Preliminary Insight into Ice Melting, Surface Subsidence, and Wellhead Instability during Oil and Gas Extraction in Permafrost Region
Oil and gas production in permafrost can effectively alleviate energy tensions. However, ice melting around wellbores and the accompanying wellhead instability affect the efficiency and safety of oil and gas development in permafrost. Moreover, the potential oil and gas leakage will damage the envir...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:68c953ede63a4b1b8ba941d1822ca22f 2024-09-15T18:11:23+00:00 Preliminary Insight into Ice Melting, Surface Subsidence, and Wellhead Instability during Oil and Gas Extraction in Permafrost Region Xiaohui Zhou Yinao Su Yuanfang Cheng Qingchao Li 2024-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/en17061292 https://doaj.org/article/68c953ede63a4b1b8ba941d1822ca22f EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/6/1292 https://doaj.org/toc/1996-1073 doi:10.3390/en17061292 1996-1073 https://doaj.org/article/68c953ede63a4b1b8ba941d1822ca22f Energies, Vol 17, Iss 6, p 1292 (2024) permafrost mechanical property wellhead stability numerical simulation oil and gas extraction Technology T article 2024 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/en17061292 2024-08-05T17:49:45Z Oil and gas production in permafrost can effectively alleviate energy tensions. However, ice melting around wellbores and the accompanying wellhead instability affect the efficiency and safety of oil and gas development in permafrost. Moreover, the potential oil and gas leakage will damage the environment and the ecology of permafrost. Unfortunately, ice melting, formation subsidence, and wellhead behavior during this process have rarely been investigated in previous studies. In the present work, mechanical properties of permafrost were first experimentally investigated, which provided the basic parameter for subsequent numerical simulation. It was found that the ultimate strength gradually increased with the decreasing temperature, as well as the increasing confining pressure. Meanwhile, although the elastic modulus increased with decreasing temperature, it was less affected by confining pressure. Unlike other parameters, the Poisson’s ratio was hardly affected by temperature and confining pressure. Moreover, both the internal friction angle and the cohesion increased with decreasing temperature, but the influence degree varied within different temperature ranges. Then, ice melting, formation subsidence, and the instability behavior of the wellhead caused by the disturbance of the development operation were numerically explored. The investigation results show that the ice melting range in the reservoir section reached 8.06 m, which is much wider than that in other well sections. Moreover, failure of the cement–permafrost interface, caused by ice melting, resulted in a wellhead sinking of up to 1.350 m. Finally, the insulation effect of the vacuum-insulated casing showed that the temperature drop of the designed vacuum-insulated casing was much lower than that of the ordinary casing. When the fluid temperature within the wellbore was 70 °C, the temperature drop of the designed vacuum-insulated casing was 3.54 °C lower than that of the ordinary casing. This study provides support for maintaining wellhead ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice permafrost Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Energies 17 6 1292 |
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topic |
permafrost mechanical property wellhead stability numerical simulation oil and gas extraction Technology T |
spellingShingle |
permafrost mechanical property wellhead stability numerical simulation oil and gas extraction Technology T Xiaohui Zhou Yinao Su Yuanfang Cheng Qingchao Li Preliminary Insight into Ice Melting, Surface Subsidence, and Wellhead Instability during Oil and Gas Extraction in Permafrost Region |
topic_facet |
permafrost mechanical property wellhead stability numerical simulation oil and gas extraction Technology T |
description |
Oil and gas production in permafrost can effectively alleviate energy tensions. However, ice melting around wellbores and the accompanying wellhead instability affect the efficiency and safety of oil and gas development in permafrost. Moreover, the potential oil and gas leakage will damage the environment and the ecology of permafrost. Unfortunately, ice melting, formation subsidence, and wellhead behavior during this process have rarely been investigated in previous studies. In the present work, mechanical properties of permafrost were first experimentally investigated, which provided the basic parameter for subsequent numerical simulation. It was found that the ultimate strength gradually increased with the decreasing temperature, as well as the increasing confining pressure. Meanwhile, although the elastic modulus increased with decreasing temperature, it was less affected by confining pressure. Unlike other parameters, the Poisson’s ratio was hardly affected by temperature and confining pressure. Moreover, both the internal friction angle and the cohesion increased with decreasing temperature, but the influence degree varied within different temperature ranges. Then, ice melting, formation subsidence, and the instability behavior of the wellhead caused by the disturbance of the development operation were numerically explored. The investigation results show that the ice melting range in the reservoir section reached 8.06 m, which is much wider than that in other well sections. Moreover, failure of the cement–permafrost interface, caused by ice melting, resulted in a wellhead sinking of up to 1.350 m. Finally, the insulation effect of the vacuum-insulated casing showed that the temperature drop of the designed vacuum-insulated casing was much lower than that of the ordinary casing. When the fluid temperature within the wellbore was 70 °C, the temperature drop of the designed vacuum-insulated casing was 3.54 °C lower than that of the ordinary casing. This study provides support for maintaining wellhead ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Xiaohui Zhou Yinao Su Yuanfang Cheng Qingchao Li |
author_facet |
Xiaohui Zhou Yinao Su Yuanfang Cheng Qingchao Li |
author_sort |
Xiaohui Zhou |
title |
Preliminary Insight into Ice Melting, Surface Subsidence, and Wellhead Instability during Oil and Gas Extraction in Permafrost Region |
title_short |
Preliminary Insight into Ice Melting, Surface Subsidence, and Wellhead Instability during Oil and Gas Extraction in Permafrost Region |
title_full |
Preliminary Insight into Ice Melting, Surface Subsidence, and Wellhead Instability during Oil and Gas Extraction in Permafrost Region |
title_fullStr |
Preliminary Insight into Ice Melting, Surface Subsidence, and Wellhead Instability during Oil and Gas Extraction in Permafrost Region |
title_full_unstemmed |
Preliminary Insight into Ice Melting, Surface Subsidence, and Wellhead Instability during Oil and Gas Extraction in Permafrost Region |
title_sort |
preliminary insight into ice melting, surface subsidence, and wellhead instability during oil and gas extraction in permafrost region |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/en17061292 https://doaj.org/article/68c953ede63a4b1b8ba941d1822ca22f |
genre |
Ice permafrost |
genre_facet |
Ice permafrost |
op_source |
Energies, Vol 17, Iss 6, p 1292 (2024) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/6/1292 https://doaj.org/toc/1996-1073 doi:10.3390/en17061292 1996-1073 https://doaj.org/article/68c953ede63a4b1b8ba941d1822ca22f |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/en17061292 |
container_title |
Energies |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
1292 |
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1810448968148058112 |