BEER & CHAT – Environment
Thursday, February 18, 2016
3:00PM – Registration and mingling
3:30PM – Program begins
WELLBORE LEAKAGE – LUCK ISN’T A STRATEGY, QUIT SPEWING MONEY!
Luck isn’t a strategy. Quit spewing money.
Gas migration (GM) and surface casing vent flows (SCVF), collectively known as wellbore leakage, are a pressing issue for the oil and gas industry as a whole, but especially for the Canadian heavy oil sector. In fact, it is estimated that 30-40% of all Canadian heavy oil wells leak.
Why does it matter? Methane.
Wellbore leakage creates a path by which formation gas, predominantly comprised of methane, is no longer contained within its zone of origin. It is able to comingle with ground water resulting in deteriorated water quality, emitted to the atmosphere as a powerful greenhouse gas, and can accumulate within enclosed spaces creating the hazards of asphyxiation and explosion.
Why does it matter to you? $$$
Occurrences of GM and SCVF can be extremely difficult and expensive to remediate. Between production downtime, source identification and shut-off operations, costs quickly balloon to six figures and in exceptional cases into the millions … but they don’t have to.
Panelists include:
Gerry Boyer, Alberta Energy Regulator, Senior Advisor
Gerry graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, and opted to pursue oil and gas instead of the farming-ranching life. He will point out, that this was in a previous century… With an accomplished career spanning over 40 years, there is not much that Gerry hasn’t seen. His diverse experience in a number of petroleum disciplines and progressively senior roles including Chief Engineer at Canadian FracMaster, Operations Manager at First Calgary Petroleums Ltd. and VP Engineering at Thunder Energy Trust, has taken him to Siberia and the Sahara desert, as well enabled him to make his mark on the industry here in Canada.
Gerry is now focusing on the area that interests him most; drilling, completions and wellbore integrity, after joining the ERCB/AER over three years ago as a Senior Advisor in Operations.
Jay Williams, Canadian Society for Gas Migration (CSGM), President
As a the current President and founding member of the Canadian Society for Gas Migration (CSGM), wellbore leakage is an issue near and dear to Jay. He launched his engineering career within the wireline service sector, spending 20 years primarily in technical sales and quality control, before eventually making the move to VP Technical Innovation and Evolution at Hotwell Canada. In 2008, Jay joined Roke Technologies, a company specializing in vent flow solutions… and the rest is history as they say.
In addition to all his work with CSGM, Jay is also the Director of Sales – Formation Evaluation at Weatherford, where he continues to share as well as expand his knowledge in the area of subsurface.
Blair Rogers, Twin Butte Energy, Completions Engineer
Blair has been a Do-er of Stuff at Twin Butte Energy since October 2014. Prior to this, he was a Completions Engineer at Talisman Energy and a Process Engineer at Shell Canada. With over 7 years of completions experience ranging across the Western Provinces, Blair has had the opportunity to work on over 700 wellbores and over 300 abandonments and suspensions. The bulk of these wells have been in the heavy/medium oil corridor between Cold Lake and Shaunavon.
In spite of his lack of grey-hair, Blair has taken a penchant to the art of Surface Casing Vent Flow and Gas Migration intervention. He currently has one of the highest first shot success rates in Canada at 98% and makes it rain cost savings every day.
David Quinn, Devon Energy, Contract Engineer
As a contract operations engineer, David has worked in the WCSB from Manitoba to the Yukon, and from Fort McMurray to the Crowsnest Pass, not to mention international assignments in North and West Africa, South East Asia and Russia. Approaching four decades of experience in drilling, completion, production and exploration roles, David is now an integral part of Devon’s Asset Retirement group performing well abandonments in the Lloydminster / Bonnyville region and deep foothills wells in the Coleman gas field.
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