Methods, apparatus and systems for creating bismuth alloy plugs for abandoned wells
AssigneeSchlumberger Technology Corporation
InventorsTerizhandur S. Ramakrishnan, Quincy K. Elias, Hua Zhang, Youssef Magdy Abdou Mohamed Elkady, Yixuan Feng
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Abstract
A wellbore is plugged using a bismuth alloy. In one embodiment, the bismuth alloy comprises an alloy of bismuth and tin. In another embodiment, the bismuth alloy comprises an alloy of bismuth and silver. The wellbore can be arranged so that a liquid bismuth alloy sets with an excess pressure of the plug relative to the borehole fluid pressure along a desired seal height distance. Other aspects are described and claimed.
Claims13
1-25. (canceled)
A method for plugging a wellbore having a casing and cement surrounding the casing and traversing a formation, comprising:
- a) determining a measured depth in the wellbore corresponding to a portion of the formation that will interface to a plug when formed in situ;
- b) determining at least one property of the wellbore at the measured depth in the wellbore;
- and
- c) using the at least one property of the wellbore as determined in b) to select or rule out an alloy of bismuth and tin or an alloy of bismuth and silver for use in forming a plug in situ at the measured depth.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.