Drinking Water in Oil and Gas Wells to Be Abandoned—A Technical Guide for the Oil Industry to Supply Water to Resource-Poor Communities
Publication: World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2024
ABSTRACT
Around the world, operators of oil and gas properties periodically face the necessity to abandon wells. This is a very dynamic activity during the whole life of an oil and gas endeavor, which intensifies at the final production stage of the project. Worldwide, significant quantities of water are still unexplored; nevertheless, there are millions of people without access to water. This paper presents the methodology to identify those hydrocarbon wells, planned for abandonment, which may be wells capable of supplying water in quantity and quality suitable for human usage, agriculture, or industrial purposes; and addresses the engineering practices to make feasible the supply of such a precious resource to the communities local to the oil and gas field. This work was developed to serve as a guide to operators, regulators, and other stakeholders of the oil and gas industry so they may consider these alternative practices prior to the process of fully abandoning oil and gas wells.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2024
Pages: 1025 - 1038
History
Published online: May 16, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Business management
- Drinking water
- Energy engineering
- Energy infrastructure
- Environmental engineering
- Groundwater
- Industries
- Infrastructure
- Lifeline systems
- Organizations
- Practice and Profession
- Water (by type)
- Water and water resources
- Water management
- Water policy
- Water quality
- Water resources
- Water supply
- Water treatment
- Wells (oil and gas)
- Wells (water)
Authors
Metrics & Citations
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