The Cymric oil field is located in Kern County, about 35 miles west of Bakersfield and 3.5 miles from the community of McKittrick. The oil field measures roughly 34 square miles (almost 14,000 acres). Heavy Crude The Nacirema Oil Company discovered the Cymric field in the San Joaquin Valley in 1909. Oil produced at Cymric …
A high-energy surface expression is the flow of crude oil, water, and/or steam to the Earth’s surface during the extraction of oil. Recall that sometimes to increase flow of oil to the surface through the wellbore, other fluids are injected into the subsurface as part of operations. In some cases, injection of steam is the …
Following the Deepwater Horizon incident, government, research centers, and industry worked together to stop the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf. Eventually a static kill and relief well killed the well. This massive undertaking was followed by a heroic cleanup effort. Technologies have been adopted to be better prepared for future incidents and how …
Of the Deepwater Horizon crew, 11 suffered fatal injuries from the explosion and fire and 17 others were critically injured. The Deepwater Horizon rig sank on April 22, 2010, about 36 hours after the initial explosions. At this point, the disaster was not only a major loss of life, but became a full-on environmental disaster. …
“Complex systems almost always fail in complex ways.” Columbia Accident Investigation Board It is a complex, even dazzling, enterprise. The remarkable advances that have propelled the move to deepwater drilling merit comparison with exploring outer space. The Commission is respectful and admiring of the industry’s technological capability.-National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill …
The Macondo Prospect was located offshore, in an area called Mississippi Canyon Block 252, roughly forty miles off the coast of Southeast Louisiana. A prospect is an exploration area where hydrocarbons are predicted in economic quantity. The original plan was to drill two wells, with Macondo being the first. The Macondo Well was exploratory in …
In 2015, a leak was discovered in a natural gas storage well located in the Aliso Canyon Oil Field near Los Angeles California. The storage facility was used for natural gas intended for electricity generation in the nearby Southern California market. The leak released large quantities of methane and ethane into the atmosphere, posing serious …
If flow control cannot be achieved through the surface equipment attached to the blowout well, or if that equipment cannot be repaired or replaced in remedial well control operations, a relief well may be required to capture the out of control flow downhole rather than controlling it at the surface. A relief well is a …
Blowouts are rare, but when they do happen they can destroy well equipment, damage the environment and in extreme cases kill the crew working on the well. If the well’s surface equipment is destroyed or damaged by a blowout (the force of flow can eject the drill pipe from the well, damage the blowout preventer …