DEEPWATER

HORIZON WHAT HAPPENED ON THE

DEEPWATER HORIZON
On April 20, Deepwater Horizon was two days away from temporarily capping the oil well it had
drilled and handing off the pumping of the oil to a production platform or pipeline. But during
this disconnection process the rig suffered a blowout, caught fire and sank to the bottom.
Here is what went wrong:

GULF OF 2
MEXICO 1 THE CEMENT FAILS
RISER Cement is supposed to protect the THE CEMENTING PROCESS:
outside of the well pipe and is used
to seal off a well when needed.
Drill Drilling
pipe Casing mud

PROBLEM:
Either the primary or secondary Casing
Well is located cementing failed, pushing a huge
in 5,000 feet column of natural gas into the Cement Cement
BOP
of water 3 well pipe. plug
Cement

Cement

DRILL PIPE

Primary Secondary
Cement is pushed between the well When a well is to be temporarily
casings and the sediment layers that have abandoned, two plugs are cemented in
been drilled through. It protects the metal with drilling fluid between them.
wall from gas pressure and from gas Sometimes more plugs are used.
leaking up the outside of the well pipe.
THE WAY
IT IS
SUPPOSED
TO WORK: 2 SEAWATER IN THE RISER
Deepwater Horizon had begun to
remove the heavy column of drilling
mud that is the primary means of
controlling pressure inside a well.
Mud is pumped
THE USES OF MUD: down the drill
Ú During drilling, mud is pumped pipe from the rig
down the riser and well to the tip of
the drill. The mud then flows back up
The mud then
to rig, taking the drill shavings with it.
rises back to
Ú The weight of the mud maintains the rig carrying
well pressure so the oil does not shavings with it
WELL rise to the surface.
Ú The thickness of the mud can be
adjusted to deal with a “kick,” a
sudden surge of gas pressure.
DRILL PIPE AS
PROBLEM: IT DRILLS DOWN
When the cement failed, the TO OIL LAYER
natural gas rocketed to the
surface, as the weakened mixture
of mud and seawater did not have Drill bit
the pressure necessary to hold
the gas back. The gas exploded the
rig, killing 11 men and destroying
the rig.

THE BLOWOUT
Riser adapter
3

Until the well is

completely plugged,
PREVENTER FAILS Flex joint

the pressure from The BOP stack is a 450-ton series of PROBLEM:

a column of thick valves developed to prevent a
drilling mud keeps With only seconds to react, rig
gusher if the mud control is
natural gas and oil operators fired off the shear
overwhelmed.
in the ground ram, but it only partially
sheared the drill pipe. A joint
may have been in the way, or
TWO ANNULAR VALVES: the ram was fouled by pieces of
Closes in and seals on the casing or cement from the
drill pipe. Or if the drill blowout. For days, remotely
pipe is not in use, it closes operated robots tried to fire off
the open hole. Blue Yellow the ram manually, but failed.
control control
Thin line of pod pod
cement encases
a steel well pipe
TOP
PLUG
1
SHEAR RAM: The final
fail safe, it is designed
to close the well by
In a properly cutting through and
capped well sealing the drill pipe.
two large FOUR BLIND RAMS: But they are not
cement plugs Can withstand more designed to cut through
separated by pressure than joints where two drill
drilling mud annular valves over pipe sections connect.
are in place open holes. Not used Drill pipe
with a drill pipe in
Oil is 18,000 place. Two metal
BOTTOM feet below blocks close on each
PLUG the sea floor other, sealing the
well.

OIL LAYER
Wellhead Note: Man shown for scale.
connector BOP is located on the sea
floor 5,000 feet below the
surface.

Note: Vertical height of water and sediment layers is to scale. Rig and drilling components are not. Source: Staff research EMMETT MAYER III AND DAN SHEA / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE