The Transocean Enterprise Drilling Riser Failure
In 2003, the drilling riser on the Transocean drilling vessel Discoverer Enterprise failed catastropically, resulting in a complete separation failure of the riser with the lower half of the riser falling to the ocean floor in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).
The riser failure was due to brittle fracture of low alloy inserts that, together with their associated bolts, coupled individual sections of the riser together. This presentation will summarize the massive effort that went into verifying the root cause for the riser failure, including extensive metallurgical testing and analysis, laboratory simulation testing, mechanical analysis of the riser system, the potential influence of the thermal sprayed aluminum (TSA) coating designed as a cathodic protection system, riser fastener installation and lubrication, plus environmental influences. The presentation will include lessons learned and changes made to prevent future, similar failures.
