Drilling advances

Nearly 28 years ago, the results of a root cause investigation into a North Sea blowout read much like an instructional manual of what not to do, to maintain control of a high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) well. Unfortunately, at least one well control expert believes that many of those lessons remain unlearned.

“In all honesty, we haven’t changed anything,” says Bill Burch, executive V.P. of operations and engineering for Mercury Well Control. “We have the same way of doing things, and we expect different outcomes when we go into these deeper (HPHT) wells.”

Burch’s point of reference was the Sept. 22, 1988, explosion of then-ODECO’s Ocean Odyssey semi, while drilling an exploratory HPHT well on the former ARCO’s Sherwood field in the UK Central Graben area. The blowout, which resulted in one fatality, occurred after a series of missteps (to put it generously), in attempts to regain circulation after severe losses at 13,200 ft. The official investigation, which cited a host of operator mistakes, resulted in the UK Department of Energy slapping a moratorium on drilling in areas with expected reservoir pressures higher than 10,000 psi for a number of years afterward. In his blunt evaluation of the then and now, Burch said much remains the same.

“They (investigators) found the company man didn’t identify the shut-in drill pipe pressure; still happens today. He didn’t understand the circulation time for gas kicks; still happens today. And, the well wasn’t shut-in correctly, and was left flowing and out of control. That still happens today,” he said during November’s quarterly IADC Drilling Engineering Committee (DEC) Technology Forum in Houston.

The game-changing blowout also reinforced why well control must figure prominently in any HPHT drilling program, from well design and execution all the way through P&A, Burch said. “An HPHT well requires faster well response, because once you make a mistake, it’s compounded, and now you’re really over a barrel, because there’s no easy solution on how to get out of it. There is very little room for misunderstanding. Your guys absolutely have to know what they’re doing when drilling a HPHT well, or anytime you get into these shorter pore pressure and fracture gradient windows,” he said.

Another offshoot of the blowout, and one that Burch suggests should be followed anywhere HPHT wells are being drilled, is for operators to share information, rather than safeguarding their designs and processes with national security-like confidentiality. “This is a big one for me. The UK encourages the open exchange of information between HPHT operators. They (authorities) actually encourage operators to sit down and discuss how they design HPHT wells, and not because they’re partners. They ask, how did you solve this problem? They (UK operators) are required to share lessons learned and are held accountable, if they did not disclose a known design flaw that later caused a problem. That would be a novel concept in the Gulf of Mexico. We all act like we’re playing cards, and the reality is, we’re all in the same boat,” he said.

At the end of the day, however, Burch said that the safe execution of an HPHT well, especially, requires the highest caliber of personnel, from design to TD. “You really need the best and most experienced design and operating teams,” he said. “This isn’t something you give your junior engineers, no matter how good they are. But, we often just randomly assign people to teams. For these wells, you need specialized people, with the right resources and skill sets.”

Behavior counts, too. Even though considerably fewer wells, HPHT or otherwise, are being drilled nowadays, the skill sets that Burch alluded to are even more imperative, including those that go beyond technical proficiencies. With the upstream sector depressed and insecurity rampant, dealing with the intrinsic human behaviors, all-too-often blamed for workplace accidents, has led to increased interest in crew resource management (CRM) initiatives.

Recognizing that “human behavior, not equipment failure, often has been the cause of high-profile well blowouts,” The Well Academy of The Netherlands is including a three-day CRM course as part of its well control curriculum. The CRM component of its scenario well control training focuses on the elements of situational awareness, decision-making, teamwork and operational leadership, according to the HSE training organization. In October, The Well Academy teamed up with Lloyd’s Register Energy’s (LRE) Training Academy to develop an enhanced training program for well control certification, with the first course rolled out at year-end 2015.

Last June, The Well Academy joined forces with CRM training company NoTechs of Utrecht, The Netherlands, to form a Well Operations Crew Resource Management (WOCRM) entity, devoted strictly to addressing the behavioral, non-technical factors that can have a bearing on rig-site safety. “The role people play in minimizing this (accident rate) cannot be underestimated,” said George Galloway, The Well Academy’s business development director, upon the creation of WOCRM. “For instance, experience has shown that a lack of willingness within a team to challenge others’ decisions can have devastating consequences. That’s why it’s imperative we offer courses that go beyond technical understanding”

Current industry conditions have increased awareness of the impact of non-technical cognitive and social skills, such as situation awareness, leadership, decision-making, and teamwork, on well site safety. These skill sets are influenced heavily by inherent “performance-shaping factors” like fatigue, stress and job insecurities, among others, “which can be overlooked when operators are under pressure and time constraints,” said Jeroen Bergevoet, LRE training and technical knowledge manager, of the CRM module in the joint well control training program.  

About the Authors

Jim Redden

Contributing Editor

Jim Redden is a Houston-based consultant and a journalism graduate of Marshall University, has more than 40 years of experience as a writer, editor and corporate communicator, primarily on the upstream oil and gas industry.