The Root Cause Analysis and Successful Control of an Oilwell Blowout in the Middle East

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahman Ashena ◽  
Farzad Ghorbani ◽  
Muhammad Mubashir ◽  
Mahdi Nazari Sarem ◽  
Amin Iravani

Abstract In 2017, a blowout and explosion occurred in a drilling oilwell in the Middle East. After drilling to the depth of 2,610 m, tripping was decided in order to change the bit. When the crew were pulling the drill string out of the hole with the drill-string being at the depth of 1332 m, blowout and explosion occurred. The well was a development well drilling almost horizontally (82 degrees inclination angle) into a highly-pressured gas-cap and oil pay-zone of the oilfield. In this work, following a brief explanation of the root causal factors of the incident, we give an account of the blowout control methods applied to put an end to the blowout. Both the top-kill method and the bottom-kill method by relief well drilling, were simultaneously implemented to control the blowout. Finally, the blowout was successfully controlled by the bottom-kill after 58 days. During top-kill operations, all equipment was cleared away and this contributed to proceeding to permanent abandonment immediately after the relief well success. Finally, the adverse effect of the blowout on the environment (HSE) was qualitatively discussed.

2020 ◽  
pp. 101-107
Author(s):  
Greg Fisher ◽  
John E. Wisneski ◽  
Rene M. Bakker

A root-cause analysis is used to identify the initiating, or root, of a causal chain that leads to an observed undesirable outcome. It is useful in helping managers to focus their problem-solving efforts on providing remedies to issues that actually prevent the undesirable outcome from recurring. Failure to identify the root cause of a problem often leads to time spent on removing causal factors, which can alleviate the symptoms of a problem yet may not prevent recurrence with full certainty. This chapter discusses the underlying theory, core idea, depiction, process, insight or value created, and risks and limitations of root-cause analysis. The chapter also discusses the illustration of the DISH Network and applies the steps of root-cause analysis to this case.


2019 ◽  
Vol 289 ◽  
pp. 10003
Author(s):  
Rene Brueckner

The root cause analysis, determination of the extent of concrete defects and identification of an appropriate repair strategy can be straightforward, but it also often provides significant challenges to both contractors and engineers. The challenges can be due to a lack of QA/QC documentation, locally available investigation equipment, repair material and techniques and accepting actually feasible solutions. The paper presents a case study of a bridge in the Middle East where the root cause analysis was found to be straightforward but the determination of the extent of non-visible defects and the implementation of a feasible repair strategy proved to be much more complicated. The root cause analysis of the defects was carried out by visual inspection, representative intrusive investigations and a comprehensive document review. The determination of the extent of the defects using GPR techniques proved to be challenging under the local conditions. Even more difficulties were encountered by implementing the developed repair strategies to address the various defects to ensure that the required 120 years design life in a very aggressive environment can be achieved. Several revisions to the repair strategy were necessary to identify the most appropriate solution and to accelerate the programme.


2011 ◽  
pp. 78-86
Author(s):  
R. Kilian ◽  
J. Beck ◽  
H. Lang ◽  
V. Schneider ◽  
T. Schönherr ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 132 (10) ◽  
pp. 1689-1697
Author(s):  
Yutaka Kudo ◽  
Tomohiro Morimura ◽  
Kiminori Sugauchi ◽  
Tetsuya Masuishi ◽  
Norihisa Komoda

Author(s):  
Dan Bodoh ◽  
Kent Erington ◽  
Kris Dickson ◽  
George Lange ◽  
Carey Wu ◽  
...  

Abstract Laser-assisted device alteration (LADA) is an established technique used to identify critical speed paths in integrated circuits. LADA can reveal the physical location of a speed path, but not the timing of the speed path. This paper describes the root cause analysis benefits of 1064nm time resolved LADA (TR-LADA) with a picosecond laser. It shows several examples of how picosecond TR-LADA has complemented the existing fault isolation toolset and has allowed for quicker resolution of design and manufacturing issues. The paper explains how TR-LADA increases the LADA localization resolution by eliminating the well interaction, provides the timing of the event detected by LADA, indicates the propagation direction of the critical signals detected by LADA, allows the analyst to infer the logic values of the critical signals, and separates multiple interactions occurring at the same site for better understanding of the critical signals.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document