WEBVTT - What is a blowout preventer?

0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.080
<v Speaker 1>This episode of brain Stuff is brought to you by

0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:05.519
<v Speaker 1>Linda dot Com. Linda dot Com offers thousands of engaging,

0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:08.760
<v Speaker 1>easy to follow video tutorials taught by industry experts to

0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:12.440
<v Speaker 1>help you learn software, creative and business skills. Membership starts

0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:16.000
<v Speaker 1>at twenty five a month and provides unlimited seven access.

0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:18.720
<v Speaker 1>Try Linda dot Com free for seven days by visiting

0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:22.960
<v Speaker 1>Linda dot com slash brain Stuff. Welcome to brain Stuff

0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:33.839
<v Speaker 1>from how Stuff works dot com where smart Happens. I

0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:38.000
<v Speaker 1>am Marshall Brain with today's question, what is a blowout

0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:40.839
<v Speaker 1>preventor and how does it work? And why did the

0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:44.600
<v Speaker 1>one in the Gulf of Mexico fail? As everyone is

0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.479
<v Speaker 1>now aware, there's a gigantic oil geyser on the floor

0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:50.960
<v Speaker 1>of the Gulf of Mexico that's spewing more than a

0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:54.520
<v Speaker 1>million gallons of oil per week into the gulf. The

0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:58.320
<v Speaker 1>Deepwater Horizon platform, which had been sitting over the well,

0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.400
<v Speaker 1>endured an explosion and fire that eventually caused that rig

0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.480
<v Speaker 1>to sink. When the deep Water Horizon exploded, there's a

0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:10.800
<v Speaker 1>gigantic piece of failsafe equipment on the well that should

0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.840
<v Speaker 1>have prevented any oil from leaking out. This piece of

0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.919
<v Speaker 1>equipment is called a blowout preventer or BOP. Its job

0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:20.640
<v Speaker 1>is to immediately plug the well in the event of

0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:24.440
<v Speaker 1>an emergency. Obviously, the blowout preventer below the deep water

0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:27.520
<v Speaker 1>horizon failed, so let's take a look at how blowout

0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:32.000
<v Speaker 1>preventers are supposed to work in any well drilling operation.

0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:34.679
<v Speaker 1>The blowout preventer is one of the first pieces of

0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:38.720
<v Speaker 1>equipment that appears on the ocean floor. It's a massive structure.

0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.640
<v Speaker 1>Imagine a gigantic set of valves and hydraulic pistons, all

0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:47.680
<v Speaker 1>encased in steel. It's several stories tall and ways many tons.

0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:51.560
<v Speaker 1>It attaches to the wellhead, the pipe and flange system

0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.040
<v Speaker 1>that extends from the ocean floor at the top of

0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:58.240
<v Speaker 1>the well. During drilling, the drill fits down through the

0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:01.640
<v Speaker 1>blowout preventer and into the well. You can understand why

0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.000
<v Speaker 1>a blowout preventer is needed if you think about what

0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:08.000
<v Speaker 1>happens during drilling. The goal of any drilling operation is

0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.359
<v Speaker 1>to find a lake of oil and or natural gas

0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:14.880
<v Speaker 1>buried deep under rock. In the case of the deep

0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.160
<v Speaker 1>water horizon, the water in the gulf was a mile deep,

0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:20.640
<v Speaker 1>and then the drill punched through more than two miles

0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:23.680
<v Speaker 1>of rock to reach the oil. All that water and

0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.760
<v Speaker 1>rock on top of the oil creates pressure tens of

0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:30.120
<v Speaker 1>thousands of pounds per square inch of pressure. The oil

0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:32.920
<v Speaker 1>wants to burst out of the ground once the underground

0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:36.440
<v Speaker 1>lake is punctured. What normally keeps the oil in place

0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:39.799
<v Speaker 1>is the pressure of the drilling mud. This mud is

0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.040
<v Speaker 1>a natural part of the drilling process. As the metal

0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.200
<v Speaker 1>drill bit cuts the rock, The mud helps pull the

0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:48.520
<v Speaker 1>bits of rock out of the hole, and it also

0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.799
<v Speaker 1>lubricates the bit. The mud is always circulating under pressure,

0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:55.960
<v Speaker 1>and that pressure opposes the pressure of the oil that

0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.760
<v Speaker 1>wants to come out, keeping the oil in the well.

0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:02.640
<v Speaker 1>But what if something goes wrong during drilling? The well

0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:05.680
<v Speaker 1>can kick. The kick comes in the form of too

0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:09.959
<v Speaker 1>much pressure. In the worst cases, that pressure can blow

0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:12.280
<v Speaker 1>all the mud right back up out of the well

0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:15.000
<v Speaker 1>and create a geyser of high pressure oil and or

0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:20.080
<v Speaker 1>natural gas. The blowout preventer is there to handle these situations.

0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.040
<v Speaker 1>If the drilling crew loses control of the well, the

0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:25.560
<v Speaker 1>valves on the bob are supposed to kick in and

0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:29.400
<v Speaker 1>stop the flow. One approach, called an annular bob, can

0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:32.160
<v Speaker 1>close around the drill and seal things off at the

0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:36.640
<v Speaker 1>top of the blowout preventer, or two hydraulic rams can

0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:39.520
<v Speaker 1>slide in from the sides and force a rubber seal

0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:43.480
<v Speaker 1>across the pipe. In the worst case scenario, a sharing

0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:46.320
<v Speaker 1>ram can cut right through everything in the pipe and

0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.520
<v Speaker 1>seal it off. It might be necessary to later drill

0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:52.600
<v Speaker 1>another well once a BOB triggers, but that is better

0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.720
<v Speaker 1>than an unstoppable geyser of oil, especially on the ocean floor.

0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:59.920
<v Speaker 1>In the case of the deep Water Horizon, the well

0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.640
<v Speaker 1>did in fact kick with a huge bubble of natural gas.

0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.279
<v Speaker 1>Once the bubble escaped at the surface, the gas exploded

0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:10.920
<v Speaker 1>and burned, eventually sinking the rig, But the BOB should

0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:14.920
<v Speaker 1>have deployed and stopped that leak. Neither the signals from

0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.320
<v Speaker 1>the rig nor robotic subs after the fact have been

0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.680
<v Speaker 1>able to activate the rams in the BOB, or the

0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.239
<v Speaker 1>BOB may have partially activated and jammed for some reason,

0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.120
<v Speaker 1>only blocking part of the flow coming out of the well.

0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.479
<v Speaker 1>Now what rescue cruise might be able to attach a

0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.479
<v Speaker 1>second BOP on top of the failed BOP and activate it,

0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.560
<v Speaker 1>or they may try to shoot shredded tires and other

0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:42.839
<v Speaker 1>junk into the bob under gigantic pressure to try to

0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:46.520
<v Speaker 1>plug the pipe, or they will drill relief wells that

0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.520
<v Speaker 1>take the pressure off and cap the first well. No

0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.000
<v Speaker 1>matter what, it will take a long time to clean

0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:55.800
<v Speaker 1>up the mess from this failed piece of equipment. Do

0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:59.320
<v Speaker 1>you have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so,

0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.240
<v Speaker 1>please send me an email at podcast at how stuff

0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.960
<v Speaker 1>works dot com. For more on this and thousands of

0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.159
<v Speaker 1>other topics, go to how stuff works dot com and

0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:10.359
<v Speaker 1>be sure to check out the brain stuff blog on

0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:16.520
<v Speaker 1>the how stuff works dot com home page. Audible dot

0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.880
<v Speaker 1>com is the leading provider of downloadable digital audio books

0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:23.559
<v Speaker 1>and spoken word entertainment. Audible has over one hundred thousand

0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.440
<v Speaker 1>titles to choose from to be downloaded to your iPod

0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:29.920
<v Speaker 1>or MP three player. Go to audible podcast dot com

0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:32.520
<v Speaker 1>slash brain stuff to get a free audio book download

0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:34.240
<v Speaker 1>of your choice when you sign up today.