment of re-abandonment of wells that may not have been previously possible, as well as significantly lowering costs. It anticipates an 80% reduction in costs compared to other methods that are currently deployed, as well as a major reduction of as much as 50% in project timelines too.
