Posted on 04/29/2010 11:52:51 AM PDT by Donald Rumsfeld Fan
On all offshore oil rigs, there is one main switch for cutting off the flow of oil by closing a valve located on the ocean floor. Many rigs also have automatic systems, such as a "dead man" switch as a backup that is supposed to close the valve if it senses a catastrophic failure aboard the rig.
Much still isn't known about what caused the problems in Deepwater Horizon's well, nearly a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. It went out of control, sending oil surging through pipes to the surface and causing a fire that ultimately sank the rig.
Unmanned submarines that arrived hours after the explosion have been unable to activate the shut-off valve on the seabed, called a blowout preventer.
BP says the Deepwater Horizon did have a "dead man" switch, which should have automatically closed the valve on the seabed in the event of a loss of power or communication from the rig. BP said it can't explain why it didn't shut off the well.
Transocean drillers aboard the rig at the time of the explosion, who should have been in a position to hit the main cutoff switch, are among the dead. It isn't known if they were able to reach the button, which would have been located in the area where the fire is likely to have started.
Tony Hayward, BP's CEO, said finding out why the blowout preventer didn't shut down the well is the key question in the investigation. "This is the failsafe mechanism that clearly has failed," Mr. Hayward said in an interview.
Lars Herbst, regional director of the Minerals Management Service in the Gulf of Mexico, said investigators are focusing on why the blowout preventer failed.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsgroups.derkeiler.com ...
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!
Envirowackos disabled it?
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.
Rush commented briefly on this too . . . SWAT teams? Terorism, sabatage, or copy-cat prevention? What is going on? Too little information right now, but it does catch our attention.
That’s about the dumbest move I’ve ever seen.
Seems they had the same problem with the Texas City Plant.
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?
BP (British) represented by Podesta Group, Tony Podesta the no. 2 bundler for the Democrats, ...Follow the money to the Whitehouse.
And we heard for 8 years about Dick Cheney??!!!
Rush and others are hinting sabotage. Too many coincidences. e.g. one day before earth day.
WONDER HOW THE FLASH BLUBS ON THOSE CAMERAS WILL IMPACT THE AUTOMATIC FIRE ALARMS ON THE RIGS....THAT SHOULD BE INTERESTING.
Could be.
Remember the "underwear" bomber? Nobody wanted full body scanners prior to that event yet after the so-called bomb attempt everybody was screaming for them.
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