Alert 98 – 22 Lightning Protection
Alert 98 – 22 Lightning Protection
WHAT HAPPENED:
Lightning struck a drilling rig, causing a failure of the electronic Pit Volume Totalizer (PVT) system. One mud pump was knocked offline, and the SCR suffered minor damage. Several minutes later, the rig took a kick. The crew eventually brought the kick under control. The incident prompted the contractor to evaluate methods for ensuring that rigs are properly grounded to hopefully avoid a similar incident in the future.