Classifications

• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E21—EARTH OR ROCK DRILLING; MINING
  • E21B—EARTH OR ROCK DRILLING; OBTAINING OIL, GAS, WATER, SOLUBLE OR MELTABLE MATERIALS OR A SLURRY OF MINERALS FROM WELLS
  • E21B33/00—Sealing or packing boreholes or wells
  • E21B33/02—Surface sealing or packing
  • E21B33/03—Well heads; Setting-up thereof
  • E21B33/068—Well heads; Setting-up thereof having provision for introducing objects or fluids into, or removing objects from, wells
• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E21—EARTH OR ROCK DRILLING; MINING
  • E21B—EARTH OR ROCK DRILLING; OBTAINING OIL, GAS, WATER, SOLUBLE OR MELTABLE MATERIALS OR A SLURRY OF MINERALS FROM WELLS
  • E21B35/00—Methods or apparatus for preventing or extinguishing fires

Definitions

• Such liquid injection is intended to quench the fire by means of heat absorption, as by vaporization of the liquid. This is especially true in the case of water.
• a second alternate injection envisions injecting a very high molecular weight liquid, such as a standard drilling mud, into the drill string so as to, in fact, quench to flow of the flammable liquids by overcoming the pressure head of the flammable liquids.
• This method is effective provided that the flow pressure of the flammable liquids is sufficiently low that it is possible to overcome it with the existing pumping apparatus.
• the essence of this invention is to provide a method of extinguishing an oil well fire by injecting, into the drill string, at the Blow Out Preventor (B.O.P.), and below the cutoff rams, a mixture of a high vapor pressure and a low vapor pressure haloge ⁇ ated alkane so as to introduce a fire suppressing gas at a vapor pressure which is related to the vapor pressure of the more flammable low flash point gasses entrapped within an oil well spray, so as to effectively suppress the ignition of the low flash point materials, thus effectively quenching the primary source of ignition, re-ignition, and fire within an oil well blowout.
• B.O.P. Blow Out Preventor
• a mixture of suitable vapor pressure Halons is injected into or beneath the B.O.P. of an oil well during a blowout or a fire condition.
• the Halons being a selected vapor pressure mixture, selectively vaporize at the point of and in conjunction with the vaporization of the entrapped natural gas and other low flash point gasses within the overall spray of fluid from the drill string.
• the fire suppressing Halon is thus preferentially mixed with the low flash point natural gasses which provide the primary ignition source in an oil well fire and thereby provides
• Figure 1 is a cross-sectional schematic of an oil well head showing an injection means and injection point, according to the method of the current invention.
• Figure 2 is a schematic of the auxiliary pumping network.
• FIG 3 is a labeled schematic showing the interconnection of the preferred embodiment of the invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to Figure 1 the method is shown as utilizing a bank 2 containing a liquified mixture of a high vapor pressure
• Providing such a mixture of a high and a low vapor pressure halogenated alkane allows one to form a uniform agent mixture having all the desirable fire suppression properties of the halogenated alkanes, but simultaneously allowing one to establish an overall system vapor pressure at which the agent remains a liquid or vaporizes by varying the percentages of the Halon 1301 and the Halon 1211.
• Halon mixture In as much as the Halon mixture is maintained at a high vapor pressure, it is stored and pumpe.d as a liquid, and thus may be readily pumped by standard high pressure liquid pumps 4 against the found pressure within the overall injection system 6 to be hereinafter described.
• the mixture is injected through control valves 8 into the "Kill Line" valving system 10 in an existing oil well, and thence may be injected under control immediately beneath the B.O.P.14.
• This injection point which is in the form of a injection orifice 16, is essentially perpendicular to the directional flow of the liquids within the drill string, and provides a venturi effect during high flow rates within the drill string such as would be encountered during a blow out.
• the venturi effect aids in the establishment of a pressure injection differential and also in the dispersal of the fire suppression agent into the flow stream beneath the B.O.P. 14.
• the method is shown to include an auxiliary section reservoir 18 of Halon 1301 and Halon 1211, a standard high-pressure triplex pump 4, and a suitable valve system 8 capable of isolation of said pump 4 from the aforementioned system 6 shown in Figure 1.
• the triplex pump 4 may be utilized in order to overcome back pressure and allow injection of the extinguishing mixture. It is found that at this point in the stream of flow during a blowout that the liquid within the B.O.P. 14 comprises a non-homogeneous mixture of entrapped gas, varying weights of petroleum products in liquid form, and various abrasive components such as sand, drilling mud residue and the like. During a blowout condition, as would be encountered in an oil well fire or where there was risk of an oil well fire, it will be found that this fluid is moving at a very high speed.
• B.O.P. 14 blowout preventor
• the blowout preventor as known in the art is intended to prevent this flow of fluid and therefore may be assumed to have failed in some mariner when ' the danger of oil well fire exists.
• the instant invention is activated upon the occurance of a blowout, preferably prior to ignition, but if that is not possible, subsequent to the initial ignition.
• the fire suppression agent of the instant invention is injected, as a liquid, through the venturi effect and intermingles with the liquid flow within and beneath the B.O.P. 14, dispersing itself throughout the liquid.
• the fire suppression mixture is provided at a vapor pressure slightly greater than the most dangerous low flash point gases within the stream.
• the mechanics of flow of the stream within the oil well preferentially segregates the fire suppression agent within the oil well spray.
• the fire suppression agent will vaporize slightly before and co-jointly with the natural gas, methane or other highly flammable products.
• the halogenated alkanes provide fire suppression by a chemical blanking technique which 'interferes with the process of combustion, rather than by the requirement that they thermally cool the entire stream of fluid and the surrounding material below any of the flash points concerned, they will be found to be successful in suppressing combustion of the petroleum vapor products and the natural gas vapor products even at elevated temperatures.
• the given method by selectively extinguishing the vaporized products of the petroleum stream, suppresses the fire by interfering with the primary mechanism of ignition and re-ignition within an oil well fire.
• the method of the instant invention is capable of suppressing fires under elevated temperature conditions, including suppressing fires and suppressing re-ignition in the presence of a preceding flame, and the resulting elevated temperature of the surviving oil well structure.
• Halon Supply Tanks one ton each 2' are Halon Discharge Manifold Isolation Valves 3' are remotely activated Solenoid Valves 4' is a remotely activated Solenoid Valve controlling a Pump By-Pass Line
• Booster Pump Isolation Valves 6' is a Booster Pump, optionally electric motor or Diesel driven 7' are check valves
• 10' is a discharge Isolation Valve for Optional Fire protection for other rig areas, in cooperation with 11', a remotely activated Soleniod Valve.

Landscapes

• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Geology (AREA)
• Mining & Mineral Resources (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Environmental & Geological Engineering (AREA)
• Fluid Mechanics (AREA)
• General Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Geochemistry & Mineralogy (AREA)
• Fire-Extinguishing By Fire Departments, And Fire-Extinguishing Equipment And Control Thereof (AREA)
• Lubricants (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=22188601

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (2)

Families Citing this family (1)

Family Cites Families (4)

• 1985
  • 1985-03-08 EP EP19850901710 patent/EP0214965A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1985-03-08 WO PCT/US1985/000374 patent/WO1986005106A1/en not_active Ceased

Non-Patent Citations (1)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events