RE: 100,000 BBLS OPD In The Gulf??

[434 2]

I Used to work on Oil rigs as an well service cementer, so I know a little bit about the safety equipment and deep water drilling. My responsibility was to pressure testing all high pressure equipment onboard included BOB, and in case of an kick be pumping a kill pill, if still on riser of course. That means I would have stayed at my position until the well was under control.

Do you know the formation pressure where they was driling?

U.S. regulators don't mandate use of the remote-control device on offshore rigs, and the Deepwater Horizon, hired by oil giant BP PLC, didn't have one. With the 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.

Nevertheless, regulators in two major oil-producing countries, Norway and Brazil, in effect require them. Norway has had acoustic triggers on almost every offshore rig since 1993.

"The U.S. considered requiring a remote-controlled shut-off mechanism several years ago, but drilling companies questioned its cost and effectiveness, according to the agency overseeing offshore drilling. The agency, the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, says it decided the remote device wasn't needed because rigs had other back-up plans to cut off a well.

The U.K., where BP is headquartered, doesn't require the use of acoustic triggers.

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.


As a third line of defense, some rigs have the acoustic trigger: It's a football-sized remote control that uses sound waves to communicate with the valve on the seabed floor and close it.

An acoustic trigger costs about $500,000, industry officials said. The Deepwater Horizon had a replacement cost of about $560 million, and BP says it is spending $6 million a day to battle the oil spill."

Read more
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704423504575212031417936798.html

[434 2]

The formation reservoir have so much greater pressure inside than the surface formation could hold. The seabed would just been teared up in pieces.

[434 2]

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There are other systems in place to prevent this, although they were unable to do so due the tremendous pressure at hand. Deep water drilling is very dangerous and comes with entirely new risk compared to drilling in shallow gulf waters.

They knew the Oil reservoir pressure from before they started drilling the well, and then they have safety procedures and experience from other oilfield´s around the world. It will be interesting to see what caused this accident, if it was equipment failure of a procedure/ safety failure due to time and cost.

[rwieder 0]

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The knew the Oil reservoir pressure from before they started this drilling, and then they have safety procedures and experience from other oilfield´s around the world. It will be interesting to see what caused this accident, if it was equipment failure of a procedure/ safety failure due to time and cost.

Excuse me for saying so, but I could swear your fishing for information on this deal. Questions are one thing you have plenty of. Only the young & inexperienced of petroleum based personal would remark on this event, let alone answer the types of questions your asking. I apologise in advance if I'm wrong on this one. I've been deposed more than once over the years, and no one asks questions like you do for personal information. If it's a professional witness your looking for, your barking up the wrong tree with me.

-Richard-
"You're Holding The Rope And I'm Taking The Fall"

[tjm 0]

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There are other systems in place to prevent this, although they were unable to do so due the tremendous pressure at hand. Deep water drilling is very dangerous and comes with entirely new risk compared to drilling in shallow gulf waters.

They knew the Oil reservoir pressure from before they started this drilling, and then they have safety procedures and experience from other oilfield´s around the world. It will be interesting to see what caused this accident, if it was equipment failure of a procedure/ safety failure due to time and cost.

Yes they knew the oil reservoir pressure, but when hitting a gas pocket it becomes much greater. This is why they have blow out preventers. Of course they failed in this case.

From what I've heard around the local industry, it was an operator and engineering error, which sent the wrong mixture down the well when they were permantly encasing the well. Which is done before production begins.

Speculation aside, let's see what arises when farther investigation is done.

If you're not living on the edge; you're taking up too much room!

[tjm 0]

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>Drilling in the gulf undoubtally creates jobs for americans.

True - but accidents like this can destroy the livelihoods of even more Americans. We definitely need oil, but we also need to not destroy whole industries.

We've gotten much better at the technology required to safely drill and pump oil from offshore. But the sad fact is that even if we maintain today's (fairly high) levels of safety, if we drill more we will have more accidents like this one. We do need to keep pumping oil, but even more importantly we need to start reducing our usage of it.

Agreed. Its a doubled edge sword for me. I want more and more drilling to take place for good business, but I personally know a lot of people in the fishing and seafod industries that will be forced to postpone business or shutdown due to the spill.

I've never actually thought of this happening. Its quite an unfortunate shock.

If you're not living on the edge; you're taking up too much room!

[sundevil777 102]

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Hey, explosives - BOOM - too bad no knockers, eh? What's good for the gander is good for the GROOSe. 230,000 people dead in Haiti - but not a peep out of you. Let's go! Smash those bastards. Spare a quarter for a tsunami on rye anyone? Not you; you could care less as long as you get OIL of your money. So fill out them templates and have another (not) beer.

Bad form, really bad form for a moderator.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[434 2]

Big Oil Fought Off New Safety Rules Before Rig Explosion

As families mourn the 11 workers thrown overboard in the worst oil rig disaster in decades and as the resulting spill continues to spread through the Gulf of Mexico, new questions are being raised about the training of the drill operators and about the oil company's commitment to safety.

Deepwater Horizon, the giant technically-advanced rig which exploded on April 20 and sank two days later, is leaking an estimated 42,000 gallons per day through a pipe about 5,000 feet below the surface. The spill has spread across 1,800 square miles -- an area larger than Rhode Island -- according to satellite images, oozing its way toward the Louisiana coast and posing a threat to wildlife, including a sperm whale spotted in the oil sheen.

The massive $600 million rig, which holds the record for boring the deepest oil and gas well in the world -- at 35,050 feet - had passed three recent federal inspections, the most recent on April 1, since it moved to its current location in January. The cause of the explosion has not been determined.

Yet relatives of workers who are presumed dead claim that the oil behemoth BP and rig owner TransOcean violated "numerous statutes and regulations" issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard, according to a lawsuit filed by Natalie Roshto, whose husband Shane, a deck floor hand, was thrown overboard by the force of the explosion and whose body has not yet been located.

Both companies failed to provide a competent crew, failed to properly supervise its employees and failed to provide Rushto with a safe place to work, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The lawsuit also names oil-services giant Halliburton as a defendant, claiming that the company "prior to the explosion, was engaged in cementing operations of the well and well cap and, upon information and belief, improperly and negligently performed these duties, which was a cause of the explosion."

BP and TransOcean have also aggressively opposed new safety regulations proposed last year by a federal agency that oversees offshore drilling -- which were prompted by a study that found many accidents in the industry.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/26/big-oil-fought-off-new-sa_n_552575.html

Halliburton in spotlight in gulf spill probe
Investigators delving into the causes of the massive gulf oil spill are examining the role of Houston-based Halliburton Co., the giant energy services company that was responsible for cementing the deepwater drill hole, as well as the possible failure of equipment leased to British Petroleum.

Read more here
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/01/nation/la-na-oil-spill-investigation-20100501

[1969912 0]

Here is a link to a 1.3 MB pdf file with a good description of the incident and a bunch of good pictures:

http://api.ning.com/files/lT2XJFWezFLNIhf2bMAnwJ36wItSQJvG7Y7l60mCT*M5LJ-fYAOPz1ePYjE8YxbX31ctxPAJOQcQyrL48g8U36tKEjgL4xc1/Horizon1.pdf

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG

[pilotsR4pimps 0]

people are so concerned with the "human" deaths and associations... what about the more important ecological armageddon that is already affecting the area, and it's gonna get worse (you know, the environment and all within it that we require for our own survival).... silly humans and their anthropocentric views