Well Control Equipment Systems for

Drilling Wells

API STANDARD 53
FIFTH EDITION, DECEMBER 2018
Special Notes

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Copyright © 2018 American Petroleum Institute

Foreword

Nothing contained in any API publication is to be construed as granting any right, by implication or otherwise, for the
manufacture, sale, or use of any method, apparatus, or product covered by letters patent. Neither should anything
contained in the publication be construed as insuring anyone against liability for infringement of letters patent.

The verbal forms used to express the provisions in this specification are as follows:

— the term “shall” denotes a minimum requirement in order to conform to the standard;

— the term “should” denotes a recommendation or that which is advised but not required in order to conform to the
standard;

— the term “may” denotes a course of action permissible within the limits of a standard;

— the term “can” is used to express possibility or capability.

This document was produced under API standardization procedures that ensure appropriate notification and
participation in the developmental process and is designated as an API standard. Questions concerning the
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Suggested revisions are invited and should be submitted to the Standards Department, API, 1220 L Street, NW,
Washington, DC 20005, standards@api.org.

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Contents

Page

1 Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3 Terms, Definitions, and Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.1 Terms and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.2 Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4 Well Control Equipment General Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.1 BOP Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2 Choke and Kill Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.3 BOP Control Systems (Land, Surface Offshore, Subsea) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.4 Auxiliary Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.5 System Pressure Sealing Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.6 BOP Preventers for H2S Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.7 Pressure Measurement Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5 Surface BOP Systems (Land and Surface Offshore) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.1 Surface BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.2 Choke Manifolds, Choke Lines, and Kill Lines-Surface BOP Installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.3 Testing-Surface BOP Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.4 Inspection and Maintenance-Surface BOP Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6 Subsea BOP Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.1 Subsea BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.2 Choke Manifolds, Choke Lines, and Kill Lines-Subsea BOP Installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.3 BOP Control Systems (Subsea). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
6.4 Testing-Subsea BOP Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6.5 Inspection and Maintenance-Subsea BOP Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Annex A (normative) Accumulator Pre-charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Annex B (informative) Example Worksheets and Calculations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Annex C (normative) Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Annex D (normative) Failure Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Figures
1 Example Land and Surface Offshore BOP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2 Example 2K and 3K RWP Choke Line and Choke Manifold for Land and Surface Offshore . . . . . . . . . . 28
3 Example 5K RWP Choke Line and Choke Manifold for Land
Example 5K Choke Line and Choke Manifold for Surface Offshore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4 Example 10K RWP or Greater Choke Line and Choke Manifold for Land
Example 10K RWP or Greater Choke Line and Choke Manifold for Surface Offshore . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5 Example 2K RWP Kill Line for Land and Surface Offshore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
6 Example 3K or Greater RWP Kill Line for Land and Surface Offshore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
7 Example 3K or Greater RWP Kill Line for Land and Surface Offshore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
8 Example Subsea BOP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
9 Example Subsea Choke Manifold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
B.1 Example BOP Function Test Worksheet for Land and Surface Offshore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
B.2 Example BOP Drawdown Test Worksheet for Land and Surface Offshore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

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Contents

Page

B.3 Example BOP Function Test Worksheet for Subsea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

B.4 Example BOP Function Test Worksheet for Subsea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Tables
1 Surface BOP Pressure Designations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2 Subsea BOP Pressure Designations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
B.1 Example Surface MEWSP Calculations Given Well and Equipment-specific Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
B.2 Example Subsea MEWSP Calculations Given Well and Equipment-specific Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
C.1 Initial Function Testing, Surface BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
C.2 Subsequent Operational Function Testing, Surface BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
C.3 Scheduled Function Testing, Surface BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
C.4 Initial Pressure Testing, Surface BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
C.5 Subsequent Operational Pressure Testing, Surface BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
C.6 Operating Chamber Pressure Testing, Surface BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
C.7 Pre-deployment Function Testing, Subsea BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
C.8 Initial Function Testing, Subsea BOP Stacks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
C.9 Subsequent Operational Function Testing, Subsea BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
C.10 Scheduled Function Testing, Subsea BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
C.11 Pre-deployment Pressure Testing, Subsea BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
C.12 Initial Pressure Testing, Subsea BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
C.13 Subsequent Operational Pressure Testing, Subsea BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
C.14 Operating Chamber Pressure Testing, Subsea BOP Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

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Introduction

This standard represents a composite of the practices employed by various operating and drilling companies in
drilling operations. This standard is under the jurisdiction of the API Committee on Standardization of Oilfield
Equipment and Materials.

The objective of this standard and the recommendations within is to assist the oil and gas industry in promoting
personnel safety, public safety, integrity of the drilling equipment, and preservation of the environment for land and
marine drilling operations. In the context of blowout prevention systems, this objective is best attained through a
combination of equipment reliability and management of risk. This standard is published to facilitate the broad
availability of proven, sound engineering and operating practices that meet the stated objective through practices that
improve reliability and reduce risk to acceptable levels. This standard does not present all of the operating practices
that can be employed to successfully install and operate blowout preventer systems in drilling, completions, and well
testing operations. Practices set forth herein are considered acceptable for accomplishing the job as described;
however, equivalent alternative installations and practices can be used to accomplish the same objectives. Individuals
and organizations using this standard are cautioned that operations must comply with requirements of federal, state,
or local regulations. These requirements should be reviewed to determine whether violations can occur.

The First Edition of API 53, published in February 1976, superseded API Bulletin D13, Installation and Use of Blowout
Preventer Stacks and Accessory Equipment, February 1966. The Second Edition of API 53 was issued in May 1984,
the Third Edition of API 53 was issued in March 1997 and the Fourth Edition of API 53 was issued in November 2012.
This edition supersedes all previous editions of this standard.

Drilling operations are being conducted with full regard for personnel safety, public safety, and preservation of the
environment in such diverse conditions as metropolitan sites, wilderness areas, ocean platforms, deepwater sites,
barren deserts, wildlife refuges, and arctic ice packs. The information presented in this standard is based on this
extensive and wide-ranging industry experience.
 Well Control Equipment Systems for Drilling Wells

1 Scope
The purpose of this standard is to provide requirements for the installation and testing of blowout prevention
equipment systems on land and marine drilling rigs (barge, platform, bottom-supported, and floating).

Well control equipment systems are designed with components that provide wellbore pressure control in support of
well operations. The following components may be used for operation under varying rig and well conditions:

― BOPs (blowout preventers);

― Choke and kill lines;

― Choke manifolds;

― Control systems;

― Auxiliary equipment.

The primary functions of these systems are to confine well fluids to the wellbore, provide means to add fluid to the
wellbore, and allow controlled volumes to be removed from the wellbore.

Diverters, shut-in devices, and rotating head systems (rotating control devices) are not addressed in this standard
(see API 64 and API 16RCD, respectively); their primary purpose is to safely divert or direct flow rather than to
confine fluids to the wellbore.

Procedures and techniques for well control are not included in this standard because they are beyond the scope of
the equipment systems contained herein.

This standard contains a section pertaining to surface BOP installations followed by a section pertaining to subsea
BOP installations.

To the extent that this document recommends specific equipment arrangements, it is recognized that other
arrangements can be equally effective in addressing well requirements and achieving safety and operational
efficiency.

2 Normative Reference
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated references,
only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document applies
(including any addenda/errata).

API Specification 6A, Specification for Wellhead and Tree Equipment

API Specification 16A, Specification for Drill-through Equipment

API Standard 16AR, Standard for Repair and Remanufacture of Drill-through Equipment

API Specification 16C, Choke and Kill Equipment

API Specification 16D, Specification for Control Systems for Drilling Well Control Equipment and Control Systems
for Diverter Equipment
1