Explosion – Deep Water Horizon Drilling Rig in GOM, USA

[Rons_ROV_Links]

University of Delaware : Oil from spill could have powered 38,000 cars (and more) for a year, researcher says

[Craig Thorngren]

University of Delaware : Oil from spill could have powered 38,000 cars (and more) for a year, researcher says

Sorry to be so blunt, but I really don’t give a sh#t "what could" be done with the lost oil. If it doesn’t bring back the 11 who lost their lives, it really doesn’t matter…

Chief

[Matthew Cook]

I might say something along the lines of Chief with regard to the damage that the oil is doing to the environment and coastal communities throughout the Gulf States.

The University of Delaware, an august and learned institution I am sure, might spend their intellectual effort in something more helpful toward mitigating the continuing damage from all that oil rather then lament its loss.

It’s our collective love for the crap that has got us in this mess in the first place.

[oldbosun]

Having worked on many Jack-ups and Semi Subs and knowing how they operate,
Can someone please throw some light on the fact that the Oil company is the one being held responcible and not the Swiss-based contractor………….. Transocean ? ……………….. The one whose Drill rig was doing all the drilling being pushed by their Toolpusher ? The one whose fail safe procedures they were following ? and the sub contractor responcible for the Cuttings/mud ………………. Would it have been ………………. Haliburton or another company ?
All debates greatly appreciated !
Plus is Transocean ( Swiss based ) actually Swiss ? why did they not say Swiss Owned 😕
The plot thickens 🙄

Here goes: The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (passed in the wake of Exxon Valdez) lays the blame on the oil company, not the driller.

Second, I’ve worked with the BP company man involved. It’s been reported in the US press that he bullied the toolpusher into curtailing the use of mud and switching to salt water. I don’t find this surprising, nor should any who’ve worked with BP in the past. It’s said that he also bullied the captain of the MODU into witholding the Abandon Ship order. Again, not surprising.

It’s as if BP teaches their company men to browbeat, bully and intimidate until they get what they want, regardless of the best interests of anyone. Something like this was a probability, not a possibility.

[Scott Beveridge]

Looks like any stop card or act and one may as well pack one’s bag. Fine – wouldn’t want to be on an installation with some one in charge like that.

Use the STOP acts and pack your bags guys.

[baglimit]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19730

hi guys.

firstly james i wont post the full article, as it is likely to offend many with its stupidity.

but for those who like to rip apart arguments, read, enjoy, rip it to shreds, and i’ll happily take the results back to its origins.

baggy.

[JL Schnabel]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19730

hi guys.

firstly james i wont post the full article, as it is likely to offend many with its stupidity.

but for those who like to rip apart arguments, read, enjoy, rip it to shreds, and i’ll happily take the results back to its origins.

baggy.

What a pity…

It is : Article not available.

This must have been a volatile piece, if it’s been removed already ❗

😈 😈 😈

[JL Schnabel]

Looks like it was business as usual :

(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7150296.ece)

Emails ‘prove BP systematically put safety at risk’

Congressional investigators have published a series of internal BP memos which they say proves that the British company systematically and negligently put safety at risk on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in order to increase profits.

Confidential e-mails written in the days before the catastrophic explosion in the Gulf of Mexico appear to show that serious concerns, raised within the company and by contractors, were disregarded for financial reasons.

One BP engineer warned a colleague that the oil well had become a “nightmare” while executives were given a list of recommended safety measures which they chose to ignore. One BP official wrote a note that read: “Who cares, it’s done, end of story, will probably be fine.”

Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the head of its investigation into the oil spill, accused BP of making at least five questionable decisions in the lead up to the disaster.

“We found a pattern,” he said last night. “Every time they had a decision to make they decided to cut corners; to do things faster than they otherwise should have been done; to do it less expensively and the consequence of this, as one independent expert told us, was horribly negligent.

“They violated what their own employees were recommending they do, they violated their own industry practices and they ignored the recommendation of contractors who told them to do certain tests to avoid safety concerns.”

A 14-page letter to BP laying out these issues was published alongside internal e-mails ahead of the Tony Hayward’s appearance before the committee on Thursday.

The BP CEO, who has been criticised for some of his remarks during the clean-up operation, will appear on Capitol Hill for the first time after more junior executives were questioned in previous hearings.

Mr Hayward will be asked why BP officials responded to safety concerns by citing costly delays rather than security protocols. In an e-mail on April 16, four days before the explosion, one official responded to Halliburton’s recommendation that 21 “centralisers” be used in the well bore by saying: “It will take 10 hours to install them. I do not like this.” BP elected to use just six.

The letter, signed by Mr Waxman and Bart Stupak, head of energy committee investigations, concludes that the safest option was overlooked when managers decided how to secure the final section of the deepwater well.

“Time after time, it appears that BP made decisions that increased the risk of a blowout to save the company time or expense,” the Congressmen wrote. “If this is what happened, BP’s carelessness and complacency have inflicted a heavy toll on the Gulf, its inhabitants, and the workers on the rig.”

Despite warnings from its own engineers, “BP chose the more risky casing option, apparently because the liner option would have cost $7 to $10 million more and taken longer,” they wrote.

In an e-mail sent six days before 11 workers died on the rig, Brian Morel, a BP engineer, wrote to a colleague: “We could be running it in 2-3 days, so need a relative quick response. Sorry for the late notice, this has been nightmare well which has everyone all over the place.”

Despite the well’s difficulties, the congressional committee’s letter continues: “BP appears to have made multiple decisions for economic reasons that increased the danger of a catastrophic well failure.”

The Congressman conluded that BP decided against a nine-to 12-hour procedure known as a “cement bond log” that would have tested the integrity of the cement. They said BP also failed failed to fully circulate drilling mud, a 12-hour procedure that could have helped to detect the gas pockets which later shot up the well and exploded on the drilling rig.

A spokesman for BP said it would be inappropriate for the company to comment ahead of Thursday’s hearing.

[matt buxton]

Has anyone else out of interest in there spare time spent anytime watching the ROV live feeds.??

Considering I am in the midst of my 28 off and the weather sucks I was watching for a bit this morning.

This morning I was watching the MAXX3 feed and counted 5 (6 if you include MAXX 3 ) workclass vehicles all around the LMRP area of the BOP. I would have to imagine that these deepwater horizon operations have to be some kind of record for number of simultaneous work class ROV ops in 5000′ of water at the same time.

On a second note I know the guys are under alot of pressure out there but I have watched a few quite questionable Manipulator/Piloting Tactics and Skills. Might be the junior guy on the manip at the time, but some of it was a bit shocking.

I am not wanting to slag off anyone but i just thought to myself "those cannot be the top guys, doing there best work" Obviously I have only seen a extremely small fraction of the operations……….but

All in all tho congrats to all the crews on catching every drop of oil they possibly can!

[baglimit]

cheers david – the author is a bit of a nutter by all accounts. sorry i never saved a copy.

the article put forward the ‘idea’ that the whole well will eventually collapse, with seawater rushing in causing some krakatoa type event, tsunamis throughout the gulf etc. it wasnt the stupid end result i wanted ridiculed, but more the science behind the leadup to the ‘catastrophic event’.

http://www.drillingahead.com/forum/topics/transocean-deepwater-horizon-1

a good read for the ill informed.

[JL Schnabel]

Ahh baglimit… at times it’s also ‘interesting’ to present another version of the truth – so to speak!

😉

But thanks for posting another link in the mean time…

[Rons_ROV_Links]

One assumes that this is a spoof!!!

Funny though….

[James McLauchlan]

So, who thinks BP has had enough of an ear bashing from the USA?
Oh sorry, it’s not BP is it? Maybe I should I say it in Obama speak: British Petroleum with the US presidents emphasis on British! How could we miss that!

I say…
Let BP do what they can, because I doubt if any other company or Government could do better. At the same time don’t appear to make out that BP are the only bad apple in the pack and thus, by default the others operators are all angels. Not too sure how much of this bashing would have gone on if it had been a major USA company/employer as opposed to a major UK and US employer.

…. and what’s wrong with the boss of BP having a bit of time off?
We all need to de-stress from time to time and thus come out feeling a little better at the end of it and maybe more effective in our decision making process as a result.
Soldiers take leave (R&R) from a war zone for the similar reasons.. nobody bitches about that.
Over the last couple of months I’ll bet the president of the USA hasn’t abstained from any kind of sport or R&R during the catastrophe either. Doing it behind closed doors off the press radar doesn’t mean it’s not happening, just in Tony Hayward’s case, as any average person would realise, you can’t sail a yacht in a room behind closed doors too easily.

Yes, it’s a mess and nobody is happy about it… and judging by their share price BP more than most, but lets not get too wound up on rhetoric and work together to get it fixed. Too much ‘broken record’ and blame culture creeping in here IMHO.

[Craig Thorngren]

James,

First let me start off by saying it was all of Europe that wanted Obama… You’ve gotten what you asked for. Maybe next time Europe won’t try to get involved in US politics… 😯

As far as BP goes, they are going to be maligned (rightfully so) long after this disaster is over. They have FUBAR’d on so many different fronts its not even funny. From the CEO saying "I want my life back" to his dismal performance in front of the congressional inquiry, it ‘s been one sorrid mistake after their fatal one…

Maybe next time, they’ll think about doing what’s right first.

Chief

[Rons_ROV_Links]

One goes sailing around the Isle of Wight, the other is doing his sports behind closed White door.

I still wonder what Warren Anderson did during the night of December 2-3, 1984 …. probably having a sweet patriotic dream while others had their worst nightmare.

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