Blowouts incidents

The waste hydrochloric acid (HC1) injected at the site was a byproduct of a combustion process at 1633°C (2972°F). When not recovered, the acidic stream was dumped into holding ponds where it was cooled to about 24°C (75°F) before injection. The concentration of injected acid typically varied from 0.5 to 5% HC1, but ranged as high as about 30%. (The pH of injected acid that back-flowed during one blowout incident ranged from 0.5 to 1.3.)... 

Offshore Peru, Drilling Barge, Explosion/Fire Blowout incident. 

The worst property losses suffered during this period are highlighted below. Almost all are associated with blowout incidents. 

Helicopter and blowout incidents account for the major portion of incidents (63%). It could be inferred these incidents account for a higher loss of life than other incidents due to the higher concentration of personnel involved in these specific activities. 

There were 13 blowout incidents recorded during the ten year period. They were generally listed as the result of equipment failures. 

This case study is an example of a well blowout resulting from the neutralization of acid by carbonate rock. Kamath and Salazar181 and Panagiotopoulos and Reid182 both discuss the same incident. Although they do not specify the location, Brower and colleagues183 identify the site as the Cabot Corporation injection well, near Tuscola, Illinois. 

Although the ultimate cause of a blowout is human error to control the hydraulic wellbore pressure with drilling mud, in some cases the failure of the BOP to control the situation also contributed to the incident. The causes of the BOP failures are analyzed below ... 

The ESD system is distinguished from other facility safety systems in that it responds to a hazard situation which may affect the overall safety of the entire facility. It is therefore considered one of the prime safety systems that can be provided for any facility. Without an ESD system, an incident at a hydrocarbon facility may be provided with "unlimited" fuel supplies that can destroy the entire facility. Such situations are amply demonstrated by wellhead blowouts that can be fed from underground reservoirs and destruction of pipeline connections at offshore installations affecting the availability of further isolation means, eg., "Piper Alpha". 

Generally the highest risks in offshore facilities are blowouts, transportation impacts and process upsets. Where inadequate isolation means are provided for either wellheads or pipeline connections to the installation considerable fuel inventories will be available to an incident. 

Of most concern are major accidents. The history of offshore operations is marred by the sporadic occurrence of blowouts, explosions, and fires at drilling rigs and other incidents that caused multiple injuries and deaths among the workforce, destroyed company assets and other property, and caused major spills that contaminated vast offshore and coastal areas, killed wildlife, and disrupted fishing, transport, recreation, and other activities. 

Other accidents on a smaller scale occur more frequently and also take their toll, such as the Frade well leak and oil spill (2012) in the south Atlantic off the Brazilian coast, and the gas well blowout in the Scottish Elgin Field sector of the North Sea (2012), which created a hazardous zone and necessitated suspension of neighboring activities. In addition, numerous near-miss incidents also occur and command attention because they may be precursors to an accident or indicate a systemic or industrywide safety problem that may lead to multiple accidents. 

These include blowouts (22 deaths on the C.P. Baker catamaran drilling vessel in 1964), helicopter crashes (eleven in one crash in 1966) , a near-miss crash of a Louisiana Air National Guard jet on an ODECO rig, Santa Barbara oil spill following a blowout at Union Oil s Platform A-21 in 1969 and another blowout in 1970 at Chevron s Platform C in Main Pass block 41. For more discussion on these incidents, see MMS, History of Offshore Vol. I, pp. 145-146. 

The continental shelf off the north-west coast of Australia holds rich reserves of oil and gas, with hydrocarbon exploration and production activities in the area stretching back over deeades. On 21 August 2009, those in charge of drilling the Montara Hi oil and gas well in this area lost control of the well, resulting in uncontrolled flow of hydrocarbons to the environment. This type of event is known in the oil industry as a blowout. The incident has been the subject of a statutory inquiry (Borthwick 2010). 

This issue has come under particularly close scrutiny following the Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico. At the time of the incident, the safety regulation in place for the offshore oil and gas industry in the United States took the form of a prescriptive, standards-based regime. The report of the National Commission on the Deepwater Horizon Blowout includes a summary of the development of the safety case approach in the nuclear, chemicals, aviation, and offshore oil and gas industry (National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling 2011b, 69) and points out that the fatality rate in the offshore oil and gas industry in the United States is at least four times the fatality rate in European jurisdictions that have operated for several decades under safety case... 

Izon, D., Danenberger, E.P. and Mayes, M. (2007) Absence of fatalities in blowouts encouraging in MMS study of OCS incidents 1992-2006 , Drilling Contraetor (July-August) . 

So far we have looked at conditions around gas blowouts at Snorre A in November 2004 and Gullfaks C in 2010 - that is, the sequence of events and analysis of causes and actions taken afterward. Now it is time to discuss whether the incident on Snorre A actually has relevance to what happened at Gullfaks G. 

When creating the femoral bone tunnel, driUmg as well as placement and fixation of interference screws may cause blowout fracture in the posterior femoral cortex. The incidence of this type of fracture has been reported to be 1.2 % [2], and the causes include inappropriate size or position of the femoral bone tunnel and insufficient flexion of the knee joint during the surgical procedure. 

There have been a number of recent and well publicised accidents in which human error has played a prominent part. At Three Mile Island a combination of poor display design, bad maintenance and operator error led to the reactor core becoming uncovered and the release of radioactivity into the atmosphere. At the Ekofisk oil field incident a blowout preventer was installed upside down which resulted in an accident, following which widespread environmental pollution ensued. In both these cases the overall losses have been estimated in tens and hundreds of millions of pounds. These and similar incidents have brought sharply into focus the need to include an appraisal of human reliability and the factors which affect it when considering the safety performance of both large and small scale systems of work. ... 

In Australia in the first half of this year, there were 23 oil spills, gas releases, and incidents in which oil or gas entered a well, threatening a blowout, according to Australia s Natioruil Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority. That is almost as many as the 24 such incidents in all of 2009. The incident rate, accounting for hours worked, has more than doubled since 2005. 

The incident had similarities with the Deepwater Horizon blowout that was to occur shortly afterwards. In particular, the pressure tests were not conducted properly and/or the results were misinterpreted. 

The most significant failure at Macondo—and the clear root cause of the blowout—was a failure of industry management... .Better management of decision making processes within BP and other companies, better communication within and between BP and its contractors, and effective training of key engineering and rig personnel would have prevented the Macondo incident. 

Transocean, the owner of the drilling rig that was leased to BP, had experienced an eerily similar near-miss on one of its rigs in the North Sea four months prior to the Macondo blowout. In that incident the mud spewed onto the rig floor, but the crew was able to shut off the well before it became a full blowout. Transocean created an internal presentation concerning this incident but the Deepwater Horizon drill team never saw it. 

But the impact of Deepwater Horizon/Macondo went beyond the United States the accident caused oil companies all over the world to think through the effectiveness of their safety management programs. Moreover, events such as the Montara blowout in Australian waters in the year 2009 showed that these events are not confined to one place. The contents of this book therefore go beyond the United States regulatory environment. The book describes some of the major offshore incidents that have occurred over the last 40 years or so, some of which occurred onshore, that led to the development of modem safety management systems and regulations. So, for example, it contains a thorough discussion of the Safety Case approach—a system that was first used in the North Sea but that has now spread to many international locations. 

Reported as one of the worst incidents in the petroleum industry due to widespread environmental impact. Increased regulatory safety requirements for offihore drilling in the USA, with emphasis on blowout prevention measures. Company stock quickly lost over 30% of its value. Company had to sell assets to cover cost impact. BP CEO was later replaced. 

The greatest hazard to the biosphere from petroleum production and transport results from oil spills that kill wildlife. Most such incidents occur in coastal areas, affecting birds, fish, and shellfish. Two of the more notorious incidents of oil spills that caused harm to wildlife were the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, which may have spilled up to 750,000 barrels of crude oil, and the 2010 blowout and fire of BP s Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico, which some credible sources have estimated released as much as 5 million barrels of crude oil into the fragile Gulf waters. 

The US Army is reported to have withdrawn retreaded tyres from Persian Gulf operations, due to a high incidence of blowouts and retread separations caused by casing... 

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