Posted on 04/23/2010 12:50:45 AM PDT by KDD
A drilling rig that burned for more than a day before sinking Thursday has fouled Gulf of Mexico waters with a potentially major spill of crude oil, officials said. The collapse of the oil rig could disgorge up to 336,000 gallons of crude a day into waters about 40 miles off the Louisiana coast. U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said the sunken rig, the Deepwater Horizon, increased the threat for environmental damage, which previously appeared minimal. With new challenges from the collapsed rig, a growing assemblage of cleanup crews began to work in the area, hoping to stop the oil before the spill were to reach the shore.
Meteorologists predicted a change in the Gulf's current today that would push the oil toward the Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines. But Landry said the spill isn't expected to reach the coast. “We have the ability to keep it offshore,” she said. BP, the oil company that leased the offshore rig, said it had mobilized four aircraft that can spread chemicals to break up the oil and 32 vessels that can recover more than 171,000 barrels of oil a day from the surface. BP officials also expected to have a million feet of boom in place to help contain the spill by today. “We have contingency plans in place to respond to any anticipated situation, and the full resources of BP are being mobilized to implement those plans,” said David Rainey, vice president of Gulf exploration for BP. Even then, federal and BP officials said it wasn't clear whether oil was flowing from the well after the platform sank because they didn't know what was happening underwater.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
I've tied off to the big spiked ball buoys they use for the crewboats to tie up to away from the rigs but I have never been aboard one of the rigs. Maybe a roughneck can jump in and offer more detail.
So much for expanding off-shore drilling. Happy Earth Day.
This is a great time to consider sabotage as a possibility. The timing is very suspicious.
My thoughts exactly.
That wold be a very tough task to undertake considering no one who worked on that platform would be a saboteur and no one else had access to that platform.
Instead, it is a tragedy, a tragedy that hits very close to home and one that has my wife freaked-out as I work and have worked on offshore platforms.
Coincidence?
Release date: 02 September 2009
BP announced today a giant oil discovery at its Tiber Prospect in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico.
The well, located in Keathley Canyon block 102, approximately 250 miles (400 kilometres) south east of Houston, is in 4,132 feet (1,259 metres) of water. The Tiber well was drilled to a total depth of approximately 35,055 feet (10,685 metres) making it one of the deepest wells ever drilled by the oil and gas industry. The well found oil in multiple Lower Tertiary reservoirs. Appraisal will be required to determine the size and commerciality of the discovery.
“Tiber represents BP’s second material discovery in the emerging Lower Tertiary play in the US Gulf of Mexico, following our earlier Kaskida discovery,” said Andy Inglis, chief executive, Exploration and Production. “These material discoveries together with our industry leading acreage position support the continuing growth of our deepwater Gulf of Mexico business into the second half of the next decade.”
Notice the spill is measured in gallons for effect and the cleanup is measured in barrels. They have capacity to clean-up almost 3x what is being spilled. They will get on top of this quick enough. The loss of life is the tragedy.
This could be oil companies’ greatest moment in containment of a spill and drilling safety. Not that the media will care.
And the word "fear" in the title. The article is designed to scare people. Further down in the article we find out that they aren't sure if the well is losing any oil at all, and in any case they have the area under control.
Do you think they were able stop the flow?
How hard will it be to seal the line at the depth of nearly a mile?
How do they manage to deny access to would be underwater saboteurs?
Major oil spill as rig sinks off US
A BLAZING oil rig has sunk into the Gulf of Mexico, sparking fears of an environmental disaster two days after a massive blast that left 11 workers missing. US maritime authorities said crude oil was pouring into the sea at the site where the hulking Deepwater Horizon rig once stood, though they were unable to determine at what rate. In Washington, President Barack Obama said the federal response to the disaster "was being treated as the number one priority,'' the White House said in a statement. Mr Obama "made sure that the entire federal government was offering all assistance needed in the rescue effort as well as in mitigating and responding to the environmental impact,'' the statement read.
Officials said that before the explosion there were 2.6 million litres of diesel fuel on board the semi-submersible platform and it had been drilling 8,000 barrels, or about 1.27 million litres of oil a day.
This is considered a major oil spill,'' said Mike O'Berry, a US Coast Guard senior chief petty officer. Officials said the current spill had the potential to be the worst seen in the United States since the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/major-oil-spill-as-rig-sinks-off-us/story-e6frf7jx-1225857582674
It is hard to tell what happened and no one that was there seems to be talking. And while I have never been a well that was lost, I have been on rigs where the mud man saved our asses.
From what have read and heard, it does not seem that the blow out preventer failed completely as there would be much more oil in the water than is being reported.
Perhaps things happened very quickly and the BOP was not engaged or instruments failed and there was little warning.
There is some other speculation that some other thing on the platform exploded.
How do they manage to deny access to would be underwater saboteurs?
I really doubt that is the case as it would be difficult for saboteurs to go near the platform without being noticed and far less likely such a person could get down to the BOP to sabotage.
The driller on the drill floor never takes his eyes off the pressure gages and is ready to instantly act to contain the gas pressure from below.
I worked for that company, Transocean, and I know all the crews are well trained and the equipment is the best. Don't know what might have gone wrong. They are drilling in deeper water nowadays which makes more complicated.
If something kills the driller, though, then what happens?... wouldn’t you think there would be an electronic fail safe on the system so if there is a rig demolishing catastrophe, the blowout prevention system would automatically kick in?
Any input you can give, even speculation, would be appreciated. I hired a lot of out of work roughnecks over the years to work my decks until a slot opened up for them on a rig. Good men, hard workers and I gained an overall respect for the ones I knew. We pray for the eleven missing and the many other captains and crews lost to the Gulf of Mexico every year or so.
When was the last time we had a rig blow?? I suspect we will hear the same speech from Obama...very shortly...
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