Valaris rig told to stop drilling at Santos’ gas project over blowout concerns

Australia’s offshore safety regulator NOPSEMA has ordered driller Valaris to stop drilling at the Barossa gas field 300 km north of Darwin over concerns regarding crucial safety equipment.

Valaris’ 2011-built MS-1 semisub drilling rig was told to halt drilling due to concerns about the blowout preventer (BOP) that is designed to quickly stop the flow of oil and gas from a well in an emergency.

The regulator said on Monday that the BOP system had degraded and that it might not function as intended in an emergency scenario, such as a well blowout. NOPSEMA noted that this could potentially result in a major accident event with serious or fatal health consequences to workers.

Namely, a set of hydraulic rams failed a pressure test conducted after the blowout preventer had been installed underwater. The safety standard needed for Valaris to drill in this location requires two pairs of rams to work.

One of the main reasons for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster was the failure of the blowout preventer to seal the well. It resulted in 11 deaths and the largest oil spill in US history.

The offshore regulator did inform Valaris that the state of the BOP used was unacceptable before shutting the operation down. The driller did not inform NOPSEMA if the situation had been rectified. Now, the well will be secured safely, and Valaris must return the BOP to the surface to be fixed.

Australian media cited a Santos spokesperson who claimed that there was no safety incident and that Valaris was making repairs, with drilling expected to resume later this week.

The rig is still set to complete two of the original six-well campaign. Even without the two final wells, the completed ones are enough to achieve Barossa’s nameplate capacity.