A surprise containment exercise aimed at testing out the industry’s deepwater emergency response mechanisms kicked off on 30 April in the Gulf of Mexico, with Noble Energy the designated operator in the exercise that is employing Helix Well Containment Group’s capping stack system.

The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) says that so far its inspectors have verified the final pre-deployment pressure-tests of the capping stack, as well as monitoring the stack and associated equipment loaded onto a transport vessel.

BSEE added that inspectors, engineers and oil spill response specialists are working to ensure that operations are being conducted safely, and that the exercise objectives are being met in the areas of source control, capping stack deployment and effective interagency co-ordination.

The deepwater containment exercise involves the mobilisation and field deployment of the capping stack to the seabed in more than 1,524 m (5,000 ft) of water, latching it to a test wellhead and pressurising the system.

The exercise is also designed to test Noble’s ability to obtain and schedule the deployment of the supporting systems necessary for successful containment, added the BSEE.

BSEE experts will also oversee the capping stack being lowered to the seafloor by wire.

Helix is one of two consortia that provide contract access to well containment equipment to operators in the GoM. This equipment is required by BSEE for drilling with subsea BOPs in deepwater. The other consortium, the Marine Well Containment Co., successfully completed a similar deployment exercise in July last year.

Offshore