European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 06, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Blowout fireboat sprays Bravo platform to prevent flames. Capping a Well gone wild by John Vinocur associated Pressi t was about 9 45 . Friday april 22. When Stan Hurst a Texas Driller carried by the world s craving for nil to the offshore Fields of the North sea. First noticed the Stream of mud As thick As a Man s Finger. The Stream was coming from an outlet on a device called a Blowout preventer that had just been placed upside Down on a pipe coming out of the wellhead of Eko Fisk Bravo one of dozens of Wells about 170 Miles Southwest of Norway that produce almost 10 million barrels of Oil a month. Hurst went Back to the bunks on the Rig and grabbed Curley Stradley a tool Pusher from Wyoming and to Gether they took another look. In five minutes the Stream of mud and Oil had doubled in size and it gave Clear signs of becoming a Blowout a terrifying Geyser of Oil pumping uncool role into the night sky. As Hunt and Stradley watched the Oil under pressure later calculated at 4,350 pounds per Square Inch spurted 90 feel into the air. The Hiss of the Ini tial trickle had become a scream. The Well had gone wild. Stradley tried to fix a length of tube with a valve on the Tup to the wellhead to Cut off the flow but after 10 minutes gave up. The Well was blowing harder and harder with a noise so enveloping in the blackness that it blotted out the emergency abandon platform directions coming Over the Public address system on the Rig. Minutes later All 112 men working on the platform were in the sea and survival capsules waiting for pickup by Rescue vessels. Bravo 14 had blown its escaping Gas and Oil creating a potential fire disaster in Western Europe s largest Oil Field and a possible ecological tragedy in one of the world s most prize fishing zones. The Blowout report was relayed instantly 175 Miles Westward to the two Story red building on the Mainland at Stavanger Norway where Phillips Petroleum operators of the $4.sbillion a Kofluk instal lation have their Headquarters. Phone Calls brought personnel out of their Beds or from a dinner dance at the Petroleum wives club to their Headquarters. There they began a review of the situation. The blow out occurred while Bravo 14 was undergoing a work Over. A maintenance operation designed to retrieve tools that had become fouled while recording the flow of Oil in the Well. An attempt to retrieve them with a wire line had failed and an alternative approach involving taking out the Well tubing was under Way. To do this the Well had to be killed or neutralized by pumping enough mud into it to Stop the upward flow of Oil. The mud had gone in checks were made on the possibility of pressure changes and the Christmas tree a kind of fire hydrant clamped to the top of producing Wells was taken off. The Blowout preventer a one and a half ton mechanism that can Stop a sudden thrust of Oil was lowered into place and had four of its 16 bolls whacked tight by Curley Stradley s Crew with sledgehammers when the rising mud was noticed. The Crew was going to Correct the error which had no relation to the Blowout itself when the situation got out of hand. In the Phillips crisis room the first guru at the cause of the Blowout was the failure of a Down Hole safety valve that was unable to Block the Oil flow. It seemed possible that part of the valve Rose to the level of the wellhead where it May have obstructed Stradley s urgent attempt to screw in an additional safety valve. But determining the cause would have to wait in the Early hours of the morning Al Vick Phillips drilling superintendent was on the phone to Houston Texas talk ing Plain Oil Field English to boots Hansen an assistant of red Adair who runs the world s Only Blowout and fire killing firm. A few hours later. Hansen and Richard Hatteberg were in Phillips private Gulfstream-2 Jet flying to Stavanger. Sunday morning. April 24. Hansen. Hatteberg and Vick flew in a helicopter behind a protective water screen thrown up by a fireboat to the Rig. They saw up close the plume of Oil rising from the Well at about 4,000 tons a Day. For a member of the Crew who had abandoned the plat form the Shock of the Blowout was like seeing a Dinosaur. But for Vick and Adair s team who had dealt with Many of them there was less concern than from the men who had t been to the zoo before. Although the inverted blow out protector presented problems. Hansen predicted the Well could tie capped in a couple of Days. The Well killing team set up a base of opera Tolooi on a Barge named Choctaw 1 which was anchored of Bravo. The Barge provided Steak and enchilada Din ners or the Crew hot showers and hunks and a machine shop where special sparkles tools were fashioned from brass rods. The team going on to Bravo found itself in a rainstorm of not Oil and in a Roar that made conversation impassible everyone wore Thermal underwear coveralls ear plugs safety helmets that buckled under the Chin and Bright Orange rain slickers that immediately turned blackish Green from the Oil. From the Rig the men could see divers in wetsuits on the decks of the fireboat ready to pull them out of the water if the Well caught fire. Communication near the wellhead was through hand signals. A twisting sign Well  pom45iv  Bini Fia ten then they Page 14 the stars and stripes Friday a