Disclosed herein are various embodiments of an Annular Pressure Control Ram Diverter designed to be positioned below the conventional blowout preventer stack, and which will be activated during near balanced drilling operations to seal the annulus between the drill pipe and the casing. Returned drilling fluid and produced fluids are diverted up the annulus between the casing and intermediate casing and through a well head located below an all-inclusive BOP stack. The Annular Pressure Control Ram Diverter employs hydraulic rams to compress a flexible seal around the drill pipe. Some embodiments have an elliptical internal cavity which ensures that the elliptical seal elements cannot rotate. Other embodiments use ridges and grooves on the seal elements and housing to prevent rotation of the seal elements. Doors are provided on each side of the Annular Pressure Control Ram Diverter to permit changing of the seal elements.

A remote locking system for a blowout preventer (BOP) includes a locking mechanism configured to move to adjust the remote locking system between an unlocked configuration in which the remote locking system enables movement of a ram of the BOP and a locked configuration in which the remote locking system blocks movement of the ram of the BOP. The remote locking system also includes a gear assembly coupled to the locking mechanism, a motor coupled to the gear assembly, and an electronic controller configured to provide a control signal to activate the motor to drive the locking mechanism to move via the gear assembly.

In a blowout preventer central bore and a central bore axis with an oval ram cavity having a ram cavity axis having one or more horizontal interface portions between the ram cavity and an actuator body, a method of connecting the actuator body to the ram cavity comprising providing one or more locking bar receptacles passing through one or more of the planes of the one or more horizontal interface portions of the ram cavity, providing one or more locking bar receptacles passing through one or more of the planes of the one or more horizontal interface portions of the actuator body, and providing one or more locking bars in one or more of the one or more locking bar receptacles in both the ram cavity and the actuator body.

A blowout preventer includes a housing including a longitudinal passage and a pair of ram passages extending from the longitudinal passage, a first ram assembly disposed in a first of the pair of ram passages and including first ram block assembly, and a second ram assembly disposed in a second of the pair of ram passages and including a second ram block assembly, wherein the first ram block assembly is configured to include a first configuration in which it sealingly engages an outer surface of a tubular member extending through the longitudinal passage of the housing when the blowout preventer is in a closed position, and a second configuration in which it sealingly engages the second ram block assembly when the blowout preventer is in the closed position.

A fracturing system having rams for controlling flow through a fracturing tree is provided. In one embodiment, a well intervention method includes injecting fracturing fluid into a well through a bore of a frac stack coupled to a wellhead. The frac stack includes rams that can be moved between open and closed positions to control flow through the bore. The well intervention method also includes coupling a lubricator to the frac stack without a blowout preventer between the lubricator and the frac stack and lowering an intervention tool from the lubricator through the bore of the frac stack and into the well. Additional systems, devices, and methods for fracturing and intervention are also disclosed.

Blowout preventers having bodies with internal choke and kill line pass-through conduits are provided. In one embodiment, a blowout preventer body (42) includes a drill-through bore (44) extending through the blowout preventer body and a ram cavity (58) transverse to the drill-through bore. The blowout preventer body can also include choke and kill line conduits (136, 138) extending through the blowout preventer body, as well as choke and kill line access branch conduits (148, 150) extending between the choke and kill line conduits and the drill-through bore. Additional systems, devices, and methods are also disclosed.

This disclosure includes methods for testing hydraulically-actuated devices and related systems. Some hydraulically-actuated devices have a housing defining an interior volume and a piston disposed within the interior volume and dividing the interior volume into a first chamber and a second chamber, where the piston is movable relative to the housing between a maximum first position and a maximum second position in response to pressure differentials between the first and second chambers. Some methods include: (1) moving the piston to the first position by varying pressure within at least one of the first and second chambers such that pressure within the second chamber is higher than pressure within the first chamber; and (2) while the piston remains in the first position: (a) reducing pressure within the second chamber and/or increasing pressure within the first chamber; and (b) increasing pressure within the second chamber and/or decreasing pressure within the first chamber.

A multi-disciplinary optimization (MDO) framework and workflow facilitates analysis and optimization of set of designs of a pressure-controlling component. The MDO workflow generally enables design workflow integration and automation, which can improve engineering efficiency, and enables automated optimization within the workflow automation, which facilitates performance and reliability improvement for product development. The MDO workflow enables the integration of computer-aided design (CAD), finite element analysis (FEA), digital manufacturing simulation (DMS), and optimization packages to facilitate testing and optimization of a set of pressure-controlling component designs. As such, the MDO framework and workflow improve the efficiency of the design process by providing a scalable solution for automating aspects of the design process for a set of designs of a pressure-controlling component, which may represent a product family or a set of competing alternative designs.

The method of preventing pressures higher than a predetermined pressure in the front ram seals of blowout preventer rams comprising providing blowout preventer rams suitable for sealing across the bore of a blowout preventer stack, providing seals on the blowout preventer rams which sealingly isolate the bore area below or upstream of the blowout preventer rams from the area above or downstream of the blowout preventer rams, providing a passageway from the front to the rear of the blowout preventer rams to vent the upstream or higher pressures to the rear of the blowout preventer rams, and communicating the resilient seal material in the front ram seals with a pressure release piston which will relieve the pressure at the predetermined pressure.

A kinetic ram for a blowout preventer includes a pressure chamber having a piston movably disposed therein. A gas generating charge disposed at one end of the pressure chamber. A ram is coupled to the piston on a side of the piston opposed to the gas generating charge. The ram is arranged to move across a through bore in a blowout preventer housing disposed at an opposed end of the pressure chamber. An initial volume in the pressure chamber between the one end and the piston is chosen to limit a maximum pressure caused by actuating the gas generating charge to a predetermined maximum pressure, and/or the pressure chamber comprises a pressure relief device arranged to vent pressure in the pressure chamber above the maximum pressure.