Posted on 04/23/2010 12:50:45 AM PDT by KDD
Haven't received any more info from friends today ..... I should think RigZone.com would be the best place to check for updated info. I think the chances of those 11 guys being found are about nil by now -- they're prob. all still on that rig floor -- or vaporized, cremated by now.
BP will have had $30-40-50 million in that well when they lost it. NOBODY does stuff like that in the patch anyway; this is all serious damned money, and everyone is trying to make his division or his company pay off at the end of the year. The bottom line is the bottom line!
These are horrendously expensive enterprises and take years to bring to fruition. Every project is like rolling a big rock uphill and involves scores of people. People don't play around with this stuff, and any rig fire is a damned serious business.
Trying to see a political dimension in something like this is a major mistake. The politicking will all be in DC, where the dildo-heads dwell.
Am suspicious also. . .little being said as to 'cause'; and yes, too much 'good timing' on behalf of the dark side.
Actually, no, not necessarily.
A regional university once calculated that natural seeps on the bottom of the Gulf release the equivalent of an Argonaut or an Amoco Cadiz into the water column annually, and have done so for perhaps 40 or 60 million years; but biological activity cleans it all up, burps, and calls for more.
The key word in the headline is “fear”.
You can't do that with blowout preventers because of the serious entailed consequences of an inadvertent activation of the rams. Each BOP stack has an inflatable "bag"-type preventer called a Hydril, which is separate from the main stack. There is also a TIW valve, a kind of check valve, inside the drillpipe. Higher rated are the hydraulic ram sets, which usu. include a set of
This stuff is serious equipment, very bulky and heavy-duty.
Rams are tested religiously, and the MMS and Coast Guard sometimes come out to look over the drilling contractor's men's shoulders. This is no place to play. Blowout preventers stacks are one of the most serious pieces of safety equipment in the oil patch, and when gas comes to surface, people's lives depend on their working first time, every time.
This time, they didn't -- and the Coasties and MMS and BP are going to know why.
On second analysis, I have to admit my tinfoil was wrapped a little too tight. That happens at times, you know.
However, I wouldn't put sabotage past a foreign government like the Chavez bunch or even China. They know all too well that our enviro-whackos are just itching to try and shut down our means of production and the Chinese are already slurping up from our fields (at the edges) at the behest of Venuezela and Cuba. One enviro disaster could impact the entire industry. Thank God the USCG so far has said that no oil is leaking up from below. If we let this stop us we're really doomed in the long run.
This should also offer an impetus to start drilling on land (ANWR) and to further the new technologies that will allow us to recover the crude from the oil shale. I gather that SHELL OIL has just perfected a means to do that and it leaves a tiny footprint. Something to do with sinking heating rods into the shale that raises the temperature to 600 degrees F at which time the oil separates and can be sucked upward. They just finished a tiny test in like Montana and the entire site measured forty feet by forty feet. It was able to draw (tiny site so tiny amount) 5,000 gallons (not barrels) a day, but it proved the technique was sound.
Thanks for the detailed info!
I take it that once the rams are actuated the seal is permanently closed? To reopen, the rammed section needs to be replaced?
ROFL Well sir I admire the admission.
I have no idea how one would sabotage a rig this size. God Bless
I am reminded of an old army saying (probably not unique to the army though): There are few problems that can't be solved with a suitable application of high explosives. The SEAL teams used to stealthily board those platforms just to see if they could after doing a HALO drop from 35K above and swimming to the platforms. They would exfil via a sub. I wouldn't put it past the Chinese to try something similar. They've already been responsible for HACKING us via cyber attacks on a regular basis.
I can tell you how to sink a rig, though I will not, but have no idea how to cause a blowout without being seen. BTW I'm 4th generation oilfield trash and my grandfather was a VP of Global Marine Drilling so I have a little background in this.
Tuna fishing out of Venice and on down and out Southwest Pass is still awesome.
It’s an easy op. But I expect it’s a legit accident. One blew up in the North Sea about 20 years ago that made this one look like a firecracher.
I just punch computer keys but I assure you there is no way to cause a blowout, underwater, when the pipe is full of mud and or cement. This is getting foolish and no one here associated with the industry thinks it can be done.
That was the Piper Alpha, July 6, 1988, for all those interested.
167 men killed, two of those were crewmen of a rescue vessel.
I saw a documentary about it. Amazing film footage and an excellent recreation of the events. A cascade of “minor” errors and faults led to disaster.
Piper Alpha - Deadliest Oil Rig Accident
http://home.versatel.nl/the_sims/rig/pipera.htm
Lots of people seem to want to find a conspiracy. Sadly, these happen all to often. They just usually are not this bad.
Oil Rig Disasters
http://home.versatel.nl/the_sims/rig/index.htm
Of course I defer to your experience, but I'd suggest you read what Travis McGee has to say below. I defer to him waaaay above what anybody in any industry has to say about any special warfare military operation. Navy SEALs specialize in doing what everybody thinks is impossible. I also believe HIM when he suggests it's a legit accident. So I rest.
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