Chapter Nine - Production Blowouts

Abstract

Production blowouts occur from production or injection wells, which may be in service (producing/injecting) or closed in by mechanical well barriers. For a blowout to occur in a production well, at least one primary and one secondary barrier has to fail. During production, both the primary and secondary barriers are mechanical barriers. This is therefore different from drilling, workover, and completion blowouts, where the primary barrier is usually the hydrostatic pressure from the mud column. The SINTEF Offshore Blowout Database includes 12 production blowouts from January 1980 till January 1994 in U.S. GoM OCS and the North Sea (Norwegian, UK). Out of these 12 blowouts, external forces “caused” six blowouts. External forces did not cause blowouts for the other operational phases (drilling, completion, workover, and wireline) in the U.S. GoM OCS and the North Sea for the stated period. The remaining six production blowouts originated from “normal” causes.