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What made tthe BP platform explode is still a mystery.

ricksfolly

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(CBS/AP) Last updated at 6:38 p.m. ET

Bad wiring and a leak in what's supposed to be a "blowout preventer." Sealing problems that may have allowed a methane eruption. Even a dead battery, of all things.

New disclosures Wednesday revealed a complicated cascade of deep-sea equipment failures and procedural problems in the oil rig explosion and massive spill that is still fouling the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and threatening industries and wildlife near the coast and on shore...

That was the official report, but subsequent review of tapes show an entirely different picture.

In the first place, the BOP isn't all that mysterious. All it does is transfer the high pressure oil from the 6 inch base pipe up to a much lower pressure 21 inch riser pipe. Hence, the name BOP Blow Out Prevention, all because the distribution system on the floating platform can can only handle low pressure oil.

The tape we all saw of the BOP showed that it was intact, and doing what it was supposed to do, so there wasn't the huge blowout we were led to believe. We also saw that the mile long riser pipe wasn't ripped apart either, just bent at the top of the BOP and spread all over the bottom of the sea.

In the second place, there's no reason to believe that the methane gas could escape from a closed valve on the platform that is only opened to transfer oil to a nearby oil tanker, definitely not in a quantity large enough to cause the reported huge explosion.

It could leak other places in the system, but they would more than likely dissipate in the outside air. Even if the gas leak were ignited, it wouldn't cause the kind of explosion that destroyed the huge platform. It would be more like lighting one of the burners on a gas range.

There are hundreds, even thousands of reported cases of methane (natural) gas explosions , but only in closed places where it can accumulate, like kitchens and other rooms in houses and apartments.

My conclusion is that the explosion was caused by explosives of some kind, for reasons we may never know, not escaping methane (natural) gas.

The officials made their guesses, I made mine, and since neither of us can see inside the BOP, and it's impossible to find evidence on the sunken platform, my guess is as good as theirs.

ricksfolly
 
How did someone manage to plant explosives down there?
 
If there were the slightest possibility that it was anything other than mistakes made by the rig's operators, BP would be shouting it from the rooftops. Literally every press release and statement by BP's executives would drone on about how BP is just an innocent victim of a horrible crime.
 
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