Offshore staff

LUANDA, Angola – BP has successfully tested a deepwater well emergency capping stack offshore Angola.

The device, developed with Subsea 7, Oceaneering, FMC, and Cameron, is a modified subsea assembly of valves, spools, and fittings used to control flow. The capping device would be landed onto the top of a BOP once the top part, known as the lower marine riser package, has been removed.

A support vessel deploys a, ROV to lock the well cap connector to the wellhead and to do post-closure monitoring of the operation using its on-board umbilical system to control the well cap subsea control module.

When the capping device has been seated onto the wellhead and locked in place, the support vessel and ROV close the well bore caps and then activate the umbilical system to power-up the well cap. The process can be reversed, recovering the device to the surface.

07/13/2011