Let’s take a brief look at what you can expect to learn in our Preventing Containment Loss Course.
Preventing Containment Loss Course Content Overview
- Integrated Subsurface Containment
- Subsurface Containment Risks and Strategies
The introductory Integrated Subsurface Containment lesson emphasizes prevention of containment loss through an integrated approach to risk management practices and containment strategies associated with both aging infrastructure and current operations. Both well integrity and subsurface integrity are crucial to subsurface containment. A loss of either can result in a subsurface containment loss. Subsurface containment during drilling operations can be achieved through three broad control strategies: primary, secondary and tertiary well control. A well must withstand not only the rigors of extraction, but it must also prevent contamination at the time of construction and in the future. Well construction (e.g., casing, cement) and continuous monitoring (e.g., mechanical integrity tests) of the well during operations is critical to subsurface containment.
The Subsurface Containment Risks and Strategies lesson highlights some of the risk management practices and containment strategies associated with both aging infrastructure and current operations. For example, orphan wells are vulnerable to risks for both wellbore and subsurface integrity. Exploration and production traditionally focus on the reservoir interval, but the overburden, underburden (basement) and side-burdens can all provide important barriers to containment loss. With high-profile incidents such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and a natural gas leak in Aliso Canyon near Los Angeles, strategies for preventing containment losses are receiving increased attention.
The Preventing Containment Loss Course explains how best management practices to prevent containment loss mitigate: environmental damage, damage to assets, and negative impacts on drilling and production. The course highlights how subsurface containment requires a multi-faceted approach incorporating technical, geologic, and human variables. A self-check at the end of each lesson provides the opportunity to refresh and cement your knowledge so that you are ready for the next lesson.