Figures.
The more you read, the more it smells.
A backup acoustic switch was never required and may or may not have been effective in any event. To many unknowns.
I just wonder where the part was manufactured, "Made in China" perhaps?
Something smells and it ain’t burnt carbon!
What does a Swat Team know about oil wells and valves?
BP, British Petroleum, may be more short-sighted, thoughtless, and thereby more susceptible to sabotage, than American companies. I don’t know; I’m just speculating.
U.S. regulators don’t mandate use of the remote-control device on offshore rigs, and the Deepwater Horizon didn’t have one. With a remote control, a crew can attempt to trigger an underwater valve that shuts down the well even if the oil rig itself is damaged or evacuated.
The efficacy of the devices is unclear. Major offshore oil-well blowouts are rare, and it remained unclear Wednesday evening whether acoustic switches have ever been put to the test in a real-world accident. When wells do surge out of control, the primary shut-off systems almost always work. Remote control systems such as the acoustic switch, which have been tested in simulations, are intended as a last resort.
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Can you explain the above for us lay people?... Is there something require over and above the BOP which this well did have? Thanks.
Here is what the giant floating Deepwater Horizon rig looked like in the past, it can go up and down in the water with ballasting. it's a giant ship for all practical purposes, and yes they can go through hurricanes.
I read a BP news report that said the blowout preventor was damaged when the rig wreck hit the Gulf floor. This was back when they were doing underwater surveys. They said pipelines were ruptured by the wreck which is where the leaks were.
A whole lot of dots needs connecting here. We need a whole lot more data because the timing of all this, and Obama relaxing offshore drilling, is just too coincidental.
And that coal mine explosion ...
Are we seeing the equivalent of the Reichstag's fire only targeted at energy to get the crap and tax passed?
Hey just asking, just asking ... But wouldn't it be prudent to explore the terror angle?
WSJ said there was not one because the US does not require it. What's the dealio?
Did I hear right. A swat team is going to the oil rig?
Why would they need a swat team?
I was looking at blow out valves on google.
It seems many are made in CHINA.
There really needs to be some clarity on what has and is happening here. So, speaking as somebody formerly in the oil & gas business:
1) This was not an “oil well.”
2) The Deepwater Horizon that blew out, caught on fire, and sank was a semi-submersible drilling rig.
3) It’s primary purpose is to drill for oil, not PRODUCE oil. Semi’s can be used to produce oil. One question is: was this rig actually producing oil or just drilling for it?
4) As to the “one main switch for cutting off the flow of oil by closing a valve located on the ocean floor,” do we know if there even was a flow of oil happening when this rig blew up? Drilling rigs drill for months without encountering any oil. What you seem to be describing here is bottom-located production equipment, the kind that would be installed when oil is being produced by a permanent production platform, not a semi-submersible drilling rig.
Does anybody here actually know what the facts of this case are? Lord knows the main stream press corp (the useful idiots) are so busy comparing it to Valdez, they don’t bother to actually do their jobs and answer the what, why, when, how and provide some meaningful context and comparisons. Is this Valdez or Ixtoc 1 which while 10+ times a bigger spill than Valdez did little environmental damage.
5) What does generally stop a disaster of this type in a drilling situation are the blow-out preventers or “BOPs.” A BOP operates by slamming down on both sides of the drilling tubing (called drill string) and thereby cutting off any flow of hydrocarbons. Certainly on a state of the art piece of equipment like the Horizon, they were installed and working. They automatically operate in the event of certain pressure changes. My guess is that this rig was drilling and punched through into a massive hyrdrocarbon (gas and oil) rich zone. The “kick” as we call it was so massive, it shattered the drill string below the BOP. That kick was so violent it also did substantial damage at the surface of the rig and that is what caused the fire. The BOP never even had a chance to work.
What bothers me is that while this is a good working theory, it is nothing but a theory until we know some facts. And we can’t know any facts until the idiotic press starts asking some real questions. Anybody that has read in the press any answers to these questions, please chime in.
Here are some other things to think about. Is the “oil” slick oil from the borehole that was being drilled or is it diesel stored on the rig, or both. How much diesel was stored on the rig for usage in drilling operations?
Valdez spilled some 262,000 barrels of oil. The initial rate on this incident was reported as 1,000 barrels a day, so it would take almost a year to spew what Valdez did. Now, we hear its 5,000 bpd. What the truth really is, who knows. Ixtoc 1 spewed some 3.5 million barrels at 10k to 30k bpd. It fouled beaches in Mexico and Texas, but the effects were nothing compared to Valdez. It remains to be seen if this event is closer to Ixtoc 1 or Valdez, but some intelligent comparisons and analyses would be nice versus the sensationalism and hysteria dominating the headlines these days.
I have seen news stories talking about the potential for this spill to foul “rocks” and “beaches.” What rocks? Not many of those along the GOM coast. What beaches? Mostly where this oil seems to be going there are marshes. There are beaches in Mississippi, but as anyone whose been to them can attest, they suck. Brown Mississippi River effluent, brown sand, worthless for swimming. I don’t mean to minimize the potential ecological disaster, but let’s analyze it rationally and talk about what may really happen and not engage in projection from what happened in Alaska.
Sabotage? Not a conspiracy nut but all of this stuff coming this close together(two mines, refinery and the oil rig)seem very suspicious.
There have been other explosions and fires on oil rigs but none have dumped the oil into the ocean that this one has.
Bozo comes out for drilling off shore and then, wham, a disaster sure to set the left wing greenies crying and screaming to shut down all oil rigs. Cap and trade here we come.