ASME recognizes Ram BOP

July 15, 2003
In a ceremony held July 14 at Cameron's offices in Houston, Texas the American Society of Mechanical Engineers formally recognized the importance of the first Ram-Type BOP.

In a ceremony held July 14 at Cameron's offices in Houston, Texas the American Society of Mechanical Engineers formally recognized the importance of the first Ram-Type BOP.

Prior to the invention of the Ram-Type Blowout Preventor, casing was left open at the surface. When wells came in the standard procedure, according to Gilbert Nance, vice-president of Cameron Drilling Systems, was to "run and get out of the way". High-pressure fluids would blow the drill pipe out of the hole and a gusher of mud and oil would produce unrestricted until the pressure subsided enough to cap the well. This could sometimes take days.

Jim Abercrombie had witnessed the danger of such events first hand. This experience led him to design the first Ram-Type BOP. He approached Harry Cameron with the idea and they sketched out the design on the dirt floor of Cameron's machine shop. The design for the Manually Operated Ram-Type BOP was patented in 1926, and though there have been a number of improvements over the years, the principals of the design remain the same today.

To acknowledge the importance of this invention, ASME International President Reginald Vachon, presented Cooper Cameron CEO Sheldon Erikson with the ASME Historical Mechanical Engineering Landmark.

07/15/03