The report, completed in 2000, concluded that the greatest vulnerability by far on the entire blowout preventer was one of the small shuttle valves leading directly to the blind shear ram.

Blowout preventers (BOPs) are specialized valve assemblies that prevent uncontrolled flow of formation fluids during well drilling operations. Formation fluids begin to flow up the annulus when there ...

A more complicated method for bringing a blown-out well under control involves carefully capping the well with a new blowout preventer, or "BOP." BOPs are essentially large valves on the surface ...

Kinder Morgan used a blowout preventer, a device used to stop uncontrolled fluids from leaking over the well, Bullard said.