You hear about people that hit “gushers” back in the day. Do we not hear about them now or is it no longer a thing that happens?
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A gusher is a blowout. It does happen, however there are safety management systems in place that are required by law to minimize the risk associated with such an event.
To keep it as simple as possible, imagine a drill bit on the end of a long pipe. It’s deep in the ground, but it needs lubrication to drill through rock, so drilling fluids are pumped down the center of the pipe to the drill bit to cool and lubricate it. We call the fluid mud, but their are also other fluids besides mud. The mud that you use also has a specific weight to it the weight can be high or low. If there is a lot of pressure in the whale that is being drilled, the weight may be increased so the weight of all of the mud in the hole holes down the pressure in the well, so if you are drilling 20,000 feet then you have 4 miles of mud in a hole. If that mud weighs 10 pounds per gallon then that’s a lot of weight holding down the pressure of the gas and oil in the formation of the well.
If for some reason, there’s a miscalculation in the mud wait in the guys oil or mud starts to rise quickly to the surface. Oil blows out the top of the hole that is called a blowout. A blowout is an uncontrolled well event. At the top of the hole, there is a device called a BOP stack.
A bop stack, also known as a blowout preventer stack, is a set of equipment installed on an oil or gas well to prevent uncontrolled release of fluids (blowouts) during drilling. It typically consists of several components, including a blowout preventer (BOP) unit, choke and kill lines, a riser system, and a control system. The BOP unit is the primary component of the stack, which is designed to seal the wellbore and prevent the release of hydrocarbons in the event of a kick or blowout.
So, there are several safe guards in place to prevent a blow out which can be very dangerous. It can cost lives, damage the environment, destroy an entire rig and associated equipment, and damage reputations. I am sure most people remember the BP oil spill. That was a blow out. The drilling fluid was too light and the pressure blew out the well. Gas was blowing out the drill floor and found an ignition source.
So, when you say gushers, you may also be talking about surface gushers like they used to have in the rocky regions of Pennsylvania. All of this east oil has been tapped. Some of the oil was only a few feet below the surface and in some areas, it oozed out of the surface.
Hope this helps.
PS- Maybe we will have a drilling, rig manager, mud engineer, company man or someone with more knowledge than me elaborate more on the safety management systems, chokes, etc.
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