Assessment of Creep Potential of Gearle Formation for Griffin Field PP&A Planning Available to Purchase

The ability of shale formations to deform and seal the annulus around the casing has been documented in publications and industry presentations. Moreover, development of such natural seals (barriers) in the annulus has been utilized in Permanent plug and abandonment (PP&A) operations as an alternative to conventional PP&A methods and materials. It has been reported that this in fact facilitated the PP&A operations and resulted in considerable cost savings. The objective of this paper is to present the work done to assess the potential of the Gearle formation in the Griffin fields in the southern Carnarvon Basin in Western Australia with respect to its ability to provide a barrier during the PP&A operations. For this purpose, we identify first and second order factors controlling the creep deformation of shales/mudstones. In turn, we compared the material and mechanical properties of Gearle formation with the formations forming seal at NCS and also with other measurements completed on other shales globally. In addition, we have utilized simple numerical creep models to assess the creep potential of Gearle formation to form a barrier around the casing. Later during PP&A operations, we acquired IBC-CBL-VDL logs in the wells and observed evidence of bonding. We, finally, present the cement log bond interpretations in the intervals we observed casing-formation bonding.