30 CFR § 250.1624 - Blowout prevention equipment.

(a) The BOP system and system components and related well-control equipment shall be designed, used, maintained, and tested in a manner necessary to assure well control in foreseeable conditions and circumstances, including subfreezing conditions. The working pressure of the BOP system and system components shall equal or exceed the expected surface pressure to which they may be subjected.

(b) The minimum BOP stack for well-completion operations or for well-workover operations with the tree removed shall consist of the following:

(1) Three remote-controlled, hydraulically operated preventers including at least one equipped with pipe rams, one with blind rams, and one annular type.

(2) When a tapered string is used, the minimum BOP stack shall consist of either of the following:

(i) An annular preventer, one set of variable bore rams capable of sealing around both sizes in the string, and one set of blind rams; or

(ii) An annular preventer, one set of pipe rams capable of sealing around the larger size string, a preventer equipped with blind-shear rams, and a crossover sub to the larger size pipe that shall be readily available on the rig floor.

(c) The BOP systems for well-completion operations, or for well-workover operations with the tree removed, shall be equipped with the following:

(1) An accumulator system that provides sufficient capacity to supply 1.5 times the volume necessary to close and hold closed all BOP equipment units with a minimum pressure of 200 psi above the precharge pressure without assistance from a charging system. After February 14, 1992, accumulator regulators supplied by rig air which do not have a secondary source of pneumatic supply shall be equipped with manual overrides or alternately other devices provided to ensure capability of hydraulic operations if rig air is lost;

(2) An automatic backup to the accumulator system supplied by a power source independent from the power source to the primary accumulator system and possessing sufficient capacity to close all BOP's and hold them closed;

(3) Locking devices for the pipe-ram preventers;

(4) At least one remote BOP-control station and one BOP-control station on the rig floor; and

(5) A choke line and a kill line each equipped with two full-opening valves and a choke manifold. One of the choke-line valves and one of the kill-line valves shall be remotely controlled except that a check valve may be installed on the kill line in lieu of the remotely-controlled valve provided that two readily accessible manual valves are in place, and the check valve is placed between the manual valve and the pump.

(d) The minimum BOP-stack components for well-workover operations with the tree in place and performed through the wellhead inside of the sulphur line using small diameter jointed pipe (usually 3/4 inch to 1 1/4 inch) as a work string; i.e., small-tubing operations, shall consist of the following:

(1) For air line changes, the well shall be killed prior to beginning operations. The procedures for killing the well shall be included in the description of well-workover procedures in accordance with § 250.1622 of this part. Under these circumstances, no BOP equipment is required.

(2) For other work inside of the sulphur line, a tubing stripper or annular preventer shall be installed prior to beginning work.

(e) An essentially full-opening, work-string safety valve shall be maintained on the rig floor at all times during well-completion operations. A wrench to fit the work-string safety valve shall be readily available. Proper connections shall be readily available for inserting a safety valve in the work string.