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Subsea Engineer’s Handbook Section 16
Table Of Contents
Section 16
Page
1. API Specifications 1
3. Government Regulations 3
4. USA 3
5. North Sea 3
6. Britain 4
7. Norway 4
8. DNV
a) API Specifications
In general API specifications dictate the standards to which a manufacturer must
conform in order to stamp the API monogram on his equipment (the monogram is
below).
Stamping the equipment tells the purchaser that the equipment meets API
standards. A published standard is an easy method for a purchaser to
communicate the critical requirements of the equipment to his vendor. An
obvious need for standards is apparent when you flange up a Cameron ram to a
Hydril annular and WOM outlet valves. Without standards the flanges and ring
grooves would not be compatible. Standards also address the minimum design
criteria, material selection, quality control and testing which the manufacturer
must comply to allow him to monogram the items he manufactures.
b) API Specifications which dwell on well control equipment are the following :
ii) Spec 16A, Specification for Drill Through Equipment, gives us detailed
requirements for the manufacturer of well control equipment. It discusses the
design of BOPs, the required manufacturing QA/QC controls, performance
testing, and in factory operating chamber and wellbore pressure testing
requirements of new equipment. . The current revision of 16A is the 2 nd dated
June 1998
iii) Spec 16C, 1 st edition, discusses Specifications for Choke and Kill Systems. It
is new as well.
iv) Spec. 16D, 1 st edition, is fairly new, March 1993. It is Specifications for
Control Systems for Drilling Well Control Equipment. Up until this time control
system manufacturers sized and constructed control systems according to
their own in-house standards. Many of these standards were incorporated
into the new spec when it was published.
i) API recommended practices which dwell on well control equipment are the
following :
(3) The grand daddy of RP’s for well control equipment is RP-53,
Recommended Practice for Blowout Prevention Equipment Systems for
Drilling Wells. It is currently at the 3 rd edition dated March 1997.
Subsea Supervisors should have these API reference manuals available for
resource.
API RP 53 3rd Edition, "Recommended Practices for Blowout Prevention
Equipment Systems for Drilling Wells" (American Petroleum Institute).
API RP 16Q 1st Edition, "Recommended Practice for Design, Selection,
Operation and Maintenance of Marine Drilling Riser Systems".
The rig should have these API manuals for ref also.
API Spec 16A 2nd Edition, "Specification for Drill Through
Equipment".
API Spec 16C 1st Edition, "Specification for Choke and Kill
Systems".
API RP 16E 1st Edition, "Recommended Practice for Design of Control
Systems for Drilling Well Control Equipment".
API Spec 16R 1st Edition, "Specification for Marine Drilling Riser
Couplings".
API Spec 17D 1st Edition, "Specification for Subsea Wellhead and
Christmas Tree Equipment".
API RP 64 1st Edition, "Recommended Practices for Diverter Systems
Equipment & Operations".
d) Government Regulations
i) USA
When drilling offshore the USA in federally leased waters, the Minerals
Management Service (MMS) of the Department of the Interior will ultimately
control your operations. The MMS has published guidelines in the Federal
Register in section CFR #250 similar to API RP-53. These guidelines specify
such things as equipment installation, stack arrangement, BOP response
time, and BOP testing frequency. An excerpt of the more useful areas of the
MMS guidelines is included in this section.
ABS
DNV
Lloyds
Bureau Veritas
iii) Britain
In the UK the Health and Safety Executive regulates our well control
equipment. In 1985 the British government declared that Statutory Instrument
#289 applied to well control equipment. This meant that the Certifying
Authorities now had to review well control equipment in a similar manner to
the rest of the vessel.
SI #289 requires that every 5 years a “major survey” shall be conducted of the
equipment. A major survey is a dismantling of the equipment to renew
elastomers, verify critical dimensions, check surface finishes of critical sealing
surfaces and verify that the equipment is within the manufacturer’s
specifications.
iv) Norway
• Accumulators shall be able to Close, Open, Close and 25% of the volume
to Close all of the BOPs with remaining fluid after the functions to be 200
psi above precharge or more.
• The accumulators shall deliver adequate pressure to shear drill pipe and
disconnect the LMRP (if it is a floating rig) after closing, opening, and
closing a ram.
All subsea BOP stack shall have acoustic back-up BOP control systems.
The Norwegian Standards Sells and markets EN, NS, ISO og IEC
Association (NSF) standards