Decommissioning

Project determined the risk of leaving wells temporarily abandoned and shut in and to determine if the risk can be lowered with remediation efforts. The final report is available.

The purpose of this workshop was to disseminate information to the public on the results of decommissioning projects; identify issues of concern; and elicit recommendations on future California decommissioning operations and associated technical, environmental, socio-economic, and disposition issues.

Project goals were to develop, test and assess an explosive cutting tool to reduce the environmental impact of using explosives and minimize the cost of decommissioning offshore structures. Explosive shock wave focusing (SWF) technology was developed to reduce the effect of explosives on nearby marine life. The SWF technology was also designed to use 40 percent less explosive than equivalent shaped charges. This is achieved by focusing stress waves to generate a controlled crack within the material.

This is a Cooperative Agreement. The objective is to plan a workshop entitled 'Lease Abandonment: Technology Environmental Effects and Regulation'. The workshop will provide a forum for: identifying and characterizing lease abandonment issues; summarizing, sharing, and evaluating information and research that is relevant to clarifying or resolving those issues; and articulating options or major recommendations for resolution of those issues through technical, managerial, regulatory, or legislative means.

This is a Joint Industry Project (JIP). The purpose is to demonstrate that new explosives technology can be used to lessen the environmental impact of offshore platform removal. The company has developed a shock wave reflective tape which uses a lower velocity plastic bonded sheet explosive and a patented shock wave refracting wave shaper to cause material fracture in a different way then current techniques. This project will use underwater instrumentation arrays to measure peak pressure levels at known distances from an oil platform pile being severed by explosives.

Regulations require that offshore platforms and structures be removed after abandonment and the site cleared of obstructions. One of the primary means for severing the pilings which attach structures to the seafloor is through the use of explosives. This project quantifies the blast overpressures which result from these pile severance activities. The Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) conducted measurements of actual pile severance activities in the Gulf of Mexico. A platform was chosen for its suitability and NSWC electronically monitored the blasts from an adjacent barge.

Cancelled

The objective was to determine the probabilities of killing fish by removing wellheads using explosives. Factors such as time of year, water depth, and type of explosive will be studied in order to relate blast effects upon different species and sizes of fish. Explosive test data from Project No. 25 is being used.

On request for technology support, the Research and Development Program is assisting the U.S. Geological Survey Area Office, Anchorage, to quantify the environmental effects from blowing-off wellheads using shaped charges.

Use Satellite Radar Imagery to Detect if there are leaking abandoned wells. It will be tested in Phase I and an Optional phase 2 will check the Gulf of Mexico Region. Final report delivered March 14, 2001.