According to ODS-Petrodata, the cost of operating a highly automated rig in the Gulf of Mexico has almost tripled in the last four years. Accordingly, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) recently funded a three-year Joint Industry Project (JIP) to determine the historical failure rates (and resulting non-productive time) associated with subsea Blowout Prevention Equipment (BOPE). Athens Group CTO and drilling technology expert, Don Shafer will be presenting the findings of that study at the AADE 2009 National Technical Conference March 31 in New Orleans, LA. “With an understanding of the causes of their failure, BOPE and control systems reliability can be increased,” said Shafer. According to the study, many stack configurations exceed minimum requirements and are redundant.