What caused the Deepwater Horizon disaster? ( An Analysis )

The Oil Drum ^ | May 21, 2010 - 10:28am | aeberman

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Author’s Note: I am grateful to the many drilling and completion engineers that consulted with me on this post to arrive at plausible explanations and interpretations of what happened in the final hours on the semisubmersible drilling rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. The analysis that follows is based on these discussions as well as my own 32 years of experience as a geologist working in the oil and gas industry.

It is early in the process of discovering what really happened. Because of the gravity and potential impact of this disaster on the nation and my industry, however, I wanted to provide an early and more investigative perspective than much of what has appeared in the media to date. The risk, of course, is that more information will invalidate some of what follows. I, therefore, wish to clarify that this is a fact-based interpretation of what may have happened on the Deepwater Horizon on April 20, 2010 but, in the end, it is an interpretation. - Art Berman

The blowout and oil spill on the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico was caused by a flawed well plan that did not include enough cement between the 7-inch production casing and the 9 7/8-inch protection casing. The presumed blowout preventer (BOP) failure is an important but secondary issue. Although the resulting oil spill has potentially grave environmental implications, recent efforts to limit the flow with an insertion tube have apparently been effective. Continuous efforts to slow or stop the flow include drilling two nearby relief wells that may intersect the MC 252 wellbore within 60-90 days.

[Deaf Smith]

They were losing mud circulation in the production zone. They knew the formation could not support the weight of the drilling mud.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

I UNDERSTAND what likely happened. What I am TRYING to make others understand is that IF you fired a torpedo into a riser, full of mud, it would NOT blow up. IF I were going to blow one up I would pick one full of gas and crude. There is NO WAY anyone could have known that at just that moment there would/might be gas present.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See #38.

[wbill]

yup. poor planning. poor execution.

Incompetence + Incompetence = Incompetence.

[Crolis]

Thanks. Bumping for later reading.

[norraad]

Nitrogen is heavy and won't support combustion.

If you can afford it ( and they can) , it can be compressed almost to liquid state down the hole quickly to balance pressure drop.

Just one of the many automated non-stupid procedures that should have already been at the ready.

[SouthTexas]

mark

[1010RD]

Americans are ill informed about lots of things.

Only exceeded by the politicians they elect to fix said things.

[Bigun]

I UNDERSTAND what likely happened. What I am TRYING to make others understand is that IF you fired a torpedo into a riser, full of mud, it would NOT blow up. IF I were going to blow one up I would pick one full of gas and crude. There is NO WAY anyone could have known that at just that moment there would/might be gas present.

Not to mention that even if one were foolish enough to want to cut the riser thinking that something catastrophic might result attempting to hit the thing with a torpedo would be akin to spearing a strand of spaghetti with a toothpick! Completely foolish! It would be SO much easier to just attach a limpet type mine to the thing a go on about your business so that you could be far far away when the thing went off and severed the riser.

[stevie_d_64]

Wait a sec...

This is a trick question, right??? ;-)

As my wife who teaches 4th grade has to tell her kids...

“Use your strategies!!!”

(I have been known to be the world’s largest producer of natural gas...But that’s a different issue)

[1010RD]

Thanks for thinking, but an international eco-terror conspiracy planned at the highest level of power and money makes for exciting reading.