Zion Oil & Gas Inc (ZNOG)

[KyOil]

Moses: Well Control
Good quick research on your part. The biggest component of well control is the pit where fluids are held during test or if a blowout occurs. The ZN pit can easily be seen from photos. The most critical component is the blowout prevention device (BOP). The next most critical is the pressure rating and amount of casing.

The pressures and depths ZN is dealing with are an order of magnitude of what I'm used to, but a few principles still apply. One is that the casing has to be deep enough to not launch like a rocket out of a silo during a high pressure event such as when the pay zone is first penetrated and gas/oil is released. This may be the reason why they decided to case at this depth instead of waiting until reaching TD. It would make sense to have a deeper casing anchor if a higher pressure rated BOP was going to be installed.

The oil patch here in KY is quite well understood as its 200 years old. But still, I've seen operators get surprised by high formation pressure and could not shut off the flow of oil. In one case, they had an emergency call for all truck tankers in the region to come to the well and haul oil off because flow could not be stopped. The rig had to sit idle on that well for 6 months with tankers lined up to be filled until the flow and pressure dropped enough to control flow and move the rig off. ZN is in the middle of nowhere infrastructure wise. If the flow control does not work it will be an environmental nightmare. Hence the need to be cautious.