Wells > Resources

The overwhelming volume of wells in need of plugging coupled with the limited availability of resources means plugging programs must take a strategic approach to deciding which wells to plug.

A new software tool developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) holds promise as a tool to inform plugging efforts. The decision-support tool, known as PRIMO, uses proven open source technologies and enables users to rank wells for plugging based on custom criteria, identify which wells would make the most effective use of available budgets, and determine the most efficient use of funds, crews, equipment, and other resources.

Under the Hood

PRIMO is built on a widely used web-based computing platform known as a Jupyter Notebook. The tool uses various open-source software libraries for analyzing data, including machine learning algorithms, and for displaying data as plots and tables. The types of files used to input data and constraints are commonly used in scientific computing and data science. Because it relies on common, open-source technologies and is free of licensing fees and use restrictions, PRIMO has a relatively low barrier to entry for users.

Users provide data on wells, such as location, age, depth, and production volume, as well as methane emissions metrics like the presence of incidents or violations with a given well and the proximity to sensitive locations like schools and hospitals and the potential effect on disadvantaged communities. Users can also plug in data on budgets and available plugging resources and information on the distance between wells and the distance and difference in elevation between a well head and the nearest road.

Guiding Light

Once they’ve loaded data and chosen priorities, users then run PRIMO and get customized recommendations. PRIMO has three main recommendation capabilities.

The first is simply prioritizing which wells to plug. This allows users to rank candidates based on factors like emissions. However, many users will want to prioritize candidate wells using other factors.

PRIMO’s second capability allows users to optimize plugging projects with respect to their available budget by considering factors like well accessibility, total budget, and cost per well to plug.

PRIMO also allows users to take a more holistic view that assesses the efficiency and impact of plugging projects. This includes budget factors like PRIMO’s second capability, but also includes resources like crew and equipment availability, well depth and age, well count and location, and the number of unique well owners.

Users can also customize and improve their tool and share their improvements with the larger well-plugging community. PRIMO’s capabilities will only grow as more people use and customize the tool, making it even more useful.

Cheaper ≠ Better

When it comes to plugging wells, efficiency is the name of the game. For wells with annular pressure/gas migration cement and resin are the most common choice for remediation given how cheap they are. However, BioSqueeze gives you more bang for your buck boasting a success rate 4x higher than cement and 3x higher than resin.