Faculty of Engineering

Petroleum Engineering Department

Drilling Engineering I
Third Stage

Lecture #11
Well Control System

Pshtiwan Jaf 1
[email protected]
 Closing in the Well
Closing in the Well
• Blow out preventers (BOPs) must be installed to cope with any kicks that may
occur.

• BOPs are basically high pressure valves which seal off the top of the well.

• On land rigs or fixed plat forms the BOP stack is located directly beneath the rig
floor. On floating rigs the BOP stack is installed on the sea bed.

• In either case the valves are hydraulically operated from the rig floor.

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 Closing in the Well
Closing in the Well, cont.

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 BOP Equipment
BOP Equipment
• The blowout prevention (BOP) equipment is the
equipment which is used to shut in a well and
circulate out an influx if it occurs.

• The main components of this equipment are the

blowout preventers or BOP's. These are valves
which can be used to close off the well at surface.

• In addition to the BOP's the BOP equipment refers to

the auxiliary equipment required to control the flow
of the formation fluids and circulate the kick out
safely. 4
 Blowout Preventer
Blowout Preventer
• There are two basic types of blowout preventer used for closing
in a well:
➢ Annular type
➢ Ram type
• It is very rare for only one blowout preventer to be used on a
well. Two, three or more preventers are generally stacked up,
one on top of the other to make up a BOP stack.

• This provides greater safety and flexibility in the well control

operation.

• For example, the additional BOPs provide redundancy should

one piece of equipment fail; and the different types of ram
provide the capability to close the well whether there is
drillpipe in the well or not.
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 Blowout Preventer
Annular Preventer
• Annular preventer is designed to seal off the annulus between the drillstring and
the side of hole (may also seal off open hole if kick occurs while the pipe is out of
the hole).

• These are made of synthetic rubber which, when expanded, will seal off the
cavity.

• The main component of the annular BOP is a high tensile strength, circular
rubber packing unit. The rubber is molded around a series of metal ribs.

• The packing unit can be compressed inwards against drillpipe by a piston,

operated by hydraulic power.
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 Blowout Preventer
Annular Preventer, cont.

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 Blowout Preventer
Annular Preventer, cont.
• The advantage of such a well control device is that the packing element will close
off around any size or shape of pipe.

• An annular preventer will also allow pipe to be stripped in and out and rotated.

• The rubber packing element should be frequently inspected for wear and is easily
replaced.

• The annular preventer provides an effective pressure seal (2000 or 5000 psi) and
is usually the first BOP to be used when closing in a well.
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 Blowout Preventer
Annular Preventer, cont.
• During normal well-bore operations, the BOP is kept fully open by holding the
contractor piston down. This position permits passage of tools, casing and other items
up to the full bore size of the BOP.

• The BOP is maintained in the open position by application of hydraulic pressure to the
opening chamber; this ensures positive control of the piston during drilling and reduces
wear caused by vibration.

• The contractor piston is raised by applying hydraulic pressure to the closing chamber.
This raises the piston, which in turn squeezes the steel reinforced packing unit inward to
seal the annulus around the drill string.

• Application of opening chamber pressure returns the piston to the full down position
allowing the packing unit to return to full open bore through the natural resiliency of
the rubber.
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 Blowout Preventer
Annular Preventer, cont.

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 Blowout Preventer
Annular Preventer, cont.

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 Blowout Preventer
Annular Preventer, cont.

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 Blowout Preventer
Ram Preventers
• A blowout preventer that uses rams to seal
off pressure on a hole that is with or
without pipe.

• Ram-type preventers have interchangeable

ram blocks to accommodate different O.D.
drill pipe, casing, or tubing.

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 Blowout Preventer
Ram Preventers, cont.
Three types of ram preventers are available:

1. Blind rams: which completely close off the wellbore when there is no pipe in
the hole.

2. Pipe rams: close around a drill pipe, restricting flow in the annulus, but do not
obstruct flow within the drill pipe.

3. Shear rams: which are the same as blind rams except that they can cut through
drillpipe for emergency shut-in but should only be used as a last resort.
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 Blowout Preventer
Ram Preventers, cont.
a. Blind ram
b. Pipe ram
c. Shear ram.

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 Blowout Preventer
Ram Preventers, cont.
• To reduce the size of a BOP stack two rams can be fitted inside a single body.

• The weight of the drillstring can be suspended from the closed pipe rams if
necessary.

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 Blowout Preventer
Ram Preventers, cont.

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 Drilling Spools
Drilling Spools
• A drilling spool is a connector which allows choke and kill lines
to be attached to the BOP stack.

• The spool must have a bore at least equal to the maximum

bore of the uppermost casing spool.

• The spool must also be capable of withstanding the same

pressures as the rest of the BOP stack.

• These days outlets for connection of choke and kill lines have
been added to the BOP ram body and drilling spools are less
frequently used.

• These outlets save space and reduce the number of

connections and therefore potential leak paths. 18
 Casing Spools
Casing Spools
• The wellhead, from which the casing strings are suspended are made up of casing
spools.
• A casing spool will be installed after each casing string has been set.
• The BOP stack is placed on top of the casing spool and connected to it.
• Once again the casing spool must be rated to the same pressure as the rest of the
BOP stack.

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 Diverter System
Diverter System
• The diverter is a large, low pressure, annular preventer
equipped with large bore discharge flowlines.

• This type of BOP is generally used when drilling at

shallow depths below the conductor.

• If the well were to kick at this shallow depth, closing in

and attempting to contain the downhole pressure
would probably result in the formations below the
conductor fracturing and cratering of the site or at least
hydrocarbons coming to surface outside of the
conductor string. 20
 Diverter System
Diverter System, cont.
• The purpose of a diverter is to allow the well to flow to surface safely, where it
can be expelled safely through a pipeline leading away from the rig.

• The kick must be diverted safely away from the rig through the large bore
flowlines.

• The pressure from such a kick is likely to below (500 psi), but high volumes of
fluid can be expected.

• The diverter should have a large outlet with one full opening valve.

• The discharge line should be as straight as possible and firmly secured. 21

 Diverter System
Diverter System, cont.

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 Choke and Kill Lines
Choke and Kill Lines
• When circulating out a kick, the heavy fluid is pumped down the drillstring, up the
annulus and out to surface.

• Since the well is closed in at the annular preventer, the wellbore fluids leave the
annulus through the side outlet below the BOP rams or the drilling spool outlets and
pass into a high pressure line known as the choke line.

• The choke line carries the mud and influx from the BOP stack to the choke manifold.

• The kill line is a high pressure pipeline between the side outlet, opposite the choke line
outlet, on the BOP stack and the mud pumps and provides a means of pumping fluids
downhole when the normal method of circulating down the drillstring is not possible.
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 Choke and Kill Lines
Choke and Kill Lines, cont.

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 Choke Manifold
Choke Manifold
• The choke manifold is an arrangement of valves, pipelines and chokes designed to
control the flow from the annulus of the well during a well killing operation.
• It must be capable of:

➢ Controlling pressures by using manually operated chokes or chokes operated from a

remote location.

➢ Diverting flow to a burning pit, flare or mud pits.

➢ Having enough back up lines should any part of the manifold fail.

➢ A working pressure equal to the BOP stack.

➢ Since, during a gas kick, excessive vibration may occur it must be well secured. 25
 Choke Manifold
Choke Manifold, cont.

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 Accumulators
Accumulators
• The opening and closing of the BOP’s is controlled from the rig floor.

• The control panel is connected to an accumulator system which supplies the

energy required to operate all the elements of the BOP stack.

• The accumulator consists of cylinders which store hydraulic oil at high pressure
under a compressed inert gas (nitrogen).

• When the BOPs have to be closed, the hydraulic oil is released (the system is
designed to operate in less than 5 seconds).

• Hydraulic pumps replenish the accumulator with the same amount of fluid used
to operate the preventers. 27
 Accumulators
Accumulators, cont.

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 Accumulators
Accumulators, cont.

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