Petrobras looks to the sky for deep sea well safety

Brazilian company Petrobras is applying knowledge and experience from the aeronautic industry to boost safety standards in undersea oil and gas wells.

At the recent Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas, Petrobras presented the gains made in improving submarine safety through its collaboration with Brazilian Aerospace company Embraer.

Among the innovations that have been developed is the review and improvement of the SPM-type valve design, made by a BOP (Blow-Out Preventer) manufacturer. The new valve, which is already available on the market, leads to increased reliability, ensuring fewer BOP failures, increasing operating safety and reducing the likelihood of project delays.

Other project results include improvements in safety index calculations (likelihood of completing the well phase without a BOP failure) and system reliability in drilling and completion activities; identifying the most critical component to increase BOP system reliability, and pinpointing opportunities and conceptual design developments for a new regulating valve with a focus on reliability.

Petrobras also presented new initiatives related to subsurface safety valves to guest offshore operators. These initiatives take advantage of the lessons learnt in the project with Embraer to work towards increasing the critical system reliability and safety in the construction and operation of submarine wells.