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2010-05-23 Home Front: Culture Wars

MMS Completes Gulf deep rig inspection. Finds almost nothing. (.pdf)

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Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-05-23 13:57|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 Thank you Nimble, you are exactly right.

Posted by Glenmore 2010-05-23 15:04|| 2010-05-23 15:04|| Front Page Top

#2 So far the most credible information I have heard to date is that this blowout was due to being in a hurry. The drilling rig was due to leave the next morning. This was a process problem, not a problem inherent in drilling.

Halliburton reportedly performed testing and the results were "marginal" and not to standard. BP ignored the Halliburton engineers' report and supposedly got some other engineering report from an internal source.

Then in order to speed things up, they changed the process order around and began pumping out the plug mud earlier in the process but in a manner which is often done when the engineering reports are favorable. In other words, the independent engineering reports showed the condition of the well to be "weak" for lack of a better word on my part. They then engaged in a more stressful (on the well components) method of bringing the well to production in order to speed things up and the well failed.

It is also my understanding that Halliburton had documented something over 100 defects in the blowout prevention device but BP used it anyway.

This was a case of getting in a hurry and not doing things by the book while ignoring the engineers. This is the same sort of thing that led to the Challenger failure.

Now I am no oil expert but I believe that I have the "nutshell" gist of it correct. We have a series of faults (bad BOP and bad cement job or cement not fully cured yet) combined with being in a hurry leading to a failure of the well and the BOP not being able to shut it off for whatever reason (maybe the well blew out BELOW the BOP?).

The response of the government has been exactly wrong. They seem to be more interested in "making someone pay" than in getting to the bottom of what really happened and making sure it doesn't happen again. There probably is no one single mistake that resulted in this accident. It is probably a bunch of individual mistakes that each in their own context would not result in this kind of failure but the witch hunt attitude of the government is going to make it much more difficult to get accurate information about what happened.

Nobody is going to be forthcoming with a media lynch mob out there ready to pounce on them.

Posted by crosspatch 2010-05-23 15:27|| 2010-05-23 15:27|| Front Page Top

#3 Once again, the report outlines situations with the control stations for the BOP's when the BOP's apparently suffered some sort of mechanical failure.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-05-23 15:28|| 2010-05-23 15:28|| Front Page Top

#4 "The response of the government has been exactly wrong. They seem to be more interested in "making someone pay" than in getting to the bottom of what really happened and making sure it doesn't happen again."

That pretty much sums up Bambi's ~~regime~~ Administration on ANY subject, CP. :-(

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2010-05-23 15:53|| 2010-05-23 15:53|| Front Page Top

#5 This was a case of getting in a hurry and not doing things by the book while ignoring the engineers. This is the same sort of thing that led to the Challenger failure.

Being in a hurry is another factor in the National Forest Service [ie the government] burning of down Los Alamos NM. Just remember that when someone says "if only the government was in charge..." as an alternative.

Posted by Procopius2k 2010-05-23 16:57|| 2010-05-23 16:57|| Front Page Top

#6 One thing I heard today in talking with someone was what was said on 60 Minutes (which I don't watch so I didn't see it). Something about the BOP had been inadvertently activated while the drill was operating. During this period, pieces of debris (rubber) from the BOP seals were coming to the surface with the drill mud.

If that is true and the BOP had been damaged in the days before the accident, that might explain why it failed.

Posted by crosspatch 2010-05-23 20:18|| 2010-05-23 20:18|| Front Page Top

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