Oilfield Catalog - Gates Corporation

Blowout Prevention System
Rig Technology
No well is drilled without blowout preventers,
known as BOPs in the oil patch.
Blowout preventers are hydraulically controlled
valves used to control well kicks
and prevent blowouts.
Gates Hydraulic and Choke and Kill
hoses are used in BOP systems.
A single well may have three or more
preventers, stacked one on top of the
other. On a land rig, the stack is located
beneath the rig floor at ground level.
Or an attempt can be made to force the
downhole fluid back into the formation.
This is done by pumping drilling fluid
under high pressure into the hole through
a choke and kill line. Gates Black Gold ®
Choke and Kill hose is used for this purpose.
A final option is to pump in cement, seal
off the hole and abandon the drilling operation.
The top preventer on a stack is usually
the annular preventer (Figure 4). It
can completely seal off the annulus (the
space between the drill pipe and borehole).
It also can seal off a hole that has
no pipe.
Below the annular preventer are additional
controls called ram preventers.
They are designed to fit around the various
sizes of drill pipe to hold, close or
seal the mud return annulus.
Blind rams seal off the open hole. Pipe
rams can seal off the drill pipe and the
hole.
When a well kicks, there are several
options. The downhole pressure can be
cycled out through the BOP system’s
manifolds at the surface.
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