Shortcut

Deepwater plug-and-abandonment system

The Shortcut deepwater plug-and-abandonment (P&A) system consists of tools designed to sever a single string of casing, engage it for removal, and retrieve the wellhead seal assembly—all in one operation. The heart of the system is the Shortcut spear, which can be engaged to facilitate the cutting operation near the sever point, then released and re-engaged at the top of the casing segment being removed. This ability enables the recovered casing to be hung in the rotary table while the Shortcut spear is released and the workstring racked out of the way, leaving the casing to be handled safely and efficiently as it is removed from the wellbore.

A seal assembly retrieval tool incorporated in the Shortcut system enables the removal of the wellhead seal assembly or wear bushing, making the entire operation of cutting and recovering casing possible in a single trip. The efficiencies of the Shortcut system can result in significant cost savings.

System components cut and recover casing

Besides the Shortcut spear, system components include the hydraulic casing cutter, Hydra-Stroke bumper sub, a bumper jar, and a mud motor. These tools work together to efficiently cut and recover casing. The spear engages and places the casing in tension while the mud motor and hydraulic casing cutter sever the pipe at a predetermined depth. A bumper jar is run above the spear, and the Hydra-Stroke bumper sub is run below when impact or jarring is required to free a section of casing.