Question On Notice No. 2998 asked in the Legislative Council on 23 June 2020 by Hon Robin Chapple
Question Directed to the: Minister for Regional Development representing the Minister for Mines and Petroleum
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
Question
I refer to the publication Petroleum in Western Australia, April 2015, which contains several articles, from the Department of Mines and Petroleum, available at https://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/Documents/Petroleum/PD-RES-PUB-134D.pdf, wherein the authors state that the
Department had conducted a review of 1035 of the approximately 1060 not-decommissioned wells in
Western Australia's State jurisdiction; and “The survey found 122 (11.8 percent) cases of
integrity/barrier failure in approximately 1035 wells.”; and “Twenty-five wells remain to be inspected to assess their current well
integrity status.”; and, “All non-decommissioned wells should
be inspected for well integrity issues twice per year under the Schedule of
Onshore Petroleum Exploration and Production Requirements 1991.”, and I ask:
(a) have the 122
cases of well integrity/barrier failure been remediated:
(i) if yes to (a), when did this occur, at what cost, and by whom;
(ii) if no to (a), why not; and
(iii) if no to (a), can the Minister advise when the 122 cases, referred to at (a), will be remediated;
(b) have the
remaining 25 wells been inspected:
(i) if yes to (b), what were the names/IDs of those wells, when were they inspected, and were any further integrity/barrier failures identified; and
(ii) if no to (b), why not;
(c) have all
non-decommissioned wells in Western Australia been inspected for well integrity issues twice a
year, since 2015, as required:
(i) if yes to (c), would the Minister please table the results; and
(ii) if no to (c), why not; and
(d) have the four recommendations in the 'The use of cement
bond logs in assessing
well integrity' (p32ff) been implemented for
each non-decommissioned well in Western Australia? :
(i) if no to (d), why not?
Answered on 8 September 2020
(a) (i)–(iii) This would require considerable additional research and analysis which would divert staff attention away from their current regulatory duties. Therefore I am not prepared to allocate the State’s resources to provide a response to the above questions.
The article in the 2015 Publication was a result of consultation undertaken with individual companies on their maintenance schedules and records, focusing on internal well integrity factors only. As cited in the publication on page 29, “122 petroleum wells out of 1035 non-decommissioned wells have been shown to have integrity issues; however, none of the wells had leakage to the external environment.”
(b) No
(i) Not applicable
(ii) Since 2015, the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) has adopted an integrated, risk-based compliance program for non-decommissioned petroleum wells that includes site inspections, desktop reviews, and reviews of well integrity reports.
(c) No
(i) Not applicable
(ii) The requirement for six monthly reports under the Schedule of Onshore Petroleum Exploration and Production Requirements 1991 and the Schedule of Specific Requirements as to Petroleum Exploration and Production Western Australian Coastal Waters 2007 has ceased. This reporting was superseded by the risk-based approach of the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Resources (Resource Management and Administration) Regulations 2015 and the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Resource Management and Administration) Regulations 2015 respectively.
(d) No
(i) Both the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Resources (Resource Management and Administration) Regulations 2015 and the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Resource Management and Administration) Regulations 2015 are risk-based regulations and therefore do not prescribe measurement criteria for cementing operations. Cement bond logging is considered industry best practice and DMIRS will evaluate it when assessing the Well Management Plan for new petroleum wells and for decommissioning.