A Maersk Oil-owned FPSO which was damaged during heavy storms in the North Sea in February will be out of action for another year as it heads for drydock repairs. Upstream
Archive for the ‘accidents’ Category
Upstream: Gryphon Alpha FPSO down for a year
Posted in accidents, Offshore Energy - General, UK, tagged FPSO, Gryphon Alpha, Maersk, mooring failures, North Sea, UK on May 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Interesting UK Safety Items
Posted in accidents, Norway, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, UK, tagged accidents, gas leaks, HSE, Norway, safety, UK on May 10, 2011| Leave a Comment »
The HSE has told Shell to submit a revised safety case for the Brent Charlie platform after gas was detected on its topsides following leaks on 12 January this year and 27 September 2010, Upstream can reveal.
Shell, which took the decision itself to close the platform after the January incident, has been battling for some time to resolve technically complex issues related to the venting of gas from inside one the platform’s huge concrete legs — Column 1 (C1) — and dispersing it effectively away from the platform.
The operator now expects the ageing Brent field to remain shut down for several more months.
Missing accident reports
Posted in accidents, tagged accidents, offshore oil, safety, well control on May 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »
The following are significant accidents (based on the consequences or potential for consequences) that have been discussed on BOE, but for which no official company or governmental report has been released. These accidents happened from 8 months to 3 years ago. I’m sure there are many others that we didn’t hear about or discuss. How do you effectively prevent accidents when reports are either not prepared, not released, or not completed in a timely manner?
- Liftboat Russell Peterson collapses (fatality) – US (offshore Delaware) – May 2008
- Gas leak and evacuation at offshore platform – Azerbaijan -August 2008
- Aban Pearl sinking – Venezuela – May 2010
- Jack Ryan crane failure (fatality) – Nigeria – August, 2010
- Bayou Denis blowout – US (Louisiana State waters) – August 2010
- West Polaris BOP testing incident, conductor casing collapse – Brazil(?) – August 2010(?)
- Jackup collapse during typhoon – China – September 2010
- Fire on Mariner platform – US – September 2010
The following accidents are are too recent (6 were just last month) to expect reports. BOE will publish links to the reports as soon as they become available.
- Apache gas leak and evacuation – US – January 2011
- Cherne II production platform fire – Brazil – January 2011
- Gryphon Alpha mooring failure – UK – February 2011
- Fatality (fall) on Apache platform – US – February 2011
- Jupiter flotel sinking – Mexico – April 2011
- Al Shaheen accommodations platform fire – Qatar – April 2011
- Fatality (fall) on Hillcorp platform – US – April 2011
- Diving fatality – UK – April 2011
- Visund gas leak, evacuation – Norway – April 2011
If you are aware of other accidents that you think should be added to these lists, please let me know.
All too predictable…
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged Deepwater Horizon, drilling, macondo, offshore drilling, offshore oil, oil spill, safety, well control on May 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »
…. and gleeful.
“Is there likely to be litigation over new drilling permits? You bet there is,” said David Petit, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“We’ll definitely litigate it,” Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said of the federal approval of Shell’s plan. “It’s patently illegal.”
Environmental Suits Threaten Gulf Drilling- Wall Street Journal
New BOP Concept from JL Daeschler
Posted in drilling, well control incidents, tagged BOP, design, JL Daeschler on May 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »
JL Daeschler, subsea engineer and inventor, sent me some preliminary drawings for a new BOP concept.
- JL’s design concept is based on 2 slab gate valves, one above the other, that move in the opposite direction and are beveled for shearing.
- The sealing element is fixed (solid, one-piece) to the main body of the BOP, does not move with the rams, and is fully protected in the drilling mode.
- The hydraulic system would retract the gate rather than close it (fail-safe closed).
- The upper and lower rams (gate valve type) are self-centered with a guiding system to minimize side movement and deflection.
- Well pressure assists in forcing the upper ram against the sealing element.
- JL is considering a similar concept (single shear) for xmas tree workover system.
Good NY Times article on the fate of the Macondo oil
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, offshore oil, oil spill, weathering, well control on May 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »
oil-eating bacteria
…scientists led by Terry Hazen, a microbiologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, discovered that cold-loving microbes were making quick work of the oil (Greenwire, Aug. 24, 2010). These bugs were, in effect, oil-seeking missiles. They were highly mobile, armed with swimming flagella and protein sensors that could guide them to their oily prey, according to additional work so far unpublished by Hazen’s group. New York Times
Helix and Marine Well Containment Company may work together
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged blowouts, Helix, MWCC, offshore oil, oil spill, well control on April 21, 2011| 2 Comments »
“One of the goals potentially of the MWCC group is to see how we can work together with the Helix group to try to accommodate solutions for all of the Gulf of Mexico,” Dupree (BP) said.
BP vs. Cameron
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, BOP, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, offshore oil, oil spill, safety, well control on April 20, 2011| 6 Comments »
“The Deepwater Horizon BOP was unreasonably dangerous, and has caused and continues to cause harm, loss, injuries, and damages to BP (and others) stemming from the blowout of Macondo well, the resulting explosion and fire onboard the Deepwater Horizon, the efforts to regain control of the Macondo well, and the oil spill that ensued before control of the Macondo well could be regained,” BP said in the suit.
Shale gas well blowout reported in Pennsylvania
Posted in accidents, natural gas, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowout, Marcellus Shale, Pennsylvania, shale gas on April 20, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Per the Citizens Voice, no injuries were reported
The Atgas 2H well operated by Chesapeake Energy in Leroy Township blew out at around 2 a.m., according to Bradford County Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Skip Roupp.
The well was in the process of being hydraulically fractured and Roupp characterized the spilled fluid as “mostly water … with some contaminants” but he did not know the exact composition of the fluid.
“Evidently the crack is in the top part of the well below the blowout preventer,” he said, referring to a device used in emergency situations to choke off flow from a well. “They don’t really know what happened yet because they don’t have it controlled yet.”
