GL Noble Denton has published a new Guideline for the certification of blow-out preventers (BOPs). The Guideline defines the steps to be taken by independent third party certification bodies in certifying the integrity of the asset, which monitors and controls the flow of oil and gas wells. Since the Macondo incident, the oil and gas sector has placed much more emphasis on the inspection and testing of BOPs to ensure compliance with industry standards. The new Guideline provides rules and procedures for certifying BOPs throughout their lifecycle, from the design and manufacture phase through to annual inspection during operation. GL Noble Denton will use the Guideline as the standard to which the company will inspect and certify BOPs as part of its certification services for sub-sea drilling assets for its clients. It has been published using the collective expertise of the GL Group’s experienced engineers in Houston, Aberdeen, Sandefjord and Hamburg.
The Guideline is divided into four distinct sections including the general certification process of a blow-out preventer, beginning from the submission of a client’s application for certification to the distribution of a certificate after design review and the regular review of the asset’s integrity during operation; the procedures that should be undertaken on a BOP to demonstrate its integrity to a third party, including methods to identify possible failures and their repercussion; the major design requirements of a BOP, determined by internationally accepted codes and standards; and the inspections and tests that should be conducted throughout the lifecycle of a BOP, including factory acceptance tests, site integration tests, annual inspections and inspections after modification.