How to Prevent An Oil Well Blowout. Well Control

Oil companies use certain techniques to control underground pressures so that blowouts do not occur. Here are some of those techniques.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Attend your company's BOP training class to learn the steps needed to shut in the well when taking a kick. Well control and preventing a wild well are one of the most important jobs in drilling an oil or gas well and having all crew members properly trained is the most important step.
   Keep good communication between the drilling side and the petroleum engineers who have made the well plan should and who have calculated the pressures of all zones from spud to total depth.
   This is done by using information from wells nearby and from theoretical underground pressures in the area as well as seismic and other info.

2. Keep your mud engineer close at hand and communicate often. Once drilling begins the mud engineer must play close attention to the mud plan and well plan to "weight up" the drilling mud to the proper weight before drilling into pressurized zones. In addition to constantly adjusting the mud he and the rig crew, usually the derrick man, must continuously weight the mud to ensure that it is not being thinned or "cut" by gas or water coming into the well bore. If the mud becomes light or not heavy enough to hold back underground pressure a wild well or blowout can occur.

3. Use the resources the mudlogger provides to provide warning of over-pressured zones. Another safety measure is for the mudlogger to constantly monitor connection gas or the amount of gas that flows into the open well bore when the pumps are off while the rig is making a connection. High connection gas can indicate that the mud is getting too light to hold back pressure. In addition, if you have LWD tools in the hole, keep an eye on the pore pressures they are monitoring.

4. Don't hesitate in shutting the well. If the above measures fail to control the well the rig has the option of shutting the hydraulic blow out protector or BOP, effectively sealing the well so that high pressure cannot escape. Once this can be done there are methods of well control that can involve techniques such as coil tubing and pumping heavy mud or "kill mud" down the drill pipe to control the well.

Resources

• Books on Well Drilling and Well Control

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on 12/12/2008 Also you might want to check out: http://www.oilcareer.com