Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘blowouts’

NT opposition questions Montara report delays; preliminary Macondo findings?

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The Federal Government is unnecessarily delaying the release of a report into last year’s Montara oil spill off Australia’s north coast, the Northern Territory Opposition says.

link

On a related note, it would be great if preliminary findings from the DOI/DHS Macondo investigation could be released as soon as possible.  There is much work to be done and all interested parties (in the US and elsewhere) need the best available information so that they can assess their programs.  Better to err on the side of releasing findings to soon with any necessary caveats and disclaimers.  In that regard, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has done a good job of making their findings available without delay.

Read Full Post »

BP Details Relief Well Timeline

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Notes:

  1. Click on the diagram to enlarge
  2. The 9 7/8″ liner has NOT been run yet.
  3. Note the cement bond log.  3 months too late?
  4. Step 2 is to intercept and kill the flow in the annulus.  If there is no flow inside the 7″ casing, step 2 will kill the well.  This step is scheduled to be completed by the end of July.
  5. Step 3 will be necessary to make sure the production casing is plugged, even it there is no flow inside that casing.
  6. The timeframes are understandably conservative.

Read Full Post »

Thank you Admiral Allen

Posted in accidents, Uncategorized, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on July 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Regarding the relief wells, Development Driller III, which is the lead drilling rig for the relief wells is now at 17,780 feet measured depth, within a couple hundred feet of the proposed penetration point of the wellbore.

Admiral Allen: Thank you for reading BOE and responding to our request.  You even specified “measured depth!”

Relief Well Team:  Great work!  Time to finish the job!

Read Full Post »

Montara Watch – Cyber Vigil Continues

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , on July 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Varanus Island, Western Australia

Odd Finnestad, BOE’s Senior Vice-President for International Activities (note the recent promotion), and his talented, multi-lingual staff keep close tabs on investigations and accident reports worldwide.  Odd thinks we may be in for a long wait for the Montara report, so the BOE cyber vigil will not include any rash measures like hunger strikes.

While Australia does a great job of investigating, holding hearings, and preparing reports, they seem to struggle with the simple step of releasing those reports.  Odd reminds us that the report on the 2008 Varanus Island gas plant explosion has still not been released.  This important accident reduced Western Australia’s gas supply by one-third, and thus had major economic consequences. The Veranus report was finalized in June 2009, but maneuvering by the responsible party and legal reviews within the Western Australia Ministry for Mines and Petroleum have kept this report under wraps.  Now we are getting the same uncomfortable feeling about the Montara report.  Perhaps, Minister Ferguson will prove us wrong and release the Montara report without further delay.  We hope so!

Read Full Post »

Acoustic switches, etc

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

  1. The big question with regard to acoustic backup systems for BOPs is whether ambient noise associated with a seafloor blowout prevents the signal from being reliably received.  The Macondo well would seem to provide an excellent opportunity for testing acoustic systems to see how effectively the signals are received under such challenging conditions.  Too late?
  2. Still no regular relief well reports, but Admiral Allen commented yesterday that they only have about 200′ to drill.  I’m assuming the 9 7/8″ liner has been set.  If all this is accurate and there are no weather or technical delays, they should be ready to intercept the well bore soon (1-2 weeks?), even with the added time for special ranging and directional surveys.
  3. Unless the relief well is delayed, it doesn’t seem to make sense to change the LMRP cap at this time.  Collection might improve somewhat with the new cap, but the well would be wide open during the change.
  4. Day 21 since the Montara report was delivered to the Ministry, and there are no recent news updates.  No interest?
  5. Very good article in Platts as the media begins to show more interest in regulatory approaches.

Read Full Post »

Montara Vigil Continues, Macondo Relief?, More Regulatory Theory

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , on July 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

  1. Montara watch: 19 days have now elapsed since the Montara Inquiry Report was presented to Minister Ferguson, and there are no recent media updates on the release of the report. Meanwhile, Australian radio has a good piece on Montara – long, but worth the time.
  2. Macondo: The relief well reports continue to be sketchy and inconsistent.  On July 4, the Unified Command reported that the primary relief well had reached 17,400′ (presumably measured depth), while  BP’s update for the same date indicated that the first well had reached 17,725′ (this too must also be measure depth, not true vertical depth).  It’s unclear whether the final casing (9 7/8″ liner) has been set.  Admiral Allen will likely provide a better update today.
  3. More regulatory philosophy: The regulatory system is at least as important as the specific operating requirements.   This UNEP piece provides a good summary of the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches.

Read Full Post »

Preventing Future Blowouts and Limiting their Effects

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , on July 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

BOE friend and internationally recognized well control expert Colin Leach has submitted an excellent paper suggesting new procedures that will improve well design and intervention.  Click here to read Colin’s paper.

The goal is to eliminate the possibility of what actually could happen not being recognized (at the time of the design). This is achieved by having a core of knowledge against which individual operating companies and outside assessors can assess designs and approaches. Communication between the operator and the “knowledge core”would be confidential as long as a well control incident did not occur. The format of this “knowledge core” is such that it eliminates the “committee think” within an operating company where a dissenting individual (who is actually knowledgeable) can be overruled by a committee vote.

Read Full Post »

“Must Read” Article for Regulatory Philosophers

Posted in accidents, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

While the Norwegian model is built on trust, cooperation, and sharing of experience and information,” asserts Dr Lindøe, “the situation in the USA is nearly the opposite.”

When an accident happens on the Norwegian continental shelf, the parties convene to uncover any weaknesses in systems or routines that contributed to workers making a mistake. There is agreement that this is how to achieve better results, rather than spending resources on finding scapegoats and not bothering to change the systems.

In the aftermath of Deepwater Horizon, MMS has been criticised for having too cozy a relationship with the companies and for having reduced the number of inspections,” says Researcher Helge Ryggvik of the University of Oslo. “Yet its inspection activities are more comprehensive than on the Norwegian continental shelf. And unlike the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway, MMS has its own helicopters and can conduct unannounced inspections.”

This excellent Research Council of Norway article, which discusses some of the differences between the US and Norwegian systems, should be mandatory reading for regulators and operators. Ironically, I made some similar comments to a wind turbine safety committee last week.  In assessing the root causes of accidents and the associated equipment and procedural issues, we must not lose sight of the fundamental regulatory objectives and how they can best be achieved.

Read Full Post »

Relief Well Down to 11817′ TVD BOF

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

bottom of the flowing Macondo well

Based on the latest information provided by Admiral Allen, the relief well has reached 11817′ below the sea floor and is thus only 273′ above the 9 7/8″ casing shoe on the flowing Macondo well.  After drilling another 200+ feet, they will open (enlarge) the relief well and install a 9 7/8″ liner.  They will then drill a few hundred feet beneath the liner and intercept the flowing well.  They will presumably kill the flow in the annulus outside the casing (assuming that is a flow path) with heavy mud before milling into the 7″ casing, killing any flow inside that casing, and plugging the well bore with cement.  Stay tuned.

Read Full Post »

Relief Well Status Per Admiral Allen

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 2, 2010| 1 Comment »

Per Admiral Allen:

Regarding the relief wells, Development Driller III now is at a distance of 11,641 feet below the seafloor.  As you know, they’re going through a series of operations which we call ranging.  They’re into their fourth cycle of this.  In ranging, they withdraw the drill pipe and put down an electrical cable and actually try and sense the magnetic field around the wellbore.  They are within around 15 feet of the wellbore at this point.  They will continue down 700, 800 more feet, slowly close into the wellbore, and when they know they’ve got it exactly in range, know exactly where the drill pipe is in relation to the wellbore, then they will attempt to move in and drill through the wellbore and then the casing as well.  At that point they’ll be in a position to be able to try the bottom kill or to be able to insert the mud, and hopefully after that, put a cement plug in that will kill the well.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »