Wells Activity

OGUK Wells Forum

OGUK’s Wells Forum was established in 2010 to give senior wells managers an arena for discussing issues of common interest and sharing good practice. Together with industry, the Wells Forum comprises relevant stakeholders including the Competent Authority, the HSE, the Oil & Gas Authority and the UK’s Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED).

The OGUK Wells Forum aims to:

  • Safeguard the UK Continental Shelf’s (UKCS) license to operate
  • Deliver competitive wells and increase activity
  • Achieve a step change in well decommissioning performance
  • Optimise reservoir management and well operations to maximise recovery of the UK’s oil and gas resources
  • Host an annual wells conference to share good practice

The Forum is open to senior wells managers with responsibility for any well construction and management, well intervention, or well decommissioning operations.

Safeguarding the UKCS’ license to operate

This focus area includes maintaining OGUK’s world-class suite of wells guidelines, along with addressing emerging issues related to safety and environmental and operational risks.

Well Life Cycle Integrity Guidelines

Well Decommissioning Guidelines

Guidelines on Competency for Wells Personnel

Guidelines for Well Operators on Well Examination

Guidelines for Well Operators on Competency of Well Examiners

Guidelines for High-Pressure, High-Temperature Wells

Guidelines on Qualification of Materials for the Abandonment of Wells

Guidelines on Well Abandonment Cost Estimation

Guidelines on Relief Well Planning

Please note, the current issue of the Well Life Cycle Integrity Guidelines now includes a section on drilling BOPs and references API S53 4th Edition, enabling the Oil & Gas UK BOP Guidelines to be retired.

Competitive Wells

Drilling activity on the UKCS has been at low levels in recent years, with intervention needed to extend the life of the basin. The Competitive Well Delivery initiative aims to improve the competitiveness of wells activity in the UKCS by achieving a lower, sustainable cost of drilling, with low cost variance, and increased value – to unlock more barrel-adding opportunities.
In 2018 this initiative resulted in the publication of the Guidelines for the Right-Scoping of Wells. These guidelines aim to help well-operators develop the minimum required scope for their well designs, based on benchmarking, target setting, and a multi-disciplinary team approach. The Right Scoping guidelines may be applied to new well construction activity and also well interventions and well decommissioning activity.
Access the guidelines here.

Well Decommissioning

In recognition of the steady growth of UKCS decommissioning alongside exploration and production, OGUK has established a Well Decommissioning Operator Network to bring together industry specialists and other stakeholders,OGUK forums and regulators to discuss cross-industry issues.

Reservoir & Wells Optimisation

The Reservoir & Wells Optimisation (RWO) initiative focuses on maximising production from existing well stock. The initiative takes direction from the Oil and Gas Authority’s Asset Stewardship Task Force, but links to the Wells Forum. Work areas include:

  • Guidelines to Unlocking Investment for Barrel Adding Opportunities; aims to help operators embed a production optimisation culture in their organisations and to maximise production from their assets.
  • Restoring shut-in subsea wells; according to the OGA’s wells insight report around 600 wells are shut in with significant remaining reserves. The RWO is currently focusing on improving subsea wells surveillance and restoring shut in subsea wells.
  • Achieving Well Interventions Excellence: Data related to well interventions is collected annually through the Stewardship Survey, which OGUK analyses and shares with operator members directly and through workshops. This data-driven approach helps to identify collaboration opportunities, strengthen business cases and identify the opportunity gap.

Wells Conference

OGUK’s annual Wells Conference offers an ideal arena for delegates to learn, network and discuss the challenges of delivering drilling competitively to maximise economic recovery of oil and gas from the UKCS.

Further details of the 2019 conference will be available in due course.

Find out more about wells activities at OGUK

 

To get involved or find out more about the Forum, contact the Upstream Policy Team

Access our Guidelines