{{unreferenced, date=December 2012 The Helix fast-response system (HFRS) is a

deep-sea The deep sea is broadly defined as the ocean depth where light begins to fade, at an approximate depth of 200 metres (656 feet) or the point of transition from continental shelves to continental slopes. Conditions within the deep sea are a combin ...

oil spill An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into th ...

response plan licensed by

HWCG LLC HWCG LLC is a not-for-profit consortium of deepwater oil and gas companies. HWCG maintains a comprehensive deepwater well containment response model that can be activated immediately in the event of a US Gulf of Mexico subsea blowout. It comprises ...

, a consortium of 16 independent oil companies, to respond to subsea well incidents.

Helix Energy Solutions Group Helix Energy Solutions Inc., known as Cal Dive International prior to 2006, is an American oil and gas services company headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company is a global provider of offshore services in well intervention and ROV operatio ...

designed the Helix fast-response system based on techniques used to contain the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. On February 28, 2011 the drilling moratorium imposed as a result of the spill ended when the

United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

approved the first drilling permit based on the availability of the HFRS to offshore oil companies. The HFRS relies on the deployment of Helix ESG's

Q4000 ''Q4000'' is a multi-purpose oil field construction and intervention vessel ordered in 1999 by Cal Dive International, and was built at the Keppel AmFELS shipyard in Brownsville, Texas for $180 million. She was delivered in 2002 and operates unde ...

multipurpose semisubmersible platform and the

Helix Producer 1 ''Helix Producer I'' is a ship-shaped monohull floating production and offloading vessel, converted from the ferry MV ''Karl Carstens''. It has no storage capability. ''MV Karl Carstens'' The ship was built in 1986 for Deutsche Bundesbahn as a ...

floating production unit. Both vessels are based in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

and played significant roles in the 2010 ''

Deepwater Horizon ''Deepwater Horizon'' was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore drilling rig owned by Transocean and operated by BP. On 20 April 2010, while drilling at the Macondo Prospect, a blowout caused an explosion on ...

'' spill response. At full production capacity, the HFRS can handle up to 55,000

barrels A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, u ...

of oil per day (70,000 barrels of liquid or 95

million standard cubic feet per day Million standard cubic feet per day is a unit of measurement for gases that is predominantly used in the United States. It is frequently abbreviated MMSCFD. MMSCFD is commonly used as a measure of natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, compressed n ...

) at 10,000

psi Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviation ...

in water depths to 10,000 feet.

Overview

When deployed, the HFRS is assembled in stages following an ROV inspection of the damaged subsea

well head A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production equipment. The primary purpose of a wellhead is to provide the suspension point and ...

. ROVs then lower a custom-designed well cap onto the

blowout preventer A blowout preventer (BOP) (pronounced B-O-P, not "bop") is a specialized valve or similar mechanical device, used to seal, control and monitor oil and gas wells to prevent blowouts, the uncontrolled release of crude oil or natural gas from a w ...

(BOP) stack; if the flow of escaping

hydrocarbon In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic, and their odors are usually weak or ex ...

s is not too extreme, the vents inside the well cap can be manually closed one by one to shut in the well. If the pressure is too extreme to shut in the well, ROVs will lower an intervention riser system (IRS) onto the top of the well cap. The hydrocarbons will then be transferred through a

marine riser Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military ...

to the Q4000, which will use its

gas flare A gas flare, alternatively known as a flare stack, flare boom, ground flare, or flare pit is a gas combustion device used in places such as petroleum refineries, chemical plants and natural gas processing plants, oil or gas extraction sites havin ...

to burn off much of the oil and gas while transferring the rest through a flexible riser to the Helix Producer 1. The Helix Producer 1 will activate its flare to burn off the gas while it processes the oil and transfers it to a nearby

oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...

through another flexible riser. As the oil and gas is successfully captured, processed or burned and then transferred onto a tanker,

drillship A drillship is a merchant vessel designed for use in exploratory offshore drilling of new oil and gas wells or for scientific drilling purposes. In recent years the vessels have been used in deepwater and ultra-deepwater applications, equipped ...

s will be required to drill a

relief well Relief wells are used both in the natural gas and petroleum industry and in flood control. Fossil fuels In the natural gas and petroleum industry, a relief well is drilled to intersect an oil or gas well that has experienced a blowout. Speciali ...

to permanently kill the damaged subsea well.

Developments

In January 2011 Helix ESG signed an agreement with Clean Gulf Associates, a non-profit industry group, to make the HFRS available for a two-year period to CGA member companies in the event of a future subsea well incident in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2012 Helix ESG said it was working develop an additional consortium for the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

and would likely base the system out of Port of Spain Trinidad. Oil spill remediation technologies