ShearMax low force shear rams that can shear drill pipe tool joints measuring up to 6 5/8 inch in approximately 30 seconds are shown at National Oilwell Varco in Houston last year. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle)
Posted on 03/30/2011 10:28:11 AM PDT by thackney
The government will study how to improve emergency drilling equipment known as blowout preventers following a report that revealed a possible design flaw in the device exhumed from BP’s failed Macondo well in the Gulf, an Obama administration official said today.
Michael Bromwich, the head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, said that the agency has not considered blowout preventers the “fail-safe” equipment they were described to be.
“We had been proceeding . . . on the premise that blowout preventers are not fail safes, and we need to do everything we possibly can to make offshore drilling safer in other ways,” Bromwich told the House Natural Resources Committee.
A four-month examination of the hulking 60-foot-tall, 300-ton device released last week concluded that neither human nor mechanical error was to blame for the blowout preventer’s failure to stop gushing oil and gas at BP’s Macondo well.
Instead, a government-contracted forensic analysis firm said the force of the oil and gas surging out of the Macondo well caused drill pipe in the blowout preventer to buckle and be pushed askew, preventing the device’s sharp rams from slashing through the pipe, sealing the well hole and trapping oil underground.
That revived questions about the reliability of the devices that surfaced after the April 20 blowout at Macondo.
“There certainly are more questions now than before about blowout preventers,” Bromwich told the House Natural Resources Committee today. “But there were questions before.”
Although Bromwich rejected the “fail safe” label for blowout preventers, he said that the devices should be considered “a very important backup system that, if all else fails, would be able a large percentage of the time to stop a catastrophic blowout.”
The ocean energy bureau and Coast Guard, which are jointly investigating the Deepwater Horizon disaster, are set to study the blowout preventer report next week during hearings in New Orleans. Bromwich said that after the joint investigation panel delves into the issue, “we will have a better idea of what the specific lines of inquiry need to be” for future ocean energy bureau evaluation of blowout preventers.
The ocean energy bureau has already imposed new requirements on the testing and certification of blowout preventers since last year’s spill. Bromwich and other administration officials have previously said more regulations on the devices could be proposed under a formal rulemaking process.
During a wide-ranging hearing today, Bromwich also:
- said the ocean energy bureau was exploring the possibility of “dynamic testing” of two containment systems that have been provided for capturing crude from blown-out deep-water wells. Those systems, provided by Houston-based Helix Well Containment Group and the Exxon Mobil-led Marine Well Containment Company, have not been subjected to the kind of real-condition testing that some lawmakers say is necessary to prove they will definitely work in case of another disaster. Bromwich said his agency would continue meeting with those companies on a quarterly basis to assess those issues and their evolving capability.
- committed to extending offshore drilling leases for some companies whose work was halted by last year’s ban on some deep-water exploration. Those decisions will be made on a “case-by-case basis,” Bromwich said. He signaled that companies with leases expiring next year can count on extensions, but companies with longer term leases might not fare so well. “We’ve had requests (to extend) leases expiring in 2020,” he said. “That strikes me as inappropriate.”
- insisted that the ocean energy bureau needs more money to hire offshore inspectors and permitting officials, which could help speed up the agency’s evaluation of proposed drilling projects. The pace of permitting may never reach pre-spill levels, Bromwich said. But, he added, “we’ll come a whole lot closer than we would without the resources.”
- rejected Republicans’ assertions that speeding up drilling permits now would quickly lower the price of gasoline at the pump. “What we do now in terms of approving plans and permits doesn’t have an immediate impact,” he said. “Even if we granted scores (of drilling permits immediately) it wouldn’t have an impact on the price of gasoline” right away. Drilling now translates to production five to ten years down the line, he noted.
- said the phrase “de facto moratorium” had outlived its usefulness, given that the ocean energy bureau has issued nearly 40 permits for new shallow-water wells and seven others for six deep-water projects stalled by last year’s ban. “Those are meaningless phrases,” Bromwich said.
ShearMax low force shear rams that can shear drill pipe tool joints measuring up to 6 5/8 inch in approximately 30 seconds are shown at National Oilwell Varco in Houston last year. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle)
Just another reason to stall issuing permits.
With all the readily available evidence of just how totally inept clueless most government people are why on earth would you look to them to asses anything. How sad that we’ve come to the point that anytime something needs approval or proof of functionality we immediately turn to the government.
I am hard pressed to think of a single thing government does that is not way too expensive, doesn’t work and/or much too big to be efficient.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.