Development of an OCS Cementing Operational Guidelines Database

This paper describes a relational database system developed for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement as part of an analysis of current cementing procedures employed in the US outer continental shelf. Initial work included defining the goals of the database, identifying its users, and selecting an appropriate database management system. The main goal of the database is to present specific design, testing, and operational procedures to ensure optimized cement seal effectiveness and to mitigate potential safety issues. The database was planned and created in Microsoft Access for engineering or regulatory users with special interests in outer continental shelf cementing operations.

Initially, information was inputted into the database after an industry steering committee identified and evaluated several wells in order to analyze the cementing process and associated safety issues. Once the initial build was complete, functionality was built into the database to collect information from industry experts. Simplistic, user friendly menu screens narrow down the database information to guidelines that are pertinent to specific situations. The guidelines are then organized and presented in a report format for easy interaction.

Recommendations of future work to maximize the effectiveness of the developed database include making the menus and guidelines multilingual, modifying the reports to properly display on mobile platforms, and expanding the guidelines to include other areas in the petroleum industry.