Alert
  • Published: 3 Oct 2011
  • Incident ID: 3387

Failure of BOP Ram Yolk

Cause & Consequence

  • Other
Incident Consequence
Hydrocarbon release

Incident Location

Drilling unit

Incident Activity

Drilling, workover

Incident Info Source

IADC

Specific Incident Equipment

Rigless snubbing units and associated equipment

Lessons Identified

The immediate cause of the incident was the failure of the operating yoke on the QRC BOP.

The original purchaser of the rams had requested the manufacturer to modify the original equipment

design to improve overall ease of handling, as well as, rigging in and rigging out of the BOP.

The underlying causes of the failure included a faulty design that did not account for the conditions

the QRC BOP was being used.

A full management of change review was not conducted prior to the changes made to the

Incident Recommendations

Prior to commencing operations a safety meeting was held and a review of the company’s ram to ram

staging Job Safety Analysis (JSA) was completed. These actions were documented with all personnel

on location.

The company has 6 sets of the faulty QRC BOPs and all were upgraded with new, heavier yokes. The

yokes that were removed from service were sent for Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) and it was

discovered that they were ALL cracked in the same spot.

Recommended that snubbing operators add a visual inspection of BOP components to the supervisor’s

daily checklist.

Recommended that snubbing operators utilize original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or an OEM

approved vendor for BOP service and recertification.

All companies that purchase remanufactured equipment must not take for granted that all designs are

Rate this alert

Average Rating

Latest Alerts & Moments

Our searchable catalogue of hundreds of Safety Alerts and Safety Moments are all designed as learning resources that can help improve workplace safety.