Blowout preventers (BOPs) are specialized valve assemblies that prevent uncontrolled flow of formation fluids during well drilling operations. Formation fluids begin to flow up the annulus when there ...

By their very nature, high-pressure fields contain more hydrocarbons than those with normal conditions ... to close off a well before a blowout occurs, a Blowout Preventer (BOP) with a rating ...

The report, completed in 2000, concluded that the greatest vulnerability by far on the entire blowout preventer was one of the small shuttle valves leading directly to the blind shear ram.