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OSPRAG approves well capping and containment study

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The UK offshore oil and gas advisory group, formed in response to BP’s Gulf of Mexico disaster, has commissioned an engineering study to develop new design concepts for well capping and containment.

In a statement yesterday, the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Advisory Group (OSPRAG) gave formal approval to its Technical Review Group (TRG) to proceed with developing new solutions for preventing or mitigating similar catastrophes in the future.

The project forms part of the UK offshore oil and gas industry’s comprehensive review of its well control practices and assessment of its readiness to respond to a major oil spill.

Brian Kinkead, TRG leader and Oil & Gas UK’s supply chain director, said that over the past 20 years nearly 7,000 wells have been successfully drilled in the UK continental shelf (UKCS). However, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has spurred the UK oil and gas industry to rigorously assess its well control practices and assessment of the readiness to respond to a major oil spill should such an event occur in British waters.

Drawing on the experiences from the Gulf of Mexico, Kinkead said that the TRG has outlined three ways in which an oil spill resulting from a failed blow-out preventer (BOP) might be capped and contained and it is now beginning to test the feasibility of those options.

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