Coretrax Cuts Well Abandonment Costs

Coretrax said it has saved a North Sea operator more than £500,000 during a well abandonment campaign in the UKCS.

The independent wellbore clean-up and abandonment specialist was selected to support the decommissioning of 11 wells and has already saved 28 hours rig time on one well alone. The project is expected to continue to March 2019.

John Fraser, global business development director at Coretrax, said: “We strive to deliver operational efficiencies for our clients by reducing rig time and our technologies and service led approach have quickly yielded positive results for our customer. Our continued investment in research and development means that we bring new solutions to the costly challenge of abandoning wells along with a track record of learnings from other successful campaigns.”

The company deployed its CX-Tubing Hanger to secure the completion tubing before utilising its CX-RTP (Retrievable Test Packer) and CX-SVE cement retainer to assist with the restoration of annular cement.

The CX-Tubing Hanger can hang up to 400,000lbs of tubing weight and, according to Coretrax, eliminates the expensive and time-consuming process of tubing disposal, which can cost operators upwards of £250,000 per well and up to 30 hours rig time. The tool also eradicates the need to pull tubing back to the surface which requires manual handling in a high-risk area of the rig, commonly referred to as the Red Zone.

Coretrax said it has experienced a record year for growth in 2018 and expects to recruit a further 20 people by the end of the year.