A WELL-CONTROL expert from South America was in Aberdeen last night to address the Aberdeen section of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Otto Santos, a senior technical adviser with Brazilian oil major Petrobras, gave a talk on ways to prevent well blowouts.
His speech was particularly topical because of the recent well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, which led to BP coming under fire for the resulting oil spill off the US Gulf coast.
Mr Santos said: “Following current events which have focused the world’s attention on the oil and gas industry, well-control safety will be more highly scrutinised and regulated than perhaps ever before.
“We have successfully prevented blowouts by adopting the following actions: training and certificating the personnel in well control, monitoring operational activities, elaborating standards and operational procedures, and doing research.”
SPE Aberdeen chairman Chris Nussbaum said: “Mr Santos has been an SPE member since 1982 and is a prime example of the extremely high level of expertise many of our members possess.”