Well Integrity for Oil, Gas, and Subsurface Storage Operations: Lifecycle Management, Technologies, and Energy Transition Challenges

This book serves as a comprehensive, lifecycle-based guide for managing well integrity in both conventional and energy transition contexts. It is an essential resource for students and professionals focused on ensuring the long-term performance and safety of oil and gas wells, as well as wells utilized for carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen and methane injection, waterflooding, and enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Readers will find practical tools for designing, verifying, monitoring, and remediating well barriers―such as casing, cement, tubing, valves, and seals―across a variety of operational conditions, including high-pressure/high-temperature environments, corrosive fluids, cyclic loading, and fracturing. Coverage includes everything from hydraulic fracturing in unconventional reservoirs to pressure containment in hydrogen storage caverns, providing engineering insights based on real-world case studies, regulatory guidance, and emerging technologies. It integrates concepts of barrier philosophy, well construction, annular pressure diagnostics, corrosion science, risk-based inspection, intervention, and abandonment. Additionally, the book delves into innovative advances like fiber optic sensing, digital twins, and AI-enabled predictive analytics. Whether managing mature assets or designing wells that are ready for the future, this reference supports safe, reliable, and regulation-compliant decision-making.

Well Integrity for Oil, Gas, and Subsurface Storage Operations is an indispensable resource for petroleum engineers, geoscientists, asset managers, and technical specialists responsible for well integrity across oil, gas, and subsurface storage projects―both today and in a low-carbon energy future.

• Offers an end-to-end integrity management approach from design and construction to operation and plug and abandonment;
• Focus on barrier-centered engineering provides deep insight into design, verification, monitoring, and remediation;
• Content is field-driven and standards-aligned, with case studies, failure modes, and regulations (API, ISO, NORSOK).

Ahmed Alsubaih is a seasoned petroleum engineer with over 17 years of international experience spanning drilling, workover, reservoir management, and production operations. He has led engineering and supervisory roles in major oilfields across the Middle East and North America, including projects with BP, ExxonMobil, Lukoil, and national oil companies. His expertise includes wellbore integrity, geomechanics, well construction optimization, and failure mitigation in conventional and unconventional reservoirs. His career reflects a strong commitment to operational safety, cost efficiency, and high-performance project delivery. Ahmed recently graduated with a PhD degree in Petroleum Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, focusing on geomechanics and well integrity in energy transition systems, including CO₂ sequestration, underground hydrogen and methane storage, geothermal wells, and enhanced oil recovery operations. His research integrates field-driven challenges with advanced scientific modeling to improve long-term well performance and sealing integrity. Ahmed has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and conferences and has taught petroleum engineering courses at the university level. He is also an active trainer and mentor, delivering technical workshops on drilling technologies, HSE compliance, and well integrity best practices. His work bridges the gap between theory and application, contributing to safer, more sustainable subsurface energy operations.

Kamy Sepehrnoori is a Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering professor at The University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Texaco Centennial Chair in Petroleum Engineering. He has graduated more than 250 MS and PhD students under his supervision. His research interests and teaching include computational methods, reservoir simulation, simulation of unconventional reservoirs, enhanced oil recovery modeling, flow assurance modeling, naturally fractured reservoirs, high-performance computing, and CO2 and hydrogen storage. He has published over 800 journal articles and conference proceedings in his research areas. He has also co-authored six books. Sepehrnoori is the director of the Reservoir Simulation Joint Industry Project at the Center for Subsurface Energy and the Environment. He won the Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal from the American Institute of Mining in 2022, the Desiderius Erasmus Award from the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers in 2023, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering in 2023. He holds BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and Petroleum Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.