Regulators Failed to Address Risks in Oil Rig Fail-Safe Device

[jujuman13]

Link
Regulators Failed to Address Risks in Oil Rig Fail-Safe Device - NYTimes.com

Here is an interesting and comprehensive article about the BP blowout preventer.

There is an animated video showing what should have happened.

Underneath the video is a 9 page explanation.

I think this is an extremely interesting article, and while it does not directly apportion blame, it will inform the reader of what in future must take place prior to deep water drilling continuing to be performed.

 

[Redress]

Absolutely great article! You linked to the second page, and the video is on the first page, so people make sure to go to the first page, it's worth watching.

From the sounds of it to me, there were issues with BP, issues with the government, and issues with the general practices of deepwater drilling. Every one now is trying so hard to try and make it not look like it is their fault and pointing fingers at the others that it makes it hard to really know where the largest fault lies, if that even matters. What matters is that the mistakes are learned from. We do need deepwater drilling. We do need it to be safe. That is more important to me than who was most at fault.

This quote is the one that really leaped out at me:

Last year, Transocean commissioned a “strictly confidential” study of the reliability of blowout preventers used by deepwater rigs.

Using the world’s most authoritative database of oil rig accidents, a Norwegian company, Det Norske Veritas, focused on some 15,000 wells drilled off North America and in the North Sea from 1980 to 2006.

It found 11 cases where crews on deepwater rigs had lost control of their wells and then activated blowout preventers to prevent a spill. In only six of those cases were the wells brought under control, leading the researchers to conclude that in actual practice, blowout preventers used by deepwater rigs had a “failure” rate of 45 percent.

That my friends, is not good news. That is something that to my mind has to be addressed, and solutions found for.

Again, excellent link, thank you so much for it.