A brief Overview Of BOPs

摘要

One year on from the Macondo incident, recovered evidence points to Deepwater Horizon's blowout preventer (BOP) being unable to perform its primary function. But what should a BOP actually do? Here is a guide for the uninitiated. In short, the BOP should stop what is under the ground from rising above the ground when it should not. Drillers normally use different drilling fluids to keep hydrocarbons underground while they continue to drill. However, should they encounter unexpectedly high pressure, the drilling fluids could be forced up and out of the wellbore, leading to an escape of combustible hydrocarbons and a blowout. If the wellbore has filled with hydrocarbons, the BOP can be held shut and heavy mud pumped in to regain control of the well.