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Improvements in the Management of High Temperature High Pressure Wells

One of the huge challenges for those involved in drilling for fossil fuels is dealing with high pressure high temperature wells. The consequences of not successfully managing this type of well can be disastrous; in fact the biggest disaster in drilling history was as a consequence of this type of well. Our ability to manage these tricky drilling situations is improving though, and hopefully in the future we will get to a stage where the risks become negligible. The way we will do this is through research, improvements in technology, and proper training for those who are working on rigs.

The Importance of Providing Proper Training for Those Involved in Drilling

If we aim to save lives it is vital that those involved in drilling get the right type of train. That way if something does go wrong it can be properly managed. It is particularly important that those who work as supervisors are properly trained for every type of scenario including the things that can go wrong when working on high temperatures high pressure wells. The Piper Alpha disaster in 1988 is a perfect example of what can happen if things are not managed properly; on that occasion 167 lives were lost and it had a financial impact of a £1.7 billion loss. We have to do all we can to prevent such an event occurring again and part of this will be providing proper training for those working on the wells.

As we have learnt over the years the different types of wells require different methods for extracting the oil and gas. As we dig deeper into the earth’s surface it means that the extraction complex becomes more complex; it is also more likely that things will go wrong. A lot of our progress with managing these wells has come from learning from past mistakes, but as the cost of these mistakes can be so high this is not the best way to learn. Luckily there is a lot of money now being pumped into research and technology and we can only hope that this will mean less need for the loss of human life to prompt improvements. Of course the drilling companies will also be aware of how costly these disastrous can be for them finically and that it makes economic sense to avoid them.

The Future for Drilling

It does seem that as our need to drill deeper and deeper continues we are going to be dealing a lot more with high temperature high pressure wells. Unless we find and alternative to fossil fuels we will need to find better ways to reduce the risks associated with such drilling.