1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,080 Speaker 1: This episode of brain Stuff is brought to you by 2 00:00:02,120 --> 00:00:05,519 Speaker 1: Linda dot Com. Linda dot Com offers thousands of engaging, 3 00:00:05,559 --> 00:00:08,760 Speaker 1: easy to follow video tutorials taught by industry experts to 4 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:12,440 Speaker 1: help you learn software, creative and business skills. Membership starts 5 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:16,000 Speaker 1: at twenty five a month and provides unlimited seven access. 6 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:18,720 Speaker 1: Try Linda dot Com free for seven days by visiting 7 00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:22,960 Speaker 1: Linda dot com slash brain Stuff. Welcome to brain Stuff 8 00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:33,839 Speaker 1: from how Stuff works dot com where smart Happens. I 9 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:38,000 Speaker 1: am Marshall Brain with today's question, what is a blowout 10 00:00:38,159 --> 00:00:40,839 Speaker 1: preventor and how does it work? And why did the 11 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:44,600 Speaker 1: one in the Gulf of Mexico fail? As everyone is 12 00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:48,479 Speaker 1: now aware, there's a gigantic oil geyser on the floor 13 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:50,960 Speaker 1: of the Gulf of Mexico that's spewing more than a 14 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:54,520 Speaker 1: million gallons of oil per week into the gulf. The 15 00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:58,320 Speaker 1: Deepwater Horizon platform, which had been sitting over the well, 16 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:02,400 Speaker 1: endured an explosion and fire that eventually caused that rig 17 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:06,480 Speaker 1: to sink. When the deep Water Horizon exploded, there's a 18 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:10,800 Speaker 1: gigantic piece of failsafe equipment on the well that should 19 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:13,840 Speaker 1: have prevented any oil from leaking out. This piece of 20 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:17,919 Speaker 1: equipment is called a blowout preventer or BOP. Its job 21 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:20,640 Speaker 1: is to immediately plug the well in the event of 22 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:24,440 Speaker 1: an emergency. Obviously, the blowout preventer below the deep water 23 00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 1: horizon failed, so let's take a look at how blowout 24 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:32,000 Speaker 1: preventers are supposed to work in any well drilling operation. 25 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:34,679 Speaker 1: The blowout preventer is one of the first pieces of 26 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:38,720 Speaker 1: equipment that appears on the ocean floor. It's a massive structure. 27 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:42,640 Speaker 1: Imagine a gigantic set of valves and hydraulic pistons, all 28 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:47,680 Speaker 1: encased in steel. It's several stories tall and ways many tons. 29 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:51,560 Speaker 1: It attaches to the wellhead, the pipe and flange system 30 00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:54,040 Speaker 1: that extends from the ocean floor at the top of 31 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:58,240 Speaker 1: the well. During drilling, the drill fits down through the 32 00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:01,640 Speaker 1: blowout preventer and into the well. You can understand why 33 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:04,000 Speaker 1: a blowout preventer is needed if you think about what 34 00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:08,000 Speaker 1: happens during drilling. The goal of any drilling operation is 35 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:11,359 Speaker 1: to find a lake of oil and or natural gas 36 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:14,880 Speaker 1: buried deep under rock. In the case of the deep 37 00:02:14,919 --> 00:02:18,160 Speaker 1: water horizon, the water in the gulf was a mile deep, 38 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:20,640 Speaker 1: and then the drill punched through more than two miles 39 00:02:20,639 --> 00:02:23,680 Speaker 1: of rock to reach the oil. All that water and 40 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,760 Speaker 1: rock on top of the oil creates pressure tens of 41 00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:30,120 Speaker 1: thousands of pounds per square inch of pressure. The oil 42 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:32,920 Speaker 1: wants to burst out of the ground once the underground 43 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:36,440 Speaker 1: lake is punctured. What normally keeps the oil in place 44 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:39,799 Speaker 1: is the pressure of the drilling mud. This mud is 45 00:02:39,840 --> 00:02:43,040 Speaker 1: a natural part of the drilling process. As the metal 46 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:46,200 Speaker 1: drill bit cuts the rock, The mud helps pull the 47 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:48,520 Speaker 1: bits of rock out of the hole, and it also 48 00:02:48,639 --> 00:02:52,799 Speaker 1: lubricates the bit. The mud is always circulating under pressure, 49 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:55,960 Speaker 1: and that pressure opposes the pressure of the oil that 50 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:58,760 Speaker 1: wants to come out, keeping the oil in the well. 51 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:02,640 Speaker 1: But what if something goes wrong during drilling? The well 52 00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:05,680 Speaker 1: can kick. The kick comes in the form of too 53 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:09,959 Speaker 1: much pressure. In the worst cases, that pressure can blow 54 00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:12,280 Speaker 1: all the mud right back up out of the well 55 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:15,000 Speaker 1: and create a geyser of high pressure oil and or 56 00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:20,080 Speaker 1: natural gas. The blowout preventer is there to handle these situations. 57 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:23,040 Speaker 1: If the drilling crew loses control of the well, the 58 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:25,560 Speaker 1: valves on the bob are supposed to kick in and 59 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:29,400 Speaker 1: stop the flow. One approach, called an annular bob, can 60 00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:32,160 Speaker 1: close around the drill and seal things off at the 61 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 1: top of the blowout preventer, or two hydraulic rams can 62 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:39,520 Speaker 1: slide in from the sides and force a rubber seal 63 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:43,480 Speaker 1: across the pipe. In the worst case scenario, a sharing 64 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:46,320 Speaker 1: ram can cut right through everything in the pipe and 65 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:49,520 Speaker 1: seal it off. It might be necessary to later drill 66 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:52,600 Speaker 1: another well once a BOB triggers, but that is better 67 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:56,720 Speaker 1: than an unstoppable geyser of oil, especially on the ocean floor. 68 00:03:57,400 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: In the case of the deep Water Horizon, the well 69 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:03,640 Speaker 1: did in fact kick with a huge bubble of natural gas. 70 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:07,279 Speaker 1: Once the bubble escaped at the surface, the gas exploded 71 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:10,920 Speaker 1: and burned, eventually sinking the rig, But the BOB should 72 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:14,920 Speaker 1: have deployed and stopped that leak. Neither the signals from 73 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 1: the rig nor robotic subs after the fact have been 74 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:21,680 Speaker 1: able to activate the rams in the BOB, or the 75 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:25,239 Speaker 1: BOB may have partially activated and jammed for some reason, 76 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:28,120 Speaker 1: only blocking part of the flow coming out of the well. 77 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:32,479 Speaker 1: Now what rescue cruise might be able to attach a 78 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:35,479 Speaker 1: second BOP on top of the failed BOP and activate it, 79 00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:39,560 Speaker 1: or they may try to shoot shredded tires and other 80 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:42,839 Speaker 1: junk into the bob under gigantic pressure to try to 81 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:46,520 Speaker 1: plug the pipe, or they will drill relief wells that 82 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:49,520 Speaker 1: take the pressure off and cap the first well. No 83 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:52,000 Speaker 1: matter what, it will take a long time to clean 84 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:55,800 Speaker 1: up the mess from this failed piece of equipment. Do 85 00:04:55,839 --> 00:04:59,320 Speaker 1: you have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, 86 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:02,240 Speaker 1: please send me an email at podcast at how stuff 87 00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:04,960 Speaker 1: works dot com. For more on this and thousands of 88 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:08,159 Speaker 1: other topics, go to how stuff works dot com and 89 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:10,359 Speaker 1: be sure to check out the brain stuff blog on 90 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:16,520 Speaker 1: the how stuff works dot com home page. Audible dot 91 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:19,880 Speaker 1: com is the leading provider of downloadable digital audio books 92 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:23,559 Speaker 1: and spoken word entertainment. 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