Dropped Top Drive and Travelling Block Incidents – Where Were They Happened?

My friend, Robert, forward my an email chain about dropped Top Drive and Travelling Block. It was scary and I felt deeply sorry for everybody. I would like to know where there were happened and their details because I just got only photos with few wordings. I want to learn about these incidents and to be able to share the right stories to my colleagues so we can have the safe workplace while working on the rig. Each photo has the number assign. If you know each particular photo, please feel free to leave me some comments so I can share it later with the team.

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Arabdrill 19 Collapse Incident

Expect for unexpected.  Arabdrill 19  incident is one of the oilfield disasters which you should learn from it. I would like to share you about this because it will help you learn from the past. It is such a very dangerous condition while working in the field because there are several unknown factors so we need to do the proper risk assessment, fully understand the task, follow the rule/procedure and don’t feel free to stop the task if it is unsafe. The detail below is about the Arabdrill 19.

Arabdrill 19 was made by Promet in Singapore on 1982, the AD19 was initially known as Sedneth 202 and it was under contract to Aramco working offshore Saudi. It was vindicated through studies and reports that the jack-up was situated over a production platform wherein it was apparent that a leg happened to buckle and get entangled which caused the breakdown of the AD19 on the platform. Although the information is not very clear, it is apparent that the catastrophe caused the platform’s production tree to be pruned off which triggered a blast and explosion followed by fire which resulted in the submersion of the jack-up as well as the platform.

 

The owner of the rig, Schlumberger stated that several people were injured in the catastrophe; however there were no reported deaths. Various other reports noted 3 casualties due to the explosion. The leading reason of the occurrence of the accident was the leg jabbing out through the seabed, and it was reported a 100% loss. Later, The AD19 was restored and held for resale by Rig Masters.

Fatality Drilling Rig Accident, Oilfield Worker was Knocked 6 feet to the floor

This is the oilfield incident resulting in our friend working on the rig got killed. It is very important that we need to heavily focus on the safety. Every year, people get injured due to several causes while working in the oilfield. For this case, there are several contributing factors the high pressure, line of fire, equipment inspection, etc. We want you to work safely for yourself and your family.

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A high-pressure gate valve that came off a leaky standpipe on a Cyclone rig north of Parachute early in the evening of Oct. 21 struck and killed Shane Hill, 34, of Grand Junction and blew his body 6 feet away from the valve, a state report says.
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Adriatic IV Blowout and Platform Burning

Adriatic IV Blowout incident is one of the worst oilfield incidents happened in our industry. We need to learn and understand about it so we can prevent this incident to reoccur again in the future.

In the month of August 2004, Adriatic IV was placed near the Temsah gas production platform, off Port Said situated in Egypt (Mediterranean). The rig was busy drilling a natural gas well and there was a gas explosion which took place. It has been vindicated through reports that the blast was followed by a fire which later escalated to the Petrobel-run platform where it was raging persistently for about 7 days after which it was taken care of. About 150 personnel on the jack-up were saved and all the production and functions were stopped.

It was vindicated through studies and reports by Global Santa Fe that the Adriatic IV was completely submerged and could not be saved or restored. Joint owners of the platform were Italy’s ENI, BP & Egypt’s General Petroleum Corporation and the platform was completely in a dilapidated condition and hence the Egyptian Petroleum minister commanded to destroy it completely. In about 12 months following the catastrophe, the Temsah field and its production activities were restored in a full-fledged manner.

Always ensure that SIMOP’s are properly conducted.

Ref: Rigzone

Enchova Central Blowout Oilfield Disaster

Learning from the past oilfield disaster will help you realize about well control, safety management, etc which you can apply to mitigate the future catasrophe. Today, we would like to share the information about Enchova Central which blown out years ago. This is very good information for everybody.

The Enchova Central platform, which was the place where two big catastrophies occurred was situated in the Campos Basin close to Rio de Janeiro and was administered by Petrobras. The initial incident was on August 16, 1984, when there was fire and an explosion. Most of the people and personnel at the time of the incident were saved with a helicopter or lifeboat. However, 42 workers lost their life in this catastrophe.

It was the most consequential and grave occurrence when there was an issue in the functioning of the lowering mechanism of a lifeboat due to which there was a malfunction with the bow hook. Consequently, the lifeboat was left hanging vertically till there was a rupture in the stern support and following this the lifeboat drowned 10 to 20m to the sea, which resulted in the death of 36 personnel. Around 6 personnel lost their lives on trying to jump 30 or 40m from the platform to the sea.

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