Posted on 09/12/2010 9:43:56 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
This thread is being closed. Please comment on http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6946.
BP's new report giving their version of what happened at the time of the explosion comes to a rather surprising conclusion--that the blowout preventer worked, but too late. If the rig crew had taken different actions, the explosion and fire might have been prevented. According to a Wall Street Journal article titled Rig Workers Had Chance to Prevent Explosion:
Contrary to what most oil industry experts thought based on testimony in government hearings, not only did the crew manage to activate the blowout preventer—the huge set of valves designed to shut off the flow of gas in an emergency—but the preventer worked. Unfortunately, workers only triggered it after gas had blown past its valves.
Then, as the gas already in the pipe raced upward toward them, workers decided to divert the flow through a system aboard the rig, rather than over the side, giving the gas a chance to envelop the rig and ignite.
If workers had either realized the problem with the incoming gas moments sooner or steered the flow of the gas differently, the gas might never have reached the rig floor, the report finds.
Of course, this is BP's interpretation. Others, when analyzing what happened may very well come to different conclusions. With the blowout preventer now available for examination, this may shed further light on the situation.
According to the WSJ:
At 9:41 p.m., the report says, heavy drilling mud shot out the top of the well, apparently the first time the crew realized they were in serious trouble. Workers quickly triggered a part of the blowout preventer that seals off the well with a rubber valve. The valve closed, but didn't fully seal, allowing some gas to squeeze through, the report says.
By this point, even if the valve had sealed, gas had already risen past the blowout preventer and was racing up the mile-long pipe leading from the well on the sea floor to the rig floating at the surface, the report said.
At 9:47 p.m., the blowout preventer did finally stop the flow of gas, either because workers clamped down tighter on the rubber seal or because they deployed a different, tougher valve, the report says. But at the same moment, alarms on the rig began to blare, indicating that gas had reached the surface.
Still, with the well at least temporarily sealed, workers had a finite amount of gas to control. If they could get rid of the gas without it catching fire, the flow would stop and there would be time to find a more permanent solution.
There is some corroboration with this version of the story in that some witnesses say the mud suddenly stopped shooting up.
The question BP raises is whether there would have been a way of preventing the explosion at that time, by dumping the mud and gas overboard, instead of following the required procedure. According to the WSJ,
Workers had made another fateful decision in the first moments of the blowout: They had directed the gas and drilling fluid coming out of the well through a system on board the rig rather than straight overboard. Normally, that would have been the right decision. Dumping oil-based fluid overboard is a violation of federal law and could have drawn a substantial fine. The system on the rig was designed to capture the fluid and get rid of the gas.
But in this case, the sheer volume of gas overwhelmed the system.
At 9:49am, there was a huge explosion, and nothing more could be done. According to the BP version of the story, the temporary valve that the workers managed to close later worked loose, starting the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Broad ping.
There is usually plenty of blame to spread around, a reality for which our adversarial legal systems are inherently unsuited.
Alternate approachs are discussed also...
They have not been updated to account for the extension of the national "border" out to 200 miles from shore.
It looks like at every step of the way this disaster was driven by and augmented through the application of th eEPA rules ~ to wit, we can't use skimmer technology because, low and behold, it involves returning water with miniscule amounts of oil back into the Gulf.
Eventually someone whould look at those rules and the laws behind them (which were all written for a different purpose) and see if they can be brought up to date to fit modern conditions.
Be a good idea to NOT allow any lawyers to work on this ~ just engineers and people trained in the control of oil and other volatile substances.
They likely had many chances and took advantage of none of them.
Daughter #1 (FReeper Nattieshe) has her 18th birthday party today.
Her actual bd was yesterday, 9-11.
Daughter #1 (FReeper Nattieshe) has her 18th birthday party today, and what an outstanding young woman she has become.
Her actual bd was yesterday, 9-11.
There are two comments appearing there by Subotai Bahadur (someone Wretchard trusts as may you after you read him) that discusses the implications of the names of the "Russians" captured.
SB says their IDs bear fishy Russified names of Islamic origins. He first offers his non-expert name analysis, then gets confirmation from an associate who is. After explaining their work they conclude that the men are operatives, and move on from there. Here's how SB ends it:
Both my friend and I agree that if there are further energy related incidents that the power of coincidence would be stretched beyond credibility. Once is chance, twice is coincidence, three times is hostile action. We should keep our eyes open, for our government will not.Worth consideration where discussing these repetitive incidents. Especially for C_O with your love of names and study of original languages.
“fishy Russified names of Islamic origins” — huge surprise, wot?
Pass on a Happy Birthday to her from me..
Interesting developments. I am sure many of us where surprised to find out the BOP actually worked as designed in this case.
“huge surprise, wot?”
Yep. Almost toooo easy. A deliberate sacrifice? There is too much room to speculate.
So what’s the simplest explanation? No, no — they expect us to use Occam’s razor. What’s the SECOND simplest explanation? :)
Oh great...I just apologized to her for failing to send her an e-card yesterday. Now you tell me she celebrated today. LOL. Oh well...she knows I love her. Hugs all around.
Yesterday was Shabbat. The congregation sang "happy birthday" (and a more heartfelt rendition I cannot remember), but today was more appropriate for the actual party.
Daddy is a bit introspective. It's been wonderful, but now she's grown. It won't be long.
Oh, I know what you mean. They grow up way too fast. You have done a good job with them and they will be fine. The foundation is solid.
ping for later
May God bless you Nattieshea.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.