Background and Technical Info on the Gulf Drilling Rig Incident incl BOP and ROV Site Info

Multiple ^ | May 1, 2010 | Self

[dickmc]

Most of the posted and published articles regarding the Gulf oil spill are generic, non-technical, and without much real meat. Thus, I spent some time looking around to find some more satisfying and technical information.

Here is an initial New York Times article which explains some of the issues. And, here is a Washington Post graphic that better details the current situation. BTW, a blowout preventer (BOP) is a device full of hydraulic rams and/or valves that sets on top of the well to seal uncontrolled leaks. To some degree it is at least conceptually possible to operate the gulf floor BOP by a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV)

The ‘official’ site for the incident is at http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/. It has a number of photos, maps, and videos. It also has a fairly good News and Info section. However, much of the photos and videos are elsewhere on that site and are managed by an evil combination of YahooFlickr and Adobe Flash which makes most of the navigation and detailed investigation difficult. The best strategy is to get to the site’s Flickr Galleries here and here. Then, click on the item of interest including videos (black images) or photos or illustrations.

Several things are worth noting . . . .

Based on the initial Coast Guard video the accident was very serious, large, and hot. It is lucky more people were not killed!

Here is the BOP for the drilling rig. The comments under the photo are somewhat interesting.

The rig did not sink on top of the well head. Thus, access to the BOP is relatively unenclumbered.

An ROV was able to reach the BOP and did try to manually activate it. It is worth looking at this photo to read the viewer comments which are interesting and some of which appear to be expert. However, the bottom line is either that the ROV did not properly actuate the BOP or the BOP did not work. A video of the ROV attempting to operate the BOP is also included at the site.

The collapsed “drill pipe” appears to be discharging oil from two locations along its length.

.

This article from the Kansas City Star cites a higher number of undersea BOP failures than I would have expected. Here is the '83 failures' study and here is the related search on the Minerals Management Service federal government site to other blow out preventer studies. It appears that the University of Louisiana is doing a lot of pretty good work on this area!
Here is BP's favorable response to some proposed BOP rule modifications.

.

One of the more farfetched conspiracy theories here suggests that the Deepwater Horizon was torpedoed by a North Korean sub!

.

Please feel free to contribute and add info and links. Also if someone thinks that the non-environmental portions of this are worth a Ping List, could you please create one.

[NormsRevenge]

Robots position giant box over oil-spewing well
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2508998/posts

linking this thread up. Thanks!