Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hours

New York Times ^ | 25 December, 2010 | DAVID BARSTOW, DAVID ROHDE and STEPHANIE SAUL

[brityank]

The worst of the explosions gutted the Deepwater Horizon stem to stern.

Crew members were cut down by shrapnel, hurled across rooms and buried under smoking wreckage. Some were swallowed by fireballs that raced through the oil rig

[brityank]

Just my humble opinion:
I know everyone has been beating up BP and Halliburton, but I think Transocean should be the main culprit to the loss of life and vessel. TO had delayed the inspection and maintenance of the BOP Assy for several years, and the lack of corrective maintenance to various critical systems including the General Alarm are direct causes for the confusion and mistakes of the crew. While it's true that BP was paying the bill and demanding results, you don't let your equipment deteriorate to comply. As this shows, that can be, and in this case was, disastrous.

[screaminsunshine]

I still think they sank it by applying too much water to it.

[abb]

Probably. However, had the fire been allowed to burn, likely the rig would eventually have sunk and collapsed and twisted the drill stem.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

My takeaway from that article is that at multiple critical decision points no one was willing to take responsibility for corrective actions that would risk further major damage to equipment or delay to the project - management did not want to specify decision criteria for circumstances no one really wanted to acknowledge were possible, and lacking that sort of guidance employees were not willing to take likely career-killing corrective action.

[barb-tex]

Interesting, heart stopping story. It proves that Murphy's Law is still in effect. The confusion factor is almost always too high for a manually control system. Also in almost every case, there is a reluctance to push the Panic button, knowing you will be criticized for it. If you have ever been in a going to Hell situation, this story is pretty typical.

[lentulusgracchus]

Ping for possible interest.

[DH]

Typical NYT reporting. Right from the “get-go” a flagrant error.....”Dazed and battered survivors, half-naked and dripping in highly combustible gas...”

You won’t find any GASOLINE on any offshore drilling rig. Only DIESEL is allowed. Diesel is not considered “highly combustible.”

From that mistake on, I have to take everything else in the article as hype and speculation.

[abb]

ping

[abb]

Of course the story The New York Times will never write is how quickly the environmental effects of the spill have gone away.

[no-s]

My takeaway from that article is that at multiple critical decision points no one was willing to take responsibility for corrective actions that would risk further major damage to equipment or delay to the project

Or it could just be the NYT talking out it's ass again. Some of the details reported were not credible, e.g. the "dripping with gas". The takeaway scenario you recognize is a stock framing stereotype with the NYT. You're supposed to cluck your tongue at the plight of the poor hapless workers, fell victims of corporate mismanagement and greed...'cause that's all that corporations are capable of, don'tcha know?

I personally will not draw conclusions from reading the NYT. It's way worse than Wikipedia at rooting out biased POV...

[Ben Ficklin]

When they say gas, they are referring to natural gas, not gasoline.

[Talf]

is a geyser of drilling fluid considered normal?

[03A3]

Which begs the question of how gas drips.

[Ben Ficklin]

Natural gas contains condensates that are in their gaseous state downhole at higher temperatures and pressures. At the surface with lower temps and pressure they will condense as liquids. Such as:

C6- hexane
C7- heptane
C8- octane

[bray]

It likely was caused by some enviorwacko in the gummit forcing them not to use drilling mud. Amazing how the only people who benefited were the environazis and $oro$. The rest of us are already paying w/higher gas prices.

Pray for the Tea Party congress

[starlifter]

I believe they were referring to condensed natural gas. No where in the article did they refer to gasoline.

[Patton@Bastogne]

.

It's a slow news cycle ... the ecomony is sick ... "Zero" has been confirmed as the "Village Idot and Liar-through-his-Teeth" ...

What else can the NY Slimes write about ?

.

[Patton@Bastogne]

You're correct ... I worked on rigs in the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico, as well as South Texas Gas Fields (McAllen) ...

Invariably, the guy who finally pushes the "Panic Button" will see his oilfield career quietly terminated ...

His choice is between wtching his friends die and his family's starvation ...

BTW ... it's not that much different if you work for NASA ...

I pointed-out the fatal flaws in the Space Shuttle External Tanks (SOFI) foam system way back in 1986, a decade before NASA's arrogance cost America the Columbia Space Shuttle in 2003 ...

NASA's response to my repeated (written) warnings ?

"Terminate him" ...

"thanks" to Martin-Marietta as well ...


.

[Bigun]

Natural gas contains condensates that are in their gaseous state downhole at higher temperatures and pressures. At the surface with lower temps and pressure they will condense as liquids. Such as:

C6- hexane C7- heptane C8- octane

Bull sh*t!

You obviously haven't the first clue as to what you are talking about!

Nothing below C4 (butane) was ever in a gaseous state at any point in the well bore! C3s and 4s liberated at the surface MAY condense if the temperature there is below 32degF (C4) or -43degF (C3) at atmospheric pressure. Neither of those conditions were remotely in existence on the Deepwater Horizon at the time of this incident.

[Bigun]

The New York Times may well have gained access to a great deal of data but there is obviously no one there with the slightest clue as to how to interpret any of it!