re: Ok so who on here has actual ties to the Oil and Gas industry

quote:

---

I would bank big money that CBLs will be mandatory going forward.

---

For sure. It would seem like that is a no brainer if you are going to TA a well anyway.

<<<<<<<<<<<<

quote:

---

1) when do the BOPs get activated from the rig floor?

2) when does the mayday or abandon ship call go out?

3) is there anything that can be done from an operational standpoint to stop the kick and save the well? could they have still been trying to fight this thing as it climbed up at them?

---

The BOPs are activated as soon as you detect the well is not static. It will start out with a small flow of fluid out the annulus when the mud pumps are turned off. There are devices in place that detect this and if you are watching your pit volumes you will see a pit gain when there should not be one.

The longer it goes without detection the less chance you have of containing the gas.

In this case, it appears no attempt was made until the gas was already at surface. Your chances of containment are very slim at that point and your primary goal should be abandoning ship. In this situation the BOPs can be activated remotely from one of the control units not on the rig floor. If the pressure is too much though, closing the BOP may not stop the flow of gas. That's the reason it is grilled into us over and over to stay on top of the well and to detect kicks as early as possible.

With the well being cased off it's likely there was a bit of complacency that had set in.

quote:

---

It would seem like that is a no brainer if you are going to TA a well anyway

---

pretty much all deepwater wells that are completed do end up w/ a CBL, however, the log is typically run at the beginning of completion operations - not at the conclusion of drilling.

and it's not just production strings you would necessarily have to worry about. you may have non-commercial pay isolated by a drilling liner that could come back to haunt you as well.

quote:

---

This is the common practice in most places. Not just deepwater.

---

right, i was just saying in this particular case, i'm certain a CBL was going to be run at the start of the completion.

i don't see legislating a CBL as a magic bullet though, since ultimately it has to be interpreted, and it's such a hard decision on whether or not to attempt remedial cementing. plus you already have regulations on minimum cement volumes, casing design, well control equipment, etc.

obviously none of us know how the cement job went, so it's hard to know if they even suspected there was bad bond there or what they would have seen on the CBL. you know as well as i do there's logs that look like there's no bond that you can't establish injection into, and there's logs that look pretty good that end up w/ cross flow or channelling behind pipe.

How long after the cementing was finished did the thing blow out?

quote:

---

How long after the cementing was finished did the thing blow out?

---

That I don't know. I would think at least 12 hours.

quote:

---

We both know the Feds won't care about that though.

---

roger that. i think what's possible is a new regulation stating that the productive zone has to be isolated by something beyond cement from now on. like a liner / tieback combination well design, or swell packers on the backside.

also when youre cement turns from a liquid to a solid there is a period of transition where you lose your hydrostatic head. leading to a kick. boyles law ensues and your BOP shear rams mess up and the rest is history. thats some peoples theory atleast...

quote:

---

also when youre cement turns from a liquid to a solid there is a period of transition where you lose your hydrostatic head

---

Can you explain this in more detail? How would your cement lose density? Maybe a portion of the hydrostatic head but I don't understand how you would lose all your hydrostatic head.