Assessment of Polymer Resins as Alternative Abandonment Barrier Materials for High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) Wells: A Multi Criteria Decision Making Approach

Abstract Portland cement is the predominant material for permanent abandonment of oil and gas wells. However, resins are increasingly finding applications in the mix of barrier materials for plug and abandonment of wells because of unique features that enable their flow into areas where solid bridging makes cement ineffective, their superior mechanical properties and the chemical stability to reservoir fluid. This study demonstrates how multi criteria decision making techniques can be applied for the selection and ranking of polymers as barrier materials in a high-pressure high temperature well abandonment scenario. Four materials shortlisted through material screening in Ansys Granta materials selector are ranked using Technique for Order of Preferences Similar to Ideal Solutions (TOPSIS) againstResAMBER and ThemaSet resins which have been applied in well abandonment operations. A combination of bubble diagrams, a defined boundary/limit operating conditions reflective of HPHT wells, and material performance indices, were used for materials screening in Ansys Granta. A sensitivity test indicates that the top-ranking materials remain unchanged within reasonable variations of the weights assigned to the ranking criteria. The resulting materials ranking shows that the mechanical properties and chemical stability of materials from the Polyamide-imide (PAI), Phenol formaldehyde (PF) and Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) groups support their potential application as barrier materials for the abandonment of high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) wells. The simplicity of this combination of multi criteria decision making techniques and its proven application for solving material selection problems in other industries suggestthat this strategy suitable for application in plug and abandonment.