A Comprehensive Approach of Well Integrity Surveillance

The well integrity surveillance program is a mechanism applied to oil, gas and water production/injection wells to ensure the sound quality and healthiness of all their completion components. Currently, there are differences in the well integrity surveillance programs applied by field operators worldwide due to the differences in the causes of well integrity issues that are faced in every field or geographical location. Recognizing such differences, Saudi Aramco formed a Well Integrity Surveillance Guidelines and Best Practices (WISG&BP) team to review and establish a comprehensive well integrity surveillance program that can be applied corporate wide for all well types (oil, water and gas). The developed program not only ensures the identification of well problems at its infancy but also maintains the healthiness and upkeep of Saudi Aramco asset. This surveillance program focuses on the following six primary well integrity surveys: 1) Wellhead valves integrity inspection and greasing. 2) Surface and Subsurface Safety Valves (SSV & SSSV) and Emergency Shut-Down (ESD) System functionality and integrity testing. 3) Annuli survey. 4) Landing base inspection. 5) Temperature survey. 6) Corrosion logging. An application has been developed to streamline and automate the planning, scheduling, execution, data validation and data posting process to ensure compliance with these best practices. This application provides tracking capability of the surveillance program and initiates alert, notification and escalation to the responsible entity at every stage of the surveillance process. The wells with identified integrity issues are flagged on a Well Watch List and closely monitored until their issue is resolved. This surveillance program is reviewed and updated every 2 years to reflect the advancements in surveillance technologies and capture any necessary modifications based on arising field observations. This paper summarizes the well integrity surveillance program applied in Saudi Aramco. It provides a workflow of the well surveillance process and describes the automation application used to capture and track the program implementation. The comprehensive strategy provided in this paper can be used as guidelines for maintaining the well integrity of all well types worldwide.