Understanding the Physics of Blowouts and Their Prevention Approaches

Despite multitier safeguards in any drilling/production operation, blowouts do occur. Over the past few decades many blowouts with serious consequences happened, such as Ekofisk Bravo blowout, Ixtoc I blowout, Enchova Central blowout, Kaixian blowout, and Deepwater Horizon blowout. SINTEF database (2016) reported a total of 263 blowouts incidents from 1980 to 2012 in the US Gulf of Mexico (GoM) Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and North Sea. Thus, blowout prevention plays a crucial role in planning and decision making during any well activity. To design an efficient blowout prevention program, blowout release mechanism needs to be understood. Daily and total release of hydrocarbons from a blowout are very important parameters in designing prevention and mitigation plans. This requires a model that dynamically couples the wellbore flow to that from the reservoir. This paper presents several notable blowout incidents first. Then we discuss a blowout release model that couples the wellbore and the reservoir. Di...