Blowout Preventor case study – oil and gas industrial lessons

Blowout Preventor case study –  oil and gas industrial lessons

In the past, the oilfields were precarious and dangerous places. The workers known as oilmen had to wait outside the well and when the oil was struck, they allowed the of gas and oil gust out of the well. Then they waited further till the pressure dropped 
enough in order to manually place pipe into the bottom to direct the gush. These purported "gushers" were stunning; however they were dangerous, deadly and inefficient. A lot of oilmen were killed and plenty of oilfields were damaged. In the April of 1861, a
blowout in West Pennsylvania initiated a fire that became the cause of a dozen of employees.

Possibly the most effective acknowledged "gusher" or "blowout" happened within the Spindle top oilfield close to Beaumont, Texas. On 10^th January, 1901, a well was drilled by three men for Captain A. F. Lucas. The group was trying to find out
a new bit with 700 feet of drill pipe for a replacement within the hole, when the well was made to “kick” because of subversive pressure. The well pressure finally blew the  4" drill pipe ,after a number of kicks, and out of the outlet and during a small time,
a 6 inches stream  of gas and oil forced out of the well, spraying over  almost hundred feet (100 ft) in air.

"An Oil Geyser Remarkable Phenomenon South of Beaumont – Gas Blows Pipe from Well and a Flow of Oil Equalied Nowhere Eise on Earth" explained by the Beaumont newspaper.

The three workers were totally illiterate and they had never heard or seen a BOP. As soon as the mud and oil starts coming out of the well, they did the sole thing they could have done — run away and left the way unguarded. This flow of oil gushed out of
the well for whole nine days before a valve was connected to the well  to prevent the flow.  At this time, it was realized that if the fledgling oil trade have to grow and flourish, a way has to develop to prevent such disasters.

The dangers of these oilfields didn’t go unobserved. As the wells goes deeper and deeper, pressures due to formations were amplified and blowouts were used commonly. Many inventors tried to investigate the ways for the prevention of the blowouts. These BOPs
were considered to be put in on the wellhead to discontinue or stop the devastating gushers. None of these presented designs proved effective.

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Posted by Ahmed Tariq on May 23 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry