- NBC – Decent job; no major mistakes; good clip on the absence of seafloor leakage
- ABC – About what you expect from network news; not entirely accurate, but in the ballpark
- CBS – What event were they talking about? Who prepared the rig, well diagram?
Archive for the ‘well control incidents’ Category
Macondo Blowout – Day 3 Summary
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, maconda, offshore oil, safety, well control on April 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Deepwater Horizon – Update 10
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, offshore oil, safety, well control on April 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »
A NOAA report indicates the following (not good):
- Rig is listing 15 degrees
- Most of the oil is burning but there is a slick approximately 2 miles in length. Updated NOAA trajectory analyses suggest that the Northern GOM coast would be at risk, but that it would take more than three days for oil to threaten the shorelines. Weather and current forecast and could of course change.
- Initial attempts to actuate BOPE with the ROV failed.
- A strengthening of winds and seas is predicted by Friday evening. Such weather would put even greater stress of both the vessel and the riser.
Deepwater Horizon – Update 9
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, offshore oil, safety, well control on April 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Deepwater Horizon – Update 8
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, offshore oil, safety, well control on April 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Upstream report on today’s press conference.
Observations:
- The listing DP rig is apparently being held on location solely by the marine riser.
- It sounds like they were cementing (or had cemented) production casing at the time of the incident, and that the surface plug had not yet been set prior to temporarily abandoning the well. Flow could be inside the casing or in the annulus.
- Apparently most of the oil is being released at the top of the riser (estimated rate of 300 bbl/hr) and being ignited. If the riser fails, oil will be released at the seafloor and the spill response will be much more challenging.
- They will attempt to actuate the BOPE with an ROV. This implies that they either were unable to actuate BOPE prior to evacuating or that the actuation was unsuccessful (e.g. shear ram was unable to cut pipe in well bore).
Deepwater Horizon – Update 7
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, offshore oil, safety, well control on April 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »
11 workers still not accounted for.
According to the latest US Coast Guard release:
Updated reports indicate that there were 126 people on board the MODU at the time of the explosion.
One-hundred-fifteen crewmembers have been accounted for. Of those accounted for:
- Seventeen crewmembers were medevaced from the scene
- Ninety-four crewmembers are being transferred to shore at Port Fourchon aboard the Damien Baxton, an offshore supply vessel. There are no major injuries reported for these members.
- Four crewmembers have been transferred to another vessel
Deepwater Horizon – Update 6
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Louisiana, offshore oil, seeps, well control on April 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Contrary to an earlier report (see below), the Coast Guard has told Upstream that the 11 workers are still missing and the search continues.
Deepwater Horizon – Update 5
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, offshore oil, safety, well control on April 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Correction from nola.com
Deepwater Horizon – Update 3
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, offshore oil, safety, well control on April 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »
“It’s burning pretty good and there’s no estimate on when the fire will be put out.” Mike O’Berry, US Coast Guard
The Coast Guard is hoping to locate the missing in an escape capsule or life raft. link
All BP personnel are reported to be safe.
Will Other Nations Learn the Lessons from Montara?
Posted in accidents, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, well control incidents, tagged Australia, blowouts, Magne Ognedal, Montara, offshore oil, Regulation, safety on April 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »
My experience is that you unfortunately often need a major accident or even a disaster to engender political support for streamlining regulatory regimes. Moreover, history shows that major accidents apparently must happen in your own jurisdiction to have such an effect on political support. Magne Ognedal
Magne’s astute comment repeatedly came to mind while I was reading the Montara testimony. Our political systems are good at reacting, but are not so good at making tough decisions when the spotlight is elsewhere. Crises provide the political capital needed to make major changes, but seldom yield the best solutions.
Will the Montara blowout provide the impetus needed for other countries to review and improve their offshore regulatory regimes? These Montara issues should be of concern to all of us:
- Multiple regulators with unclear divisions of responsibility
- Regulatory gaps and overlap
- Ineffective use of standards and best practices
- Lack of clarity regarding operator and contractor responsibility and accountability
- Balancing goal-setting with prescription
- Monitoring operations effectively without taking “ownership”
- Applying regulatory resources efficiently and where the risk is greatest
- Absence of meaningful performance measures for operators and regulators
- Authority to remove rogue operators
- Ability to update standards and regulations in a timely manner
- Weaknesses in training programs for operators, contractors, and regulators
I’ll stop at ten (now eleven :)).
Many of these issues will be discussed at the International Regulators’ Offshore Safety Conference in Vancouver (18-20 October). I hope you plan to attend!


