EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLANS
Safely managing well control emergencies
The North Atlantic hurricane season has kicked off and is forecasted to be active. Therefore, we wanted to take a moment to highlight well control emergency response planning, making it a critical part of our overall preparedness efforts, so we may always be ready for what mother nature has in store for us.
Well Control Emergency Response Plans provide a strategic process for responding to and safely managing well control emergencies. These well control plans are often a subset of our corporate level all-hazards emergency response plan, including those dealing with hurricane response.
The North Atlantic hurricane season has kicked off and is forecasted to be active. Therefore, we wanted to take a moment to highlight well control emergency response planning, making it a critical part of our overall preparedness efforts, so we may always be ready for what mother nature has in store for us.
The Plan: Well Control Emergency Response Plans are developed with essential personnel before any drilling operations. This plan will also align with your overall incident level and risk tolerances. It will define well control incident levels so that all personnel from our operators, drilling contractors, well control contractors, and others -understand your expectations regarding well control and well barrier philosophy.
Well Control Incident Levels: With well control incident levels established, the plan will also include the necessary initial notifications and responsibilities at the outset of a declared well control event, which may consist of organization charts in line with your incident management philosophy. We have now clearly defined how a Well Control Emergency is to be declared, as well as who is responsible and what initial notifications must occur.
Checklist: Once the well control event is declared, we must have an easy-to-follow checklist for our initial strategic response actions. This list will ensure the appropriate steps are taken to mobilize our incident management teams and resources. Additionally, these checklists should help us transition from a reactive posture to a proactive stance during a well control emergency.
Responsibilities: A robust well control plan will also identify resources necessary to respond to a well control event. This may include mutual aide support, multiple vendors for selected equipment, as well as a plentiful supply of water. Pre-identifying personnel and equipment that may support your team in a well control incident will reduce overall response times and ease the crush of logistics at the onset of response.
Resources: Once the Well Control Emergency Response Plan is published, we must share our response strategy and expectations with first responders and regulatory bodies. This is often accomplished during exercises and workshops where relationships are built before an incident occurs and broadens our scope of resources. Ultimately this should make our initial notifications much easier and pave the way for a successful response.
Practice: Having a robust Well Control Emergency Response Plan that your team has exercised against and is familiar with during hurricane season is one of the key elements to having effective risk management and emergency preparedness strategy.
We respond to about 80% of the global well control response market. We’ve successfully capped hundreds of wells worldwide in various operational environments. We know what a good WCERP looks like, and we can help you with all your emergency response plan elements. So when the time comes to put your plan into action, your emergency control plan is as ready as it can be.
Download our Emergency Response Planning and Drill sheet for more information.