Barriers

Barriers
There are two types of barrier:
• Mechanical
• Fluid
There is not normally a fluid barrier during well intervention operations - the well is generally
live. The principal mechanical barriers in a well are:
• Cemented casing with shoe and floats intact.
• Cement plugs, tagged and tested.
• Cemented liners, pressure tested and the liner lap (& liner top packer) inflow tested.
• Annular side outlet valves or VR plugs in side outlet bore.
• BOPs. Pressure tested and function tested Intervention stacks.
• Tubing hanger seals pressure tested via the hanger test ports in the wellhead or against the
casing.
• Plugs with bi-directional seals (o-rings or solid seal elements) are considered to be a barrier if
inflow tested, or under some circumstances pressure tested from above.
Note: While SSSV: Safety valves are generally considered a barrier if inflow tested with a
zero leak rate; the use of a SSSV as a barrier should be discouraged. SSSV should only be
used as a barrier in an emergency. Under no circumstances should a SSSV be used as for
tool deployment.
It is generally considered that plugs dressed with chevron seals (or with separate sealing faces)
must be pressure tested in the direction of flow to be considered a barrier. Individual barriers
Slickline Barriers
Primary
• Stuffing Box
• Xmas tree valves when installing into, or removing tools from, the riser.

Secondary
• BOPs.
• Ball Check Valve (when wire is blown out of Stuffing Box)
• Shear/seal BOP mounted directly on top of the Xmas tree. (Or sometimes the Upper Master
valve has shearing capability)
3. Braided Line (and E-Line)
External pressure control is provided by:

Primary
• Grease Injection Head.
• Xmas tree valves when installing into, or removing tools from, the riser.

Secondary
• BOPs, where one set of rams need to be inverted to hold pressure from to top, in order to
inject grease in between the two rams.
• Ball Check Valve (when wire is blown out of Grease Injection Head)
• Shear/seal BOP mounted directly on top of the Xmas tree. (Although a last resort shear seals
should be considered secondary.)

Internal pressure control is provided by:

Primary
• Grease in Grease Injection Head

Secondary
• Grease pumped in between the BOP rams.
• Shear/seal BOP mounted directly on top of the Xmas tree.
4. Coiled Tubing
Coiled tubing well control equipment is similar to wireline but also includes internal workstring
barrier systems as well as external.
External pressure control is provided by:

Primary
• Upper stripper (should be dual).
• Xmas tree valves when installing into, or removing tools from, the riser.

Secondary
• BOPs.
• Lower stripper
• Shear/seal BOP mounted directly on top of the Xmas tree. (Although a last resort shear seals
should be considered secondary.)
Internal pressure control is provided by:

Primary
• Coiled tubing through to the reel
• Two check-valves in the BHA.( Only one of which can be tested after BHA is made up.)

Secondary
• BOPs.
• Shear/seal BOP mounted directly on top of the Xmas tree.
In the North Sea region, it has almost become obligatory to use shear/seal BOPs due to a
number of instances where primary and secondary barrier systems failed to deal with some
particular well control occurrences.
When conducting operations, a failure of the inside primary well control barrier will entail
cessation of activity and retrieval of the BHA for repair to the barrier system.
5. Hydraulic Workover / Snubing
There are a number of hydraulic workover / snubbing BOP arrangements for different pressure
regimes, running parallel or tapered strings or deploying long BHAs.
A stripper rubber can be used when well pressures are less than 207 bar / 20,685 kPa (3,000 psi),
dependent upon the material used and the size, although stripper BOPs are always installed
regardless of the well pressure as contingency.
Annular preventers are used in two situations, when long toolstrings are to be deployed which
can close on various diameters or for quick shut-in on pipe with upset or collared connections to
prevent moving the pipe. The latter is usually dictated by company policy.
Normal pressure control for parallel strings is shown below.
External pressure control is provided by:

Primary
• Stripper BOPs, or stripper rubber or annular preventer.
• Two Xmas tree valves when rigging up and snubbing the BHA into the well.

Secondary
• Two safety (pipe) BOP rams or one safety with an annular preventer.
• SCSSV, if pipe is above it.
• BOP shear and blind rams, or a shear/seal valve or BOP incorporated into the BOP stack or
directly on top of the Xmas tree.
Internal pressure control is provided by:

Primary
• Two check-valves installed in the BHA.
• The jointed pipe being deployed
Secondary

• Stab-on safety valve (always ready and located in the workbasket).

• Wireline plug installed in the BHA by dropping it into the workstring.
• A shear/seal valve or BOP.
Note: The means to kill the well should be available at all times throughout a snubbing

operation.

When running a tapered string, either two sets of safety rams are required or variable rams are
used. If there is a failure or wear to the primary barrier system, two barriers must be closed
around the pipe to make repairs, but not necessarily the secondary safeties, e.g.
• If the stripper rubber is leaking, both the stripper rams can be closed or a combination of
strippers and safeties.
• If the top stripper ram is leaking, the lower stripper can be closed along with a safety or both
safeties etc.
As with any primary barrier, if the internal check valves leak, the string must be pulled to repair
the valves before operations can be recommenced.