Category Archives: Well Control

Importance of Choke Drill and Its Procedure

By | | ,
7 Comments

Choke drill is one of well control drills that will improve crew competency in driller’s method. The advantages from the choke drill are as follows:

• Get more familiar to practice controlling the pressure via a choke on the rig

• Get more understanding about lag time

• Practice the procedure to obtain the shut-in drill pipe pressure

• Ensure the surface well control equipment as pressure gauges, choke, BOP is ready for work

• Get more practices when attempting to bring the pump up to kill speed, slow the pump down and change the pump rate

Choke Drill Steps are listed below:

1. Trip in hole above top of cement

2. Fill the pipe and circulate seawater or mud around for few minutes

3. Close annular preventer or upper rams preventer

4. Pressure up annulus to 200 psi (the pressure may be different depending on the company policy.)

5. Line up the pump

6. Pump slowly to bump the float and obtain shut in drill pipe pressure

7. Bring the pump to kill rate by holding casing pressure constant – personnel need to adjust the choke

8. Measure lag time for the drill pipe gage after the adjustment of choke is made.

9. Change circulation rate by holding casing pressure constant. Crew needs to adjust choke to achieve this.

10. Shut the pump down by holding casing pressure constant.

11. Bleed off pressure and line up for drilling operation

Reference book: Well Control Books

Deep Water The Gulf Oil Disaster And The Future Of Offshore Drilling – Report to the President (Macondo Well – Deepwater Horizon)

By | | ,
3 Comments

Today, I would like to share the great resport of the deepwater horizon – Macondo well published by the US Government. You can download the report for FREE. 

Click Here to download the report => http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-OILCOMMISSION/pdf/GPO-OILCOMMISSION.pdf

On April 20, 2010, the Macondo well blew out, costing the lives of 11 men and beginning a catastrophe that sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and spilled nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill disrupted an entire region’s economy, damaged fisheries and critical habitats, and brought vividly to light the risks of deepwater drilling for oil and gas — the latest frontier in the national energy supply. Soon after, President Barack Obama appointed a seven-member Commission to investigate the disaster, analyze its causes and effects, and recommend the actions necessary to minimize such risks in the future. The Commission’s report offers the American public and policymakers alike the fullest account available of what happened in the Gulf and why, and proposes actions — changes in company behavior, reform of Government oversight, and investments in research and technology — required as industry moves forward to meet the nation’s energy needs.

Continue reading →

IWCF Well Control Quizzes

By | | , ,
17 Comments

My friend just sent me the very useful well control stuff again. This time is the IWCF well control quizzes by Transocean which use to train their people. The well control quizzes each contain 25 questions and are grouped into related topic areas ranging from fairly basic knowledge through to some of the harder calculations that supervisors may come across in their IWCF exam.

There are a total of 8 modules as follows:

1. Basic knowledge in well control

2. Basic pressure (hydrostatic pressure)

3. Warning signs and shut in

4. Shut in conditions

5. Volume and MAASP (Maximum Allowable Anticipated Surface Pressure)

6. Well control methods

7. Some tricky well control questions

8. Subsea well control questions

If you are interested in these handy well control quiz, please click at the image or the link below

 

Additional information: IWCF stands for The International Well Control Forum which is an oil industry Membership Organization established in Europe in 1992. Its primary purpose is to develop and administer well control certification programs for personnel employed in oil well Drilling, Workover and Well Intervention operations.

 

Useful Well Control Handouts from Texas A&M University

By | | ,
6 Comments

Petroleum engineering department at Texas A&M University has a strong technical in every aspect of oilfield. This is the one of top petroleum engineering universities in USA. Today, I find the very useful well control documents which are used to teach students at the university. There are several topics in the well control. If you are interested in these excellent well control handouts, please check out the following links to download them.

Introduction to well control
Gas behavior and hydrostatic pressure
Kick and gas migration
Gas solubility
Pore Pressure
Pore Pressure Prediction
Other Abnormal Pressure Detection Methods
Logging While Drilling
Fracture Gradients Part#1
Fracture Gradients Part#2
Fracture Gradients Determination
Kick Detection and Control
Off bottom kick
Circulation Kill Techniques Part#1
Circulation Kill Techniques Part#2
Volumetric Well Control
Special Applications in Well Control
Well Control Equipment
Offshore operations for well control
Snubbing and stripping

I wish you would enjoy the well control lectures.

Calculate Bottles Required for Koomey Unit (Accumulator Unit)

By | | ,
6 Comments

This topic will demonstrate you how to determine accumulator bottles required for Koomey Unit (Accumulator Unit) in order to close the surface BOP stack.

This is a specification of Accumulator (Koomey) Unit.

Accumulator 3,000 psi system

Volume each bottle is 10 gallon.

Pre charge pressure is 1,000 psi.

Minimum operating pressure is 1,200 psi (200 psi over pre charge pressure)

Usable fluid per gallon is 5 gallon.

Safety factor require is 50 %. This safety factor may be different depending on each company’s requirement.

BOP Stack and HCR’s as listed below:

 Equipment  Gallon to open  Gallon to close
 Annular Preventor  4.0  4.5
 Upper Pipe Rams  3.0  3.5
 Blind Shear Rams  3.5  4.0
 Lower Pipe Rams  3.0  3.5
 Choke HCR  0.5  0.5
 Kill HCR  0.5  0.5

Continue reading →