On the evening of April 20th, 2010, a well integrity failure allowed hydrocarbons to escape from the Macondo well into Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon rig, resulting in explosions and fire in which 11 people lost their lives and 17 were injured. This incident caused a spill of national significance as hydrocarbons continued to flow from the reservoir for 87 days, resulting in the most expensive oil spill in history.

Add Energy were called in to be part of the core investigation team, to independently investigate the events that led up to the incident. Our Head of Well Control, Morten H. Emilsen was brought into this tightknit team of experts to analyse and examine all possible causes and to provide expert recommendations to enable prevention of similar events in the future.

We interviewed Morten to understand the part that Add Energy played in this crucial investigation and what he learned from working on one of the biggest hydrocarbon disasters to date.

How did Add Energy come to be involved in the investigation?

Our team of blowout contingency experts recently attended and presented at the 2020 IADC Well Control Conference. In this blog, Martin Myrvang, Senior Engineer in Add Energy, and co-presenter at the event, shares key themes and takeaways from the event and solutions to the challenges discussed.

Common Pain Points

A well thought out blowout contingency plan (BCP) forms the foundation of rapid and effective response if an unplanned hydrocarbon release should occur.  

An uncontrolled hydrocarbon release is one of the worst possible scenarios that an operating facility can experience. Not only are the safety barriers compromised, exposing the asset and people to significantly more risk, but the economic, business and environmental consequences can be detrimental.

Drilling and extraction of hydrocarbons is a complex and risky process, and operators must have robust safety assurance and contingency measures in place to mitigate danger, efficiently respond to any incidents and reduce the personal, business and environmental impact if an uncontrolled release were to occur.

In certain regions of the world, and for some operators, regulations and internal procedures mandate that fields cannot be developed unless the operator can demonstrate that the well can be intercepted and controlled via a single relief well drilling operation, as opposed to multiple relief wells, which is usually the norm.

Safety is always the number one priority in drilling operations, but this can often impact an operator’s ability to reach their targets and optimize future production. However, there are ways engineers can increase the efficiency of field development and maximise production, without compromising safety. 

This week marked the 10^th anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon incident that took the lives of 11 men and wreaked havoc on the environment, as well as the oil and gas industry globally.

Add Energy is pleased to announce it has entered into a master service agreement with Enautech, an oil and gas technology company specialising in well control equipment compliance and improving blowout preventer reliability under well control scenarios.

The master service agreement between Add Energy and Enautech allows Add Energy to continue its drive to become a global provider of leading engineering and software solutions. 

Thomas Selbekk, one of Add Energy’s Vice Presidents of Well Control and Blowout Support, was one of the key contributors and technical experts presenting at the “SpillCon” conference in Perth, Australia. The event was organized by AMOSC (Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre) , AIP (Australian Institute of Petroleum) and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and ran for 4 days at the end of May 2019.