What Went Wrong At Oil Rig

Ron61 · #1 (**permalink**) 05-13-2010, 05:37 AM

Seems there was several things that they should have looked at, especially the pressure changes in the pipe. Also has a video showing the oil coming out of the well at the bottom of the ocean.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100512/...gulf_oil_spill

Ron

DAVID GAGNARD · #2 (**permalink**) 05-13-2010, 06:20 AM

Alot went wrong to cause the blow out, "the perfect storm" happened....a number of things happened in a sequence that led to the problem, but Trans Oceanic is the main cause, here's why........

I used to work in the offshore oil industry in the gulf in the late 70's when I got out of school, so I know a little bit about offshore drilling, that with the fact that I talked to a guy that works on a rig within sight of this rig when the blow out occured, and he has a few buddies that were working on Trans Ocenaic rig at the time.........

What they did would take me a while to explain, but the gist of it is they took a very dangerous "short-cut" in plugging a "dry hole" and it backfired on them causing the blow out......It's standard operating procedure/industry standard you never ever do this,espcially when drilling deep water offshore, but they did it anyhow to save time and money, totally Trans Oceanic's call and fault, BP had nothing to do with it.......

BP and other oil companies contract drilling companies to drill on their lease sites, the contract states they drill X number of holes at X number of feet for a set price, the quicker it's done, the more the drilling company makes.... Trans Oceanic took a very dangerous shortcut and it bit them in the a$$.......The driller and rig foreman should go to jail for what they did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW: Trans Oceanic and this rig in particular have a history of violations and safety problems, way above the average........

David

EarlsflyinCobra · #3 (**permalink**) 05-13-2010, 07:44 AM

What, you mean the stories I been hearin about the North Koreans torpedoing the rig is not true.......GO Figure......I thought EVERYTHING I read is true.....LMAO.

DAVID GAGNARD · #4 (**permalink**) 05-13-2010, 08:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EarlsflyinCobra

What, you mean the stories I been hearin about the North Koreans torpedoing the rig is not true.......GO Figure......I thought EVERYTHING I read is true.....LMAO.

Acutally the North Korean story is just a cover-up story, it was really a bunch of little green men from another planet!!!!!!!!!!!!

David

Wayne Maybury · #5 (**permalink**) 05-13-2010, 01:11 PM

This incident could have very drastic effects on off shore drilling. I just heard that the 3 west coast states are considering restricting (I'm not sure exactly how they are doing this) off shore drilling and the Canadian government is looking at tighter controls on drilling in the arctic. Let's hope that they get this mess under control quickly.

Wayne

DAVID GAGNARD · #6 (**permalink**) 05-13-2010, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wayne Maybury

This incident could have very drastic effects on off shore drilling. I just heard that the 3 west coast states are considering restricting (I'm not sure exactly how they are doing this) off shore drilling and the Canadian government is looking at tighter controls on drilling in the arctic. Let's hope that they get this mess under control quickly.

Wayne

Yep, this incident WILL have an affect on future drilling/regualtions......While the drilling industry is regulated pretty well as far as polution and other things go,they give latitude as far as new technology goes and drilling techniques,especially for deep water drilling which is fairly new as far as oil exploration goes.......

By contrast, Brazil has some of the most restrictive controls on their offshore drilling in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Believe it or not, oil spills are very rare offshore/in the gulf considering the amount of drilling going on, but when they have a spill, it's usually a good one.........

Also, you have to take into account this particular drilling company's very poor safety record, and especially this drilling rig, it was the worst of the lot............

David

CobraEd · #7 (**permalink**) 05-13-2010, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wayne Maybury

Let's hope that they get this mess under control quickly.

Wayne

Too late !

.

Maurice Butler · #8 (**permalink**) 05-14-2010, 02:27 AM

bop preventor with 290 failure modes, illegal modifications, poor maintenance
it was going to happen one day, shame it had to kill people, ruin the fishery and coast

Ron61 · #9 (**permalink**) 05-14-2010, 05:53 AM

Just look at the failures of new buildings and such. It is almost always due to the construction company not using the quality of steel or other materials that the engineers had on the plans. This is different from what happened in the Gulf, but still has the same behind the scenes attitude. Make money by cutting corners.

Ron

bomelia · #10 (**permalink**) 05-14-2010, 11:02 AM

Transoceanic went to court today and asked that damages be limited to $29 million, and all cases be heard in that court as single case. They did this under an 1850 law. I may get some of this wrong, but it looks like they just scewed any potential plantiffs. They could care less, not an American company.

Mike

Ron61 · #11 (**permalink**) 05-14-2010, 12:08 PM

I watched a few minutes of them being questioned before the Congressional Committee and every one of them pointed at another one and claimed it was their fault. They are only interested in their profit and could careless about the mess they are causing. A settlement of $29 million would be a joke. If they get by with that, then they will try to get away with not paying it anyway because of some technicality.

Ron

Bill Bess · #12 (**permalink**) 05-16-2010, 07:39 AM

I worked in the natural gas pipeline/utility business for years, many of these issues are the same no matter where it happens.
Failure to follow procedures and safety rules.
Cost cutting too often.
Leadership out of touch...only concerned with bottomline,
and yes, crew workers cutting corners too.

Boom !

Ron61 · #13 (**permalink**) 05-16-2010, 08:00 AM

Bill,

I think that applies to almost every line of work any more. Bottom line is profit and quality and safety are pushed aside.

Ron

Bill Bess · #14 (**permalink**) 05-17-2010, 07:05 AM

Hey, did you guys see 60 minutes last night? If it's true (and most likely is) those B P guys better head for the hills.

Ron61 · #15 (**permalink**) 05-17-2010, 11:20 AM

Bill,

I missed that but I saw this morning that they have finally attached a long tube to the main well and are now getting most of the oil into a tanker. But they still have a leak 1,000 yards from the mail well head where the blowout valve that was not working was supposed to have stopped this. From what I hear and read, I wonder just what on that rig was in good working order if anything. Also they are now spraying chemicals under water to keep the oil off the surface so it doesn't look so bad.

Ron

joyridin' · #16 (**permalink**) 05-17-2010, 05:26 PM

Now we had a refinery fire in Texas as well. Between the 2 issues, I see gas prices skyrocketing whether a valid reason or not.

olddog · #17 (**permalink**) 05-17-2010, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Bess

Hey, did you guys see 60 minutes last night? If it's true (and most likely is) those B P guys better head for the hills.

I haven't watched 60 minutes in 15-20 yrs. I'm surprised they are still on the air. They were caught in outright lies and blatently missleading and twisting stories more than once. Remember the using accelerants to get a Chevy trucks fuel tank to burn. Why should we believe media hype?

Don't get me wrong, I'm no friend to the oil company, but I want someone to keep feeding the world oil. Without it, the planet would likely not support all the people on it.

Ron61 · #18 (**permalink**) 05-18-2010, 04:37 AM

Don't get me wrong, I'm no friend to the oil company, but I want someone to keep feeding the world oil. Without it, the planet would likely not support all the people on it.

I agree with that but we have to start finding a way to cut back on the dependence of oil for everything. And if the world population keeps growing, we won't be able to support it forever even with oil. This won't happen in my lifetime or many of the others on here, but the future generations have a real problem that is going to have to be solved. And if they keep paving over land to build houses, where are they going to grow food? Maybe on Mars.

Ron

Bill Bess · #19 (**permalink**) 05-18-2010, 06:52 AM

Not to worry Ron, we have plenty of desert in AZ and the Colorado River, we can grow everything. In addition, we have plenty of Sun to run all the solar powered equipment and a ton of wind to blow those wind turbines. Oh, I forgot to mention our huge labor force that can handle the "doin".

The only thing I'm afraid of are the "Prehistoric -Phrantas" that will becoming out of Lake Havasu after the big earthquake, it's said they will be eating all the tourist from California that come to Lake Havasu to party.
Oh, I didn't mention they shot a movie here last summer, "Phrantas 3-D", these fish awaken and eat everything in the water.
Maybe BP can find a fish that eats oil?

olddog · #20 (**permalink**) 05-18-2010, 06:23 PM

I don't believe the official report on the Kennady assasination.

I don't believe Roswell was a crash of beings from outer space either.

I do not trust the newsmedia or the government to tell the truth, when it is counter to their politcal goals.

This oil well disaster is hard for me to accept that it was an accident. Thousands of off shore rigs around the world for decades and nothing like this before now. Tripple redundant systems all failed at the same time.

I have been in process control for 32 years. I have lived the huge regulations that have been imposed on the chemical industry from the 90's on. It is mind boggling to me that these companies would be able to operate irresponsibly in this day and age.

Now just when the political winds were blowing towards drilling off shore and no longer being dependent on middle east oil, this disaster hits.

Call me crazzy, if you like, I find all this hard to swallow, as a accident caused by idiots.