Blowout preventers (BOP) are the most important well control devices and play an important role in drilling, especially in underbalanced drilling. The purpose of designing a blowout preventer is to close the wellbore under pressure, maintain continuous control of the well, and circulate the formation fluid entering the well.
Hydraulic BOP mainly come in two forms: RAM BOP and ANNULAR BOP.
The ram blowout preventer mainly consists of a shell, side door, oil cylinder, cylinder head, piston, piston rod, locking shaft, seal, ram, etc. The working process is to use hydraulic pressure to push the piston, drive the ram to close or open, thereby closing or opening the wellhead, achieving the purpose of sealing, and opening the well.
The ram of a ram BOP can be divided into four types: fully sealed, semi sealed, variable diameter, and shear rams, which are used to achieve well sealing under different conditions. The semi sealed ram can seal the corresponding drill pipe, oil pipe, and other pipe tools. If necessary, the drilling tool can also be suspended. When there are no pipe tools in the well, the fully sealed ram can fully seal the wellhead. In special circumstances, the shear ram can cut off the drilling tool. In addition, the flange outlet on the side of the casing can be used for drilling fluid circulation and throttling and well killing operations.