Meeting regulations for a BOP deepwater drillship

Client background

We work with these clients on a number of projects, including supporting their land-based operations.

Client challenge

The primary purpose of this assignment was to maintain continuity with the blowout prevention (BOP) compliance with BSEE regulations. BOPs were developed to cope with extreme, erratic pressures and uncontrolled flow emanating from well reservoirs during drilling. These BOP compliance factors mean that simple component failures can cause drilling operators to be exposed to severe risk.

As the subsea BOP is a special system and among one of the few pieces of equipment that combines multiple functions such as drilling and operations control, and as it is a tool for preventing risk and supporting emergency response procedures, it is highly regulated. The BOP is often the final line of defense for protecting life and the environment, and therefore there is a high demand for a transparent and well-structured risk assessment approach that can help rig owners and operators monitor the BOP’s safety performance. BOP compliance is crucial when it comes to the safety of your team.

How we helped

ModuSpec had a team onboard the drill unit, with the primary purpose to maintain continuity with the BOP compliance. Our expertise in BOPs and rig integrity help provide confidence in how risk is managed for deepwater drilling and well exploration.

This was an extension of our drilling rig integrity support expertise in BOPs for deepwater exploration off the Gulf of Mexico. The team supporting the drilling programme in Trinidad and Tobago were requested back for this programme after also supporting their Gulf of Mexico drilling programme.

Although the core part of our work was on BOP operation, rig integrity, and BOP compliance, we also provided expertise in the provision of maintenance and asset management services, as well as providing capabilities in performing inspections, risk assessment, and training for personnel working on the rig, and providing continuation of support for the drilling campaign.

Expertise applied

• BOP operation
• Rig integrity
• BOP Compliance
• Expertise in performing inspections
• Risk assessments
• Training for personnel working on the rig

Results

• ModuSpec kept a running recommendation summary, meaning all findings were continually addressed and closed.
• This allowed us to track and trend deficiencies. This is a great example of how synergies between companies can lead to innovative risk and reliability work that help make the industry more reliable, better performing, and safer.

Benefits

• No downtime recorded for the last 6 months KPI for this project.
• To date, no recorded downtime.
• Assured BOP compliance with BSEE regulations.
• Significantly reduced the risk of downtime by increasing reliability of the system.