Abstract
It is good safety practice to ensure that oilfield personnel on land and offshore locations become certified in well control. The certification is particularly important for drilling contractors and service companies doing certain types of work on a live well.
The International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) has developed standardized curriculums and an accreditation process for training programs providing certification in the area of well control. The conventional well control curriculum comprises some 36-40 hours of instruction on well control with heavy emphasis on equipment, procedures and techniques used in drilling.
Coiled tubing (CT) operations typically take place on a live well, and supervisors or other personnel involved in these operations are required to, or often seek certification in well control. However, it was determined that conventional drilling-oriented well control training may not provide adequate instruction on the specialized equipment, procedures and techniques (especially underbalanced operations) used in CT operations.
This paper will detail the three-year development of a unique IADC-accredited training program that certifies CT supervisors in CT-specific well control techniques. It will explain the safety reasons behind the decision to develop CT-specific training, with examples of how the training differs from conventional well control training, including the use of a realistic CT simulator.
