"Habits take us where we were yesterday, and attitudes tend to keep us there". Until recently, this could have applied to the explosives industry.

However, with the high-tech requirements of the offshore oil industry, support products and services must also keep pace with this new technology. And this includes explosive techniques and devices.

Unfortunately, the stigma attached to the word "explosives" prevents an open-mind toward the utilization of this highly efficient and powerful source of useful energy. Modern explosives are not just used for destruction, but also for construction, like: large precision metal forming, bonding of dissimilar metals, and underwater pipe welding and trenching. For where else can one find an energy source that creates over a million psi to perform work? Its use as an underwater tool can efficiently resolve an offshore problem that conventional tools could never do. And the deeper the water, the more attractive this energy source becomes.

The needs of the aerospace industry have contributed greatly to the development of explosive (ordnance) devices that can accomplish work in a difficult environment. And without ordnance, landing a spacecraft on the moon would not have been possible. Likewise, the needs of the offshore oil industry have caused controlled explosive energy to be overlooked no more.

An example of one of these modern explosive devices is "BOSIMS" (Blow Out Stopped In MilliSeconds). This device was developed for Shell Oil Co., New Orleans, in 1970, and was originally intended to cure their well blowout in Bay Marchand. It is composed of less than 10 pounds of safe buffered explosive material, to squeez down on multiple well-casing to shut off a blowout. It can be deployed by an ROV (remote operated vehicle) and the device's performance is not limited by the surrounding high pressure of deep water because the explosive energy released upon detonation far exceeds that of its environmental pressure.

BOSIMS could even be used to shut in a well during Plug and Abandonment procedures offshore or as a back-up to the wellhead Blow Out Preventer.

Perhaps some day, this form of energy underwater will become as commonplace as that used in the aerospace industry.

Article by - John J. Ridgeway, PhD, P.E.

Tags: BOSIMS