About the Workshop

Operators in Brazil are projecting an expenditure of approximately BRL 30 billion for the decommissioning of almost 10,000 wells between 2022 and 2026. Although more than 90% of the wells in question are onshore, it is observed that these wells correspond to about 18% of the expected expenditure, which confirms Brazil's challenging contrast for decommissioning: large number of onshore wells and significant expenditure on offshore installations.

By way of comparison, the country still seen as a hotbed of decommissioning and abandonment of wells, United Kingdom, in its recent 2021 Decommissioning Insight report indicated an expected expenditure of approximately BRL 51 billion in 10 years, which represents twice the time considered for the cases in Brazil. This demonstrates the relevance of the issue of well abandonment locally, putting the country in the spotlight. 

In this context, the largest national operator should still be responsible for a significant part of the decommissioning activities of wells in the offshore environment. However, new relevant players have accessed mature facilities through disinvestment processes and will also carry out this type of activity. 

On the regulatory side, relevant changes have taken place since 2017:

• the Wells Integrity Management System entered into force, establishing requirements and guidelines for permanent and temporary abandonment of wells;
• ANP Resolution No. 817/2020, providing for the decommissioning of E&P facilities;
• ANP Resolution No. 854/2021 – regulating procedures to present financial guarantees for the decommissioning of E&P facilities, composing an updated regulatory framework to support the massive activity.  

This SPE workshop, will discuss the challenges, technical and recent regulatory learnings such as: wells and equipment with high age, sometimes obsolete and with unavailability of information, uncertainties regarding the condition of integrity, existence of damage and deformations in the production or coating column, requests for regulatory exemption to simplify the abandonment configuration, permanent abandonment through tubing in sections with cables and control lines, qualification of alternative materials to cement, etc. The Program Committee encourages knowledge sharing among the industry and the search for technological solutions to carry out safe and cost-effective operations.

The interaction with experienced professionals, companies and institutions is a key component in the discussion of future of technology and the establishment of networking.