This is the nightmare scenario that we supporters of offshore oil and gas development dreaded and worked so hard to prevent – workers missing, fire raging, and oil flowing. Santa Barbara, Ixtoc, and most recently Montara were horrible drilling blowouts, but no lives were lost. Barring an Earth Day miracle, or series of miracles, that will not be the case this time.
BP and Transocean are not rogue companies. BP had a near flawless safety and compliance record in US waters over the past 2 years. Transocean is a respected drilling contractor. The Deepwater Horizon is a modern mobile drilling unit, and was staffed with a skilled and competent crew. So what went wrong? Is the challenge of drilling deep beneath the earth from a floating facility in thousands of feet of water too great to achieve the level of perfection that is necessary and expected? I don’t think so, but we clearly have a lot of soul searching to do.
For now, the focus must be on the search for the missing workers and regaining control of the well. We can count on the Coast Guard, which is once again providing outstanding leadership during a crisis, to do everything possible to find the workers. With regard to the well, an ROV must successfully actuate a ram on a BOP stack located on the ocean floor. If that doesn’t work, we are in for a long siege.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 