Industry Best Practice Compiled for deepwater well control

Revisions process will be ongoing, online

The IADC/OOC Deepwater Well Control Guidelines [16,319 bytes]

No breakthroughs were introduced with the new set of deepwater well control guidelines introduced at the International Association of Drilling Contractors meeting in New Orleans recently, but the guidelines were considered to be a strong best-practices compilation for the industry. Further, the compilation will be continually revised through online exchanges.

The guidelines were developed for drilling operations in excess of 1,000 ft water depth by the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC)/Offshore Operators Committee (OOC) Deepwater Well Control Task Force.

The Task Force identified several deepwater issues that need to be addressed - personnel, equipment, and pending regulations. Comments on these issues are requested and can be sent toiadc.org/deepwater.htm

The Task Force was conceived in April of 1997 and invitations were sent to IADC and OOC members. The first organizational meeting was held in August 1997. The task force was designed as a strictly volunteer organization with no budget, headed by Moe Plaisance of Diamond Offshore.

The goal of the organization was to develop and publish industry established guidelines for deepwater well control that addressed operational issues for operations personnel, and identify and recommend areas for future study that could further advance deepwater well control. The challenge of the task force was to help drilling personnel avoid known problems and begin identifying new problems.

Subcommittees

The group is comprised of a cross-section of industry personnel including major and independent operators, drilling contractors, well control experts, equipment manufacturers, and academics. The task force included the Steering Committee, headed by Plaisance, and five subcommittees which include:

Well Planning; Marcel Robichaux, Conoco - Chairman. Issues addressed include wellhead and structural string design guidelines, shallow water flow control, drilling fluid considerations, hydrates, drill stem testing, and deepwater regulatory guidelines.
Well Control Procedures; Mike Briggs, Noble Drilling - Chairman. The issues addressed include kick prevention and detection, shut-in, pre-kick preparation, circulating to kill, preventing lost returns and underground blowouts, BOP cleanout (trapped gas), gas in riser - riser diverter, hydrate prevention/removal, well control prior to BOP installation/shallow water flow, approaches to drilling shallow water flow zones, plug and abandon, intermittent severe weather and eddy current guidelines, and DP emergency disconnect considerations.
Equipment; David Bruce, Diamond Offshore - Chairman. The issues addressed include BOP arrangement for deepwater operations, choke manifold considerations, deepwater riser considerations, deepwater diverting considerations, riser gas considerations, deepwater control systems considerations, preventive maintenance considerations, riser recoil considerations, and ROV interventions considerations.
Emergency Response; Don Shackleford, Halliburton - Chairman. The issues addressed include emergency response plans including blowout contingency plans, a blowout task force, sources of flow and source control, vertical intervention, rig positioning and surveying for relief wells, dynamic kill considerations, and spill control.
Training; Richard DeBuys, WCS - Well Control School - Chairman. The issues addressed include deepwater well control training curriculum, simulator requirements, and practical well control training guidelines.

Ongoing work

The Task Force relied heavily on comments and review from the rest of the industry in formulating the guidelines. To accomplish this, they utilized the IADC website as a way to circulate drafts and communicate with interested parties, as well as minimize the number of meetings.

The website (iadc.org/dwwctf.htm) also contains general information on the project including organizational charts, and minutes of meetings. This way, they created a "virtual committee" on the worldwide web.

The next step is to identify areas for further studies and to keep revising the guidelines. Plaisance said, "We want to make this a fluid, flowing document, and not allow it to become static." As a result, a Revision Committee has been established and has begun working with Plaisance serving as chair for the first year. The Revision committee will meet semi-annually (or as required) and review industry comments and state of the art technology as it would apply to the guidelines.

The guidelines will be available in print this month from IADC at $85 for members and $125 for non-members. For his efforts on the task force, Moe Plaisance was awarded the Distinguished Service Award at the 1998 IADC Annual Meeting.

IADC/OOC Deepwater Well Control Task Force
Steering Committee

Moe Plaisance - Diamond Offshore (Chairman)
Stan Christman - Exxon
Jim Metcalf - Newfield
Paul King - Transocean
Earl Robinson - BHP
Curtis Weddle - BP
Adam Bourgoyne - LSU
Don Howard - MMS
Allen Kelly - Diamond Offshore
Steve Kropla - IADC