SINTEF Offshore

Blowout Database

The SINTEF Offshore Blowout Database is a comprehensive event database for blowout risk
assessment. The database includes information on 573 offshore blowouts/well releases that have
occurred world-wide since 1955 and overall exposure data from the US Gulf of Mexico, Outer
Continental Shelf and the North Sea. The blowouts/well releases are categorized in several
parameters, emphasizing blowout causes. A user-friendly interface allows for customized search
patterns.

The SINTEF Offshore Blowout Database was released as an Internet database in 2009. The main
difference from the previous version is that it will be no need for a local installation.

The database is designed for Microsoft Internet Explorer, but it may also function for the other Internet
access software.

ExproSoft has been contracted to operate the Offshore Blowout Database from 1 May 2001 by
SINTEF.

The Participants of the Project are:

• Statoil
• Total E&P Norge
• Shell Research Limited
• BP Norge
• Safetec A/S
• Scandpower Risk Management AS
• DnV
• Lilleaker Consulting a.s
• Eni Norge AS
• ConocoPhillips Norge
• BHP Billiton

Blowout descriptions in the database

The database contains 51 different fields describing each blowout/well release. In addition, the
database allows for attachment of any electronic file(s) to the blowout description. The various fields
are grouped in six different groups:

1. Category and location

2. Well description
3. Present operation
4. Blowout causes
5. Blowout Characteristics
6. Other

Category and location

Includes information related to the incident category (blowout vs. well leak), offshore installation such
as location, operator, installation name, and type and water depth.
Well description
Includes well and casing depths, last casing size, mud weight, bottom hole- and shut in pressure,
GOR, formation age and rock type.

Present operation
Includes the operational phase (exploration drilling, development drilling, workover etc.), the operation
presently carried out (for example casing running) and the present activity (for example cementing).

Blowout causes
Includes external cause (stating if an external cause contributed to the incident), loss of the primary
barrier, loss of the secondary barrier (describing how primary and secondary barriers were lost) and
human error. It should be noted that the field regarding human error in general holds low quality
information. Human errors are frequently masked. A field named North Sea standards highlights if the
development of the blowout could have been avoided if North Sea type equipment had been used (for
instance in other parts of the world a blind shear ram is not mandatory in surface BOP stacks).

Blowout characteristics
Twelve fields are included comprising flow path, flow medium, flow rate (low quality), release point,
ignition type, time to ignition, lost production (low quality), duration, fatalities, consequence class,
material loss and pollution.

Other
In the “other” screen five fields are included: control method, remarks (includes a description of the
incident, data quality (includes an evaluation of the source data quality), last revision date and
references.

Exposure data
The overall offshore drilling and production exposure data for the US GoM OCS, Norwegian, and UK
waters is covered from 1 January 1980. In addition drilling exposure data for the Dutch Continental
Shelf, the east Coast of Canada, Australian waters, Danish waters and the US OCS Pacific are
included.

Search possibilities and reporting facilities

Almost any type of search may be performed to select specific blowout /well release event types.
Search criteria may be established by selecting predefined codes, specific numeric values, specific
free text, or any combinations of these. The predefined codes are spelled out to ease understanding.

The database program counts and presents the events satisfying the search criteria. The selected
data may be viewed, printed or copied to separate files for further analyses, for example by database
or spreadsheet programs.

The exposure data and the blowout data are not linked. Blowout frequencies can therefore not be
established directly.

Some definitions
The following main definitions have been applied when classifying the blowouts/well releases in
categories and sub-categories.

Blowout: A blowout is an incident where formation fluid flows out of the well or between formation
layers after all the predefined technical well barriers or the activation of the same have failed.

Well release: The reported incident is a well release if oil or gas flowed from the well from some point
were flow was not intended and the flow was stopped by use of the barrier system that was available
in the well at the time the incident started.

Shallow gas: Any gas zone penetrated before the BOP has been installed. Any zone penetrated after
the BOP is installed is not shallow gas (typical Norwegian definition of shallow gas).
Category and Sub-category
The categories and subcategories applied when classifying the incidents in the SINTEF Offshore
Blowout Database are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Main categories and subcategories for the incidents in the SINTEF Offshore Blowout
Database
Main Category Sub category Comments/Example
Totally uncontrolled flow, from a Totally uncontrolled incidents with surface/subsea
deep zone flow.
Surface Totally uncontrolled flow, from a
Typical the diverter system fails
blowout shallow zone
Shallow gas "controlled" subsea Typical incident is that riserless drilling is performed
release only when the well starts to flow. The rig is pulled away
Underground flow only
Underground The limited surface flow will be incidents were a
Underground flow mainly, limited
Blowout blowout minor flow has appeared, but typical the BOP has
surface flow
and well been activated to shut the surface flow
release Limited surface flow before the Typical incident will be that flow is through the
secondary barrier was activated drillpipe and the shear ram is activated
Well release Typical incident occurring during completion or
Tubing blown out of well, then the
workover. Shear ram is used to close the well after
secondary barrier is activated
the tubing has been blown out of the well.
Diverted well Shallow gas controlled flow All incidents were the diverter system functioned as
release (diverted) intended.
Unknown may be selected for both the category
Unknown Unknown
and the subcategory

Scope of data
Totally the database includes 573 offshore blowouts worldwide (February 2010). Data from the US
Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf (US GoM OCS), Norwegian and UK waters are in general
better documented than blowouts from other regions.

From 1 January 1980 through 1 January 2008, a total of 237 blowouts/well releases from the US GoM
OCS and the North Sea were consolidated in the database. Table 2 shows an overview of blowouts
occurrence by operational phase.

Table 2. Number of blowouts experienced during different operational phases.

Production
Dev. Expl. Unk. Comp- Work- Wire- Un-
AREA External No ext. Total
drlg drlg drlg letion over line known
cause* cause*
53 50 12 35 6 10 2 5 173
US GoM OCS
30.6% 28.9% 6.9% 20.2% 3.5% 5.8% 1.2% 2.9% 100.0%
UK, and Nor- 9 31 2 6 9 1 2 4 64
wegian waters 14.1% 48.4% 3.1% 9.4% 14.1% 1.6% 3.1% 0.0% 6.3% 100.0%
62 81 2 18 44 7 12 2 9 237
Total
26.2% 34.2% 0.8% 7.6% 18.6% 3.0% 5.1% 0.8% 3.8% 100.0%
* External causes are typical; storm, military activity, ship collision, fire and earthquake.

Access to the database and reports

The database and annual report are confidential and only accessible for the project sponsors. The
SINTEF Offshore Blowout Database is open to new participants. Some statistics from the database
are presented in the following references:

Holand, Per:
"Offshore Blowouts Causes and Trends" Doctoral Dissertation, Norwegian Institute of Technology,
Department of Production and Quality Engineering, Trondheim, Norway, March 1996
Holand, Per:
"Experienced Offshore Blowout Risk" presented at the IADC 1996 Well Control Conference of the
Americas, Rio de Janeiro 31. July - 2. August 1996.

Holand, Per:
"Offshore Blowouts Causes and Control", Gulf Publishing Company, Houston Texas, 1997

For further information please contact Per.Holand(a)exprosoft.com or exprosoft(a)exprosoft.com.