D eep wat er Ho r izo n:

STA RT I NG

A nato my o f A D isast er

Five years after the tragic events at the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, Oil & Gas IQ and Derek Park present this detailed infographic guide to the perfect storm of events that lead to this fateful incident. Based on facts
presented throughout the BP trial, below is a clear and comprehensive blow-by-blow dissection of the web of contributing factors that led to the biggest offshore disaster in the last quarter of a century.
TOTA L LOSS

CO ND IT IO NS A ND
ASSU M PT IO NS

Poor Historical Performance

of Wellheads. Poor Reliability
of Casing Lock Rings
Fear of Damage to LDS
when setting surface plug
Lock Down Sleeves (LDS) are often used as an alternative to
Casing Locking Rings but can only be fitted once drilling is
complete. They do not fulfill the requirements of the 'Drilling
Safety Rule'.
See Whats All This Talk About Lockdown Sleeves?
for more information
http://www.oilandgasiq.com/integrity-hse-maintenance/colu
mns/what-s-all-this-talk-about-lockdown-sleeves/

Cement Plugs Set Best

in Seawater

Remove Integral Casing Locking Ring

LOCK DOW N S L EEV E ACT IV ITY

Modern conventional subsea wellheads use integral lock rings to lock down each casing string,
together with the annular seal as each hanger is landed. The rings often prove difficult to set,
are unreliable in service and even harder to unlatch should the casing need to be pulled.
Prior to Macondo casing lock rings were often removed because of this poor reliability.
Post Macodo the US Authorities issued the 'Drilling Safety Rule' which said
'The operator must ensure that the latching mechanisms or lock down mechanisms are
engaged upon installation of each casing string or liner.

The decision to leave off the Casing Lock Rings and subsequently install a Lock Down Sleeve generated a huge amount of additional work at the crucial phase of
temporary abandonment.
See Whats All This Talk About Lockdown Sleeves? for more information
http://www.oilandgasiq.com/integrity-hse-maintenance/columns/what-s-all-this-talk-about-lockdown-sleeves/

Use Casing Lock Down Sleeve

Producton casing left unlocked

Decided to set surface plug in seawater

Diverter lined up to mud/gas sep

SIMOPS . Mud pit cleanout

Leave light mud in rat hole
Dont circ full bottoms up (CBU)
Best practice is to circulate full bottoms up to ensure that the wellbore is completely clean prior
to pumping cement. It was decided not to do this, fearing the circulating fluids would damage
the fragile hole.

Poor cement design and test

Low Drilling Margin

Drilling margin is defined as the difference between
maximum pore pressure and the minimum effective
fracture pressure. The driller must ensure that the
mud-weight is high enough to stop the well flowing but
low enough to prevent the mud entering the formation.
At Macondo the drilling margin was reported as 'almost
none existent'.

Fear of centraliser damage

to well components
Centralisers keep the casing concentric with the hole,
leaving a uniform annulus in to which the cement is
pumped. They are spring loaded and run against the walls
of the hole, holding the casing central.
Due to the internal complexity of their mandrel type
wellheads, suppliers are nervous about running centralisers
through their wellheads fearing damage as they rub
against the complex internal profiles of the wellhead.

Inability to monitor and relieve

Annulus Pressure Build Up. (APB)
APB stands for Annulus Pressure Buildup, similar to SCP.
Sustained Casing Pressure.
It is a recognised problem on subsea wells because
conventional technology has no provision for monitoring and
dealing with it.
The Macondo casing design was changed/delayed to mitigate
APB effects.
Systems to monitor and deal with APB are now becoming
available for subsea wells.

BP decided to use an old batch of cement that was on the rig from a previous job. This cement
contained a defoaming agent, despite the fact that foam cement was to be used on this well.
Foam cement is lighter, hence easier to pump and less likely to damage the wellbore.
The inclusion of the defoamer meant that the cement was designed to do the opposite of what
was intended.
The defoaming problem was 'designed around' by increasing the amount of foaming agent in
the final mix.
There was also concern that the well was unloaded less than 10 hours after completion of the
cement job, despite tests which showed that this was insufficient time to develop full strength.

Dont run CBL

CBL stands for Cement Bond Log and provides a reliable estimate of well integrity and
zonal isolation.

& CO N FUS IO N

SIMOPS . Boat loading

SIMOPS means Simultaneous Operations

At the time the well was being prepared for abandonment there were many other activities
ongoing, many associated with boat loading in preparation for the demobilisation of the rig

ST R ESS

LCM stands for Loss Control Material, specifically designed to plug 'leaks' into the
formation (losses).
Left over LCM was circulated through the well because that allowed it to be legally dumped
overboard as returning well fluid. The alternative was to ship it ashore and pay for proper
disposal.
It is likely that that the LCM caused blockages in the choke, kill or instrumentation lines, leading
to anomalous readings during the negative pressure tests.

There are theories that say the flow was via the annulus at
the time of the blowout. This would be possible because the
casing was not locked down and could have lifted the
hanger off the annular seals.
The official view however is that the well flowed via the
production casing bore.
However what is not in doubt is that because the casing was
not locked down, there was a lack of confidence in the
annulus, particularly the wellhead seal and this contributed
to the delay in killing the well in the days after the blowout.

Annulus integrity questioned

Decided to set LDS as last activity

The Diverter was lined up to the mud/gas separator rather than overboard.
This was to comply with BP's environmental policy.
Once the well started to flow the small mud gas separator was simply overwhelmed
Having the diverter lined up to overboard might have bought time for the drill crew to control
the well.

Save Time & Costs

O NGO I NG

Use Deepwater Horizon to set LDS

Used old LCM as a spacer

Environmental
Concerns

O F CO NT RO L

D ET ER IO RAT I NG MA NAG EM ENT CO NT RO L

G EN ERA L CR EW/MA NAG EM ENT

It was planned to set a cement plug as part of the Temporary

Abandonment Procedure. It was decided that this was best
done in sea water rather than mud.

I NIT IA L D ECIS IO NS

Possibility of casing lift/seal unseating

SPILL

MMS approval to set plug at 3000

Commenced displacement
of mud with seawater

Planned to use 3,000 drill

pipe as weight to set LDS.
The 3,000' of drill pipe was needed to provide sufficient weight to set the lock
down sleeve. This meant the temporary abandonment plug had to be set lower in
the well.

Failed to spot signs that

well was flowing

Misread SECOND Negative

Pressure Test result

Kill line blocked

Both BP (on and offshore) and TO accepted that the test was
good despite 1400psi on drill pipe

Failed to shut in BOPs

whilst still time

Misread FIRST
Negative Pressure Test
Unable to properly monitor
returns from well
The gold standard for kick detection involves the monitoring of flow in, flow out and
pit volume - a closed system.
But .....
Seawater was being drawn straight from the sea-chest and not via a mudpit.
Returning mud was being discharged to boat, by passing mud logger's flow sensor
Sand traps were being cleaned and pumped out
Crane operations for boat loading were affecting pit level measurement.

Missed 15bbl backflow

At First NPT

Hydrocarbons
In Riser

Need to control ECD

ECD is Equivalent Circulating Density and is the effective density of the circulating fluid in the
wellbore resulting from the sum of the hydrostatic pressure imposed by the static fluid column
and the friction pressure.
It is usually expressed in terms of mud density (lbs/gallon)
It is crucial to control ECD when the Drilling Margin is low.

Use low cement pump rate

Run only 6 centralisers
Delay long string vs liner decision
Install rupture discs in 16
Leave an Open Annulus
Used low cement volume

POO R CEM ENT JO B

The state of the cement was a crucial factor in the blowout. Many factors contributed to this but as was said at the trial
'A poor cement job doesn't equate to a blowout'.
It emerged that there were some formal
problems with the management structure of
the Deepwater Horizon at the time of the
blowout. There is no conclusive evidence that
these were a material cause of the incident.
However it is the view of the author that the
multitude of activities, some of them arguably
unnecessary, led to general stress and
confusion of both the crew and the
management.
Was it this state of mind that led to the crucial
misinterpretation and acceptance of the
negative pressure test??

Float collar failed to convert?

It is plausible that the float collar failed to convert. In this scenario cement would flow back ('U tube') into the casing
resulting in incorrect placement of cement in the annulus.

B L O WO UT