Hydrocarbon release when BOP upper pipe rams were opened to perform a flow check

Cause & Consequence

• Uncontrolled release of a flammable gas or liquid

Incident Location

Fixed Installation

Incident Activity

Production operations

Specific Incident Equipment

BOP

Lessons Identified

• Due to the fact that pressure gauges indicated zero it was assumed that no gas would be in the fluids and therefore no hazard of hydrocarbon release was present.
• The procedure did not include the possibility of small quantities of gas being trapped and venting off.
• Communication was inadequate between those performing the task and site management. This resulted in the OIM manually imitating a process shutdown.

Incident Recommendations

If applicable amend procedures for well slot recovery programmes to ensure they capture the requirement to open the through choke to the poorboy degasser prior to opening any closed BOP function.