Rawwater Engineering Company Ltd / Sealing with Integrity

Rawwater M3 Well Sealing Technologies

Our technology qualification programme for the Bismuth Plug has been designed to exceed an anticipated 3000-year service life requirement and has been overseen by Bureau Veritas.

Rawwater invented the Bismuth Plug as a high-integrity, cost-effective and gas-tight alternative to the cement, elastomer and resin-based well-plugging and abandonment techniques traditionally used in the oil & gas industry.

Our technology qualification programme for the Bismuth Plug has been designed to exceed an anticipated 3000-year service life requirement and has been overseen by Bureau Veritas. To date, we have achieved the Statement of Feasibility and Statement of Endorsement.

Today, at our UK-based technology centre, we are designing and qualifying high integrity, large diameter offshore plugs and expanding metal seals to meet industry demands for plugging and abandonment, zonal isolation and well integrity management.

These include a new range of specially developed lightweight, composite bismuth plugs, as with global production of bismuth at around 10,000 tonnes per annum, large-mass plugs are unsustainable for full-field deployments. We have a large corrosion and creep database regarding the use of underwater cast bismuth alloys and have carried out more than 100 workshop trials using novel alloys specifically formulated for plugging and abandonment.

To provide a single-source solution for superior, highly controllable bismuth alloy-based plugging and abandonment techniques, we recently collaborated with Aarbakke Innovation – experts in heater and cable-deployed rig-less P&A technologies and K2 Oilfield Services, specialists in perforating and P&A solutions, to create Wellstrøm AS and bring advanced plugging and abandonment capabilities to the oil & gas industry.

Visit the Wellstrøm website

7" alloy plugs rated to 6000psi

To confirm offshore capability and extreme reliability, Rawwater completed a two-year programme to deliver 7" plugging and abandonment alloy plugs for deployment in the North Sea. Rated to 6000 psi differential pressure, and with an effective seal of 560 mm (22") in length, they replace 30 metres (100ft) of traditional cement plugging. Extensive development and testing took place in collaboration with an operator consortium and the UK Government to develop the formulation of the metal seals. The mechanical properties and creep behaviour of the alloy under service pressure/temperature conditions were verified through an OGIC-funded partnership with the University of Aberdeen.