D-010 Well integrity in drilling and well operations (Rev. 3, August 2004)

The standard defines the minimum functional and performance oriented requirements and guidelines for well design, planning and execution of safe well operations. The focal of the standard is well integrity.

This revision was initiated to make this NORSOK standard compliant with changes in legislation and adapted to evolving and new technology. In this revision, the user will find that the standard has been completely reorganised and that the content and structure is different than the previous revision. The intention has been to make it easier to find information and provide flexibility to updating or revising this NORSOK standard in the future without altering its structure. Consequently, the changes from the previous revision are not marked.

The following main changes are implemented in this revision:

• The focus of this NORSOK standard is well integrity, which is the application of technical, operational and organizational solutions to reduce the risk of uncontrolled release of formation fluids throughout the entire life cycle of the well and of course safety aspects. Recommendations for best practices are not dominant. This led to renaming this NORSOK standard to "Barriers in drilling and well operations".
• The descriptions are mostly insensitive to type of well and type of installation.
• Clear and concise requirements (shall) and guidelines (should) have been applied to stress their importance and to differentiate the process of handling deviations from these.
• Overlapping or duplication of text or topics in other standards has been minimized.
• Well barrier related terminology with definitions has been established in lack of apparent international standard definitions.
• Pre-defined WBSs for most common situations have been included.
• A library of 50 defined WBEs with acceptance criteria has been added, which the user can apply to define a well barrier with associated standard acceptance criteria.
• Listings of situations for which well control action procedures should be in place are included.
• Underbalanced drilling and completion operations and sidetracking, plugging and abandonment activities are significantly altered.
• Production activities and pumping operations are new.