Legacy-Well Blowout Intercept & Kill

Louisiana, USA · 2025

Uncontrolled flow stopped after 116 days of failed surface intervention

The challenge

→Unexpected water flow surfaced on agricultural land; excavation revealed the stump of an unpermitted 1950s-era legacy well.
→Subsurface position and orientation completely unknown.
→Surface intervention attempted for 116 days, the well leaked ~5,000 bbl/day and all surface methods failed.

Our solution

CTRWD™ Coiled-Tubing Ranging-While-Drilling, live ranging from the BHA during drilling. Incremental ranging ruled out a "ghost" offset-well signal, then located the true legacy target at ~23.6 ft center-to-center; a ~25°/100 ft build to a shallow ~1,050 ft intercept.

15 days vs. 116 days of surface attempts · ~$2M saved

The result

15 days

to well control

·Located the ~70-year-old legacy well and reconstructed its geometry
·Legacy well drifted ~15° inclination in the first ~1,000 ft
·Mechanical contact at ~1,068 ft MD; window milled
·Flow arrested; dyed-circulation confirmed communication; well killed, plugged and abandoned

Ranging

CTRWD

Deployment

Coiled tubing (live well)

Re-entry

Yes

Location

Louisiana, USA

Year

2025

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