Posted on 05/05/2010 6:51:46 AM PDT by Nobel_1
Personal comment - with 20-20 hindsight, the engineers should have employed a secondary blowout system from a different manufacturer with a failsafe remote trigger.
A BOPBOP?
Why not a BOPBOPBOP?
Interesting article, but editorials aren’t “Breaking News.”
You make a good point--adding complexity to the system, even if it's "failsafe" measures, doesn't necessarily increase the reliability or safety of the system.
BP self-ping, and thanks for posting this, Nobel_1.
WBAP Dallas / Mark Davis - transcript of first-hand account of accident ... http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?hpf=1&a_id=92765
BTTT
I cannot imagine that standard hazard review procedures would not have such a valve already, so I'm wondering about some of these procedural details in the article. Certainly the seawater would become saturated with natural gas thus requiring the purging process be executed with adequate ventilation; inadequate air exchanges and no go. So if there was no wind, why did they go ahead?
Not to monday morning quarterback but the industry should have one of these blow out cones they are building now to drop on a leak. It appears to just be a huge iron or steel cone. I would guess at the top there is a valve that can suck out the oil. It seems like it is just a huge and heavy piece of metal.
Avoiding disasters is a better option but this thing could have been dropped on the leak after two days. I realize it does not solve the problem but reduces the chances of a spill or reduces the time of a spill or leak to about 2 days. Have one on the docks in TX or LA and have ships in the area available to move quickly.
The acoustic device discussed is not a separate BOP.
It is another set of switches for remotely activating the same BOP. Since the BOP won’t work from direct operation from the main control panel on the BOP, another remote switch trying to trigger the same set of valves will not help.
Think of it this way. If the main breaker of the electrical panelboard in your house is off, adding light switches inside the house is not going to get the lights on.
From the Mark Davis / WBAP first-hand account (see http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?hpf=1&a_id=92765 for transcript), it appears the BOP had just passed a test, and they had displaced the mud with sea water ... which was when the gas bubble (”kick”) occurred under high pressure.
The sea water was blown out the top of the rig, and the gas (heavier than air) decended and found an ignition source. Crew raced to life boats after initial explosion ...
and where the hell was bummer’s bopbopbop czar when all this was going on????
Good info ping
BOPS can’t close if blocked by something the shears can’t cut.
and that is the problem at this time.
you can have all the switches you want...ain’t gonna matter
I suspect you DON’T work in the oilfield and don’t understand WHAT BOPS are used for.
The metal dome will have a spot on the top with flanges, they will attach COFLEXIP hose to it.
They will try to guide that escaping oil from the damaged well head up into the metal funnel and they hope the pressured oil will be pushed up one mile in an oil stream to be collected at the surfaces boomed in and with a collection method.
So instead of a CLOUD of oil coming up to the surface, it will be a controlled (they hope) column of oil surfacing.
WE will see.
Two mitigation thoughts came from offshore people at the OTC conference this week ... one was a dual-BOP setup, using different technologies on each with deadman switches.
The second idea was simply to adopt the “Norway standard” with remote signalling capability.
(Some BOP history for those of you who are interested ... in 1922, James Smither Abercrombie and Harry S. Cameron invented the ram BOP in Humble, TX. Their invention sealed off a well using a sharp horizontal motion. The first ram BOP was controlled manually, and quickly became an industry standard. Early BOP designs could withstand pressures up to 3,000 psi. Today’s average BOP can withstand 15,000 psi in water depths up to 10,000 ft.)
You can have all the remote signalling capability in the world and it won't make a bit of difference if the BOP is not mechanically functioning or is physically blocked from doing so.
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Remote Acoustic BOP