How does a BOP (blow out preventer) in a drilling rig work?

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3 Answers

Gus Kikuja, I am a drilling consultant, joined the oil industry in 2003

1.8k Views Gus is a Most Viewed Writer in Well Drilling (oil and gas).

Primary well control involves using a drilling fluid (mud) in the well maintaining a bottom
hole (hydrostatic) pressure slightly over the pressure of the formation (rock) fluids. As the
rock pore pressure varies with depth and geological conditions (deposition mechanism,
uplifting, tectonic stresses etc.), the mud weight is adjusted as required in order to maintain
the mentioned "overbalance".
Secondary well control involves the use of the BOP, which purpose is securing the well and
avoid an uncontrolled flow of hydrocarbons at surface (= blow out). This happens when the
pore pressure is higher than predicted and its signals have not been detected, after the
hydrostatic pressure of the mud falls due to severe losses (the fluid level in the well drops)
or due to poor drilling practices (typically, pulling the pipe too fast causing a swab effect).
We basically need to close a pipe, however you cannot use a valve since most of the time the
drill string is inside the well (for instance during drilling). During normal operations the
fluid is pumped through the drill pipe and returns from the annulus between the drill pipe
and the casing along with the drilled cuttings. The hydrocarbon influx (kick), which will
displace first the coloumn of mud inside the well, will choose the easiest path to come up:
even when the drill bit at the bottom of the drill stem does not have a non-return valve
(other valves are present or ready on the drill floor where the drill pipe is handled) the influx
will naturally come up through the larger cross section of the annulus than through the
small nozzles of the drill bit.
Thus we need the BOP to close around the drill pipe and isolate the annulus.
Note that the wellhead is nippled up on top of the casing, and the BOP stack (BOPs) is
mounted on top of the wellhead. It is called stack since you want to have several BOP (3 to 6,
usually 4) on top of each other for back up and to account for the scores of well control
situations. This surface configuration change from spud to completion but lets pretend it
doesnt since it does not affect the explanation you seek.

Let us start with BOP for land operations. The main types are annular and ram BOP. The
annular BOP closes around any pipe diameter and can even close the well fully without any
pipe being in the hole.

The packing element is subject to wear and tear whereas the rest is pretty though and
handles up to 5000 psi. The annular always sits on top of the stack.
The RAM BOP works similarly except the closing mechanism is similar to a gate valve. The
RAMS can be changed (when there is no pressure in the well or if a RAM of suitable type
further below in the stack is closed) by opening the bonnets. RAM types are: pipe RAM (to
match the drill pipe size), variable (to a certain extent i.e. 3-1/2" to 5"), blind RAMS (to close
the well in when there are no tubular elements inside), blind/shear RAMS (blind type that
can shear the drill pipe if needed), casing RAMS (to close around different sizes of casing
should a kick occur during casing running ops).

There is no perfect BOP stack, all configurations have limitations and disadvantages. There
are standards but we choose the configuration according to well specifications and
challenges and equipment availability.

The pressure required for the hydraulic fluid to operate the BOPs is stored in accumulators,
for reliability and response time, whereas two pumps will trigger automatically as a back up
if the accumulator pressure falls below a certain threshold. If you look at the sketch below
you will see that it takes time to describe the hydraulic control unit:

Basically the unit make sure that when a function on the BOP panel is activated by the
driller, the manifold release pressured hydraulic fluid to operate the selected BOP or valve.
Surface BOPs are typically rated for 5k or 10k psi working pressure.

Closing a BOP is just the first step of secondary well control: as the influx migrates towards
the wellhead the well pressure rises. If the pressure rises above the fracture pressure of the
weakest formation (usually the shallowest open hole depth, just below the last casing shoe,
since the formation gets more competent with increasing depth), an underground blowout
will occur, something we have little to no control of and can lead to loss of containment and
irreparable reservoir damage. Therefore the trick after closing the BOP is to divert the flow
to an adjustable choke to apply the right amount of back pressure in order to maintain
constant bottom hole pressure (we know now what it is because we measured the pressures
upon closing the BOP), circulate the kick out (to degasser, mud pits or flare as appropriate)
and increase the mud weight all around to provide the correct hydrostatic pressure and
restore primary well control in order to open the BOP and resume operations.
The subsea BOPs for deepwater operations are way more complex, can weight over 300 tons
and be 50 ft high (these figures are indicative, I am only going by memory). The main
difference is that on subsea wells the wellhead is on the sea bed, thus the BOPs needs to be
run down there on riser and be connected on top of the wellhead. The riser has the function
to provide return to surface for the drilling fluids as water is only good enough (weight,
density, viscosity, cutting transport capacity etc.) for the surface hole, for which the BOP is
no use.
The accumulators needs to be mounted on the BOP itself, since the pressure travels with the
speed of sound and in 10,000 ft of water that would mean 10 sec additional delay on top of
the normal 30-45 secs. That delay could be the difference between a manageable kick and a
volume of influx that will certainly lead to fracturing the formation (search kick tolerance,
which is typically lower in deepwater drilling).
The subsea stack is comprised of a lower stack and a lower marine riser package (LMRP)
that sits on top of the lower stack assembly. It is designed this way to allow operators to
close and seal in the well with the lower stack and disconnect and separate from the well
with the LMRP. In an emergency there is not sufficient time to plug the well and
disconnect both the LMRP and lower stack from the well. Therefore the system is designed
to close and seal in the well with the lower stack BOPs and disconnect with the LMRP.
These stacks are big and bulky because they have high pressure rating for deep drilling
(body and bonnets are thicker), more rams and two annulars as I mentioned, the
accumulators, the pods, the H4 connectors to wellhead (below) and LMRP/riser (above),
and a protective frame. Check out the size on the last picture by spotting the little man in the
basket.

Here above the layout of a modern subsea stack is shown. The MUX line (black) contains
the controls and the operating fluid, which is meant to activate the functions and line up the
circuit for the hydraulic fluid. The accumulators (red line) provide the pressurized hydraulic
fluid (1,500-3,000 psi) to actually move the pistons that open/close the BOP.

This is the stack of Deepwater Horizon. Subsea stacks are typically 15,000 psi rated (that is
about the pressure you find at the Mariana Trench, over 1,000 bars), but in the Gulf of
Mexico 20k and 25k BOP stacks are already in use. That is awe inspiring to me, especially if
I think about the connectors that are designed to hold that pressure and be remotely
operated. Even in routine operations, a leak means you need to pull the riser and BOPs to
solve the problem, if the water depth is 10k ft for the round trip it will take you 10-14 days,
at 1-1.5 MM$ a day to rent the rig and for the stand-by rate of all services.

The thinking behind the control POD system to guarantee reliability and redundancy is
fascinating. If a POD fails, the other POD will be used. For other type of failures, the
multiplex system can be by-passed thanks to ROV ports: Remote Operated Vehicles (ROV)
have a robotized arm with a probe that stabs into the port and inject hydraulic fluid to
"manually" operate the relevant BOP function.
In the case of Deepwater Horizon it looked more like this:

Written Nov 4, 2015 View Upvotes Answer requested by Dinesh Challa