Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE)

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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Preliminary (and unsubstantiated) information:

1. Fire is uncontrolled
2. BOPE actuated
3. MSRC activated (oil spill response cooperative)
4. Search and rescue ongoing
5. Rig is listing
6. Approximately 20,000 bbl diesel on rig

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The Coast Guard reports:

1. 7 critical injuries

2. 11-12 missing

3. The fire is still burning

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We owe it to all those who died or have suffered to do our best to prevent anything like the Kielland accident from happening again. Magne Ognedal, Director General, Petroleum Safety Authority Norway

Section from a brace that failed on the Alexander Kielland, Stavanger Oil Museum

Thirty years ago today,  123 workers died when the Alexander Kielland capsized in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The Kielland was a converted semisubmersible drilling rig that was functioning as a floating quarters facility in the Ekofisk field.  The capsizing was triggered by a failure in one of the structural braces during a storm.  212 workers were aboard. More information on this tragedy can be found at the Stavanger Oil Museum site.

We join our friends and colleagues in Norway and throughout the world in remembering this tragedy. The best way to honor the dead is to make sure similar accidents don’t occur in the future, and that is our commitment.

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