Demonstrations

Under the supervision of the Department of Interior through the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), MWCC has mobilized and deployed its Single Ram and 400F Capping Stacks in 2012 and 2023, respectively. Both times, the capping stacks were landed in more than 6,000 feet of water.

During these live demonstrations of MWCC’s source control capability, the organization, along with the members who volunteered, and BSEE, stood up incident management teams that operated 24/7, beginning at the time of activation through latching, landing and pressure testing of the capping stack.

MWCC’s team successfully demonstrated operations for all necessary functions of the capping stack. Most importantly, MWCC validated the capping stack could undertake its peak capacity pressure and control a compromised well. Both deployments were supported by more than 400 staff who worked a combined 50,000 hours to successfully execute these verifications of our capping capability.

A video summary of the 2023 capping stack demonstration can be found here

To provide confidence to our members and the U.S. government, MWCC has completed comprehensive validation of our vessels and processing modules. Upon acceptance of the Modular Capture Vessels (MCV) and processing modules, BSEE oversaw the complete loading, connection and hook up of the 21-module hydrocarbon processing system. The processing modules were connected to the vessels and hooked up to each other in a System Integration Test. Through this testing, MWCC was also able to confirm vessel safety functions, including emergency shutdown capability.

Once fully outfitted with validated processing equipment, MWCC’s vessels embarked on sea trials to demonstrate deployment readiness, a process witnessed by the United States Coast Guard. In addition to the substantiation of basic deployment, MWCC validated Dynamic Positioning capability, which is where computer and satellite systems keep the vessel in a fixed location using advanced thrusters.

MWCC also engaged in further verification flowback of a deepwater well. During this specific exercise, MWCC successfully transferred hydrocarbons from a drill ship to the MCV, verifying loading and offloading capacity.

At alternating five-year intervals, the MCVs are dry-docked – fully removed from the water – to expose the hull and external equipment for detailed inspection. The dry dock also allows MWCC to verify that the mounts for connecting the processing modules remain fixed and have not moved or shifted. Once all inspections are complete, the MCVs are returned to service and ready to be outfitted and deployed when needed.