Webinar: Improved understanding of seepage in and around abandoned wells

Improved understanding of seepage in and around abandoned wells

Approximately 3000 wells drilled on the Norwegian Continental Shelf have already been decommissioned, and an equal amount is expected to be plugged and abandoned (P&A) in the next decade(s). Recently detected acoustic anomalies in the water column near abandoned wells suggest that fluids are actively seeping and that the well paths may have an influence on the natural migration pathways. In the three presentations of this webinar, we will give an overview of the occurrences and mechanism of natural seepages, followed by observations of seepage near hydrocarbon wells, and concluding on a proposal to study the fate of plugged wells after abandonment.

1. Natural methane seepage: a broadly diffused phenomenon (Adriano Mazzini, UiO)
2. The chicken and the egg: the relation between leakage from hydrocarbon wells and natural sea-bed seeps (Stig-Morten Knutsen, NPD)
3. The fate of plugged wells after abandonment: a proposal for a Knowledge Building Project for the Industry (Stéphane Polteau, IFE)

Adriano Mazzini is a senior research scientist at the Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics, a centre of excellence at the University of Oslo. He conducts multidisciplinary studies on research topics related to fluids migration at offshore and onshore sedimentary basins investigating pockmarks, mud volcanoes, and sedimentary hosted hydrothermal systems.

Stig-Morten Knutsen is the head of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate in Harstad, and an adjunct professor with UiT The Arctic University of Norway (Tromsø).  His background is from the industry, academia and governance, and with particular experience from petroleum systems, shallow gas assessments, CCS and integrated management plans. Stig-Morten holds a PhD from UiT The Arctic University of Norway.

Stéphane Polteau is a senior research scientist in the Reservoir Department at the Institute for Energy Technology in Kjeller, where he is involved in a wide range of research topics mostly related to fluid migration in sedimentary basins, with a special interest in developing tools to detect natural seepage of hydrocarbons for exploration.

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