BOPs and training take centre stage in post-Macondo era

By Anthony Guegel

 30 March 2012 01:03 GMT

BLOWOUT preventers and rig crew training are just some of the top concerns for the drilling industry in the Gulf of Mexico nearly two years after the Deepwater Horizon rig fire and sinking from the Macondo oil well blowout in the US Gulf.

One industry source goes so far as to claim that US regulators are leaning toward requiring that BOPs be equipped with two blind shear rams spaced apart to lessen the chance of having to shear with the tool joint caught across them in an emergency.

“Some operators would like a seven-ram BOP configuration and others are happy with six,” says Cor Selen, chief executive of Maersk Drilling USA in Houston. “Six is sufficient to work in the Gulf of Mexico and all over the world.” The Hydril BOP on the semi-submersible Maersk…

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