Oil slick

[Chucktown PE]

It's not as if BP did this intentionally. I'm sure they made mistakes but we've all made mistakes in our careers as engineers. It just happens that when they make a mistake in their subsector of the oil/gas industry the consequences are much larger than, if for example, I were to undersize a pipe by 2 inches.
The fact of the matter is that their equipment failed and while it might make some feel good to get angry at some rich CEO, no one could have predicted this. And while we are dependent on companies like BP to deliver oil and gas as part of our energy supply, we have to accept accidents like this as an unfortunate cost of what it takes to allow us to live our intensive energy consumptive lifestyles.

I don't plan to accept this as an "unfortunate cost". The son of one of our pipefitters onsite was killed on that rig. From what I gather from numerous sources, this was very preventable. Of course, this is preliminary and there are a lot of different rumors flying around. However, each of the stories I'm hearing is that the operators / management knew something wasn't quite right, but continued their production as if nothing were wrong. We'll see how it plays out in the end, but "oopsie" doesn't come to mind with this incident. "Negligence" is the word I'm currently using and may very well be using in the months to come.

That may be. But it still appears that there were multiple, cascading failures of redundant pieces of equipment. So even if they were negligent in their drilling, I don't think anyone could have predicted that every valve on the BOP would have failed.

 

[Chucktown PE]

the robot arm is now hitting the pipe with a wrench.

To a robot with a wrench, the entire undersea kingdom is a nail.

I saw that as well. Is that oil that's still spewing or is that the drilling mud? Everything I'm reading is saying that the top kill worked but if that's the case it seems that the plum would have subsided.

 

[frazil]

I think its mud, but if its capped then there shouldn't be mud coming out either, right? What's happening?!!!

 

[Master slacker]

I think there might be a Fudgey story waiting to be written.

 

[FLBuff PE]

I think its mud, but if its capped then there shouldn't be mud coming out either, right? What's happening?!!!

I haven't been keeping track, but I know that first they were trying to pump mud into the hole to stop the oil. Then they were going to follow that with cement (not the eb.com member, but the substance). Maybe the mud is flowing out in the in between time of mud injection to cement injection? All guesses on my part, so I could be blowing smoke up everyone's a$$e$.

 

[jmbeck]

Comments like these are the reason I'm upset with BP. Granted, they're taken out of context. But, even so, do these things really need to be said, considering?

"The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume."

– TONY HAYWARD, CEO of BP, on the scope of the company's oil spill

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/ma...-gulf-oil-spill

"Louisiana isn't the only place that has shrimp."

– RANDY PRESCOTT, BP, on the concerns of rising prices for shrimp and oysters

http://thelensnola.org/2010/05/24/five-yea...ter-capitalism/

 

[Dleg]

the robot arm is now hitting the pipe with a wrench.

To a robot with a wrench, the entire undersea kingdom is a nail.

LOL! Nice one.

I'm not willing to just write this off as an unfortunate cost of drilling for oil, either. Sure, things "just fail" once in a while. But in my experience, there are vast differences in corporate cultures, ways of doing things, general leadership direction from the top, etc., that can all have a dramatic effect on how often things "just fail". As I've said elsewhere, I have no working experience with BP. But I have worked around pretty much all the other oil companies, and saw some where this kind of accident would not have been a surprise. They may eventually be able to attribute the accident to one piece of equipment or one person's individual negligence, but in my experience the other factors that contribute to the corporate culture have as much or more to do with the failings than the individual.

But we'll just have to wait and see on that.

 

[engineergurl]

I am still obsessing over the cat-x that was given for the nepa process... none of us at work have been able to find out which one it falls under technically (in our opinion) or a document that states which one... but google is a big world... and none of us has had the time to really look into it under the FOIA since we are so busy....

 

[Dleg]

The Oil & Gas industry is like the coal industry or the Ag industry - lots of special exemptions written into the law, through lobbying. It's usually an easy sell, too, since our entire economy is dependent on it. Sorta like all the ag exemptions - people gotta eat, so they get out of a lot of the requirements that apply to other businesses and activities. So, they're probably under some catex that was written specifically into the law, or regulations promulgated by the illustrious MMS.

 

[engineergurl]

The Oil & Gas industry is like the coal industry or the Ag industry - lots of special exemptions written into the law, through lobbying. It's usually an easy sell, too, since our entire economy is dependent on it. Sorta like all the ag exemptions - people gotta eat, so they get out of a lot of the requirements that apply to other businesses and activities. So, they're probably under some catex that was written specifically into the law, or regulations promulgated by the illustrious MMS.

I know, we deal with cat-x's every other minute, we just aren't familiar with the ones we don't use. I figure that if we have so many options with our jobs, that there was bound to be industries like that... but we also process nearly 100 environmental considerations a day. Most REC's come back concur with conditons... (oooo, that's where the mitigation and monitoring comes in on the small activities, GO ME!) considering the size of this kind of operation, i find it hard to believe that BP or any other company would want to drill with out doing an EIS for at least public relations purposes.

 

[Master slacker]

"Louisiana isn't the only place that has shrimp."
– RANDY PRESCOTT, BP, on the concerns of rising prices for shrimp and oysters

http://thelensnola.org/2010/05/24/five-yea...ter-capitalism/

That quote, in particular, burns the piss out of me. That sorry sack of **** needs to get his f'ing *** out there in the Gulf and marshlands and clean up. I would have no reservations slugging him in the face if we were to ever meet. :madgo:

 

[Capt Worley PE]

This is one of those times when I'm glad I don't eat seafood.

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

exactly! "will it ever stop?!"

I freely admit I watched 96 spins last night.

 

[Chucktown PE]

This is one of those times when I'm glad I don't eat seafood.

this is why I catch my own seafood, with the exception that I will buy Salmon from the store.

 

[frazil]

how do you get the job driving the ROV around?!

 

[Dleg]

I don't know. I met a few of those guys when I worked in the oil field. Typical service job, though. High stress and extremely long hours - you don't typically work a "schedule" - just completing tasks. If those tasks happen to take 48 hours to complete, then that's how long you work.

 

[Twofrogs]

The Oil & Gas industry is like the coal industry or the Ag industry - lots of special exemptions written into the law, through lobbying. It's usually an easy sell, too, since our entire economy is dependent on it. Sorta like all the ag exemptions - people gotta eat, so they get out of a lot of the requirements that apply to other businesses and activities. So, they're probably under some catex that was written specifically into the law, or regulations promulgated by the illustrious MMS.

I couldn't agree more. From my perspective this is the real socialism, hey...a big round of applause to the anti-regulatory crowd of the past 10-15 years on this quagmire. Brilliant!!

 

[Chucktown PE]

^^ Yep, it's all Bush's fault.

 

[Master slacker]

Everything is.

 

[Chucktown PE]

Some folks forget that the dems have been in charge of Congress for four years now and BO has been in office for a year and a half.

And for Twofrogs, exactly what government regulation would you have put in place to prevent this? And stopping all offshore drilling isn't a reasonable answer considering 1/3 of our oil/gas come from the Gulf of Mexico.