Project Number | 408 |
Date of Summary | February 3, 2005 |
Subject | Development of a Blowout Intervention Method and Dynamic Kill Simulated for Blowouts Occurring Ultra-Deepwater (18132) |
Performing Activity | Texas A&M University, Offshore Technology Research Center (OTRC) |
Principal Investigator | Dr. Curtis Weddle, Dr. Jerome Schubert and Dr. Peter Valko |
Contracting Agency | Minerals Management Service |
Completion | December 2004 |
Description |
The original project plan included the
following 5 tasks and was to be funded by MMS and Industry. In “Phase I”,
MMS funding was sufficient to complete Tasks 1 and 2, and make substantial
progress on Task 3. Industry funding is being pursued to the project. Task 4
has been abandoned based on MMS and Industry input. The remainder of Task 3
and Task 5 will be completed with industry funds in “Phase II”. Task 1 - Bridging tendencies in ultra-deepwater blowouts Task 2 - Dynamic kill investigation of ultra-deepwater blowouts and simulator Development Task 3 - Development of ultra-deepwater blowout control methods Task 4 - Costs of Intervention (Abandoned) Task 5 - Final report, progress meetings and workshops |
Progress |
Task 1 -
Bridging tendencies in ultra-deepwater blowouts. Wellbore collapse
(Bridging) is the fastest, least-expensive and possibly only method of
blowout control in deep water. Understanding of the main bridging mechanisms
together with a quantitative model can provide a solid basis to determine
the likelihood of a well bridging during a deepwater blowout, find ways to
induce collapse, avoid undesirable packing, and move the bridging into the
category of active blowout control technologies. A study of current wellbore
bridging concepts was performed, and a numerical model to predict blowout
self-killing had been developed. The model incorporated elements that
describe reservoir inflow performance, wellbore hydraulics, and wellbore
stability. The model can be used to evaluate bridging in both open hole
drilling and cased hole completions in a variety of geological conditions. Task 2 - Dynamic kill investigation of ultra-deepwater blowouts and simulator development. Most of the subroutines needed for the dynamic simulator had been completed and the Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) developed. The dynamic simulator had been validated with case histories and integrated with the wellbore collapse and bridging simulator during May, 2004. Task 3 - Development of ultra-deepwater blowout control methods. The potential failure points above and below the wellhead during a deepwater blowout, (drilling, completion or well intervention) had been identified and used to plan and design the dynamic kill simulator. A number of kick, blowout and intervention scenarios had been developed to describe the well kill. This process was complex since each initial blowout scenario could lead to multiple pathways during intervention and killing of the blowout. Information from actual case histories of well control events in deep water had been collected. These case histories were utilized to develop the best practices report for ultra-deepwater well control to validate the dynamic kill simulator, the wellbore collapse and the bridging simulator. Task 4 - Costs of Intervention (Abandoned) Task 5 - The “Final Report Phase I” had been delivered and distributed to the Regions. Progress Meetings and workshops will be completed in Phase II of the project. |
Reports | |
AA (368 pages) | Development of a Blowout Intervention Method and Dynamic Kill Simulator for Blowouts Occurring in Ultra-Deepwatwer |
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