Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE)

Chutzpah Thursday:

1. First Prize: Mexico may sue over the Macondo spill.  I guess they forgot about Ixtoc I, the largest spill in history, and the damages to the Texas coastline.  When can we expect a suit by Hugo Chavez?  Ironically, while the US has repeatedly cited the environmental threat of Cuban drilling, the Cubans don’t seem to have made any public comments about the spill.
2. Second Prize: May 1, 2010 quote (scientist speaking about the slick): “It will be on the East Coast of Florida in almost no time. I don’t think we can prevent that. It’s more of a question of when rather than if.”  Has the scientist ever heard of weathering, evaporation, dispersion, and other natural processes that act on spills?
3. Third Prize: During a Today Show interview, a former oil company executive disparaged a spill response option (dispersants) that was an integral part of his company’s response plans, made condescending comments about the expertise of regulators, wondered why a tanker-skimmer response option that he had “heard about” wasn’t being tried, and repeatedly mentioned blowout “protectors” (most people get a pass when they make this mistake, but not retired oil industry executives).

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Here is why:

-I watched a news clip that was nothing more than a vicious, ill-informed attack on my former colleagues.  The piece was totally unprofessional.

-I’ve read too much commentary from folks who already know what is wrong with the operator, drilling contractor, regulator, equipment manufacturers, spill responders, and everything else associated in any way with this tragic incident.

So I’m taking a self-imposed timeout while I calm down.  I’ll be commenting publicly on Tuesday.

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The current level of interest in offshore safety issues is unprecedented, and because of time constraints and other obligations, I have not been able to respond to all of the calls and messages.  Please accept my apologies.  Bud

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No BOP, no pollution dome, relief well not recommended, and don’t mess with the responsible party!  More great pics

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1. As if the hurricane-style coverage of the Macondo spill wasn’t sensational enough, we now have an AP report that oil will be on Florida East Coast beaches in “almost no time.”
2. Speaking of hurricanes, the official hurricane season begins in 4 weeks.  One more thing for responders to be concerned about.
3. Food for thought: After listening to the radio interview linked below, our friend Tom from Alaska speculates that gas may have entered the well bore during the BOP test and accumulated under the test plug.  Since the well was fully cased, there may not have been concerns about pressure beneath the test plug.  The gas would have rushed to the surface at an explosive rate after the test plug was removed, possibly damaging rams in the process.

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“The responsibility for safety on the drilling rig is with Transocean,” Hayward said. “It is their rig, their equipment, their people, their systems, their safety processes.”  Tony Hayward, BP CEO, in a CNN Interview

Mr. Hayward has been under a lot of stress, and probably hasn’t had much sleep, so we’ll assume he didn’t really intend to make this comment.  BP and Transocean are both part of the “Unified Command.”  We need for them to work as partners, at least until the well is secured.

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Needless to say, there is tremendous worldwide interest in this tragic incident, and everyone is asking what happened.  While details will be determined during the official investigations, the Unified Command should be able to provide basic information on the status of operations at the time of the blowout.  Absent that, we are dependent upon unconfirmed reports that are circulating among industry contacts in Houston.  In that regard, the prevailing view is that production casing (which extends to the bottom of the well) had been cemented, and that a cement plug (flow barrier) was being set inside that production casing as part of the temporary abandonment (suspension) program.  Beyond that, information is sketchy and inconsistent.

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Upstream reports that Diamond Offshore has evacuated the Ocean Endeavor as a safety precaution because the Macondo slick may be moving in the direction of the rig.

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