“We can afford to lose money - even a lot of money. But we can't afford to lose reputation - even a shred of reputation.”

Failure of well integrity management has catastrophic direct and consequential impact on oil companies.

The gas leak suffered at Total’s Elgin G4 well resulted in a direct loss in excess of $5 billion and knocked around $25 billion off Total’s market capital value. Total’s SPE paper (SPE168478) explains how the right systems were not in place to anticipate what was coming. Total could not see how bad their situation was and what was about to hit them.

The incidents at BP Macondo and Total Elgin were suffered by prominent international oil companies with well developed practices and sophisticated risk management capabilities. The problems that beset these companies are all too common and are the result of a blind spot that our industry has in the critical area of well risk management.

If operators have an intimate understanding of individual well integrity issues and can see the threats they face, similar massive losses can be avoided.

Photo Credit: Total E&P UK Ltd