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Underground Gas Storage (UGS) is an essential technique used to ensure strategic amounts of energy that can be stored at a relatively cheap price and successively used when required. Due to their strategic nature,UGS systems are usually placed close to inhabited centers which creates a highly consequential level of damagein a potential leak scenario. This delicate working envelope means that UGS wells must be maintained in good health through a rigorous Well Integrity Management System (WIMS) which will ensure that they are operating within the desired limits and with all risks identified, analyzed, and properly mitigated. UGS wells present a characteristic behavior that makes them different from normal production wells. In fact, theyare subject to periodic injection and production cycles that apply high levels of stress on the equipment and the completion of the well. The well barrier envelope has the role of impeding an uncontrolled flow of reservoir fluids to the external environment or to other formations. The components that form it must be continuously monitored and verified to ensure that its integrity is not compromised and that it performs its final objective. Due to the stresses applied on UGS wells, and the concepts upon which these wells are designed, it is possible to find well barrier elements that are operating at the limit of acceptability. In this case, the situation must be analyzed through a dedicated risk assessment and an intervention can be planned to recover the full functionality of the barrier. On the other hand, if the risk assessment shows that the risks associated with the current well barrier condition are under control and proper mitigations are available, the well could be run within a strict working envelope.
Baronio et al. (Wed,) studied this question.