Ten Years After the Deepwater Horizon Disaster - Lessons Learned for a Better Cementing Job

The impacts on the Gulf of Mexico’s environment and population are enormous after the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010. Ten years later investigations on the real causes of that accident with systematic simple lab tests started to use all data available at that time and mimic what happened to overcome similar accidents. The approach in this study shows that risk assessment by experiment cannot be replaced by the mathematical models, which many companies use prior oil production. The models are simply too vague to rely on and are not putting into consideration the many factors that play a crucial role for proper oil well cementing in reality. The compatibility between chemical additives is here demonstrated. The cement additives are characterized by different methods. The additives showed slight changes in the dispersant’s molecular weight and particle charge that had in turn significant impact on the mechanical properties of the slurry. Static gel and compressive strengths of the different mixtures are tested. The dosage that shows optimum mechanical characteristics is identified for all individual systems as well as for the mixtures. The results show how important experimentation is and that mathematical models would not be able to differentiate between the two implemented chemicals if we rely on chemical composition only. The study is particularly important for future Africa with increasing potential for oil production.