This chapter investigates the critical role of statistical analysis in understanding and managing well integrity performance across the oil and gas industry. It emphasizes how aggregated data on integrity failures—such as sustained casing pressure (SCP), barrier degradation, leaks, and plug and abandonment (P&A) issues—can uncover trends, inform risk assessments, benchmark performance, and guide proactive integrity strategies. However, it also acknowledges the significant challenges that hinder consistent, global data collection and interpretation. These include varying definitions of failure events, inconsistent reporting requirements, data confidentiality, under-reporting of minor issues, and a lack of normalization against well count, age, or complexity. The chapter presents illustrative statistics, offering conceptual estimates on SCP prevalence (10–40% depending on region and well age), component-level failure patterns (e.g., casing, cement, elastomer seals), and the scale of the global P&A backlog. It discusses how failures vary by depth and time since drilling, supported by figures showing the frequency of intervention types, depth distributions, and failure onset timelines. Regional disparities are also explored, linking integrity trends to basin maturity, environmental severity, well types, and regulatory practices. Through visualizations such as histograms, heatmaps, and boxplots, the chapter illustrates how age-dependent failure patterns and intervention needs can shape long-term monitoring and maintenance strategies. It further underscores the need for transparency, standardized reporting formats, and collaborative data sharing initiatives—such as Joint Industry Projects (JIPs)—to improve the quality and comparability of well integrity datasets. These improvements would enable more effective application of advanced analytics, machine learning models, and probabilistic risk assessments. In conclusion, the chapter advocates for a data-driven approach to well integrity management, grounded in carefully interpreted statistics. While recognizing the current limitations, it emphasizes that even imperfect data, when normalized and contextualized, provides valuable insights. Greater industry-wide cooperation in standardizing definitions, enhancing reporting practices, and sharing anonymized integrity data is essential for improving reliability, reducing risks, and sustaining well integrity throughout the well lifecycle.

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Statistical Insights Into Well Integrity Performance

  • Ahmed Alsubaih,
  • Kamy Sepehrnoori

摘要

This chapter investigates the critical role of statistical analysis in understanding and managing well integrity performance across the oil and gas industry. It emphasizes how aggregated data on integrity failures—such as sustained casing pressure (SCP), barrier degradation, leaks, and plug and abandonment (P&A) issues—can uncover trends, inform risk assessments, benchmark performance, and guide proactive integrity strategies. However, it also acknowledges the significant challenges that hinder consistent, global data collection and interpretation. These include varying definitions of failure events, inconsistent reporting requirements, data confidentiality, under-reporting of minor issues, and a lack of normalization against well count, age, or complexity. The chapter presents illustrative statistics, offering conceptual estimates on SCP prevalence (10–40% depending on region and well age), component-level failure patterns (e.g., casing, cement, elastomer seals), and the scale of the global P&A backlog. It discusses how failures vary by depth and time since drilling, supported by figures showing the frequency of intervention types, depth distributions, and failure onset timelines. Regional disparities are also explored, linking integrity trends to basin maturity, environmental severity, well types, and regulatory practices. Through visualizations such as histograms, heatmaps, and boxplots, the chapter illustrates how age-dependent failure patterns and intervention needs can shape long-term monitoring and maintenance strategies. It further underscores the need for transparency, standardized reporting formats, and collaborative data sharing initiatives—such as Joint Industry Projects (JIPs)—to improve the quality and comparability of well integrity datasets. These improvements would enable more effective application of advanced analytics, machine learning models, and probabilistic risk assessments. In conclusion, the chapter advocates for a data-driven approach to well integrity management, grounded in carefully interpreted statistics. While recognizing the current limitations, it emphasizes that even imperfect data, when normalized and contextualized, provides valuable insights. Greater industry-wide cooperation in standardizing definitions, enhancing reporting practices, and sharing anonymized integrity data is essential for improving reliability, reducing risks, and sustaining well integrity throughout the well lifecycle.