I thought they had remote cutoff systems:
As work crews try to contain an oil well that is pumping thousands of barrels of crude oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico, many businesses are bracing for the worst.
Much is at stake. BP [BP 51.58 -0.98 (-1.86%)], owner of operator of the well, has already had its image dented by recent accidents. This event will likely cause its image further harm—not to mention the millions in costs associated with containing the spill and drilling a new well.
But the fallout stretches well beyond that. The oil industry is fresh from a victory over President Obama’s decision to open up parts of the Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico to offshore drilling.
How can “Drill Baby Drill” go ahead, when government doesn’t require the industry to use the most modern safety equipment available:
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., sent President Obama a letter Thursday reminding him that in 2000 the Interior Department insisted “oil companies have ‘reliable backup systems’ in the event of a rig blowout.”
By 2003, the plan was scrapped.
“This could be one of the world’s greatest nightmare scenarios of an oil gusher,” Nelson said.
The backup systems are supposed to act when an oil rig fails and starts leaking. Then, a valve deep under the water where the drill pipe meets the ocean floor is supposed to choke off the flow of oil. In the case of BP’s platform, either the valve wasn’t activated or didn’t work, possibly because of the explosion.
But there is another line of defense this oil platform did not have, a so-called acoustic switch. It can be activated by remote control sending acoustic pulses through the water to trigger the blowout preventer even if the rig is damaged or evacuated.
Acoustic switches are used in Norway and Brazil after those oil producing countries suffered spills. The U.S. considered requiring them, but drilling companies questioned the $500,000 cost and whether the devices even work.
Update: From the Comments … ht: LC Bennett
“Excuse me Texan, this ain’t that big a deal???? You’re the one that has to get a grip here. 900,000 litres a day leakage and no control plan in sight is a big deal.”
_______________
Not a bigger deal than that volcano in Iceland. I didn’t see all you weenies wringing your hands over that one.
(Hurry back, Kate. Then environuts are taking over!)
Naaah, John, you can believe that it’s the work of Obama’s thugs if you want to. I don’t think he’s quite that stupid. Nor is he stupid enough to let a good crisis go to waste.
If it was sabotage, which has to remain a possibility until the actual cause is known for certain, it was probably non-state actors. Candidates include Al Qaeda, Earth Liberation Front, rogue elements of Greenpeace, and so forth. Could also be something as mundane as a life insurance scam, or some rig worker going postal.
BTW, John Cross, izzat you?
Many major incidents result from a series of small seemingly insignificant events all occurring at the same time.
So very true Fred and I may add: it does happen in certain situations with even harsher reality restrictions than that…only a couple of small seemly insignificant missteps and down comes a plane in an abrupt and deadly manner and that can take from immediate to manifest into these disastrous results.
ops, should read:
” .. from immediate to decades to … ”
“Candidates include Al Qaeda, Earth Liberation Front, rogue elements of Greenpeace, and so forth.”
You’ve been reading too much Michael Crichton. You know that there really isn’t an island full of dinosaurs somewhere, right?
You know what’s most likely? Something caught fire and blew up. I mean gee… that’s a crazy thought, eh? That a large structure that’s sole purpose is to transfer a highly flammable substance might catch fire due to some sort of accident? That’s just crazy talk. It must have been either libruls or Muslms.
Come on guys. It’s possible, but not likely. Lay off the crazy pills for a couple of days. It’ll do you some good.
“You’ve been reading too much Michael Crichton. You know that there really isn’t an island full of dinosaurs somewhere, right?”
Are you sure? Maybe the rig was attacked by dinosaurs. Librul dinosaurs…
[quote]How-come this damm thing just blew up, and why’s Bammy sending in swat?[/quote]
Bammy is sending in the Twat…. He doesn’t want a real Investigation. This is Sabotage for financial gain, or Sabotage for Political Gain, or Sabotage for Environmental action. This MUST be a Criminal Investigation, full stop
Posted by: John >
“Exxon shore got dinged didn’t they?”
I take it you have seen the Russian state run oilfields first hand comrade?
What about any state run oilfield?
http://www.echoroukonline.com/eng/index.php?news=8921
The list of government run oilfield corruption and mismanagement around the world is endless; a view into what western government involvement would look eventually like. (Unless of course you are suggesting that we can do it better than the natives perhaps?).
At least we can be comfortable knowing that normal everyday American and other nation shareholders are endlessly demonized as BIG corporate pariahs because that is who makes up Exxon Mobil (one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world).
People in the west can choose to boycott Exxon Mobil and shop elsewhere if they wished. If you live in Mexico its Pemex or Pemex. That seems to be ok with some folks, but they don’t seem to be moving down there in droves for lifestyle and job opportunities.
So John, was that a production platform or a drilling one? Records indicate that it was not drilling but finishing cementing a plug before this happened. The exact cause is not known yet and the clues are 5,000’down at the bottom of the gulf in a twisted pile.
Even if Green Peace loaded up the Rainbow Warrior with explosives, rammed the platform and detonated it, automatic systems on the sea floor should shut down the flow of oil. If you can’t do that, then don’t drill.
Now BP has handed the Fruit Flies of the world more ammo than they could ever hope for. If you are at war with the left, why hand them victory this easy? Rahm and the greenies are having a major party today … all because of BP … all because in one fell swoop BP has destroyed the GOP energy platform and given Cap’n Tax a massive boost.
There is no excuse for this … none. Not using every possible modern technique to prevent a catostrophic failure is gross negligence and abuse of shareholders and citizens.
Furthermore, talk of natural oil seeps is totally irrelevant … 800 million barrels over 10,000 years … get a bloody grip. That amounts to a tiny trickle over a vast area where natural processes like enzymes can “eat” the oil. And the Icelandic volcano ???? are you kidding … that was a “natural” event … again, absolutely irrelevant.
I think we can call the day this rig blew up international Cap’n Tax Day.
Youtube video of a gas well blowout in the south China sea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhZKUYVXM78
“… get a bloody grip.” taking this guest host a bit seriously aren’t we.
I’d call it “David Suzuki Day at Small Dead Animals.”
About 30,000 people die each year in US car accidents. I don’t see anyone going ape sh*t over that.
Texas Canuck: Not taking it any more serious than usual; just stunned at the lack of logic in what is usually a very logical environment … some, so blinded by partisan thinking that the magnitude of the political gift given the O-bots by BP escapes them … and causes them to make the most silly of partisan comments and leaps in logic.
Texas: The scale of the physical disaster is bad on it’s own, but that’s not the point … it’s the political disaster. Those who are fighting Cap’n Tax just lost all moral high ground … the push for “forced-upon-us” expensive alternatives will now accelerate.
They do have enough money though to send teams of SWAT law enforcement personnel.
I smell more Nationalization.
Why goons at an oil spill?
JMO
An oil spill has absolutely no connection with carbon capture policy. If the US were to shut the Gulf of Mexico down to drilling, there would be a zero dent in the global consumption of oil. Well, maybe there’d be a slight reduction, as supply would be curtailed to some extent, prices would go up, and demand would be slightly destroyed.
Meanwhile the ‘other hand’ just passed a bill in the congress to allow Puerto Rico to become the 51 state – some new voters and immigrants for the anointed one’s Bolshevick Plans.
Yesterday, Glen Beck joined the dots connecting Goldman Sacks with All gore’s climate exchange business in thug town (Chicago – Hussain Obama’s residence during his residency in the United States, just before being elected to be President); Goldman Sacks apparently owns 10% of this dirty business (exchange). BP petroleum might have ‘shares’ in that nefarious ‘exchange, too; this would put this company (BP)in the sac (please pardon the pun!) with Goldman Sacks and the slave producing Climate exchange in Chicago.
‘Create a Crisis’, tax cheat Githner and Cass Sunstine must be grinning ear to ear. As my Grandmother once told me: “Never, ever underestimate evil and evil doers”.
As Gen Beck said yesterday ” things are not as they appear to be”. Evil is almost always clad in the guise of an angel.
Some of the comments in this thread show what happens to people when they get so dogmatic that they shut their brains off. Depending on what happens, this spill could be a real disaster for the fishing industry down there and for hundreds of miles of wild coastline.
I find “what me worry” attitude in some of the comments are incomprehensible. I don’t know how people can shrug it off and say it’s no big deal.
There’s no excuse whatsoever for offshore rigs not having multiple levels of redundancy built in when it comes to safety. Who cares if the cost is $1 or $2 a barrel? It’s going to cost BP a lot more than that in the long run, that’s for sure, to say nothing of the political damage – as Cjunk mentions – to those who are opposed to the inefficient, pie-in-the-sky alternatives.
We’re going to be seeing oily-bird images for then next ten years, followed by stories on wind farms, ethanol, solar power, etc etc.
Of course, the whole leak is a plot by Barack Obama; he sent someone out to bomb the oil platform. /sarc
On a bike.
Ah …here is the connection:
‘Who are the major owners of ICE? The major Anglo-Dutch financial entities. According to ICE’s 2006 filings with the SEC, as of Sept. 30, 2005, with percent of ICE shares owned: Morgan Stanley Capital, 11.62%; Goldman Sachs Group, 11.59%: Total Investments USA Inc., 8.12%; BP Products, 7.59%.
Others include Duke Energy, AEP, Continental Power Exchange, Societe Generale Financial Corp.
Rohatyn/Shultz Bum’s Rush Is On
This then is the context for the many front groups and political patsies leading the bums’ rush for governments to mandate carbon-emission reductions and unleash the “markets.” On Jan. 22, 2007, in Washington, D.C., the “United States Climate Action Partnership” (USCAP) announced itself, consisting of ten major corporations including Lehman brothers, Duke Energy, DuPont, Florida Power & Light, BP America, Alcoa, Caterpillar, General Electric, Pacific Gas & Electric, and PNM Resources. They released a “Call to Action,” which, in global warming lingo, “lays out a blueprint for a mandatory economy-wide, market-driven approach to climate protection” (see http://www.us-cap.org).
The World Bank is also on the bandwagon in a big way, led by WB president Paul Wolfowitz since 2005, when he moved in from the Bush-Cheney Administration. The World Bank has a Carbon Finance Organization (www.carbonfinance.org), working as part of the International Emissions Trading Association, to further carbon markets. Wolfowitz personally spoke on Feb. 14 in Washington on global warming, making the pitch that underdeveloped nations can expect to see a flow of some $100 billions from the developed nations, if carbon-reducing schemes are allowed to proceed in the markets.’
Read the whole, ugly, plot here:http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2007/3413carbon_swindle.html
Unca Mo rears his bald head near the middle of the article.
Did Hussein just open the Pandora’s Box? Hussein O. said under his ‘plan’ energy prices would ‘skyrocket’.
Meanwhile, in the what if file…..
http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjAyN2UxMzIxNzRmM2RkZjZiOWRmN2YwZTEzNTFhOTA=
Irony of Ironies: Could Gulf Spill Kill Cap-and-Trade?
…the spill could do what the collapse of the AGW scientific edifice, an outraged public, economic realities, and Europe’s disaster have all failed to do: Kill cap-and-trade for this Congress.
EBD – Call it “disaster” fatigue. Chernobyl, 3 Mile Island, cannibals in New Orleans, H1N1 etc. etc. etc. … it never ends.
Who said BP wasn’t doing everything that they could do? … the same “experts” that were the “experts” on the other events?
Crying about the fishing or the shore lines or whatever doesn’t help anything.
The short-term effects of the oil spill will be an increase in support for an off-shore drilling ban. This will last until oil prices start to rise and/or the reality of the cost of cap and trade sets in. Most people would not admit it but the real cost of carbon pricing will still trump environmental risk. Besides, too many US states, jobs and investments are dependent on off-shore oil drilling.
They do have enough money though to send teams of SWAT law enforcement personnel.
No, this did not happen and is not happening.
The Interior Department said they were sending a team of inspectors. To jazz it up, they called it a “SWAT team” to indicate it was a special team of inspectors. But they aren’t law enforcement; they aren’t cops. They’re inspectors.
Probably the same kind of inspectors who didn’t find anything wrong in three trips to Deep Horizon in 2010 alone, but politicians sure love to be seen to appear to be doing “something”.
Anyway, then Barry O, who is a gargantuan idiot and probably has no clue what an actual SWAT team is, repeats the “SWAT team” phrasing without mentioning (or more likely, not knowing) that it’s a team of inspectors, not a genuine for-real law enforcement SWAT team.
CBC on at ten pm.
One Neil McDonald reporting. Replaying the statement by Sarah Palin with the “drill, baby, drill” statement. Then on to a George W. Bush statement about no long depending on foreign oil.
CBC The merciless devils. We have an ecological tragedy here. All decent human beings must wince and then pray for a solution.
CBC, who like old Rahm Emmanuel believe one should never let a crisis go to waste. I wait for them to get back to Jaffer et al.
Limbaugh was saying today that he thinks its very interesting Barry has let this thing spew for a solid week without really doing jack about it. Today its supposed to make landfall, so TODAY suddenly there’s all kindsa activity.
Because landfall today means pictures of oily pelicans on the front page tomorrow, right?
If anybody in the White House gave two sh1ts about The Environment there’s have been Navy equipment down there the next morning after the accident, and by now they’d have enough gear and men handy to suck every drop of the stuff out of the water with turkey basters.
Nobody planned this, this thing has SNAFU written all over it. Barry’s acting like this is some irritating side issue to his Grand Plan, not a major oil spill which is going to f- up the Gulf beaches for several years.
Hey T, how you like Barry now?
Texas Canuck at April 30, 2010 11:36 AM said:
real drilling operations show that a lot more technology and safety goes on than the average layman realizes
But still sometimes shit happens. Average people don’t see what goes into these efforts, they’re mostly happy with going on with their daily lives, blissfully unaware.
Therefore, windmills and electric cars for everyone!
You’d thing that these days we’d have a modern time Red Adair.
You’d think that these days we’d have a modern day underwater warrior-like Red Adair. Sort of like Captain Nemo, but environmentally-friendlier.
In my imagination they’d stop oil-erupting underwater gushers with special torpedoes called Suzukis.
Makes coal look a lot better. And the oil sands.
Oh dear,
I’m bit out of sync with SDA here the other side of the world.
BUT oh dear, have we been listening to the media, you know the lazy old media that don’t figure anything out or ask the questions.
Some facts.
It is NOT a BP rig, it is an ultra deep-water semi-submersible drilling rig it is owned by Transocean, it is contracted to drill for BP.
The safety case on the rig is TOTALLY owned by Transocean, they have TOTAL control over all emergency procedures including ALL well control situations.
Funnily enough they also have control of the emergency response and as in most of there other rig contracts I guess that includes first line of communication with the media.
Go ahead and sell BP shares, of course Transocean they are pointing the finger at BP.
Contractually BP have no input into well control, and I would think they have a strong case to sue for damages to their assets, but I guess right now corporately they are concentrating on limiting the damage to the environment and stemming the flow.
Come back Kate its a bit disappointing some of you guys talking shit about something you know bollocks about, most of you should know better.
Its a disaster, but most especially for the 12 guys families that have been lost, as to how it happened it shouldn’t have.
I would suggest like others that until we know, any inspection by your authorities is pretty damn stupid, BUT if it makes you feel better, sure they’re ready to waste your money, OR do you really think that there is anything not being done that could be.
Great thing about Big OIL, its so bloody inefficient when compared to national/government controlled oil companies that you get your cheap gas from those nice Saudis/Nigerians/Venezuelans and make getting oil so difficult that your going to be buying it from the Chinese soon enough as they simply don’t have the guilt trip you want to impose on Western Companies.
But go ahead…
First time I’ve had to rant at SDA.
Posted by: DSV>
‘First time I’ve had to rant at SDA.’
Then we will be kind.
Yes, Transocean was the contractor on location but it is a BP location or lease and BP is responsible for all safety and procedure on that site.
Transocean provides the rig and the crew to operate that rig; BP supplies all the engineering, procedures, other specialized third party services and supervision.
The rig simply runs the machinery and follows orders, they and their staff are expected to give input as their experience allows, but ALL operational decisions are made by the oil company, in this case BP.
In fact there may have been human error by a Transocean rig personnel to cause the situation, which still does not mean BP has no liability. They have all the liability to that site regardless of who they hire as a contractor. There may be lawsuits between BP and Transocean after the dust has settled, but BP is contractually responsible, and that is why they supply the management and supervision.
Nothing wrong with drilling for oil on land is there? We do it all the time. In fact, we are doing it more big time, taking the expertise of horizontal drilling & fracing gas formations to some of our somewhat “played out” oil formations and even to “bypassed pay” in formations that a vertical hole would be uneconomic.
The alternative to less oil is the horse. Which is it?
Yeah, things go bang and crash and burn, so do airplanes and a lot of cars driven by people who f8%k up texting, phoning, yapping while they think they are driving. More people die or are injured in car accidents than do in the Canadian Armed Forces in a war. Annually. No Highway of Heros for car drivers is there? Nobody cares as long as the gas pumps pump.
So, what’s it gonna be, cars or horses?
Get the well capped, clean it up and move on.
People nothing is 100% safe. Idle speculation regarding an acoustic trigger for a BOP being the silver bullet to stop this event is nonsense, while it is the past-time of the liberal media Wild Ass Guessing and dragging up old regulatory debates should not be encouraged until something is factually known.
Rig explosion was not terrorism: Worker
DSV, we do know that US Navy assets pretty much sat at the dock for several days after this thing blew. That’s not good, in my book.
As to what BP and Transocean are doing, I think every damn thing they can think of would about cover it. Nobody wants to be the one to wreck half of Florida, right?
r i k @ 1:09
Thanks for that link. That was a stunning interview from a survivor
Knight
I’ve had to read a few rig contracts in my time, and every one of them has the drilling contractor responsibility for Well control on a offshore mobile rig. Its their rig and they take responsibility for safety on the their rig as most regularity authorities worldwide insist on a safety case for the rig, and the one thing that their(drilling contractors) lawyers get prissy about in bridging documents is well control.
And trust me Transocean are no different and get pretty prissy about bridging documents.
Interesting points
Oil Spill a Catastrophe of Monumental Proportions: Is It Sabotage?
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/22667
About the Author
Jim O’Neill Most recent columns
Born in June of 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jim O’Neill proudly served in the U.S. Navy from 1970-1974 in both UDT-21 (Underwater Demolition Team) and SEAL Team Two. A member of MENSA, he worked as a commercial diver in the waters off Scotland, India, and the United States. In 1998 while attending the University of South Florida as a journalism student, O’Neill won “First Place” in the “Carol Burnett/University of Hawaii AEJMC Research in Journalism Ethics Award.” The annual contest was set up by Carol Burnett with the money she won from successfully suing the National Enquirer for libel.
Phantom
Your right about the focus.
As to the US navy assets, the operators emergency response teams first priority are, or should be, the life’s at risk, second is the environment.
Part of the immediate contacts of the emergency response team (that’s a team that is usually specifically specified by the national government granting the license) would be the immediate nations coast guard authorities and probably their national defense force, and in this case having not worked specifically in the US Gulf I couldn’t say for sure, but I”ll bet my ass that the States coastal and maritime authorities are part of that emergency response teams primary contacts.
Some how I can’t see how BP are supposed to exactly ring up the US navy and ask for help?
No its a process that has to be gone through, and its dictated by the national authorities and usually the start of that will be the emergency response team.
And I’ll say it again, right now metal, assets and the environment come a piss poor second to the loss of life.
Well, interesting thing today, it is reported in the Telegraph that a -second- rig has flipped over.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/7660837/Second-rig-overturns-in-Gulf-of-Mexico.html
Frustratingly, the article says a second rig has flipped but then goes on to say nothing but a bunch of boilerplate greenie crap about oil and fragile ecosystems blah blah blah.
Two rigs going down in a week is a hell of a coincidence. Possibly the Telegraph has screwed it up, we shall no doubt see.
At any rate, the White House is starting to fire on BP, blaming them for all the terrible things that were happening while FEMA and the Navy sat in port. The only Federal oufit that seems to be on the ball id the Coast Guard, they were on site rescuing guys off the burning rig and they have had subs in the water since Day 1.
It would be nice if there were some kind of NEWS ORGANIZATION who could take all this jumbled crap and make sense out of it, but unfortunately we only have the US Media Disinformation Service, and you can’t trust anything they come up with.
Well, as of this morning there is no further news of a second rig accident, so looks like a Telegraph SNAFU.
As you were. 🙂
The only drilling that Obama can shut down in the Gulf of Mexico is the drilling done by American companies or drilling done within the 20 mile offshore limit which is American territory.
Drilling outside the 20 mile limit, international waters, is going to continue whether Americans do it for their own energy self-sufficiency or not.
Well, a couple of fellows from the oil business were on CNBC this morning.
One guy was the CEO of an oil company – forget which one, it’s not one of the majors – and he said (approximately) that these rigs cost millions of dollars, and are designed to withstand hurricane force winds (gee, hurricanes in the Gulf – who would have thought?). But he made a fairly apt analogy – commercial airliners cost millions of dollars as well, and that the rigs are designed with the same level of redundancy and care that airplanes are. But still, airplanes do fall from the sky from time to time, and we don’t stop flying. As us engineers say, “Feces occur”. You try to clean up the mess and drive on.
The other guy worked at the landing where the oil comes in. He said if the feds close it, then we might see a rise in gas prices, but that if it’s only BP’s rig shut down, we won’t see any effect at all.
People did worry about the shrimp season, though.
As to the efficacy of government owned oil companies, you needn’t go any farther than Mexico to see what the difference is. My best friend worked for Slumberger after he left university, testing wells. After Trudeau brought in the NEP, Ken moved south to the US of A, and never came back. He moved around a lot down there, and actually made a couple of trips to Mexico, filling in for guys on vacation. One night, over adult beverages, he told me the Mexican installations were the worst he’d seen. Shoddy practices, uncaring workers, etc. By his estimate, they were wasting about 20% of the oil in the well.