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Archive for the ‘well control incidents’ Category

Interesting News From Australia

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

It may be winter in Australia, but the offshore debate is heating up.  I awoke to a stream of emails from Odd Finnestad who follows the Australian news very closely.  Odd noted that the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) Safety Conference opened with a presentation on the industry response to Montara.  Further from Odd:

Then, Martin Ferguson, who was apparently also present, gave an address. Quotes of his speech appear in numerous articles, and the cat is now out of the bag: The Montara report will NOT be released before the election! And, should the Gillard Labour Party win the battle, Martin says there will be a shift to a national regulator in Australia from January 1, 2012.

See this article for a good summary of Minister Ferguson’s remarks.

Creating a new all-powerful national regulator for the offshore oil and gas industry would be a top priority of a re-elected Gillard Labor government, federal resources minister Martin Ferguson said today.

While the other states appear to be on board, the West Australia government is not happy.

The most colorful quote is from APPEA CEO Belinda Robinson:

Knee-jerk reactions such as calls for moratoriums on offshore exploration were not the answer and it was important not to “overdo the self-flagellation”, she said.

BOE comment: We’re not looking for “self-flagellation,” but a little humility would be nice. Ms. Robinson and industry leaders in Australia, the US, and elsewhere need to take a close look at the safety culture of the industry they represent. The reactive studies that are necessary to satisfy government authorities are not enough.   The goal should be participation by all offshore operators in organized programs that assess across-the-board risks and address problem areas before major accidents occur.

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Macondo’s Heroes

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 10, 2010| 3 Comments »

We have heard plenty about Macondo’s real, imagined, and convenient villains, but very little about the heroes.  Let’s pay tribute to them:

  1. First and foremost the eleven men who lost their lives exploring for energy for our economy and security.  Sadly, were it not for the massive spill, their sacrifice would have received little public attention.
  2. The rescue crews who brought the other 115 workers safely to shore.
  3. The responders who worked under difficult conditions to minimize the environmental effects of the spilled oil.
  4. The relief well crews who demonstrated how complex drilling operations should be conducted.
  5. The ROV and well intervention teams.  The performance of the ROVs and subsea tools is perhaps the biggest Macondo success story.  Their pioneering work will be studied in developing the well intervention, capping, and collection plans that will be a part of future drilling programs.
  6. The people of Louisiana, who despite their personal adversity continue to believe that energy, fishing, and other offshore interests can and must co-exist.
  7. The MMS oil spill research program.  In the lean years following the Valdez oil spill research surge, MMS continued to conduct important burning, dispersant, remote sensing, and mechanical cleanup studies, while upgrading and expanding the use of the nation’s major oil spill response test facility – Ohmsett.
  8. The Unified Command scientists who are providing comprehensive scientific data about the effects of the spill, and refuse to be swayed by sensational media reports.
  9. Oil consuming bacteria!
  10. Others?

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Just ‘Roo It!

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , on August 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

G’Day Australia.  There are now only 2 weeks until the Federal election. Ironically, the election, which may have delayed the release of the Montara Inquiry report, will be held on the first anniversary of that blowout.

This report will play an important role in keeping our workers safe, protecting our environment and safeguarding our energy security. Minister Martin Ferguson

BOE fully agrees with Minister Ferguson’s statement about the importance of the Montara Inquiry report and hopes that he or his successor promptly releases the report after the election.  The lessons learned at Montara will not only prevent accidents in Australia, but elsewhere in the world. In light of the disturbing similarities between the two blowouts, it is possible that closer international attention to Montara might even have prevented the Macondo blowout.

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Two requests for the Unified Command

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

  1. Now that the Unified Command has had a couple of days to review the static kill data (which were certainly considered in planning the cementing operation that was concluded yesterday), please provide an update on the latest thinking with regard to the well’s flow path.
  2. Please post a cross section schematic (best estimate) of the well after the completion of yesterday’s cementing operation.

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Was Macondo flow inside the production casing?

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on August 5, 2010| 2 Comments »

Kent Well’s response to a reporter’s question and Colin Leach’s comment on BOE seem to give credence to our suspicion that the flow path for the Macondo well was inside the production casing!  If true, this is enormously significant for the following reasons:

  1. The root cause of Macondo is eerily similar to that at Montara in that oil and gas entered the well via compromised cement in the casing shoe and a failed float.  Did the BP engineers and TO crew even know about Montara?  This shows why accident information must be promptly circulated and brought to the attention of key personnel everywhere in the world. It also demonstrates why the Montara report needs to be released without further delay.
  2. Presumed contributing factors that would be irrelevant or less significant: the long string vs. liner/tieback decision, and the failure to run a Cement Bond Log, additional centralizers, or a lockdown sleeve on the casing seal.
  3. Contributing factors that would have even greater importance: selection of the casing point (integrity at the base of the well), waiting on cement time, timing of the positive and negative pressure tests (this is a topic that warrants much more scrutiny and discussion), and failure to set a cement plug before displacing the mud with sea water.

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What happened to the oil?

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Click to read the full “Oil Budget” report (just released).

The vast majority of the oil from the BP oil spill has either evaporated or been burned, skimmed, recovered from the wellhead or dispersed – much of which is in the process of being degraded.

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A Tale of Two Spills

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

In the less than 3 week period since Macondo was capped, we have transitioned from “doom and gloom” to “all is well.”  What next?

Click to read an interesting USA Today article.

“Oil doesn’t really kill marsh plants,” says John Pardue, director of Louisiana State University’s Hazardous Substance Research Center, who has studied the effects of oil on marshes. “You can put several inches of oil on the vegetation surface and you won’t kill the plants.”

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Macondo spill rate – 53,000 bopd before capping, 62,000 bopd at outset

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , on August 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Those are the latest official numbers provided by the Unified Command’s Scientific Teams. Once again, no assumptions or calculations are provided. Why? What was the range of estimates for the different methods (videos analyses, reservoir modeling, acoustics, and extrapolations based on recovery volumes)? Show us the data!

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Bayou St. Denis Well Capped

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , on August 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Per Nola.com, the Bayou St. Denis blowout has been capped.

“The Unified Command was able to accomplish this in less than a week due to the fantastic cooperation between the federal, state and local officials and efforts of the contractors,” Capt. John Arenstam, the Coast Guard Federal On Scene Coordinator, said in a news release.

The fact that this incident occurred at all is not so fantastic.  The Coast Guard is investigating.  We look forward to seeing the report.

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Macondo Monday

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

End game mysteries?:  As BP prepares for the static kill operation, the well’s flow path is still not clear.   While the consensus seems to be that the flow originates in the annulus outside the production casing, irregularities during the cementing and testing of that casing suggest the possibility of flow inside the casing.  The condition of the well bore and casing strings is also uncertain. Perhaps of greatest importance will be the inspection of the BOPE after the well is plugged and the stack is pulled.  This inspection process should be closely supervised by the regulators.

Press conference etiquette?: After admitting that they joined yesterday’s Unified Command press briefing late, two reporters asked questions that had been answered earlier.  Perhaps they think their time is more important than Admiral Allen’s, or that of the other attendees, viewers, and listeners.  One of these questioners asked when the static kill operation would begin.  Admiral Allen, who answered the question politely and patiently, should have asked when it would be most convenient for the reporter. Surely, the Unified Command would want to accommodate the reporter’s busy schedule. 😉

Dispersants: As has been demonstrated at oil spill workshops and conferences for the past 30 years, you can always stir up passions by questioning the use of dispersants.  Dispersants, unlike burning and skimmers, don’t remove oil from the water (at least not directly).  The On-Scene Commander (OSC) must consider the tradeoffs and make the decisions that he or she thinks will minimize the net impact of the spill.  Given the magnitude of location of the Macondo spill, I think the OSCs made the correct calls.  Dispersants were also used (not without controversy of course) in responding to last year’s Montara blowout in the Timor Sea.

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