Oil Rig Explosion

#801
#801
Orangetoes said:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/us/22transocean.html?_r=1&hp

Interesting reading... when you get through the drivel you find that most of the guys onboard the DWH found the onboard safety culture to be very good. What they complained about, what Lloyds' investigation found, and what BP's audit found was a complacency towards maintenance by Transocean's Houston office.

At what point will Transocean step up to the plate and accept some resposibiity for this mess?
Click to expand...

Did you see this interview? He talked about problems that were ignored. I would be interested in your thoughts.

Blowout: The Deepwater Horizon Disaster - 60 Minutes - CBS News
 
#802
#802
Orangetoes said:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/us/22transocean.html?_r=1&hp

Interesting reading... when you get through the drivel you find that most of the guys onboard the DWH found the onboard safety culture to be very good. What they complained about, what Lloyds' investigation found, and what BP's audit found was a complacency towards maintenance by Transocean's Houston office.

At what point will Transocean step up to the plate and accept some resposibiity for this mess?
Click to expand...

T. Boone Pickens was on Larry King Live (again) a few nights ago. A caller said that he felt that maintenance issues were part of the problem here - and Pickens shut him down, saying it clearly wasn't that (in his usual no nonsense way). He then went on to cite that the problem was a bad cement job, not responding to the warning signs, etc.

I mention this because after reading your post and realizing that it would b Transocean's responsibility for maintenance, a little thought popped into my head...was Pickens so quick to dismiss maintenance issues because he has a dog in that fight?

From April:

Naturally, T. Boone Pickens’s hedge fund is full of Oil & Gas companies:

No. 1: Transocean Inc. (RIG), Weightings: 12.76% - 345,980 Shares
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T. Boone Pickens Oil & Gas Stocks: Transocean Inc., Hess Corp., Devon Energy Corp., Occidental Petroleum Corp., Chesapeake Energy Corp., SandRidge Energy -- GuruFocus.com

Transocean: T. Boone Pickens? Most Compelling Oil Play
 
#803
#803
Had a chance (but passed) to meet and hear T. Boone in the mid-80s at a UT MBA speaker series event. I regret not going.

I did see Ted Turner and while I don't see eye to eye with him on many issues, he was entertaining as hell.
 
#804
#804
VolDad said:
Did you see this interview? He talked about problems that were ignored. I would be interested in your thoughts.

Blowout: The Deepwater Horizon Disaster - 60 Minutes - CBS News
Click to expand...

I saw that interview a couple of days after it first aired and a couple things have stuck in my mind. One, if he, in fact, was struck by a water-tight door blown from it's hinges then he is a very lucky man. I'd rather be head stomped by a defensive lineman...

Another thing that stood out is the overlooked "failures" such as the chunks of rubber found in the cuttings. We've been led to believe that it was BP that was overlooking these things - yet, he clearly states the worker took the pieces to the driller and the driller said it was not a big deal. The driller is a Transocean employee - not BP.

I would, however, like to hear more about the pre-tower meeting (oil field trash lingo for pre-shift meeting) and the discussion between the rig manager and the company man. That whole segment strikes me as very unusual. First, by rig manager - did he mean THE rig manager? Or, did he mean the OIM (Offshore Installation Manger)? THE rig manager is an office based position and wouldn't be out there. The OIM is a marine based position like being the captain of the rig. The OIM doesn't get involved in the drilling campaign in any detail. If he had said the Tool Puhser or Tower Pusher then I wouldn't question. But, they said the manager of the rig. That just doesn't make sense.

Also, there was mention of damage to one of the pods. Yet, Transocean says that the pods had passed all the required tests. Which is it? Was one of the pods out of commission or did it work? If Transocean was pencil whipping the test then it makes sense that BP would keep pushing forward thinking everything was ok. That, in my eyes, would be gross negligence on Transocean's part.

One last thing - the article made a big deal about BP putting prssure on the rig to complete the well because it was costing them about a mill a day.... Uh... no shiz? That part is a red herring... Hell, I was putting pressure on the guy doing dozer work at my property because he was costing me too much money. Is there anyone on here that has never been pressured by their boss to get work done in a timely manner and according to plan?
 
#805
#805
TennTradition said:
T. Boone Pickens was on Larry King Live (again) a few nights ago. A caller said that he felt that maintenance issues were part of the problem here - and Pickens shut him down, saying it clearly wasn't that (in his usual no nonsense way). He then went on to cite that the problem was a bad cement job, not responding to the warning signs, etc.

I mention this because after reading your post and realizing that it would b Transocean's responsibility for maintenance, a little thought popped into my head...was Pickens so quick to dismiss maintenance issues because he has a dog in that fight?
Click to expand...

I saw the first five minutes of that interview and turned it off when he began talking about the hydrocarbons that naturally seep from the GoM on a daily basis. He said this about 2 hours after I posted the same thing. I figured I might as well just listen to myself talk instead of having to sit through an hour of Larry King...

It would be interesting to see who's been buying and selling BP, RIG, and any of the other affected parties since this all began. Bad news - stock down. Everyone buy. Wait a few days - good news. Stock up - everyone sell... lather, rinse, repeat. Hell, I'm OUT here and don't hear about some of the leaked stuff until it hits the news - some of so different from reality that it couldn't have been just an honest mistake.
 
#806
#806
Orangetoes said:
I saw the first five minutes of that interview and turned it off when he began talking about the hydrocarbons that naturally seep from the GoM on a daily basis. He said this about 2 hours after I posted the same thing. I figured I might as well just listen to myself talk instead of having to sit through an hour of Larry King...

It would be interesting to see who's been buying and selling BP, RIG, and any of the other affected parties since this all began. Bad news - stock down. Everyone buy. Wait a few days - good news. Stock up - everyone sell... lather, rinse, repeat. Hell, I'm OUT here and don't hear about some of the leaked stuff until it hits the news - some of so different from reality that it couldn't have been just an honest mistake.
Click to expand...

I thought plugging the well to be nonsense also, I mean after all this and you can now pump the oil into tankers, ship it ashore and and refine it, why plug it???

I have yet to hear any sort of reasoning behind plugging the well. Maybe someone can help me with that.

As for stock fluctuations at about the time the leak was capped there were rumors that the Chinese were interested in buying controlling stock in BP and some thought that was the real reason BP stock rose rather than anything about this particular well, let's face it, although there has been a huge amount of publicity this one well is minescule when looking at the big picture.

The Chinese denied the rumor BTW and then the stock price fell immediately.

ps; It would take a huge sum to pay me to sit through a Larry King broadcast, what a freaking jerk. I hate CNN.
 
#807
#807
Orangetoes said:
I saw that interview a couple of days after it first aired and a couple things have stuck in my mind. One, if he, in fact, was struck by a water-tight door blown from it's hinges then he is a very lucky man. I'd rather be head stomped by a defensive lineman...

Another thing that stood out is the overlooked "failures" such as the chunks of rubber found in the cuttings. We've been led to believe that it was BP that was overlooking these things - yet, he clearly states the worker took the pieces to the driller and the driller said it was not a big deal. The driller is a Transocean employee - not BP.

I would, however, like to hear more about the pre-tower meeting (oil field trash lingo for pre-shift meeting) and the discussion between the rig manager and the company man. That whole segment strikes me as very unusual. First, by rig manager - did he mean THE rig manager? Or, did he mean the OIM (Offshore Installation Manger)? THE rig manager is an office based position and wouldn't be out there. The OIM is a marine based position like being the captain of the rig. The OIM doesn't get involved in the drilling campaign in any detail. If he had said the Tool Puhser or Tower Pusher then I wouldn't question. But, they said the manager of the rig. That just doesn't make sense.

Also, there was mention of damage to one of the pods. Yet, Transocean says that the pods had passed all the required tests. Which is it? Was one of the pods out of commission or did it work? If Transocean was pencil whipping the test then it makes sense that BP would keep pushing forward thinking everything was ok. That, in my eyes, would be gross negligence on Transocean's part.

One last thing - the article made a big deal about BP putting prssure on the rig to complete the well because it was costing them about a mill a day.... Uh... no shiz? That part is a red herring... Hell, I was putting pressure on the guy doing dozer work at my property because he was costing me too much money. Is there anyone on here that has never been pressured by their boss to get work done in a timely manner and according to plan?
Click to expand...

I was wondering about that because that seemed to be the crux of the problem causing inaccurate pressure readings and its inability to prevent the blowout.
 
#808
#808
gsvol said:
I thought plugging the well to be nonsense also, I mean after all this and you can now pump the oil into tankers, ship it ashore and and refine it, why plug it???

I have yet to hear any sort of reasoning behind plugging the well. Maybe someone can help me with that.
Click to expand...

The well has to be plugged/cemented because the well bore in most likely damaged beyond repair. Plus, the equipment that has shut the flow off is temporary. They need to be able to remove the DWH BOP to find out why it didn't function as it should to do what it's name says it should - prevent a blow-out.

Going forward, the relief wells that are being drilled can be "side-tracked" back to the reservoir (ok, this is an over simplification) and production can begin that way.
 
#809
#809
Orangetoes said:
The well has to be plugged/cemented because the well bore in most likely damaged beyond repair. Plus, the equipment that has shut the flow off is temporary. They need to be able to remove the DWH BOP to find out why it didn't function as it should to do what it's name says it should - prevent a blow-out.

Going forward, the relief wells that are being drilled can be "side-tracked" back to the reservoir (ok, this is an over simplification) and production can begin that way.
Click to expand...

OK, thanks for the explanation.

I fairly well understand the second part from watching a
TV show on modern methodology by the Saudis about horizontal and directional drilling.

We've coma a long ways since Howard Hughes invented his drill bit.
 
#810
#810
gsvol said:
OK, thanks for the explanation.

I fairly well understand the second part from watching a
TV show on modern methodology by the Saudis about horizontal and directional drilling.

We've coma a long ways since Howard Hughes invented his drill bit.
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is going to make a lot of landowners scattered throughout the country filthy rich
 
#811
#811
VolsNSkinsFan said:
is going to make a lot of landowners scattered throughout the country filthy rich
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It's really hard to find land in LA or south TX where the mineral rights are sold with the property these days. When we were looking for property in TN, we always asked who would own the mineral rights - most people gave us a "are you crazy?" look as if we were talking greek. Thank God for land that's been family owned for generations....
 
#813
#813
gsvol said:
Going the way of the Dodo bird.

I suppose Bonnie has you headed for shore?
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Nope, actually we are still offshore and will stay here. The smaller boats are heading to calmer waters - but, the big boats are staying here. The seas aren't supposed to get too bad. We've still got ROV's in the water right now.
 
#814
#814
On FoxNews this morning, they were talking about Mike William's testimony about the alarms being inhibited on the DWH. They showed a clip and Mike said "From the OIM down....."

The weekend idiots said that someone from BP should do a "perp walk" because of these safety systems being shut off. Ok, the OIM is a Transocean guy - not a BP guy. I wish they would actually learn a little bit about the subject before they comment on it.

They also said lives could have been saved if the alarms were on. WTF? All but one of those guys killled were on the drill floor when the first explosion occurred. Those guys didn't have a chance and were more than likely incinerated within seconds if not sooner. The last guy was a crane operator working in a pedestal crane with the guys on the drill floor. He was, most likely, killed in the blast. My point is... the alarms would not have saved a single life in this incident.

The alarms that are "inhibited" keep the "general" alarms from playing in the state rooms day and night. If they weren't "inhibited" then you have a chance of no one getting any sleep. In an actual emergency, the fire/abandon ship/man overboard/any alarm that requires action/etc AUTOMATICALLY ring to every speaker.

Now, Mike apparently said that the alarms did not ring. My understanding (from talking to a friend that was on the rig when it exploded) was that all the power was out, including the emergency generator, as a result of the 2nd explosion. Now, that contradicts other statements I've heard and read and I can only conclude that they all have some info right and some wrong.

FYI, every boat I've ever worked on has the general alarms "inhibited."

I'm going to stop watching the news....
 
#816
#816
Orangetoes said:
Nope, actually we are still offshore and will stay here. The smaller boats are heading to calmer waters - but, the big boats are staying here. The seas aren't supposed to get too bad. We've still got ROV's in the water right now.
Click to expand...


Just goes to show it's useless to listen to radio news, I'm surre ABC reported that the Coast Guard had ordered all vessels ashore but I see now that isn't true.


Orangetoes said:
On FoxNews this morning, they were talking about Mike William's testimony about the alarms being inhibited on the DWH. They showed a clip and Mike said "From the OIM down....."

The weekend idiots said that someone from BP should do a "perp walk" because of these safety systems being shut off. Ok, the OIM is a Transocean guy - not a BP guy. I wish they would actually learn a little bit about the subject before they comment on it.

They also said lives could have been saved if the alarms were on. WTF? All but one of those guys killled were on the drill floor when the first explosion occurred. Those guys didn't have a chance and were more than likely incinerated within seconds if not sooner. The last guy was a crane operator working in a pedestal crane with the guys on the drill floor. He was, most likely, killed in the blast. My point is... the alarms would not have saved a single life in this incident.

The alarms that are "inhibited" keep the "general" alarms from playing in the state rooms day and night. If they weren't "inhibited" then you have a chance of no one getting any sleep. In an actual emergency, the fire/abandon ship/man overboard/any alarm that requires action/etc AUTOMATICALLY ring to every speaker.

Now, Mike apparently said that the alarms did not ring. My understanding (from talking to a friend that was on the rig when it exploded) was that all the power was out, including the emergency generator, as a result of the 2nd explosion. Now, that contradicts other statements I've heard and read and I can only conclude that they all have some info right and some wrong.

FYI, every boat I've ever worked on has the general alarms "inhibited."

I'm going to stop watching the news....
Click to expand...

More on Williams:

washingtonpost.com
(three pages)

Did you know Mike Williams or Jason Anderson personally??

Wife: Deepwater Horizon Crew Member Was So Worried About Safety, He Wrote His Will | Crooks and Liars


ABC Nightly news did a story on Anderson with a lengthy interview with his widow just after the explosion.
 
#817
#817
gsvol said:
Just goes to show it's useless to listen to radio news, I'm surre ABC reported that the Coast Guard had ordered all vessels ashore but I see now that isn't true.




More on Williams:

washingtonpost.com
(three pages)

Did you know Mike Williams or Jason Anderson personally??

Wife: Deepwater Horizon Crew Member Was So Worried About Safety, He Wrote His Will | Crooks and Liars


ABC Nightly news did a story on Anderson with a lengthy interview with his widow just after the explosion.
Click to expand...

We are just now seeing conditions that warrant us to recover the ROV's. We'll probably have them back in the water in the morning - but, we are staying on location.

As for the two guys - I don't/didn't know either of them. It sure was an interesting article about Jason's safety concerns. The thing about that is - he was the toolpusher. For those that don't know - the driller works directly for the toolpusher. He is the MAN for the drill rig. Any unsafe practices on that rig would have been his responsibility. I think I'd just make sure the procedures were followed instead of complaining about it.

One last thought - I always check to make sure my affairs are in order before I leave. Ok, maybe not every time but often enough that I'm not worried about it. When I was still working for a 3rd party company - I made sure my wife knew which oil company I worked for, the owner of the vessel we were working on, and the the majore 3rd party companies on location. Her instructions were to sue every one of them if something happened to me. I'd expect that most of these people aren't any different...
 
#818
#818
Orangetoes said:
We are just now seeing conditions that warrant us to recover the ROV's. We'll probably have them back in the water in the morning - but, we are staying on location.

As for the two guys - I don't/didn't know either of them. It sure was an interesting article about Jason's safety concerns. The thing about that is - he was the toolpusher. For those that don't know - the driller works directly for the toolpusher. He is the MAN for the drill rig. Any unsafe practices on that rig would have been his responsibility. I think I'd just make sure the procedures were followed instead of complaining about it.

One last thought - I always check to make sure my affairs are in order before I leave. Ok, maybe not every time but often enough that I'm not worried about it. When I was still working for a 3rd party company - I made sure my wife knew which oil company I worked for, the owner of the vessel we were working on, and the the majore 3rd party companies on location. Her instructions were to sue every one of them if something happened to me. I'd expect that most of these people aren't any different...
Click to expand...

According to Anderson's widow that was the first time he had been so concerned and seemed obsessed with the possibility that he wouldn't make it back home, he showed her how to do everything around the house and on their camper that he nomrally did and on the way to the airport he asked if she and the kids would stay in the same house if he died.

If I had been all that concerned, I would have just pulled up and took another job somewhere else.

A friend of mine was chief engineer on a small island hopping boat that was delivering supplies to small islands in the Caribbean that needed to have repairs and he kept making temporary patches on fuel lines, he said the engine room was knee deep in diesel and he told the captain they needed a 24 hr layover at the next port for him to replace the lines.

The captain refused and so my firend just quit, he said he had to wait about a month for another ship on some small out of the way island if he didn't want to pay for a charter flight back to NO.

The ship blew up and sank, killing all on board before it even got to the next island. He said he hated that some of his shipmates got killed but he just couldn't muster up any sympathy for the captain, he got what he deserved.
 
#819
#819
DOUGH

Oil spewing from well near La. marsh - U.S. news - Environment - msnbc.com

Adding insult to the Gulf's injury, a wellhead hit by a tug boat is now spewing oil near a Louisiana marsh area, officials said Tuesday.

The oil is shooting up 20 feet into the air, the office of Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said.

The well is in inland waterways on the border of Plaquemines and Jefferson parishes, about 65 miles south of New Orleans, and in a marsh area not accessible by road.

Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts was quoted as saying by WWL-TV in New Orleans that "there is a pretty good amount of oil flowing there." He did not have a more specific estimate.
Click to expand...
 
#820
#820
Amazing! For years our politicians have been telling us that we have no domestic oil off of our coastal waters and we need to get off of oil as an energy source, and now it's just spewing out everywhere. :wacko:
 
#822
#822
Maybe Orangetoes (or others) can give a take on the following statement:

The Macondo exploration has had problems from the beginning when the first attempt began in Oct. 09. Using a different drilling vessel they had problems after about three weeks with a gas kick. Then about two weeks later hurricane Ida came in and damaged the drilling vessel. It was taken to port for repairs.

In Jan. Deepwater Horizon was brought in and the drilling began again. I don’t know if it was the same hole or a different one. At about 13,000 ft they experienced a natural gas problem. After lowering some test equipment into the hole it became stuck and it was abondanded down hole. They came back up hole, cemented the bottom 2,000 ft and continued with a slant drill until they reached the reservior and the current blow out occurred.

So yes they had two permits, there were two different drilling vessels but I don’t know if there were two different holes.

Yes they intended to plug the well and it was to be left for some years until they could develope the field and get the necessary production equipment in place. Nothing new about that process or procedure.
Click to expand...

This was extracted from a long thread that was basicly debunking tin foil hat environmentalist bunko.

One of the main claims was that feeds we (the public) are receiving from ROV links isn't what is really happening and that one of the relief holes also blew out but we aren't being told about that.

Another claim was that the well we saw being capped wasn't the Deep Water Horizon well and the floor of the gulf will be covered with oil and we are all going to die and it's going to be 110 degrees in Alaska in January etc etc.
 
#823
#823
gsvol said:
Maybe Orangetoes (or others) can give a take on the following statement:



This was extracted from a long thread that was basicly debunking tin foil hat environmentalist bunko.

One of the main claims was that feeds we (the public) are receiving from ROV links isn't what is really happening and that one of the relief holes also blew out but we aren't being told about that.

Another claim was that the well we saw being capped wasn't the Deep Water Horizon well and the floor of the gulf will be covered with oil and we are all going to die and it's going to be 110 degrees in Alaska in January etc etc.
Click to expand...

Hahahaha! Unbelievable what people actually think and say these days... As for all the drilling parts including permits - I can't speak with any authority there. I've read similar to what the guy is posting about them getting stuck in the hole and having to start over. But, that's all I know since I'm not involved in drilling.

As for the video feeds being faked.. what a crock of s@#t... There is nothing I can say that could ever convince those people otherwise. They wouldn't believe that I was out here or believe what I am saying is true.

One counter to it though.. did they not see the flowing oil come to a stop? It was flowing full-bore and then it stopped.. I guess they think we opened another well just to shut it off on video? What a bunch of jack-wads...
 
#824
#824
Orangetoes said:
Hahahaha! Unbelievable what people actually think and say these days... As for all the drilling parts including permits - I can't speak with any authority there. I've read similar to what the guy is posting about them getting stuck in the hole and having to start over. But, that's all I know since I'm not involved in drilling.

As for the video feeds being faked.. what a crock of s@#t... There is nothing I can say that could ever convince those people otherwise. They wouldn't believe that I was out here or believe what I am saying is true.

One counter to it though.. did they not see the flowing oil come to a stop? It was flowing full-bore and then it stopped.. I guess they think we opened another well just to shut it off on video? What a bunch of jack-wads...
Click to expand...

Unfortunately loads of people believe things that have little or no basis in fact all too often.

Then too sometimes you can express something that is completely truthful and be blasted as a tin foiler because it doesn't fit into popular myth which is only propaganda that has been expressed often enough to make the vast majority believe in a lie.

A question I've always wanted to ask is why was the origianal plan always to drill and then shut down the well??

Is it to 'prove' the reserve??

Way back in the seventies a guy was telling me the oil depletion allowance is a crock, a complete flasehood sold to the public as truth.

His veracity is unquestionable and he told me his nephew was an oil exploration geologist and he had a batting average of 1,000, in other words, every place he had said dig, they had struck oil.

Remember when Carter inplemented the new oil, old oil policy and old wells were mandated to sell their oil for $5 a barrel and newer wells were paid $35 a barrel??

He ruined the small American oil companies and all based on a complete hoax.
 
#825
#825
gsvol said:
A question I've always wanted to ask is why was the origianal plan always to drill and then shut down the well??
Click to expand...

Mainly, it's because the infrastructure necessary to produce is so expensive. You definitely don't want to start laying pipe until you know what the well will produe.

Breaking news here - the static kill (as of now) is going great. This thing is almost beat.
 
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