Review of elastomer seal assemblies in oil & gas wells: Performance evaluation, failure mechanisms, and gaps in industry standards

Elastomer seal assemblies are critical components for maintaining well integrity. Evidence suggests that failure of seal can lead to health, safety, and environmental consequences such as blowouts and oil spill. Regulators and the industry have acknowledged the need for improving design and qualification of elastomer seals, particularly for high pressure and high temperature applications. This paper provides a comprehensive review of literature, research studies, and industry standards relevant to elastomer seal assemblies used in the oil and gas wells. The paper aims to investigate failure modes and various parameters influencing the performance of seal assemblies. The ultimate objective of the review is to discuss gaps in industry standards and propose major areas of research for improving seal reliability. The industry standards primarily focus on material testing and lack sufficient guidance on equipment level design of elastomer seals. Seal qualification processes are not customized according to design, scale, and function of seal assembly. Research efforts need to be extended beyond material testing to design aspects of seal equipment such as energization method, design of housing and supporting components, functional failures, etc. There is also an imperative need for reliable techniques to extrapolate lab-scale results to field-scale applications spanning years of service.