An Engineering Look at the Cause of the 2010 Macondo Blowout

Author:

Turley John A.1

Affiliation:

1. The Brier Patch, LLC

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines engineering and operating activities during post-discovery temporary abandonment of the Macondo exploration well that led to and caused the 20 April 2010 blowout and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The paper ignores finger pointing and hearsay evidence and focuses on data generated on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. The forensic trail defines events that caused and exacerbated a down-hole leak between the pay zone and the lower casing. Subsequent pressure testing of the wellbore revealed the leak, but the well was declared secure. In further preparation for temporary abandonment, seawater was pumped down a work string to displace heavy mud from the wellbore and riser. Such displacement caused the well to flow from the formation, down the annulus, up the casing, above the blowout preventers (BOP), into the riser, up to the rig, and over the derrick. Crews immediately closed two BOPs, albeit too late to stop the massive flow from within the mile-long riser. Subsequent explosions and fire killed eleven, sank the rig, and marked the beginning of one of the most lethal, costly, manmade, environmental disasters in US history. Had industry protocol been followed, and/or had the forensic data that pointed to the leak or flow been acted upon, the leak would have been repaired and isolated, the wellbore would have been retested to prove pressure security, and the temporary abandonment would have proceeded as planned.

Publisher

SPE

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