Slickline often plays a vital role in offshore plug and abandonment (P&A) operations, either in the operation phases that require slickline conveyance or because the logistical, footprint, operational, economical, environmental, or regulatory parameters of a P&A operation necessitate full reliance on this small, light, cost-effective conveyance offering.

Today’s evolving regulatory requirements are leading to increasing demands on the scheduling and design of P&A activities. For activities such as barrier placement, proof that the work is being carried out to the prescribed quality is increasingly required by operators and authorities. In addition, because the time, costs, and risks of carrying out an offshore P&A operation are considerable, possible savings and risk reduction are sought by customers.

P&A activities—such as perforation, punching, cutting, device setting, and cement placement—previously done by electric line or with memory-based tools, which required additional runs and provided only postjob QC can be carried out by digital slickline without  compromising the efficiency and immediate certainty of the operation. Conducting these P&A activities with digital slickline enables efficiencies through equipment and logistics simplification, people and equipment rationalization, and reductions in marine support requirements.

Time and cost savings and process risk reduction or elimination, important in their own rights on a single-well abandonment operation, are increasingly relevant when applied on a full-field abandonment scope of work. In addition, the suitability of slickline conveyance in such environments as riserless intervention P&A operations (negating the need for grease-injection pressure seal) is another important feature that is part and parcel of a digital slickline operation.

Actual field examples demonstrate the use of digital slickline’s inherent surface readout and command and control capabilities, the operational value of precision and clarity delivered in real time, and the specific P&A job recordability and capabilities that have been absent from slickline operations.