Anatomy of a BOP- Blowout Preventer

[Are_grits_groceries]

Shear Rams: shear ram
A blowout preventer (BOP) closing element fitted with hardened tool steel blades designed to cut the drillpipe when the BOP is closed. A shear ram is normally used as a last resort to regain pressure control of a well that is flowing. Once the drillpipe is cut (or sheared) by the shear rams, it is usually left hanging in the BOP stack, and kill operations become more difficult. The joint of drillpipe is destroyed in the process, but the rest of the drillstring is unharmed by the operation of shear rams.

Shear-seal BOP (Blind Ram)
An item of pressure-control equipment often fitted to the wellhead during well-intervention operations on live wells. Most commonly associated with coiled tubing operations, the shear-seal BOP is a ram-type preventer that performs the dual functions of shearing or cutting the tubing string and then fully closing to provide isolation or sealing of the wellbore. Shear-seal BOPs are most commonly used in offshore or high-pressure applications where an additional contingency pressure barrier is required.

Annular blowout preventer:
A large valve used to control wellbore fluids. In this type of valve, the sealing element resembles a large rubber doughnut that is mechanically squeezed inward to seal on either pipe (drill collar, drillpipe, casing, or tubing) or the openhole. The ability to seal on a variety of pipe sizes is one advantage the annular blowout preventer has over the ram blowout preventer. Most blowout preventer (BOP) stacks contain at least one annular BOP at the top of the BOP stack, and one or more ram-type preventers below. While not considered as reliable in sealing over the openhole as around tubulars, the elastomeric sealing doughnut is required by API specifications to seal adequately over the openhole as part of its certification process.

More oilfield drilling definitions: http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com

Cameron is the company that makes BOPs:
BOPs on the Deep Horizon well-
BOP 2 x Cameron Type TL 18¾in 15K double preventers;
1 x Cameron Type TL 18¾in 15K single preventer;
1 x Cameron DWHC 18¾in 15K wellhead connector
http://www.deepwater.com/fw/main/Deepwater-Horizon-56C17.html?LayoutID=17



Cameron site: http://www.c-a-m.com/index.cfm#

More than you ever wanted to know. None of it worked.

[malaise]

1. Thanks for your very informative posts on the

disaster in the Gulf.

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. What can I say?

I was a geohydrology major which is germaine. I just looooooooove schematics at 5am. I did it in college because I never studied ahead of time. *snort*

Thank you by the way.

[DemReadingDU]

12. seconded

love the information, thanks!

[tekisui]

2. None of it worked, and they didn't have a Plan B

to deal with that.

[Are_grits_groceries]

4. I don't think these BOPs

were so hot either. In addition, there are a lot of welds that may have been substandard.

[Junkdrawer]

5. Weren't they cementing the gap between the ground and the pipe....

at the time of the explosion? If the failure was there, wouldn't that make the BOP irrelevant?

[Are_grits_groceries]

6. Probably.

However, whatever they are saying is CYA crap. It was probably some secret Blackwater mission.

[madokie]

8. Yep

cement being cement it does fail, it cracks upon setting sometimes and in a case like this that would render it as if it weren't there to begin with.

[madokie]

7. None of it worked

No matter if they do finally get it to stop flowing it won't matter cause much damage has already been done and or set in motion to be done. At that depths I'm not sure they are going to be able to stop this until this wells pressure equalizes with the water pressure on it. I'm not sure how much pressure is on an oil well or if all have pressure on them but I've seen pictures of them that were spewing oil bunches of feet into the air. The water pressure at that depth is somewhere around a ton per square inch. Man damn sure ain't going to go down there and do any work thats for sure. It'll have to be done remotely with robots. I have a lot of faith in robots in a manufacturing setting but not so much in water that is a mile deep.

This is a big fucking thing

[Are_grits_groceries]

9. They would try to drill

in the Marianis Trench if there was oil there.

Edit to add: I'll bet Liz Cheney is scuttling around like a crab at the wellhead in some super-secret suit to make it appear that Halliburton wasn't at fault.

[madokie]

18. I'd bet money that her and daddy are busy this morning

trying to cover their halliburton asses

[PCIntern]

10. K & R!

Thanks...!

[white cloud]

13. tHANKS FOR TH EGREAT INFO

http://www.marklevinshow.com/Article.asp?id=1790422&spid=32364

Here is an interview with a member of TWH crew

[Scuba]

11. Variation in International Law

I saw speculation that US laws were lax on what safety measures were required as compared to drilling in the North Sea, etc.

My research (various Google searches) was not enlightening. Anybody have any vetted references???

thx,

Scuba

[white cloud]

14. Try this

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/04/gulf-oil-spill-drilling-technology-explained.html

[Scuba]

15. Thank you

[white cloud]

16. Can't find the link I need but here is some more

http://drillingcontractor.org/dcpi/dc-julyaug07/DC_July07_MMSBlowouts.pdf

[Scuba]

17. Interesting, but none of these references address legal variations

I'd be interested in knowing which of our elected representatives, if any, accepted donations from big oil and then voted for less stringent regulations than otherwise might have been imposed. Any help appreciated.