Preparing for Subsea Source Control Response: IOGP Reports 592, 594, 595 and Optimising Response Timelines

Abstract

In response to the Montara and Macondo subsea well incidents in 2009–10, the industry's knowledge of and ability to respond to a subsea source control (SSC) event has greatly improved. Industry has invested heavily in its response capabilities and established best practices to resolve future incidents that may arise in the offshore oil and gas operations. The investment has driven rapid advancements in science, engineering, and new technological equipment developments to establish a higher standard for SSC preparedness and readiness. The industry now has a high confidence in its ability to deal with a subsea well release. The growth in capability has led to many variations in equipment and response plans, which has led to complexity in an already highly technical field. To reduce the complexity, common understanding is required of all the actions that comprise a SSC response, the linkages and dependencies between all the actions, and the critical path items that influence the overall timeframes of regaining control of the well. With a common understanding of the response plan comes enhanced industry, regulator and community confidence in the ability of the oil and gas industry to appropriately manage its environmental and social impacts. To help with this effort, the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) has produced reports 592, 594 and 595. Report 594 is a guideline that can be used to support subsea source control response planning and Report 595 addresses capping stack design and operational reliability. IOGP Report 592 - Subsea Capping Response Time Model Toolkit User Guide, was completed in December 2019. It was jointly developed by IOGP and the Australian National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Authority (NOPSEMA). This report involved the creation of a digital subsea response time model that is freely available with a number of different software templates. The objective was to create a common standardized document that described the processes for preparing and implementing a subsea well blowout response in a timeline format, and in doing so, identify and communicate critical path activities, areas that can be prioritised pre-response, be easily transferrable to other parties to support mutual aid activities and, should the need arise, be used as an actual response project planning tool. This paper informs readers of these resources and explains the reasoning behind their creation.