Oil Spill in Gulf

[tombstone]

Pressure from the reservoir pushes the oil to the surface, Flow tubing pressure on big wells can be above 1200 psi. the downhole valve or sssv on a completed well works off hydraulics. takes 10,000 -15,000 psi to operate most of these. BP is taking a lot of heat from various media outlets for the spill, believe me if they could stop this, it already would have been done!! We are just seeing the risk of drilling and producing petroleum in the deep water Gulf first hand.
First, big explosion and loss of life, next an environmental catastrophe. It's a dammmm shame but its the risk. Many redundant Safety systems failed for this to occur. Does this suck?, yes!!. Can we do anything about it?, No!! So, if you are having problems stomaching the spill, go and drain your engines of oil and your tanks of gas and see how far you get!! Believe me, this spill upsets me. The marshes I hunt and fish are threatened right now, the seafood , oysters, and fish I consume are threatened right now!! Am I worried about the outcome?, yes. Did I feel up my Tundra today for $ 55 dollars, when without drilling in the Gulf I probably wouldnt even have the truck. So tonight, before I lay my head down on the pillow, I will pray for the families and souls of the missing and for the tiredless effort of everyone trying to keep the oil off my beach!!!

great post.

[Relentless]

good post

[quackheadbp]

Was there proof that BP did not install a shut off valve? or is this just hear say? I ask this because I work for Shell and im a Asst. Sub Sea Engineer and the B.O.P is what i deal with. I highly doubt that they didnt install one, and it being Trans Ocean also gives me pause to think one was not installed. I may be wrong though.

[MudHog]

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced that BP PLC has agreed to allow local fishermen to assist in the expected cleanup. Under the agreement, shrimpers and fishermen could be contracted by BP to help.

I don't see major hard from running within the oil. The wake behind a boat would be clean water when on step as the hull would be pushing the oil at the surface aside in the wake. When at idle, the foot would be below the oil line as well.

[ACEINTHEHOLE]

Report on fox news said that unsuccesfully tried to use shut off valve on sea floor.

[JDgator]

I know its unlikely that this was an unfortunate accident, but what does it take for a trusted worker to sabotage an oil rig? Seriously. Could one guy start a major catashrophe? The timing, when considering the passing of the drilling legislation, is very convenient for those hyper-activist liberal groups. PETA is willing to kill humans to stop the killing of animals. There are groups that are willing to blow up an oil in order to stop drilling. This would make a great movie with Jack Bauer...

[quackheadbp]

They took a bad kick prob. Sometimes the well cannot be controlled, but I highly doubt it was staged.

[kingfish80]

Pressure from the reservoir pushes the oil to the surface, Flow tubing pressure on big wells can be above 1200 psi. the downhole valve or sssv on a completed well works off hydraulics. takes 10,000 -15,000 psi to operate most of these. BP is taking a lot of heat from various media outlets for the spill, believe me if they could stop this, it already would have been done!! We are just seeing the risk of drilling and producing petroleum in the deep water Gulf first hand.
First, big explosion and loss of life, next an environmental catastrophe. It's a dammmm shame but its the risk. Many redundant Safety systems failed for this to occur. Does this suck?, yes!!. Can we do anything about it?, No!! So, if you are having problems stomaching the spill, go and drain your engines of oil and your tanks of gas and see how far you get!! Believe me, this spill upsets me. The marshes I hunt and fish are threatened right now, the seafood , oysters, and fish I consume are threatened right now!! Am I worried about the outcome?, yes. Did I feel up my Tundra today for $ 55 dollars, when without drilling in the Gulf I probably wouldnt even have the truck. So tonight, before I lay my head down on the pillow, I will pray for the families and souls of the missing and for the tiredless effort of everyone trying to keep the oil off my beach!!!

Very well said

[LawDawg]

Pressure from the reservoir pushes the oil to the surface, Flow tubing pressure on big wells can be above 1200 psi. the downhole valve or sssv on a completed well works off hydraulics. takes 10,000 -15,000 psi to operate most of these. BP is taking a lot of heat from various media outlets for the spill, believe me if they could stop this, it already would have been done!! We are just seeing the risk of drilling and producing petroleum in the deep water Gulf first hand.
First, big explosion and loss of life, next an environmental catastrophe. It's a dammmm shame but its the risk. Many redundant Safety systems failed for this to occur. Does this suck?, yes!!. Can we do anything about it?, No!! So, if you are having problems stomaching the spill, go and drain your engines of oil and your tanks of gas and see how far you get!! Believe me, this spill upsets me. The marshes I hunt and fish are threatened right now, the seafood , oysters, and fish I consume are threatened right now!! Am I worried about the outcome?, yes. Did I feel up my Tundra today for $ 55 dollars, when without drilling in the Gulf I probably wouldnt even have the truck. So tonight, before I lay my head down on the pillow, I will pray for the families and souls of the missing and for the tiredless effort of everyone trying to keep the oil off my beach!!!

Agreed, but I please tell me how to get the mental image of you "feeling" up your tundra out of my head.



Sorry, I had to.

[tombstone]

I know its unlikely that this was an unfortunate accident, but what does it take for a trusted worker to sabotage an oil rig? Seriously. Could one guy start a major catashrophe? The timing, when considering the passing of the drilling legislation, is very convenient for those hyper-activist liberal groups. PETA is willing to kill humans to stop the killing of animals. There are groups that are willing to blow up an oil in order to stop drilling. This would make a great movie with Jack Bauer...

The same thoughts crossed my mind. I know...I am paranoid

[BAY KINGFISHER]

Jd, very interesting thought. I never worked in drilling so I really dont know. I can tell you in production someone with a little knowledge could make a big mess for sure. As far as getting a well to just flow out of control without being able to be stopped it, there is either failure of a valve or no valve in place. A completed well with tree in place is physically equiped to shut in below the mudline in a quaranteed fire situation. Someone pulls the ESD (emergency shut down) or a TSE (Temperaure safety valve) actuates. The safety sytems takes over whether pneumatically actuated, electric, or both. In the case the safety sytems fail (production only, cause this is all I know) eventually the tubing that is holding the pressure on the "normally closed" downhole valve will eventually part (do to fire or collapsing) and the loss of pressure shuts the well in below the mudline. I havent really heard about the technical happenings that caused this catastrophe but, my gut instinct says they took one heck of a kick causing a blow out and the safety systems failed to contain the problem.
Heck, Ive seen a bag of burned popcorn in the galley shut down 6 wells producing 225,ooo barrels a day and 300 mcf of gas within the required 45 seconds at well head and 2 minutes below the mud!! . The safety sytems on those floaters are state of the art, using plc logic and touch screens HMIs to run everything. MMS makes them test them monthly and can be spot checked at anytime.



HEHEHE " feeling" sorry twins been keeping me up at night!!!! Ill fix it!!

[MSDawg870]

I think this is a result of a 5 star reggin riggin'.

[cootkiller]

I am in the gulf right now on a Transocean rig. I am the Sr. Subsea(In charge of maintenance on the BOP's) I cant say alot but can say a little about what is going on with all this. There was a BOP in place when the blowout occured. As to why it didnt work that is unknown. We on other rigs know about as much as most see on TV with the exception of talking to someone who was on the Horizon when it happened or getting told by Field Support which isn't much. They are exhausting every known measure and few that have never been heard of to try and stop the flow from the well. I do know this, MMS is hitting every rig in the Gulf with specific interests in the Well Control Systems and the failsafe's installed on them that should prevent what happened on the Horizon. I have spent the better part of 3 days double and triple checking every piece of maint. history and testing we have done. There will be some serious mandatory actions when the investigations are all said and done on what happened and why. I just wish it was all a bad dream cause I knew 2 of the guys that died and alot that made it off.

[marty lee]

is this a sweet crude well? i am assuming it is. if it was a sour well it could even be worse.
Yall stay safe out there....glad to be on land at least i can haul booty if i need to....

[Po Monkey Lounger]

This situation is unacceptable. From the tragic loss of life, to the impending environmental disaster.

Yes, accidents are going to happen. And that is precisely why one in such a business should be prepared for such accidents ---as they are predictable. Even though I know nothing about the oil business, I do know that, based upon logic and reason, that the fact we are in this predicament means that the safety measures in place, whatever they were, failed miserably. There were obvious design flaws ---eg the inability to simply shut off the oil coming from the well. One could easily envision that such a well should have been designed with "break off" points well above the bottom, with shut off valves located at the base, and perhaps at other levels along the pipeline. And to mitigate the damage of oil leaking before any such shut off can occur, it appears that the equipment needed for such was NOT readily available and took waaaay too much time to get into place for utilization. There did not appear to be a satisfactory sense of urgency from the outset of this matter --- to the contrary, we were all be told that this would not be any big deal.

Now, due to delays in mitigation, and poor planning in design and trouble shooting, we have what appears to be a major disaster in the making --- one that will affect all of us.

IMO, this is not something that should stop all oil drilling in the Gulf and other such areas. But, it is something that should be learned from and ALL EFFORTS made to make sure it NEVER happens again. This was entirely preventable. Most accidents usually are. And the damage was preventable as well. This company that owns this oil rig SHOULD be required to pay damages to each and every person, business, etc. that is damaged by this oil leak --- down to the penny. Then, the next time such a company is contructing such an oil rig, they perhaps will go above the minimum standards required, and use all reasonably available technology and safety mechanisms at the time, instead of trying to save a bit of money on the front end, and wind up paying a whole heap of money on the tail end. Businesses SHOULD be allowed to succeed and FAIL, if they make poor business decisons. It is the only way that proper behavior will thereafter be implemented.