Offshore staff
STAVANGER, Norway – Equinor and Ardyne have committed to a second joint industry project to develop well decommissioning technology (TITAN RS) designed to cut the cost and environmental impact of slot recovery and decommissioning.
The two companies are jointly funding the £1-million ($1.38-million) program, with Ardyne managing all engineering and onsite rig qualification testing prior to field trials.
Their initial agreement signed in 2018, covered design and development of the resonance technology.
TITAN RS combines Ardyne’s bottomhole assembly systems with the new resonance tool to support casing recovery, through use of resonance to reduce the pulling force needed to free stuck casing.
There have been successful trials involving recovery of casing encased in settled solids.
The system employs resonance, or vibration, technology as opposed to hammering to free stuck casing, allowing longer sections to be pulled faster from settled material in the well such as barite sag or settled solids.
Vibrations are said to remain isolated downhole and are not transferred to the rig floor.
Compared with conventional rig systems, Ardyne claims, TITAN RS achieves up to 40% time-efficiency savings for well abandonment, decommissioning, and brownfield slot recovery projects through fewer runs and time downhole.
Carbon emissions are also said to be lower due to reduced rig time, and well clean-up can be achieved as part of the recovery process without the need for additional trips in the well.
For a single-well scenario, the company estimates that an average rig time saving of more than 78 hours can be achieved.
07/14/2021
