Causes of
Underground Blowouts

Published articles in World Oil and other journals indicate that about 65% of all blowouts are below the surface or underground blowouts (UGBO). The average cost of each event is on the order of $1.8 million. There are several common causes. With prudent control and prevention planning, UGBOs can be avoided or recognized and dealt with in a way to minimize the cost.

The first is exceeding formation strength, which occurs as a result of higher formation pressures from a deeper formation acting on a shallower one, frequently where a shallow surface string exists above a long open-hole section. The prudent option at that point is to halt operations, cement the zone and run an additional casing string. The second most common UGBO occurs with flows originating behind casing after cementing. Other less frequent UGBOs are those that occur when sidetracking a well with stuck pipe, the failure of an annular seal and failure of downhole tubing or casing.

Excerpted from the January 2006 issue of World Oil available online at www.worldoil.com/magazine/
MAGAZINE_DETAIL.asp?ART_
ID=2778&MONTH_YEAR=Jan-2006.

E&P Scorecard for Health, Safety and Environment (HSE)

Members of the program committee of the September 2005 First Asia Pacific Conference on HSE were surveyed on the progress of the industry on HSE issues over the past five years and the effort that the industry should make in the next five years. The same survey was taken 18 months earlier in Calgary and the results and progress were compared. Respondents also rated the effort regulators and non-governmental agencies should make in the future.

Sixteen individual programs were categorized as Mature, Maturing and Needs More Effort. Each were ranked overall, with the Mature programs being those that have shown the most progress over the last five years, and the Needs More Effort programs being those that have shown the least progress. Each program was also rated as to how much effort would be required in the future.

Programs most needing improvement included:

• Health Management,
• Social Responsibility,
• Programs to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions,
• Sustainable Development Principles,
• Operating in Sensitive Ecosystems, and
• Implementation of Biodiversity Programs, mirroring many of the issues in the forefront today.

The Collaboration with Contractors program was considered Maturing, yet numerically it still ranked high as needing more effort.

Excerpted from an article in the February issue of the Journal of Petroleum Technology, February 2006 available online at www.spe.
org/spe/jpt/jsp/jptmonthlysection
/0,2440,1104_11038_4946478
_4952176,00.html.

Studying Oxygen-Fired Boilers for CO2-Capture

While much research is being directed to "clean coal" technology, most notably the Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle Technology, other efforts are focused on the shorter term, looking for measures to reduce emissions and capture greenhouse gases from today's power plants. One such technology is the Oxy-Fired CO2 Recycle technology. Southern Research Institute was recently awarded a project by the DOE to conduct a three-year investigation of this technology retrofitted to existing coal burning plants. By converting to oxygen firing and recycling some flue gas, the flame temperature and system time/temperatures, essential for existing equipment, can be maintained. It is expected to result in a four-fold reduction in flue gas volume and provide a CO2-rich stream for EOR or other sequestration while increasing combustion efficiency.

Excerpted from the Winter issue of Environment & Energy Reporter, Southern Research Institute available online at www.south
ernresearch.org/pdf/reporter.
pdf.

Shell Oil Company Pilot: Intrinsic Safety Analysis

A novel approach to improving safety performance has been developed by Shell Oil and rolled out in a recent pilot program. The approach, Intrinsic Safety Analysis (ISE), uses a measurement system to quantify the inherent safety of operations based on three parameters: the energy of the

operation, the containment of that energy and the exposure of personnel to the energy. This provides a yardstick of the potential for an accident for each operation.

Improvements are achieved by allowing contractors and operators to identify the less safe operations and take measures to mitigate the danger, providing information to engineers for designs to reduce danger, provide benchmarking of projects and investments based on safety issues. ISE thinking can be integrated across the lifecycle of equipment and assets and help establish long term corporate safety goals, while reducing accident-related costs.

Excerpted from the January/ February issue of Drilling Contractor, based on IADC/ SPE 99036 by Orlean and Patterson.

A State Review of O&G Environmental Regulations

STRONGER, Inc. is a non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization whose purpose is to assist oil- and natural gas-producing states in documenting the environmental regulations associated with exploration and development. It was formed in 1999 to carry forward the state review process begun cooperatively in 1988 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC). To date, reviews have been conducted in eleven states: Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, Michigan, West Virginia, California and New Mexico. Files on each are available online. STRONGER is funded by the EPA and American Petroleum Institute.

Lori Wrotenbery, the director of the Oil and Gas Conservation Division of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, was recently elected Chair of STRONGER's Board. Wrotenbery is a graduate of Harvard Law School and holds a B.S. in Geology from the University of Texas and Anthropology from Wellesley College. She is a founding member of STRONGER and a member of IOGCC since 1991. She has previously served at the Oil Conservation Division of New Mexico, Texas Railroad Commission and Department of Water Resources.

For more information on STRONGER, visit their website at www.strongerinc.org.