Reevaluating the blow out preventer

Houston Chronicle:

The Deepwater Horizon disaster has raised questions about the adequacy of a key piece of safety equipment called a blowout preventer, invented nearly 90 years ago, that remains the oil and gas industry's last line of defense in controlling runaway wells.

BP, from the earliest days after the incident, said the device failed to seal off its Macondo well, which continues to feed one of the biggest oil spills ever in the Gulf of Mexico. Lawmakers, in turn, have chastised BP for what Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., called its “total reliance” on the device as a backstop for thwarting a spill.

More broadly, the incident has cast doubt on whether the technology of the blowout preventer, or BOP, has kept pace with the industry's rapid expansion into more complicated deepwater fields.

But while modern blowout preventers have weaknesses that may warrant more regular inspections going forward, the device has a good track record, experts said, and it's not clear if the failure of the Macondo BOP was due to any fault with the technology.

“I think the hardware is fine. It's questions about the training of the people and perhaps the procedures and tests that are required,” said Eric Smith, associate director of Tulane University's Energy Institute.

Federal investigators will delve into those questions and others as they try to reconstruct the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers, and the massive oil spill that followed.

As they do, the blowout preventer will likely stay in the spotlight and gain prominence in the American lexicon.

A BOP is a massive stack of shut-off valves — in the case of Macondo, five stories tall and 450 tons — that sits on top of the well. It's designed to quickly shut off the flow of oil or natural gas by squeezing, crushing or shearing pipe if there is a sudden, unexpected spike in pressure from within the well.

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Transocean CEO Steven Newman, in testimony to Congress this month, said BP's Macondo well had been sealed with casing and cement, which should have controlled the pressure in the reservoir without the need of the BOP. And the BOP was tested on April 10 and 17 and found to be functional.

Internal Transocean drilling reports, recently made public, suggest shear rams still appeared to be working just seven hours before the explosion at 10 p.m. April 20.

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The industry will be ahead of the government on changing and modifying blow out preventers to prevent future spills. These spills are far most costly to the industry than they are to the government. Whiloe there will be new regulations they will not be the guiding factor. The investment in these wells is just too expensive to use defective equipment. The incentive is already there to do it right.