By Christie U. Omonigho
“Age and ingenuity have their specific roles to play at any given time, and that’s what truly played out here. Shell did not only demonstrate age, it also demonstrated ingenuity.”
Shell staff was announced the winner of the industry’s 1st Place Technical Paper Award at the annual international and exhibition conference of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) held in Lagos. Well engineers Augustine Okosun, Osehojie Ojeh-Oziegbe, Oluwatobilola Aribike and Oladokun Adubi were commended “for an outstanding display of in-depth technical knowledge and quality delivery” in their presentation titled, “Application of Perforated, Wash and Cement (PWC) technology for annular remediation in deep-water abandonment
The paper titled Application of Perforate, Wash, and Cement (PWC) Technology for Annular Remediation in Deepwater Well Abandonment, deals with, Energy Window International (Media) learnt, the PWC technology used for annular (the space between casing and wellbore) remediation to install permanent isolation barrier during well abandonment for zonal isolation and prevent fluid migration. This process Shell said was key in realizing safe and permanent abandonment of a well while preventing potential well integrity issues and environmental hazard.
Shell said that the PWC technology has long been established globally as an efficient and cost-effective solution for annular remediation which it also deployed for the first time in Nigeria’s deepwater during the Bonga field Midlife plug and abandonment campaign in Q2 last year. The paper it said highlights the significant savings in cost and time compared to conventional methods.
The SPE Award for Best Technical paper clearly underscored the kind of cutting-edge technology SNEPCo deploys in achieving top quartile performance and operation excellence in Bonga field.
Augustine said: “Technology is a key aspect of the culture of excellence in our operations and we hope the insights we shared will encourage a culture of cost effective and environmentally sound operations which the operators need to remain competitive.”