If you want to acquaint yourself with drilling operations, you must understand how BOPs work. As essential equipment in drilling sites, blowout preventers play a significant role in preventing the uncontrollable flow of oil and gas from the well. They have sets of valves that can shut off to stop any fluid from getting to the surface, preventing a &#;kick.&#;
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Blowout preventers (BOPs) are designed to withstand extreme underwater pressures. If compromised, the consequences can be disastrous. You&#;ll remain with the option of evacuating workers away from the drilling site. Notably, there are different types of blowout preventers, including Annular BOPs and Ram-type BOPs. Here is an overview of how they work in oil drilling applications:
Annular BOPs
So, how do annular BOPs work? The annular blowout preventer usually sits atop the BOP stack. It can close on anything within the hole or shut off the open hole completely by applying closing pressure. The BOP&#;s sealing device is called the &#;packing element,&#; usually an elastomeric material that&#;s donut-shaped.
The elastomeric material consists of metallic materials (of different shapes) molded into it. These elements reinforce the elastomeric material, keeping it from extruding when subjected to high pressures in the well. With this equipment, oilfield workers can control the volume of oil flowing from the drill hole. Notably, the BOP uses hydraulic fluid.
Pro Tip: During normal drilling operations, annular blowout preventers usually remain fully open, allowing the drilling tools and equipment to pass.
Ram-Type BOPs
How do ram blowout preventers work? Should the annual BOPs fail to work during a blowout, ram preventers will be your last resort. This blowout preventer is found between the wellhead and the annular BOP. It can seal the wellbore when the drill pipe or tubing is still in the hole.
Typically, there are three different types of BOP rams.
When a &#;kick&#; occurs, the pipe rams will seal the annular space by covering the drill pipes. Pipe rams use a sealing element shaped to fit around different tubular, including drill pipes, production tubing, and drill collars.
This ram has a blade portion that can cut the drill pipe and seal the wellbore when activated automatically or manually. It&#;s usually used as the last resort to restore pressure control in a well that&#;s flowing uncontrollably.
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Use a flat rubber sealant that can seal the bore when there&#;s nothing inside. So, it has no space for a pipe. This ram can close over any portion that doesn&#;t have a drill string or any other tubing.
Understanding Your Equipment
As an oilfield operator, you need to understand how BOPs work. It will help you mitigate the risks that can endanger other workers&#; lives in the drilling site. Thankfully, you now understand how annular BOPs and BOP rams work. The equipment can prevent potential blowouts, eliminating the risks of catastrophic explosions.
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Before the development of blowout preventers, operators allowed pressured fluids to flow uncontrolled from formations to the surface and into the atmosphere. Only after the pressure supporting these blowouts abated and surface pressures fell to a manageable level were rig workers able to cap the well. Blowouts were dangerous for the crew, threatened the well-being of the surrounding environment, damaged drilling equipment, wasted resources and caused irreparable harm to the producing zone.
In , Harry Cameron and Jim Abercrombie designed and manufactured the first blowout preventers (BOPs). Assemblies of valves and other devices installed atop a wellhead during drilling operations are called BOP stacks; they provide a means by which rig crews are able to contain unexpected flow and high pressures. They allow crews to manage these influxes by injecting dense fluids down the well, which stop, or kill, the flow of formation fluids; this kill operation is accomplished while preventing well fluids from being released into the atmosphere.
Within the E&P industry, the terms blowout preventer, BOP stack and blowout preventer system are used interchangeably. During drilling and completion operations, they are the second barrier to formation flow; hydrostatic pressure at the formation created by a column of drilling fluid and zonal isolation provided by casing and cement constitute the primary barrier.
The individual BOPs that constitute a system are stacked vertically atop the well. They are aligned to allow access through them into the wellbore while their various functions provide a variety of methods for sealing the well during drilling, completion or intervention operations. They are sized to fit the internal diameter of the wellhead and expected surface pressures.
Blowout preventer stacks typically include annular BOPs and ram-type BOPs. Annular BOPs were introduced to the industry in by Granville Sloan Knox. These devices force circular steel-reinforced rubber elements to close on and create a seal around drillpipe or other tools that may be in the wellbore at the time of shut-in (Figure 1). When annular BOPs are shut in around a pipe, the pipe may be moved up or down or rotated without breaking the seal. Designed to prevent flow up the casing-drillpipe annulus, annular BOPs are also able to seal a clear wellbore in which no obstruction is present although doing so reduces the rated working pressure of the sealing element by 50%.
Ram-type BOPs include rubber-faced steel rams that are brought together to create a seal or, like annular BOPs, form a seal around a tool in the wellhead (Figure 2). Shear rams are high-strength hydraulically powered rams that are able to sever drillpipe. They include casing shear rams and blind shear rams. Both are designed to cut drillpipe or other obstructions in the well. Blind shear rams can completely seal the well. Casing shear rams, while not able to form a seal, typically are able to cut larger size tubulars than those that blind shear rams can cut.
Drillers use a control system to actuate rams that is comprised of accumulator bottles containing pressurized hydraulic fluid, a hydraulic fluid storage reservoir, a pumping system and hydraulic piping. The hydraulic fluid is directed to a desired function on the BOP stack via a remote control panel.
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