Regulation and Policy

DecomWorld contacts Oil & Gas UK to learn more about the latest guidelines for well examinations on the UK Continental Shelf.

At the end of 2011, Oil & Gas UK published the first two in a series of several guidelines to help well operators better understand and achieve the goals set by the Health and Safety Executive’s regulations regarding well operations on the UKCS.

The ‘Guidelines for well-operators on well examination’ and the ‘Guidelines for well-operators on competency of well-examiners’ were produced by the Well Life Cycle Practices Forum (WLCPF), a permanent body co-ordinated by Oil & Gas UK.

The first guideline outlines key considerations when examining wells and the second provides guidance to well operators on ensuring the competency of their well examiners.

DecomWorld contacts Oil & Gas UK’s Well Life Cycle Practices Forum (WLCPF), to learn more about the recommendations of well examinations and final plug and abandonment.

DecomWorld: What key issues are flagged by the WLCPF regarding well examination?

Oil & Gas UK: Well examination is a requirement set out by UK Health and Safety Executive regulations (regulation 18 of the Offshore Installations and Wells (Design and Construction, etc) Regulations 1996 DCR. The intent of the regulations is to establish a mechanism to ensure that the well is designed and constructed so that it is in a safe condition at all times.

The purpose of well examination is to provide an independent check to verify that well operators, the duty holders for wells, are complying with well design and construction regulations, good industry practice and their own standards.

In the context of the regulations, the meaning of “examination” is wider than in common parlance. It includes review of design assumptions and criteria and of the design itself: reviewing the well construction phase to check that the well is constructed in accordance with the plan: and monitoring of the condition of a completed well during production and its periodical pressure testing and inspection.

DecomWorld: What is the guidance on well examination for well plugging and abandonment? 

Oil & Gas UK: In terms of plugging and abandonment of the well, well abandonment plans, procedures and operations are subject to the well examination scheme.

There are current Oil & Gas UK Guidelines for the Suspension and Abandonment of Wells, which provide specific advice on how to plug and abandon wells. (These can be found here).

DecomWorld: What industry-recognised certification is required for well examiners?

Oil & Gas UK:The Guidelines for well operators on competency of well examiners describes how well operators can assess competency of examiners. A well operator must ensure that its well examiners are competent using a competence management scheme, or an alternative method to demonstrate competence.

The aim is to ensure that individuals are clear about the performance that is expected of them, that they have received appropriate training, development and assessment, and that they maintain or improve their performance over time. 

DecomWorld: There have been various reports of North Sea plugged and abandoned wells leaking. Do the guidelines acknowledge and directly address this issue?

Oil & Gas UK: The guidelines focus on the dissemination of best practice procedures at all stages of the life cycle of the well until permanent abandonment.

The guidelines help operators to comply with the HSE general duty (DCR 13) to ensure that their wells are so designed, modified, commissioned, constructed, equipped, operated, maintained, suspended and abandoned that:

So far as is reasonably practicable, there can be no unplanned escape of fluids from the well: and

Risks to the health and safety of persons from it or anything in it, or in strata to which it is connected, are as low as is reasonably practicable.

To respond to this article, please write to the Editor: Rikki Stancich

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