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drillers.com expert profile
Shaun Hingerty
Orphan Well Liability, Well Integrity & Decommissioning Specialist
Overview
Shaun Hingerty is a Chartered Petroleum Engineer specialising in orphan well liability, well integrity, well examination, decommissioning, and regulatory compliance. With nearly three decades of experience across operators, service companies, and state/territory regulators, Shaun bridges field execution, engineering discipline, and regulatory expectations to deliver practical and defensible solutions.
He has held senior roles with both the Northern Territory and Queensland petroleum regulators and has delivered engineering and operational work across Australia, Asia – Pacific, Africa, and the UK. Shaun’s current technical interests include geothermal development, well repurposing, and Technical Limit (TL) performance improvement.
Services Available
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Orphan & inactive well liability reviews
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Well integrity assessments and barrier reviews
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Well examination and independent engineering oversight
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Decommissioning planning (P&A strategy, risk, regulatory alignment)
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Regulatory compliance reviews and investigation support
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Workshop Contributions (rp²-delivered): Shaun provides technical capability in Technical Limit (TL), well integrity, and risk-based decision-making, contributing SME support to rp²-facilitated workshops such as DWOP/TWOP and readiness reviews
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Drilling & operations support: planning, optimisation, supervision
Selected Experience
Northern Territory — Orphan & Inactive Wells Programme
Designed and led Australia’s first legacy-wells programme, introducing UAV inspections, methane monitoring, integrity assessment workflows and orphan-well liability frameworks. NT responsibilities also extended to elements of the geothermal energy industry, including compliance and monitoring under NT petroleum and geothermal legislation.
Queensland — Petroleum Assessment & Gas Security
Delivered technical assessments and recommendations on petroleum tenure and development; contributed to gas‑supply resilience and regulatory initiatives; experience across conventional and unconventional resources including shale gas, tight gas, CSG, CCS, and geothermal. Provided integrity-focused insight and practical engineering context to support clear, risk-informed decision-making.
Bridgeport Energy — Drilling, Production & Safety
Directed drilling, workover and production operations across multiple Queensland oilfields; implemented SCADA-based Not Normally Manned operations and led major safety investigations.
Roc Oil — International Drilling & Completions
Managed offshore/onshore programmes across Australia, China, West Africa and Asia-Pacific.
Halliburton — Drilling Engineering & Optimisation
Served as global SME for Magnetic Azimuth Correction (MAC3) and contributed to early deepwater pore-pressure detection systems and geosteering optimisation.
Publications & Technical Contributions
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Regulating and Keeping the Gas Flowing in Queensland, Australia — Australian Energy Producers Journal (2025)
Read Paper: https://doi.org/10.1071/EP24136
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Challenges and Lessons Learnt from the Northern Territory (NT) Orphan Well Project — APPEA Journal (2023)
Read Paper: https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ22160
Qualifications & Professional Standing
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Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng, Engineers Australia)
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Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland (RPEQ – Petroleum Engineering)
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National Engineering Register (NER) – Petroleum & Leadership
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Master of Petroleum Engineering, UNSW
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Bachelor of Engineering (Petroleum), UNSW
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Accredited in Workplace Inspections & Incident Investigation
(Advanced Diploma of Government; Cert IV Government Investigations)
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Qualifications in Occupational Health & Safety

