Deep sea drilling for oil is a dangerous profession — we’re all well aware of the problems that have occurred off-shore in the past, particularly off the coast of Texas in the United States.
One safety measure that rigs employ is known as a BOP or blowout preventer. These devices are meant to protect the rig and its workers and serve as a very important safety mechanism. However, once a BOP becomes dirty or corroded, it’s efficiency drops significantly and the oilworkers can be at risk.
A new technology has been developed to assist oil rig operators in keeping their BOPs clean. Archer, a company well known in the oil industry recently debuted a new cleaner that utilizes Tornar flow ports with a magnet design to assist in cleaning BOPs. Not only does this new device remove debris from the BOP, but the operator can maintain full well control.
Rolf Egil Håland, Archer’s president and managing director of Oiltools, said: “The accumulation of drilling debris and solids is a serious oilfield challenge which can hinder the correct operation of the BOP and cause extensive loss of time and money. The big issue in deep and ultra-deepwater markets is the time it takes to retrieve and re-run the marine riser and BOP, as this can often take several days to a couple of weeks. A major operator in Brazil recently attributed 70% of their downtime to BOP-related issues; with a rig costing more than $1 million per day, such downtime becomes very expensive.”
He continued, “What really sets this tool apart is its combination of riser brush, string magnet, and junk basket to clear the riser of mud and scale, and collect debris. In addition, its three-stage flow sleeve diverts flow out through the cleaning ports or through the bottom of the string, thereby enabling full well control during cleaning operations.”
What does this mean for engineers? This new technology is fueling the growth of both the oil industry and illustrates just how much room for improvement there is in this industry. Engineers already proficient with this type of work, or students seeking to find a niche within the engineering world are assured that this is a segment that is going to continue growing well and will become even more profitable over the next several years.
Do you have a question about finding a career in this exciting industry? Give the experts at SoloPoint a call today for more information.