Message from Bill Abel (Abel Engineering) on this topic as follows.

STRIPPING THRU ANNULAR

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While I cannot officially state what an annular (CAMERON, HYDRIL, SHAFFER or other) can or
cannot be used for in well control operations but stripping at any appreciable pressure on wireline would
not be recommended.
The first thing that comes to mind is that braided wire (Like e-line) is VERY difficult to affect a seal
with an elastomer (hense the need for grease heads) and stripping would (field experience confirms this)
break the seal and a leak developed. While this leak can be controlled by increasing the accumulator
closing pressure, the limit to would rapidly reached. Thus the performance meaning lineal feet stripped
would be limited.
Secondly, the theory of pressure control is to have two barriers and when the first fails go to the second
then repair the first before proceeding. If you are closing on wireline it means there may not be a second
barrier to back this up and stripping would negate the primary barrier.
One could put forward an argument that one can shear the wire and thus close in the well if the annular
leaked. Shearing wireline is difficult to do with drilling BOP while the mgf will say shears will cut and
seal WL there are MANY field examples when this failed. Even if shear and seal works one is now
down to one barrier which is not allowed in the theory of dual barrier at ALL times.
The obvious solution is to use a WL BOP that is designed for stripping wire under pressure. However
these are small BOP IDs and the rig BOP is designed for drilling tools (drill pipe, collars not WL). Thus
a shooting nipple would be the best choice to cross the drilling BOP to the WL line and the choices are:
a) old style shooting nipple (not recommended) which is casing with a swedge and the annular element
is closed on the pipe and it is "held down" by cabel or chain or by a steel lip welded to the casing below
annular. The QA/QC on this non-existent. OEM say do not do this. Most companies have banned this
method. This however could work at 1000psi, but if something goes wrong the person rigging this up
would be responsible. The method would fail a risk assessment and can only be tested against a closed
blindram and is a single barrier (fails dual barrier rule).
b) Dutch Lock Down Lubricator which has a hanger flange to take the pressure area effect and is again
only tested after rig up against the closed BOP blind to 1200 psi or so. The annular element is closed
against the tailpipe of the mandrel and that is good to only 70% of the WP of the annular (5k is 3.5k
test). However, the rub here is that the installed pressure test is only to the test from the top of the closed
blind. Again the reason to strip is because of a well control event therefore one cannot test at all!
c) There is new tool (HSPN) on the market that claims to be the ONLY tool available that is fully
rated to the WP of the annular and that can be tested after installation to the full rating of the body of the
annular. This device is two parts: 1) hold-down that is installed on the annular and is tested with the
BOP to full WP (thus the cap seal and ring gasket on the annular is tested). 2.) Is the main mandrel that
is tested off line with WL, valves etc installed. When it is needed the mandrel riser and WL bop are
picked up in one piece and landed in the hold-down spool. There is a dual seal in the mandrel - hold-
down seal area that allow one to test between the dual seals (same as a wellhead pack off is tested).
Thus one starts the job with a fully tested pressure control device that interfaces between the WL (small
bore tools) BOP and the drilling (Large bore) BOP. This method assures one that all leak paths exposed
to the well pressure has been tested to WP or SIWHP with Safety Factor).
This device is offered by ABEL Engineering and the tool can best be explained by seeing their web page
at http://www.abel-engr.com/HPSN.html,the drawback is that you have to have this pre-installed and
tested with the BOP to be of use.
Hope this helps explain the possibilities.
Bill Abel.

dickheenan

Drilling Consultant - Frontier Operations

SPREADAssociates

Total Posts: 13
Join Date: 07/03/11
Use of the annular on wireline.
I strongly against against this. Opinions differ as to whether an annular preventer can/should
be closed on wireline when new (ask your supplier), but yours is likely not new.
In my experience it is common practice to use an annular element until it is sufficiently worn
that it will not seal on the smallest pipe in use. That means that a portion of the rubber has
been worn away, and very likely it won't seal effectively on the wireline when needed.

Use of a shooting nipple.

Again I advise against them. As previous posters have indicated, relying on the BOP to hold
the item in place, rather than using the flange on the top of the BOP assembly is dubious
practice at best. It is not permitted in some jurisdictions.

Beyond the issue of flanged connections, what exactly is the planned equipment
configuration above the BOP?
Typically I understand the use of a shooting nipple to be essentially a system to allow
a wireline pack-off but little else. If well control is required in this situation, the only option
is to seal around the wireline and bullhead to kill the well. In addition to undesirable
reservoir consequences this puts extra pressure/loading on the shooting nipple and its
securing mechanism, with the increased likelihood of failure.

Per work with a major wireline operator, the correct assembly for effective well control with
wireline is (bottom to top)
- Flanged connection to existing BOP (or wellhead)
- wireline BOP
- lubricator long enough for the longest tool string to fit between the blind rams and the flow
tube/stuffing box PLUS ONE EXTRA JOINT
- flow tube/stuffing box/grease injector assembly as needed for well conditions
The extra joint of lubricator is needed if a braided line develops a wicker and builds a
birdcage of wire inside the lubricator while the well is under pressure. In this situation, the
tool can't be pulled any further out of the hole without removing the birdcage from the
lubricator.

The procedure is:

- close the wireline BOP
- break the lubricator near the bottom and clamp the good wire below the birdcage
- with the load on the clamp, cut the wireline well above the lubricator assembly
- remove the birdcage and feed the good line through the pack-off etc. and splice the line on
the outside
(removing the extra lubricator section provides enough slack to feed the good wire through
the pack-off (etc.) and splice it on the outside
(without removing a joint of lubricator it is not possible to splice the wire outside the pack-
off. If an extra joint was not put in initially the lubricator will now be too short for the tool
string when retrieved.)
- take the strain on the spliced wireline
- remove the clamp and reassemble the lubricator
- pull tools above the blind rams and close them
The well is now secure and a full range of options are available.

The following is a link to an IADC report on a blowout involving a shooting nipple and
wireline operations.
There are a variety of mis-steps, but it makes interesting reading.