BLOWOUT PREVENTORS

INTRODUCTION:
In a nutshell, "a blowout is an uncontrolled flow of gas, oil or other formation fluids into the atmosphere or another
zone,". If this flow of hydrocarbons is not stopped in time, the hydrocarbons can ignite into a deadly firestorm
.Blowouts are the most tragic and expensive accidents in the upstream petroleum industry. They endanger life, the
environment and future production from the lost well." On an economic level, an oil well gushing thousands or
even millions of barrels of oil is costing a company not only in short term production, but also the long-term
profitability of the well itself. Unfortunately, because a blowout only takes a brief moment to occur, it is necessary
that there be methods in place to combat them when the need arises

Primary well control involves using a drilling fluid (mud) in the well maintaining a bottom hole (hydrostatic)
pressure slightly over the pressure of the formation (rock) fluids. As the rock pore pressure varies with depth and
geological conditions (deposition mechanism, uplifting, tectonic stresses etc.), the mud weight is adjusted as
required in order to maintain the mentioned "overbalance. In case of primary control loss resulting from a sudden
increase of formation pressure or lost circulation, it becomes necessary to seat off the well by some other means to
prevent an uncontrollable flow, or blowout, of formation fluids. The equipment that performs this secondary
control function is the blowout preventer (BOP).

BLOWOUT PREVENTOR:
A blowout preventer (BOP) is a large, specialized valve or similar mechanical device, used to seal, control and
monitor oil and gas wells to prevent blowout, the uncontrolled release of crude oil and/or natural gas from a well.
They are usually installed redundantly in stacks. Blowout preventers are used on land wells, offshore rigs, and
subsea wells. Land and subsea BOPs are secured to the top of the wellbore, known as the wellhead. BOPs on
offshore rigs are mounted below the rig deck. Subsea BOPs are connected to the offshore rig above by a drilling
riser that provides a continuous pathway for the drill string and fluids emanating from the wellbore.
 BOPs PRINCIPLE:
To control a Blowout, the BOP Stack is fitted with hydraulic lines which allow drillers:

1)To pump a heavier drilling fluid in the well (Kill line)

2)To evacuate the lighter fluid from the well (Choke line).

The service pressure of the BOP is chosen to support the maximum pressure encountered during drilling
operations. The pressure range is usually from 5000 psi to 15000 psi (345 bar to 1035 bar approximately).
 USES:
The basic functions of BOP stack is to-

1. Confine well fluid to the wellbore.

2. Provide means to add fluid to the wellbore.
3. Allow controlled volumes of fluid to be withdrawn from the wellbore.

TYPES:
Two categories of blowout preventer are most prevalent:

1) Ram

2) Annular.

BOP stacks frequently utilize both types, typically with at least one annular BOP stacked above several ram BOPs.
The annular BOP closes around any pipe diameter and can even close the well fully without any pipe being in the
hole, the RAM BOP works similarly except the closing mechanism is similar to a gate valve.

RAM BOPs:

The ram BOP was invented by James Smither Abercrombie and Harry S. Cameron in 1922, and was brought to
market in 1924 by Cameron Iron Works. Sealing elements, or rams. Are located in the BOP body on opposite
sides of the wellbore.. Opening and closing is performed with hydraulic cylinders attached to both sides of the
BOP body. When open, the rams will leave an unobstructed passage through the wellbore. When closed depending
on the type of ram selected they will seal around the drillpipe, seal off the openhole, or in emergencies shear the
drill pipe and seal off the hole.

Rams, or ram blocks, are of four common types:

1)PIPE RAMS: These close around a drill pipe, restricting flow in the annulus (ring-shaped space between
concentric objects) between the outside of the drill pipe and the wellbore, but do not obstruct flow within the drill
pipe.

2)BLIND RAMS: These have no openings for tubing, can close off the well when the well does not contain a
drill string or other tubing, and seal it.

3)SHEAR RAMS: These are designed to shear the pipe in the well and seal the wellbore simultaneously. It has
steel blades to shear the pipe and seals to seal the annulus after shearing the pipe

4)BLIND SHEAR RAMS: These are intended to seal a wellbore, even when the bore is occupied by a drill
string, by cutting through the drill string as the rams close off the well.
 A Patent Drawing of the Original Ram-type Blowout Preventer, by Cameron Iron Works (1922)

ANNULAR BOPs:

The annular blowout preventer was invented by Granville Sloan Knox in 1946.The main feature of the annular
preventer, sometimes called "Universal" or "bag"-type BOP, is the capability to close and seal on almost any size
tools in the borehole drillpipe , tooljoints, drill collars, kellys ,casing, etc. within most of its range. It also has the
capability to seal off the open hole. The heart of the annular preventer is the sealing element. When the closing
mechanism is actuated, hydraulic pressure is applied to the piston, causing it to move upward and force the sealing
element to extend into the wellbore around the drillstring. Steel segments molded into the element partially close
over the rubber to prevent excessive partially close over the rubber to prevent excessive extrusion when sealing
under high pressure.

The original type of annular blowout preventer uses a wedge-faced (conical-faced) piston. As the piston rises,
vertical movement of the packing unit is restricted by the head and the sloped face of the piston squeezes the
packing unit inward, toward the center of the wellbore
There is no perfect BOP stack , all configurations have limitations and disadvantages. There are standards but we
choose the configuration according to well specifications and challenges and equipment availability.

CONTROL METHODS:
There are four primary ways by which a BOP can be controlled. The possible means are:

1. Electrical Control Signal: sent from the surface through a control cable.
2. Acoustical Control Signal: sent from the surface based on a modulated/encoded pulse of sound
transmitted by an underwater transducer.
3. ROV Intervention: remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) mechanically control valves and provide
hydraulic pressure to the stack (via hot stab panels).
4. Deadman Switch / Auto Shear: fail-safe activation of selected BOPs during an emergency, and if the
control, power and hydraulic lines have been severed.

Basically the unit make sure that when a function on the BOP panel is activated by the driller, the manifold release
pressured hydraulic fluid to operate the selected BOP or valve.

Closing a BOP is just the first step of secondary well control: as the influx migrates towards the wellhead the well
pressure rises. If the pressure rises above the fracture pressure of the weakest formation (usually the shallowest
open hole depth, just below the last casing shoe, since the formation gets more competent with increasing depth),
an underground blowout will occur, something we have little to no control of and can lead to loss of containment
and irreparable reservoir damage. Therefore the trick after closing the BOP is to divert the flow to an adjustable
choke to apply the right amount of back pressure in order to maintain constant bottom hole pressure (we know now
what it is because we measured the pressures upon closing the BOP), circulate the kick out (to degasser, mud pits
or flare as appropriate) and increase the mud weight all around to provide the correct hydrostatic pressure and
restore primary well control in order to open the BOP and resume operations.
Here above the layout of a modern subsea stack is shown. The MUX line (black) contains the controls and the
operating fluid, which is meant to activate the functions and line up the circuit for the hydraulic fluid. The
accumulators (red line) provide the pressurized hydraulic fluid (1,500-3,000 psi) to actually move the pistons that
open/close the BOP.

DEEPWATER HORIZON BLOWOUT:

The blowout caused explosions and a fire on the Deepwater Horizon rig, leading to the deaths of 11 personnel
onboard and serious injuries to 17 others. Nearly 100 others escaped from the burning rig, which sank two days
later, leaving the Macondo well spewing oil and gas into Gulf waters for 87 days. By that time the resulting oil
spill was the largest in offshore history. The failure of the BOP directly led to the oil spill and contributed to the
severity of the incident on the rig.
According to a new two-volume draft investigation report released last week by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board
(CSB). The CSB draft report also revealed for the first time that there were two instances of miswiring and two
backup battery failures affecting the electronic and hydraulic controls for the BOPs blind shear ram. One
miswiring, which led to a battery failure, disabled the BOPs blue pod a control system designed to activate the
blind shear ram in an emergency. The BOPs yellow pod an identical, redundant system that could also activate
the blind shear ram had a different miswiring and a different battery failure. In the case of the yellow pod,
however, the two failures fortuitously cancelled each other out, and the pod was likely able to operate the blind
shear ram on the night of April 20.