UH team lands $1.2M to fight rig blowouts

Student researchers are working on a model to prevent another Deepwater Horizon incident

Ramanan Krishnamoorti envisions a world where accidents like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident —which killed 11 crew members and dumped 3.19 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico — can be prevented.

So more than a year ago, Krishnamoorti and his team at the University of Houston started working on a predictive model that could alert oil and gas company employees when a problem might arise — and how to mitigate it.

“We are trying to apply fundamental science and engineering processes to predict when a catastrophic event might occur and to develop new methodologies to monitor the process,” said Krishnamoorti, the school’s chief energy officer and director of its Subsea Systems Institute. The institute, created in 2015 to find ways to reduce the risk of offshore accidents and oil spills, originally provided the project $50,000.

Monitoring gas and water

The team just landed $1.2 million from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program to continue its research. It was one of six projects that received a total of $10.8 million in grant money from the National Academies last month to improve the “understanding and management of systemic risk in offshore oil and gas operations” in response to Deepwater Horizon, according to a news release.

Along with Houston’s predictive model, the projects include developing better well-sealing techniques, better tools to assist decision making in that environment, and better remote detection capabilities, said Kelly Oskvig, program officer for the GRP’s Safer Offshore Energy Systems initiative, in the release.

The Deepwater Horizon accident occurred due to an uncontrolled buildup and release of gas, Krishnamoorti said. This happens when gas and water, for example, flow up the drilling pipe along with oil, where it then can explode once it reaches the surface.

Krishnamoorti’s team has been working with Mulberry Well Systems LLC on the project since the beginning, said Colin Leach, company president.

“I have always been involved in what we shall call preventative well control ... being able to see what’s going on such that one can avoid problems,” Leach said. “That’s, as far as I’m concerned, way more important than trying to remedy a blowout after it’s occurred.”

In the next three years, Krishnamoorti expects to have a model that any offshore drilling company can use to warn when gas or water is flowing up the pipe. That is not currently the industry standard, he added.

If workers know when danger is imminent, he said, they could clear the platform or stop production until the problem is resolved.

The goal is to determine “how best we can ensure safe and reliable drilling operations,” he added. “We don’t want to put people’s lives in danger, we don’t want to do environmental damage.”

Practical application

Among other things, Mulberry Well Systems will be assisting the university with making the model practical for use, Leach said.

“We can understand a lot, but what difference does it make?” Leach said. “How can we put it in place and have it be something that will provide improvement?”

Krishnamoorti said he believes the model likely will be funneled into commercial production, where it would be sold to a company and could be tailored to their specific needs.

“We can mitigate this easily: once you know you have gas coming out you can manage the pressure so you can prevent such an explosion from happening,” he said.

Two other Texas universities, University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, are working with Louisiana State University and others in projects tapped by the National Academies as well.