SAVE TIME, SAVE MONEY, INCREASED SAFETY, LOWER ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Traditional Cut & Cap
Excavate a wide, sloped hole around the wellhead, at least two meters deep.
Any water down there? You’re going to need to hydrovac that out and keep it dry the whole time.
Construct and place a stable entry walkway.(This will have to double as a fast escape route in case of spark-related mishap).
Send the welder down into this sloped, hopefully not-too-damp hole, where he’ll use a cutting torch to (slowly) cut through the outermost layer of steel casing.
Use a sledgehammer to knock away the layer of cement between the outer casing and the next layer of steel.
Repeat the cutting and smashing steps for each layer of casing and cement lining. Will there be two? ...Three? ...Four?
Careful with that torch on the innermost layer.
When it’s finally severed, hoist the pipe out of there.
Weld a cap on top of the exposed casing strings.
Get people and equipment out of the hole.
Remove any soil contaminated in the messy cutting process.
Backfill the hole (probably with fresh uncontaminated dirt by truck).
Everyone can leave now! Maybe there’s time to do another today.
Come back again in a year when the ground has had time to settle. Fill in with more dirt.
Come back the next year to see if you need to do that again.
Apply for environmental reclamation certificate. It should only be a couple more years(okay, maybe five) until the site is back to its “natural state” and your responsibility for it is complete.
NuWave
Remove wellhead from the top of the well.
Place NuWave’s patented Ultra-HighPressure Hydraulic Sub-Level Pipe Cutter inside the innermost casing.
Hook up water and abrasive lines and fire up the pumps.
High-pressure water delivers abrasive to a cutting tip two meters below surface. The tip rotates inside the casing, making a smooth cut from the inside out.
Depending on the thickness and number of casing layers, it can take 20 minutes to an hour to complete the cut.
Remove tool and pull the casing out of the ground with a backhoe. Look on with pride at how little ground disturbance you’ve created.
Compression fit our AER-approved vented cap to the below-ground casing strings.
Backfill the “gopher hole” and you’re done.
Oh, are you still working on that excavation? Okay, well, we’re going to go complete five more NuWave abandonments today...
With minimal ground disturbance, the site returns to its natural state very quickly. You could have your environmental reclamation certificate in less than a year.
