Develop the General Plan

The purpose of the General Plan (GP) is to document the long term strategy for the source control branch to regain control of the well. This process will allow transition from the reactionary initial planning mode to a structured task oriented project mode. The General Plan is initiated after the chosen control options have been approved by the Incident Commander. It is then incorporated in the Daily Planning Cycle and undergoes continuos review and refinement until the project is completed. A separate General Plan is required for both the surface control operation and the relief well operation.

The compilation of the General Plans are made under supervision of the Surface Control Branch Director and Relief Well Branch Director for their respective operations. Individual parts of the General Plan will be developed and maintained by the Unit Leaders under their direction (e.g., Capping, Kill and Support Services Unit leaders for the surface control; and Intersection, Kill and MODU Unit leaders for the relief well) with support from Engineering/Technical Unit and Logistics and Finance Sections as required.

Surface control operations are normally more difficult to develop into a standard LTP format than a relief well. This is due to the many possible blowout scenarios, potential escalation and unknown well response associated with intermediate control steps. Surface control operations are normally planned to intermediate milestones. For example: (1) removing rig or debris; (2) extinguishing fire; (3) capping and diverting wellhead; (4) shut-in and bullhead well dead; or (5) snub pipe into well and dynamically kill well. At these points additional information is hopefully gained that can guide the team to the course of action required to meet the next milestone.

1	Develop an Incident Action Plan (IAP) to reach the first critical milestone where additional information may be gained.
2	Evaluate and define possible scenarios at the critical milestone. What affect will the possible scenarios have on proceeding to the next milestone? What additional resources will be needed for each?
3	Evaluate and define possible blowout escalation while working toward the first milestone. What affect will the possible escalation have on proceeding to the next milestone? What additional resources will be needed if it does?
4	Develop a basic hazard plan for each IAP (both for safety and jeopardizing control operations if failure occurs). What effect could surface control failure have on the relief well? (e.g., removing a drillpipe target from blowout well).
5	Develop IAP alternatives for the next milestone assuming various possible scenarios after the first critical milestone is reached.
6	Evaluate kill options: utilizing hydraulic simulators for bullheading and/or circulation dynamic kill down drillpipe or tubing; and utilizing reactive fluids (e.g., gunk, invert gunk, silicate/cement, polymer/caustic/acid, other).
7	Develop kill equipment and fluid requirements based on evaluation.
8	Develop detailed kill procedures utilizing decision trees.

A relief well operation is normally less affected by changes in a surface blowout and generally should follow a more structured GP process than a surface control operation. If the blowout is underground, however, the GP process becomes more uncertain. Relief wells are also planned through milestones. For example:

1	Contracting a suitable relief well rig(s)
2	Defining the surface location(s)
3	Setting surface casing
4	Reaching the first casing detection point at designed inclination and azimuth
5	Triangulation or fixing relative position between relief well and target
6	Positioning the kill string at the desired: depth, proximity and attitude
7	Defining, installing and testing kill equipment
8	Gaining hydraulic communication with the blowout well
9	Hydraulically kill the blowout
10	Plug and abandon the blowout through the relief well
11	Confirm the well is dead
12	Plug and abandon or redirect the relief well(s)