Part 10-Blowout surface intervention methods:

Descriptions of debris removal techniques;

special services like junk shots, hot tapping and
freezing; and proven methods of well capping
Martin J. Kelly, Jr., Partner, Boots & Coots, L. P., Houston
and
L. Flak, former Wright, Boots & Coots employee
This article reviews the physically demanding job of clearing away damaged
wellheads, BOPs, rigs and platforms to allow surface control of a blowout. Basic
special tools and techniques used in these efforts are explained. Capping
equipment and installation steps are reviewed. Options of diverting blowouts and
inducing bridging are noted. And snubbing on blowouts and the difficulties this
presents are discussed.
Figure above. This 1992 blowout in inland waters was capped while burning to
limit pollution.

INTRODUCTION
Experienced oilwell fire fighters bring more knowledge in the area of stopping
leaks, removing dam aged equipment and controlling flow safely from a blowing
well than in any other area. Many control options are available, as partially
reviewed below. The key is selecting a control option that has the best chance of
success, mini mum risk and viable economics. Time is also a major factor, as well
conditions can change. The following discussion should be used as a basic guide to
control options, methods and limitations.

DEBRIS REMOVAL
Fig. 27. This meltdown was the result of a voluntary
well ignition of a deep H2S well blowout in Mississippi
(see photo on page 106, World Oil, October 1994).

The significant task of clearing away damaged rig or offshore platform

components to expose the wellhead(s) is a first step on burning blowouts. Rig
removal may also be required on non-ignited blowouts to allow removal/
replacement of defective BOPs or well heads. Only a few individuals have directed
operations to remove destroyed rigs over burning blowouts. Even fewer have
directed debris clearing operations on offshore burning blowouts.
Offshore challenges. Offshore efforts are based on exposing the wellhead(s). This
involves clearing away upper decks and possibly melted remains of the rig and
substructure. In Fig. 26, operations in 1992 by Boots & Coots on a burning barge
rig in open bay waters behind a barrier island can be seen. The barge key-way was
first cleared of melted rig debris. A major effort to cool the drilling barge to
prevent further thermal deterioration while pumping it out, to float the drilling
barge off the well, is illustrated. Water spray is directed at the barge and not the
fire to maximize oil combustion and limit pollution. Oil containment booms are
set around the work area and pumped off barge fluid and skimmed oil are
directed into storage barges.
Well fires on massive offshore structures would require large semi-submersiblebased derrick cranes to get sufficient deck height to match up elevation of the
well bays. Derrick barges can be used on smaller structures. Major firefighting
firms have crane hooks that work with large offshore cranes for debris clearing.
Additional tools are generally custom fabricated at offshore sites using the
extensive machine shop and welding/fabricating capabilities of the work vessels.
Cutting/removal techniques. Cutting away massive steel debris on large land rigs
or offshore structures is sometimes required. Large fires will progressively melt
away obstructing steel and at least partially expose the wellhead. If clearing is
required, it can be done by various means, as described here.
Mechanically ripping, bending or fatiguing (repeated bending) away the debris
with athey wagon and debris hook.
Swab line used as a reciprocated cable between winches is used to cut away
wellheads or tubulars in areas and applications where only small cuts are required
and high pressure abrasive cutting equipment is unavailable. Recently, a blowout
in Venezuela required cutting away 6%-in. casing, 2Y-in. tubing and a polished rod
with swab line. The cut required 18 hr to complete. This cut could have been
made in less than 2 hr with a high pressure abrasive jet, but this equipment was
not available in Eastern Venezuela.
Thermal lances or custom long cutting torches can be used to cut away debris on
burning blowouts. In Fig. 28, Joe Carpenter with Boots & Coots can be seen

preparing a long cutting torch which he used to cut away the kelly and rig floor
beams under cover of water and reflective roofing tin on a 1992 blowout and fire.
Very few individuals have the experience to do this safely.
Explosive cutting with shaped charges can be done on massive beams or tubular
sections obstructing blowing wellheads. Shaped charges can be made in the field
using raw C4 plastic explosive in fabricated holders. Point cuts, linear cuts and
circular cuts can be fabricated by fire fighting explosive experts. Manufactured
cutting charges are stocked by explosive manufacturers in some regions, but
cannot be custom con figured to the application. These are generally the same
companies that make oilwell perforating charges.
High pressure abrasive cutting with jet attachments that allow remotely operated
cuts is the newest technology in firefighting. The technology was first successfully
applied in the Kuwait fires. Halliburton markets this service to the oil field today.
Smaller ultra-high pressure cutters are available out of industrial applications.
Each system has particular applications and benefits. The principal benefit of the
Halliburton system is the ability to mount the cutter on a boom for remotely
applied cutting.
Meltdowns of land rigs can usually be removed using athey wagons, debris hooks
and large dozers. Typically, at least two D8N dozers with winches are used. In one
case of a large land rig meltdown on a deep Mississippi H2S blowout in 1985, Fig.
27, one D9N dozer walking an athey wagon with a hook into the debris and five
stationary D8N dozers with 1-1/8 in. cable spooled off Cat 57 winches tied into
the debris were required to skid off a massive accumulation of melted steel
contained between two main substructure rig beams.
Debris clearing on burning wells is the most physically difficult firefighting
operation and can take far longer than actual capping. Once debris is cleared and
the well is exposed, final control operations can begin. The fire is generally not
extinguished until the rig is cleared away. Firefighting operations were discussed
in the previous article; as noted therein, the well may be capped while on-fire,
based on pollution or H2S gas concerns.

SPECIAL SERVICES/OPERATIONS
Fig. 28. Preparing for debris removal of fire-

damaged equipment with a long cutting torch on a small Texas land rig.
Specialized techniques have been designed by firefighters and service companies
to achieve certain objectives such as plugging leaking connections, temporarily
shutting off flow in lines, tapping into tubulars, cutting and stinging. Here are
several examples.
Junk shots are used to plug leaking valves, flanges or BOPs. If an injection line can
be tied into the well below the leak, this control option is possible. Time is critical
as leaks are seldom stable and will erode out the leak path. The method involves
loading a pump-in line near the well with shredded rope, rubber, nut hull, ball
sealers and even golf balls to plug the flow path and allow conventional well
killing operations to proceed. Higher mechanical strength fibers (Kevlar) and steelrein forced rubber have been used to seal a leaking kelly cock valve (SIDP of 6,800
psi) through a hot-tap-drilled 1-in. hole. Stinger use requires junk shots to effect a
seal around the stinger.
Freezing is used to place an ice plug within shut-in wells (within pipe, well heads
or annulus) to allow removal, repair or replacement of wellhead equipment.
Freezing has not been used to control a blowing well. Some inventors attempted
to market devices using liquid nitrogen to freeze-off blowing wells in Kuwait, but
simpler control methods were available. Difficulties were seen in maintaining a
plug of frozen oil and brine while making extensive surface repairs to blown-up
wellhead equipment.
The method usually uses dry ice to freeze water or fresh water-bentonite slurries.
Methanol can be used with dry ice to get a lower temperature. As a 75%
methanol/water mixture has a freeze temperature of some -200 deg. F, methanol
water mixtures could be potentially cooled by liquid nitrogen and the cold
methanol/water mixture circulated around the area to be frozen. This would
allow control of the applied temperature to the steel-problems with low-fracture
toughness in super cooled steels have been seen in nitrogen pumping service
when pump rates exceeded heater capabilities and liquid nitrogen was pumped
into wells.
Hot tapping and valve drilling equipment has been used on blowouts to allow
pumping into wellheads, tubulars or fire-frozen valves. This equipment is available
from most major fire fighting companies as part of their service capabilities. For a
hot tap, a saddle clamp is installed around the tubular and a pack-off energized.
Within a lubricator, a machine drill bit cuts through the tubular with pressure held
slightly higher on the outside so positive indication that a hole has been made is
seen. After the hole is cut, it can be reamed out to 1 in. Valve drilling machines

are available to drill out frozen gates. Up to 3-in. holes have been drilled and
larger hole sizes can be milled out.
Pneumatic cold cutters and high pressure abrasive cutters are used to strip away
outer casing strings to expose inner strings for well capping. ABB Vetco Gray
offers equipment to make vertical stripping cuts to split casing strings. Light linear
shaped charges can also be bent around tubulars to make cuts. Pneumatic cold
cutters, commonly used in the pipeline business, are used most frequently.
Stinging is a relatively rare control option that gained some fame in Kuwait,
where 35% of the blowouts were con trolled using this method. The method
involves snubbing a hollow conical device into the flow. A tee threaded above the
device allows stinging the well with flow diverted vertically through the stinger
and tee. The stinger is snubbed down into the blowout opening and the vertical
flow path is shut off with a valve. Annular leaks between stinger and its rough fit
to the blowout opening are sealed with junk shots to allow bullheading kill fluid
into the well.

CONVENTIONAL WELL CAPPING

Fig. 29. Two types of well capping stacks.

New wellhead installation can be required if existing wellhead equipment is
destroyed by the blowout. After exposing inner casing, a new wellhead (internal
O-ring seal and external weld-on) is snubbed down over the inner pipe string and
welded to the outer pipe string. An example would consist of a well with 13-3/8in. surface casing and 9-5/8-in. protective casing with drill pipe dropped into the
well and blowout flow out the 9-5/8 in. A casing head with hanger lock-down
screws is snubbed through the flow and down over a 9-5/8 in. stub by use of a
venturi tube.

A casing clamp is installed on the 9-5/8 in. stub above the casing head. Hydraulic
jacks are used to pick up the 9-5/8 in. and re-tension the pipe. Tension can be
directly calculated from hydraulic jack pressure. A wraparound casing hanger with
integral pack-off is installed around the 9-5/8 in. and pushed into the slip bowl.
The lock-down screws are run in to fully set the hanger and the hydraulic jacks are
bled off. The 9-5/8 in. can then be trimmed to desired length with a pneumatic
cold cutter, and the well can be capped with the assembly shown in Fig. 29.
In wells with only a single casing string, the wellhead is installed with slips locked
in place around casing within the slip bowl and the entire well head is jacked up
to tension the slips. A support base is then welded under the wellhead. (See
related article, "How postcapping put Kuwait's wells back onstream," World Oil,
January 1994, page 92.) Other capping or killing techniques are described here.
Capping stacks come in several configurations, with the stacks in Fig. 29 used
most commonly. Blind rams are used above the diverter spool to divert flow. The
extra blind ram provides a back-up, as erosion can occur in some high velocity
flow streams. The long bell nipple lifts flow higher above the BOPs. The high
weight of this capping stack helps stabilize it as it is moved into the flow stream.
Once the stack is positioned over the flow and centered in the flow stream, it can
be lowered into position over the stream. BOPs are sized based on mating flange
size, or larger in high-volume flow streams.
Flow forces have caused unsupported capping stacks to be thrown away from the
well; thus, the high weight of these stacks is actually more of a benefit than a
liability. Even the massive capping stacks must be pulled or snubbed down over
large blowouts or supported on a long stud bolt and spun over the flow. Spin or
snub-on techniques are used by firefighters to stabilize and allow installation of
capping equipment in flow streams.
Spin-on techniques use a long stud bolt run between the lower flange of the
capping stack and the mating wellhead flange. The flanges are positioned 180
out of phase, very near one another, and one stud is dropped. The seal ring is tack
welded into the lower flange of the capping stack or locked-in with set screws.
The capping stack is then spun through the flow with the flange splitting the
stream momentarily as it turns on the one stud into matching position. The
capping stack is then lowered to bump up the flanges.
One limitation of this method is that there is a greater number of personnel near
the flow stream as the capping stack is spun-on. Partial flow impingement starts
the second the long stud is dropped as the spin axis for the larger bodies of the
BOPs. This directs flow horizontally, with more horizontal flow as the flange splits

the flow stream as it is spun on. Spinning is generally used on lower-velocity flow
streams, smaller valve assemblies and confined capping spaces.
Snub-down methods consist of pulling down the cap ping stack by running two
cables through the two flanges to be mated and using winches. The cables are run
180 apart through the wellhead flange, up through the capping stack flange and
clamped together around the back of the capping stack. This process is underway
in Fig. 30 on a recent blowout in South Texas with a nearly 300 deg. F surface
flowing temperature. The two cables are winched in, drawing the two flanges
together. This is the safer method of installing capping stacks but requires more
support equipment, rig-up and operational control. It is the only method that
should be used on large-bore, high-velocity flows.
Capping while burning was used recently on the blow out seen in Fig. 26 to limit
pollution. A three-ram stack was used; this was developed and first used by the
fire fighting contractor in Venezuela. This capping stack was positioned over flow
out of tubing and lowered over the flow, as shown in Fig. 31. Note insulation on
the BOPs, heat shielding on the capping boom and protective water spray. Most
blowouts can be capped while burning.
Well diversion occurs before BOPs are closed, to prevent shocking the well. This
means that diverter lines and choke manifolds are connected after the capping
stack is in position. Large-bore diverter spools are used on high-rate blowouts
with up to dual 7-7/16 in., 5-M outlets; and 6-1/8-in. bore valves are available out
of Enterra's WELLCAT rental tool inventory. Use of large-diameter diverter lines is
required when tubular condition is suspect, or the well is cratered and a minimum
flowing pressure is desired.
If the blowout can be bullhead killed, then pumping is started and the well closed
in. If well pressure build-up rate and magnitude is too high to safely bullhead,
then pipe must be snubbed back to bottom to allow a circulated bottom kill.
Sometimes wells are placed into production while extensive snubbing operations
are undertaken or a relief well is drilled. Generally, the lowest sustainable flowing
pressure, if water, oil and gas must be reliably separated, is about 150 psi.
Induced bridging can be used to kill some types of blowouts. Large diverter lines
and even opening up the BOPs to drop flowing pressure has induced bridging on
some wells. The principal risk is creation of a shallow bridge that only diverts flow
underground.
Blowout snubbing or snubbing into a diverted blowout is very rare. Few snubbing
supervisors have much experience in this type of operation. One of the most
difficult operations is fishing dropped drill pipe or tubing to allow hydraulic

reconnection to bottom or replacement with a kill string of proven integrity.

Fishing with a snubbing unit within casing is generally successful. This was the
case in the blowout shown in Fig. 30, as drill pipe had dropped only a few feet
within the lower wellheads.
Problems with buckling, flow drag, produced formation solids, scale build up and
corrosion-erosion damage can be experienced. In open hole, flow out of a fish in
enlarged hole can make it nearly impossible to catch the fish as flow pushes the
overshot away from the top of the fish. Hook-wall guides, bent joints and even
knuckle joints have not been successful in catching blowing drill pipe in enlarged
hole. Snubbing on drill pipe blowouts dropped into open hole or on top of
dropped fish found much deeper than expected (fish parted and dropped beside
itself has a low chance of success. A relief well may be required to kill the
blowout, because of the high mechanical risk of the snubbing operation.
Fig. 31. Three-ram capping stack used with
well burning to cap blowout shown in Fig. 26.
Fig. 30. Rigging up snub-down lines. Note
extra BOP on bottom of capping stack to
maintain diverter line elevation off of
removed rig BOPs.