Mistakes to Avoid When Dealing With Gas Well Abandonment
When your worksite is no longer able to use a gas well, you don't want to just leave it underground with no sort of treatment. That's not good for the environment. If you can avoid these mistakes with well abandonment, then your company can follow regulations with ease.
Not Understanding the Well's Location
If you didn't know where the gas well was on your worksite, then you're probably going to disturb a lot of the surrounding conditions and potentially strike the gas well. Then you would have a very difficult cleanup process and potentially dangerous consequences to face.
You need to know exactly where the gas well is and its surrounding structures before you can begin to plug it up with the right solution. Professionals and online gas well resources can help you get a precise location of this gas well system so that you can then take the right approach to deal with well abandonment.
Not Using Quality Sealing Materials
You can't just use any sealing materials you want with an abandoned gas well. If you did, then you won't really know how well this structure is going to be plugged. There could still be contamination issues that occur, such as when the plugging solution degrades or simply comes off.
You have to verify sealing material quality before beginning this plugging process. Find materials that can last and create a tight seal that you don't have to continue to monitor after this process is finished.
Not Observing Plugging Deadlines
There are actually deadlines for when abandoned wells that are no longer in use have to be plugged up. You want to know what this deadline is because if you don't, you may receive a lot of penalties for not following the rules.
This deadline will be determined by the depth of your gas well and the amount of time it has been inactive. You can talk to well regulation agencies to find out when this deadline is. Then you just need to carry out the sealing process before this deadline arrives to avoid financial costs.
A gas well that is no longer able to be used can't just remain underground without a proper plan for its abandonment. Certain things have to be executed. If you can avoid mistakes when performing these important steps, then gas well abandonment will go how it is supposed to.
To get help, talk to a company like Calgem Well Abandonment.