A Norwegian company has successfully pilot-tested in Canada a new technology that will permanently plug oil wells and ensure that no greenhouse methane gas escapes. Currently, the most-widely used technique to plug wells in Alberta is to place a cast-iron-and-rubber seal inside the steel casing and pour cement on top of it. Industry experts and plug and abandonment (P&A) specialists concur that the cement plug is not the ideal solution, because it deteriorates over time and the plug sometimes has to be tweaked and resealed again, which adds to the P&A costs. Norwegian company Interwell has developed a possible solution that uses thermite—a metal-chemical powder that has very stable components and causes a non-violent reaction that can be controlled. The thermite burns at around 3,000 degrees Celsius (5,432 degrees Fahrenheit) and melts the wellbore components with the surrounding rock, by creating “artificial magma,” like in volcanoes. Thermite is considered […]