BP Oil Disaster

[Teamcasa]

One of the first threads on the subject linked an industry forum which spoke of evidence of modifications done to the BOP.

You know my politics but if evidence surfaces of corruption on this matter I am for prosecution of anyone invloved including the former VP if so implicated...

My guess is that the press is better at pointing fingers at people in power than some engineer that sent a memo years ago saying the BOP may be faulty. (I'm sure a memo of this sort will turn up at a civil trial or one of the many congressional hearings in the future.)

 

[d_lafleur]

well try tried to manually close the valve, but I'm not sure exactly what method that involves....

but we did made some comments to send down a ROV with a battery and a set of jumper cables.

There was more wrong with the BOP than the dead battery.

A little birdie, who might work for the BOP man, told me "The unit hadnt been in the man.'s shop for recertification in almost 10 years." Someone has a "Get out from under the bus" card in their pocket.

I agree that criminal prosecution for the person forcing the issue which lead to this isnt out of the question.

 

[d_lafleur]

My guess is that the press is better at pointing fingers at people in power than some engineer that sent a memo years ago saying the BOP may be faulty. (I'm sure a memo of this sort will turn up at a civil trial or one of the many congressional hearings in the future.)

Sounds eerily familiar doesnt it. NASA, Challenger, Cold Weather, O rings, hmmmm.

Proves once again that people do what you inspect and not what you expect.

 

[Teamcasa]

Sounds eerily familiar doesnt it. NASA, Challenger, Cold Weather, O rings, hmmmm.

Exactly.

Proves once again that people do what you inspect and not what you expect.

I tell this to the managers that work for me all the time. It really comes to roost when a problem that should have been easily dealt with becomes a nightmare simply because the maintenance guy did not check a few of the fire extinguisher gauges.

 

[Scott L]

Sounds eerily familiar doesnt it. NASA, Challenger, Cold Weather, O rings, hmmmm.

Proves once again that people do what you inspect and not what you expect.

My uncle was deputy director of the Delta rocket program at NASA for the last remaining years of his career. He (78 years old) is still retained by a space conglomerate as a consultant with the sole function of providing oversight in order for mistakes of the past not to repeat themselves. This seems to be the exception rather than the rule in industry and government unfortunately...

 

[dmoore19]

Here is one of the most comprehensive "all in one place" explaination of the events leading up to the actual blowout I have seen. There are several tabs that have drawings etc that help understand what happened and can explain it.

BP Decisions Made Well Vulnerable - WSJ.com


It does not explain failure of the BOP but it does explain a lot of things. This is 100% BP's fault. While the BOP was manufactured by Cameron, it was owned by Trans Ocean. BP was aware of the problems with the BOP. A BOP is used on every well drilled, land or sea. The BOP is not operated by a battery, it is hydraulic. The pod with the dead battery is what is used to communicate with the controls on the surface. There are reports that the control pod (which has been brought to the surface and inspected) had malfunctioned earlier in the project. There are 2 of them (redundancy). The ROV connected into the hydraulic fittings on the BOP and attempted to close the rams ~24 hours after the blow out. Due to a leak in the hydraulic lines, the attempt failed. A rubber element in one of the "valves" called an Annular Preventer failed, there were reports that pieces of the element were seen on the shakers when they were still drilling the well, BP knew about this. There are also reports that the wrong parts were in one of the sets of rams, (the variable size). BP was aware of this. I do not know how long it had been since the BOP had been tested. On land BLM it is required every 30 days but that can be extended dependant on where in the operations you are.

If you read the article the displacment of the mud from the riser prior to pumping a cement plug was out of the ordinary and out of standard procedure, but it was approved by the MMS. There were many signs telling BP that things were not right, yet they continued to proceed. As you can tell from the article there were several people trying to change the procedure, BP ignored them. BP is responsible, if any one is to be jailed for their actions, it should be the suprvisors for BP that pushed on with all the indicators telling them they shouldn't.

Hope this helps.

 

[skydiver30960]

So, it looks like the top kill was a bust.

I'm slowly realizing that, in hindsight, our generation will come to look on this event as "life changing" much in the same way our world was changed by 9/11. As kindred souls to the sea, it affects us even more so, but (if we have even an ounce of sense left in our collective mind) this must be an impetus for change. I know we can't all go out and buy solar cars tomorrow; but it'd be nice to look back thirty years from now and say "yeah, that really sucked, but at least it finally got the ball rolling."

Ike aka "we need hybrid dive boats"

 

[d_lafleur]

My uncle was deputy director of the Delta rocket program at NASA for the last remaining years of his career. He (78 years old) is still retained by a space conglomerate as a consultant with the sole function of providing oversight in order for mistakes of the past not to repeat themselves. This seems to be the exception rather than the rule in industry and government unfortunately...

I can see after watching the media spin how an industry can be painted incorrectly, do not judge an entire industry on reports. I have a very good friend that worked on the shuttle project; I saw the same microscope put on the space industry by the media post Challenger. P.S. Who was over sighting the Columbia trip home??? The difference was the media was a bit more professional back then and the Eco Nazis weren’t affected and/or weren’t in power.

I miss the days of Walter Cronkite and Ronald Reagan.

When you take the numbers strictly by reports, they do not paint the picture either without the story. In the MMS listings for fires in the GOM, those included back fires from IC engines that lit insulating materials, which are smoldering fires that are extinguished by a handheld extinguisher. Those are not what make the news, yet they make the numbers. It is the same way with "spills" what you see in your local marina behind every 2 stroke outboard is reported, so when you here 300 spills, you think of dead birds, mammals, and fish. What you don’t think about is a rainbow color sheen that is 10' in diameter and gone in an hour.


There are people who run oversight in this industry, government (MMS), BP (The guy on the rig reported to someone), and the rig personnel.

Transocean in some capacity had to agree to the procedures also. The OIM (Transocean Employee) is the "captain of the ship" he is ultimately responsible for the decisions. That is how it works.

I have worked in and around BP hundreds of times, the ability to stop work had never been in question. As much as I hate to say it, this event does not fit in the typical "BP profile". After working around them for many years, this event, and the Texas City fire are 180* out of phase from my dealings with them. The Alaskan pipeline issue occurred on their watch, however the corrosion was probably going on long before the BP name was on the sign.

Dont take the last paragraph as I am giving BP a pass. They need to be held responsible for this.

 

[vshearer]

So, it looks like the top kill was a bust.

Actually it is looking like it worked. Anyone notice that now that it appears to be successful Obama is finally saying he is taking full control and responsibility?

And I am sure he will try to take full credit too.

 

[dmoore19]

d_lefleur,
You mention stop work authority. I know what it means, but does it really mean that? How much authority is actually given to an individual? There was obviously a disagreement on board the Deepwater Horizon, it sounds like Transocean personell tried to impart stop work authority, maybe the BP "company man" tried with his superior, I don't know but if he did everyone on that ship lost the argument. My suspicion is that someone on shore made the decision to move forward. After this incident stop work authority will become more than just a buzz word. Maybe it will actually mean something. I agree with you, this is not typical of BP culture, I don't think it is typical of any major oil company. I don't give BP a free pass either.