A friend of mine who works on oil rigs and currently stationed off Norway sent me these startling pictures and text of the recent BP rig disaster. Apologies if y'all have seen them but it puts everything into perspective on just how dangerous extracting fossil fuels really is. :sad:
Gulf Oil Rig Disaster
- Thread starter Keith1
- Start date
An amazing disaster of purely epic proportions .....
Listening to NPR on my way to the track yesterday - the interviewer of BP's head-man put him on the spot to find out if BP was truly doing everything in it's power and if they were also going to foot the entire bill as well as make up for the lost livelihoods of the fishermen and others in the area.
I was amazed when they man said -
Yes, they are exhausting all possible avenues of resolution and have strategies 3-deep..
They, along with their venture partners, will be paying the entire bill along with paying all legitimate claims.
Score 1 for BP when there are many strikes against them to yet counter...
Thanks for posting this Keith.. I have forwarded on to some friends as well..
Listening to NPR on my way to the track yesterday - the interviewer of BP's head-man put him on the spot to find out if BP was truly doing everything in it's power and if they were also going to foot the entire bill as well as make up for the lost livelihoods of the fishermen and others in the area.
I was amazed when they man said -
Yes, they are exhausting all possible avenues of resolution and have strategies 3-deep..
They, along with their venture partners, will be paying the entire bill along with paying all legitimate claims.
Score 1 for BP when there are many strikes against them to yet counter...
Thanks for posting this Keith.. I have forwarded on to some friends as well..
Thanks for posting, Keith. Very informative on this tragedy.
The most informative place you can go to for consistent information on this subject is The International Oil & Gas Newspaper
This keeps you out of the absolutely ridiculous, opinionated crap being presented by our so called 'mainstream news'.
I've been in the oil industry since 1974 and really hate it when people start talking 'knowledgeably' about something they know nothing about. It just confuses the general public and certainly doesn't help the average person to understand.
And wow... I guess it's already taken care of! 16 government agencies are now 'on the job'. :furious:
The Deepwater Horizon was a state of the art semi-sub that had just set a world's record in drilling a 35,000' deep well in 4,000' of water. That thing was BIG! It could handle waves and wind that would have others running for cover. It had no anchors. It stayed on location using a triple backup thruster system with GPS input.
Yes, this is 'epic'. In order for this to happen, based on what I know and have read (and that may not be nearly enough...), the cementing of the casing had to fail, the seal at the sub-sea tree had to fail and the BOPs had to fail. It's going to take some time to understand just what happened and how it happened.
What really is upsetting is 11 guys died and you rarely see any mention of that.... and BP is doing everything it can, contrary to what the media is telling you. They have no choice.
Sigh...
Kirby
This keeps you out of the absolutely ridiculous, opinionated crap being presented by our so called 'mainstream news'.
I've been in the oil industry since 1974 and really hate it when people start talking 'knowledgeably' about something they know nothing about. It just confuses the general public and certainly doesn't help the average person to understand.
And wow... I guess it's already taken care of! 16 government agencies are now 'on the job'. :furious:
The Deepwater Horizon was a state of the art semi-sub that had just set a world's record in drilling a 35,000' deep well in 4,000' of water. That thing was BIG! It could handle waves and wind that would have others running for cover. It had no anchors. It stayed on location using a triple backup thruster system with GPS input.
Yes, this is 'epic'. In order for this to happen, based on what I know and have read (and that may not be nearly enough...), the cementing of the casing had to fail, the seal at the sub-sea tree had to fail and the BOPs had to fail. It's going to take some time to understand just what happened and how it happened.
What really is upsetting is 11 guys died and you rarely see any mention of that.... and BP is doing everything it can, contrary to what the media is telling you. They have no choice.
Sigh...
Kirby
Thanks for the link Kirby...
Was there something in the PDF that Keith uploaded that was not factual?
NPR (National Public Radio) is not necessarily your run of the mill mainstream news source. They do get industry specialists and analysts quite regularly. In this case they were interviewing BP CEO Tony Hayward..
You can find more information here;
BP Will Pay For Gulf Disaster, CEO Says - The Two-Way - Breaking News, Analysis Blog : NPR
Was there something in the PDF that Keith uploaded that was not factual?
NPR (National Public Radio) is not necessarily your run of the mill mainstream news source. They do get industry specialists and analysts quite regularly. In this case they were interviewing BP CEO Tony Hayward..
You can find more information here;
BP Will Pay For Gulf Disaster, CEO Says - The Two-Way - Breaking News, Analysis Blog : NPR
Sorry, maybe that looked like a rant... :stunned:
Didn't mean it that way! :sad:
The PDF was as factual as it could be considering the date it was written early after the event. I was voicing my frustration over other publications.
I worked on the asset team that designed and drilled a well and we came very close to losing a rig and platform and the scenario was similar. After cementing (which was called a 'textbook cement job' at the time), a gas kick worked its way up the annulus to surface. This took hours to happen and nobody was aware of it until it was too late. Fortunately, they were able to close the next set of BOPs which had just been installed on the wellhead. It took weeks to get the well under control to the point where it was safe to complete it.
In this incident, no single thing was the cause. No single person was at fault. Nobody could be pointed at and told they were the problem. It was a combination of things that, in retrospect, possibly could have been avoided or noticed or action taken, but it still ended up having to be a chain of events which caused it. Same as I see the Horizon incident.
I've attached another PDF which I just received a little while ago. This document has an analysis done by a business analyst who has researched and listed the facts. Each possibility is covered and the three things I mentioned previously are discussed at length.
This is the best info in information available to the general public that I've found. Due to all the lawsuits which have come to bear and the political pressure which was bound to occur, I'm sure Transocean, BP, Cameron, Halliburton and anyone else are quite cautious about what they release since it will always be misconstrued by 'those who know' (and really don't).
FWIW,
Kirby
Didn't mean it that way! :sad:
The PDF was as factual as it could be considering the date it was written early after the event. I was voicing my frustration over other publications.
I worked on the asset team that designed and drilled a well and we came very close to losing a rig and platform and the scenario was similar. After cementing (which was called a 'textbook cement job' at the time), a gas kick worked its way up the annulus to surface. This took hours to happen and nobody was aware of it until it was too late. Fortunately, they were able to close the next set of BOPs which had just been installed on the wellhead. It took weeks to get the well under control to the point where it was safe to complete it.
In this incident, no single thing was the cause. No single person was at fault. Nobody could be pointed at and told they were the problem. It was a combination of things that, in retrospect, possibly could have been avoided or noticed or action taken, but it still ended up having to be a chain of events which caused it. Same as I see the Horizon incident.
I've attached another PDF which I just received a little while ago. This document has an analysis done by a business analyst who has researched and listed the facts. Each possibility is covered and the three things I mentioned previously are discussed at length.
This is the best info in information available to the general public that I've found. Due to all the lawsuits which have come to bear and the political pressure which was bound to occur, I'm sure Transocean, BP, Cameron, Halliburton and anyone else are quite cautious about what they release since it will always be misconstrued by 'those who know' (and really don't).
FWIW,
Kirby
Great information Kirby... Thank you for sharing your learned vantage point with us..
To your point earlier which I did not address - the bigger tragedy is the loss of lives. Hopefully we can learn from this and move on with safer operations in the future..
To your point earlier which I did not address - the bigger tragedy is the loss of lives. Hopefully we can learn from this and move on with safer operations in the future..
From the horse's mouth, so to speak:
RIGZONE - Deepwater Horizon: A Firsthand Account
RIGZONE - Deepwater Horizon: A Firsthand Account
That's the problem Randy...all technological advancements and cultural growth involve dangers.
Someone is always going to be at the "point of the spear" and unfortunately it is always gonna be the grunts of whatever industry.
All of life cannot be made safe, no matter what precautions are implemented.
It is ridiculous for people who USE technology and fuel wantonly, to complain over the loss of life when their own thirst is what drives the need.
How many lives were lost building Hoover dam...so that some rich, spoiled people could have a playground in the desert? The hypocrisy is painful.
Someone is always going to be at the "point of the spear" and unfortunately it is always gonna be the grunts of whatever industry.
All of life cannot be made safe, no matter what precautions are implemented.
It is ridiculous for people who USE technology and fuel wantonly, to complain over the loss of life when their own thirst is what drives the need.
How many lives were lost building Hoover dam...so that some rich, spoiled people could have a playground in the desert? The hypocrisy is painful.
Kirby, the PDF file I posted was prepared and sent to me by an Oil Industry Professional Engineer currently serving in the North Sea with Ross Offshore who are responsible for most of the key personnel postings in the North Sea at least.
The photographs were collated in various ways and by workers serving on RSV's that are colleagues and have not been published anywhere else. As you say, this was put together within 24 hours of the incident occuring. Oil workers are a big family and are in constant contact with each other.
I myself have absolutely no knowledge of drilling rig procedures but know many guys that work on them and in the refining industry too, namely Exxon Mobil. Thus I cannot comment on the veracity of the post I made only on the provenance of the original sender, and was always pretty sure that someone on this forum would quickly point out any EAO's.
And now, that has been done...
The photographs were collated in various ways and by workers serving on RSV's that are colleagues and have not been published anywhere else. As you say, this was put together within 24 hours of the incident occuring. Oil workers are a big family and are in constant contact with each other.
I myself have absolutely no knowledge of drilling rig procedures but know many guys that work on them and in the refining industry too, namely Exxon Mobil. Thus I cannot comment on the veracity of the post I made only on the provenance of the original sender, and was always pretty sure that someone on this forum would quickly point out any EAO's.
And now, that has been done...
Kirby, the PDF file I posted was prepared and sent to me by an Oil Industry Professional Engineer currently serving in the North Sea with Ross Offshore who are responsible for most of the key personnel postings in the North Sea at least.
And now, that has been done...
Keith,
I apologize for my message coming across as against the file you posted. That was not my intention. As I said later, the PDF you sent is factual with the information that was available at the time.
I was improperly voicing my frustration at the mainstream media.
The companies are keeping things very close to their chest, obviously... but anonymous radio interviews and other 'first hand' statements have led many to believe that the cement allowed gas from the reservoir formation to migrate up the casing string to the wellhead seal. It failed and the gas came to surface causing the explosion. What is not known, probably by anyone (but it is just a guess), is why the BOPs failed. They should have closed, as you no doubt have read.
Slinking back to my corner,
Kirby
Charlie Farley
Supporter
Why do i get the idea from tv reporting of Obama's angle on this,
that he seems to be revelling in the part of the 7th Cavalry riding
to the rescue ?
that he seems to be revelling in the part of the 7th Cavalry riding
to the rescue ?
Simple. It's good politics. Doesn't accomplish anything practical though... Even the current energy secretary knows very little about the oil industry as a whole, but you can bet he and his team have been doing some late night studying.
Yesterday, the senator asking about whether it was good practice to displace the riser with seawater before setting the plug or after probably didn't know what a subsea riser was last month. The question was inane. And the honest response 'I don't know.' just didn't seem to be good enough for him.
I doubt if anyone in the industry could answer that and it would require a worldwide survey across every oil company on the planet to even find that out. An no doubt, some companies wouldn't respond nor know themselves. And once it is answered... will it help fix the problem? Of course not...
But by putting 'big oil' on the spot publicly, he makes brownie points towards his next election because he was 'tough on big oil'. Wow, gee... yeah, I'll vote for him... NOT.
By the way, based on what I've heard and read recently, the riser displacement before or after the plug would have made no difference other than delaying the accident by a few hours.
The 'negative pressure test', as the media like to call it, or leak down test, as the industry calls it internally, was apparently not considered a good test contrary to earlier reports that they did the tests and they proceeded. This just came out yesterday publicly.
So there was apparently some early warning they had gas migrating to surface. Why it was not heeded is unknown to the public at this point in time. There are also new reports now that the BOP stack had a hydraulic leak. That could mean a lot or not... the stack has multiple backup systems. What is clear... the stack didn't work when it was needed most.
More will come out as time passes, as all accident information does.
FWIW,
Kirby
The BP wellhead had been fitted with a blowout prevent (BOP), but it was not fitted with remote-control or acoustically-activated triggers for use in case of an emergency requiring a platform to be evacuated. It did have a dead man's switch designed to automatically cut the pipe and seal the well if communication from the platform is lost, but it was unknown whether the switch activated. Regulators in both Norway and Brazil generally require acoustically-activated triggers on all offshore platforms, but when the Minerals Management Service considered requiring the remote device, a report commissioned by the agency as well as drilling companies questioned its cost and effectiveness. In 2003, the agency determined that the device would not be required because drilling rigs had other back-up systems to cut off a well.
The United States Geological Survey views the 12,000–19,000 barrels (500,000–800,000 US gallons; 1,900,000–3,000,000 liters) range as the best initial spill estimate.
Fail-safe - what of it? Government at work...
The United States Geological Survey views the 12,000–19,000 barrels (500,000–800,000 US gallons; 1,900,000–3,000,000 liters) range as the best initial spill estimate.
Fail-safe - what of it? Government at work...
This disaster should be the one and only priority for our goverment. I can't believe that with the technology and equipment our country has that this has been going on for 40 odd days. It's a disgrace!
I estimate 99.5% of the expertise necessarily to adequately respond to this catastrophe is in the private sector, so this isn't a role for the government to fulfill. Government's role will be to work wisely with industry safety experts to better regulate safety of the entire oil industry, from the well under one mile of water in the Gulf of Mexico to the tip of fuel nozzle. BP and others will pay greatly through Natural Resource Damage Assessments (NRDAs) and the industry will thus be further incentivized to avoid cascading failures like those responsible for the current spill in the GOM.
I'd like to believe that, Mark, but I'm reminded about the Exxon Valdez incident. Exxon accepted responsibility, then spent a bit of $$ and when they felt they had spent enough, they announced that they were done. The government didn't do anything to try to get them to shoulder the full responsibility, IMHO....and to this day the rocks around Prince William's Sound are still stained with oil and fishermen who lost their quarry, as well as their livelihoods, haven't been adequately compensated.
I have never bought an Exxon product since that day....ran out of gas once and walked past an Exxon station with an empty gas can in hand. I refuse to "reward" a company with my business when they are the ones who were allowed to say when they were done with impunity. I have no hopes that BP will suffer any more stringent actions.....the government is too far in bed with the oil companies.
One thing with which I do agree is your statement that the expertise lies with the oil companies and not with the government. Do we need better oversight by the government? Do we want bigger government.....not many of us here do, IMHO, but what's the answer.
.......that's the $64,000 question, no?
Doug
I have never bought an Exxon product since that day....ran out of gas once and walked past an Exxon station with an empty gas can in hand. I refuse to "reward" a company with my business when they are the ones who were allowed to say when they were done with impunity. I have no hopes that BP will suffer any more stringent actions.....the government is too far in bed with the oil companies.
One thing with which I do agree is your statement that the expertise lies with the oil companies and not with the government. Do we need better oversight by the government? Do we want bigger government.....not many of us here do, IMHO, but what's the answer.
.......that's the $64,000 question, no?
Doug
Doug,
The reg's are already in place. What we have to do is hold the government accountable for doing their jobs. Not to step on anyone's sacred ground, but I have a very low opinion of the typical government worker. They do only what little work is needed to keep their jobs and since they can't be fired for performance, they do very little. The rank and file Government worker is committed to punching a clock and getting their desks cleared as quickly and cleverly as possible. If they see a problem, they pass the buck to some other department and so on.... That is not a good recipe for success. Thus we have situations like these that slip thru the cracks of oversight. The congress is just as bad. They always seem to get involved after the fact and then look for a scapegoat. These are the men and women who write the laws and then forget about them.
Garry
The reg's are already in place. What we have to do is hold the government accountable for doing their jobs. Not to step on anyone's sacred ground, but I have a very low opinion of the typical government worker. They do only what little work is needed to keep their jobs and since they can't be fired for performance, they do very little. The rank and file Government worker is committed to punching a clock and getting their desks cleared as quickly and cleverly as possible. If they see a problem, they pass the buck to some other department and so on.... That is not a good recipe for success. Thus we have situations like these that slip thru the cracks of oversight. The congress is just as bad. They always seem to get involved after the fact and then look for a scapegoat. These are the men and women who write the laws and then forget about them.
Garry
Charlie Farley
Supporter
Having spoken to two senior engineers i know in BP,
they equated the drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico thus,
" it's over half the technilogical effort expended on putting a man
on the moon ". If it truly is that far out there, why are we doing it !
Isn't it about time Governments got out of bed with the petro chem
industry and got them to give up their secrets.
In the early 1970's, a play friend of mine, moved to a HUGE house.
Mansion, more like.
It transpired his Father had sold his energy ' discovery ' to a large oil company.
How many times has this happened ?
It makes you wonder how many oil/power companies, are sitting on mind bending advances in generation technology. What collusion is / has been taking place for decades?
they equated the drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico thus,
" it's over half the technilogical effort expended on putting a man
on the moon ". If it truly is that far out there, why are we doing it !
Isn't it about time Governments got out of bed with the petro chem
industry and got them to give up their secrets.
In the early 1970's, a play friend of mine, moved to a HUGE house.
Mansion, more like.
It transpired his Father had sold his energy ' discovery ' to a large oil company.
How many times has this happened ?
It makes you wonder how many oil/power companies, are sitting on mind bending advances in generation technology. What collusion is / has been taking place for decades?
