Houston-based Wild Well Control has unveiled its new subsea capping stack for response to a global deepwater well control incident that will be located in Singapore.
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| Image from Wild Well |
The Singapore capping stack, Wild Well’s second system, adds to its first unit located in Aberdeen, which was unveiled in September 2011.
Wild Well says the subsea capping stack is a part of its comprehensive emergency response system, WellCONTAINED, which provides experienced personnel and equipment to plan, prepare and respond to global subsea well control events. In addition to the physical capping stack and equipment, the WellCONTAINED system also contains technical planning, advanced engineering and response training. According to Wild Well, the full intervention system at each location includes a capping stack, debris removal shears, hardware kits for the subsea application of dispersant and inhibition fluids at a wellhead and ancillary equipment.
Wild Well says its new 18-3/4in., 15,000psi capping stack is available for a variety of offshore conditions and designed for subsea use up to 10,000ft. The company keeps the system in a state of readiness to be quickly transported by sea or air. The first capping stack located in Aberdeen, the Global Subsea Containment System, is designed for use in water depths of up to 15,000ft.
“Since we now have two capping stacks geographically located in the northern and southern hemispheres, our team at Wild Well can provide an enhanced level of response to a client’s well site,” said Freddy Gebhardt, Wild Well president. “Our flexibility to deploy from two strategic locations now mitigates any potential delays due to deployment constraints and adds another level of assurance to the operators’ drilling programs while positioning Wild Well as the global leader in subsea well control.”
Wild Well responds to 80% of international well control incidents.
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Image of the Macondo incident.
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The company was heavily involved in the effort to cap the Macondo well in 2010, also known as BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster. The incident killed 11 workers and spilled as estimated 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico before it was plugged with a capping stack and oil and gas capture system. Just this month, a US federal district court judge ruled that BP’s gross negligence and willful misconduct was the result of the spill. BP’s contractors, Transocean and Halliburton, were both found negligent. BP was assigned most of the liability with 67%. Transocean was assigned 30% and Halliburton 3%.
According to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s (BSEE) incident statistics database, in 2013 nine well control incidents occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, 97 fires and/or explosions, 226 injuries, and three fatalities were recorded; a total of 691 incidents in the US outer continental shelf. This number represents a 5.3% decrease, as 730 incidents occurred in 2012.
At the 2014 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Jim Raney, Anadarko’s director of engineering and technology and and past chair of the API Committee on Standardization of Oilfield Equipment and Materials, discussed the joint industry task force that was organized following Macondo, stating that there had been significant progress made to improve spill prevention. He included that API standard API RP 17W recommends practice for subsea capping stacks.
In May, Wild Well and Check-6 announced a joint agreement to develop the next generation of well control training for the oil and gas industry. The company also increased its presence in the Asia Pacific region by appointing a managing director and area manager in the area.
Read more:
Court rules BP showed “gross negligence”
OTC14: Wild Well, Check-6 to join in training
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