OVERVIEW

The use of kill fluids in well control operations is not new. However, one of the newest technical developments in well control is the engineered application of fluid dynamics. The technology of fluid dynamics is not fully utilized because most personnel involved in well control operations do not understand the engineering applications and do not have the capabilities to apply the technology at the rig in the field. The best well control procedure is the one that has predictable results from a technical as well as a mechanical perspective.

Fluid dynamics have an application in virtually every well control operation. Appropriately applied, fluids can be used cleverly to compensate for unreliable tubulars or inaccessibility. Often, when blowouts occur, the tubulars are damaged beyond expectation. For example, at a blowout in Wyoming an intermediate casing string subjected to excessive pressure was found by survey to have failed in NINE places. ^[1] One failure is understandable. Two failures are imaginable, but NINE failures in one string of casing?

After a blowout in South Texas, the -inch surface casing was found to have parted at 3200 feet and again at 1600 feet. Combine conditions such as those just described with the intense heat resulting from an oil-well fire or damage resulting from a falling derrick or collapsing substructure, and it is easy to convince the average engineer that after a blowout the wellhead and tubulars could be expected to have little integrity. Properly applied, fluid dynamics can offer solutions that...