Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Coast Guard, Gulf of Mexico, sheen, W&T on March 20, 2011| Leave a Comment »
The Examiner is reporting the following:
The oil sheen is suspected of coming from the Matterhorn field which includes a deepwater drilling rig, Matterhorn Seastar that is owned by W&T Technology. The oil is suspected from coming from a leak in the well which is a producing well.
Suspected by whom? Does the reporter have legitimate information or is this rank speculation? The Coast Guard is sorting this out, so we should know something soon. A statement from W&T would be helpful.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Coast Guard, Gulf of Mexico, oil spill on March 20, 2011| Leave a Comment »
The Coast Guard said in a news release that it received a report of a three-mile-long rainbow sheen off the Louisiana coast just before 9:30 a.m. local time on Saturday. Two subsequent sightings were relayed to the Coast Guard, the last of which reported a sheen that extended from about 6 miles south of Grand Isle, La. to 100 miles offshore.
Though the Coast Guard was able to confirm that there is a substance on the water’s surface, it has not yet been able to determine if it is oil. Wall Street Journal
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, BOP, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, forensics, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, offshore drilling, safety, well control on March 20, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Per the Platts Oilgram report that we posted on 17 March, here is the complete court filing..
These are the additional tests recommended by BP’s consultant Ralph Linenberger:
Is anyone else surprised that some (all?) of these tests hadn’t already been conducted? That would seem to be the biggest revelation from the BP court filing.
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, offshore oil, oil spill, safety, well control on March 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »
From Platts Oilgram News:
BP seeks Macondo BOP access to perform tests Washington—BP is seeking access to the Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer so it can run tests the company says the joint investigation has failed to perform. BP filed a motion in US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans March 9, asking Judge Carl Barbierto allow the company access to the BOP after the joint investigation being run by the US Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, is finished with it. The BOP, a five-story stack of valves, sat atop BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexicoand failed to suppress a blowout April 20,2010. The blowout killed 11 workers fromTransocean’s Deepwater Horizon rig and triggered a massive oil spill. The joint investigation, under the supervision of the Department of Justice, has been conducting tests on the BOP at a NASA facility in Michoud, Louisiana. DNV Columbus washired to conduct the forensic tests and BP,Transocean, and Cameron, which made the BOP, have been observing.The test results are supposed to be delivered to the joint investigation by March 20. Hearings on the BOP are scheduled for the week of April 4. In its motion, BP said it submitted to the Joint Investigation Team a list of highly technical tests it felt should be conducted, but that the final list of approved tests did not include several of the items BP and other companies had requested.“BP, however, believes that performance of these forensic activities will add value to an analysis of why the BOP did not work as intended on April 20, and recommends they be completed,” the company said in its court brief.— Gary Gentile
Posted in accidents, Uncategorized, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, offshore oil, oil spill, safety, well control on March 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Summit Entertainment, Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dhabi, have announced that they’ve acquired the film rights to a 2010 New York Times article on the BP oil spill.Forbes
This is the excellent New York Times piece referenced in the quote.
Posted in energy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged energy, Gulf of Mexico, House Energy and Commerce, offshore drilling, offshore oil on March 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Speakers list and link to live streaming
The Subcommittee on Energy and Power announces a multi-day hearing on “The American Energy Initiative.” The first day of the hearing will be on Thursday, March 17, 2011, at 9:00 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. It will focus on oil supplies, gasoline prices, and jobs in the Gulf of Mexico.
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, oil spill, safety, well control on March 15, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Jason Anderson, Dale Burkeen, Donald Clark, Stephen Curtis, Gordon Jones, Roy Wyatt Kemp, Karl Kleppinger, Blair Manuel, Dewey Revette, Shane Roshto and Adam Weise.
They are the 11 workers who died when the Deepwater Horizon burned and sank in the Gulf of Mexico last year.
Their names need to be stated, to be remembered, because they were clearly forgotten as the industry gathered for the CERAWeek conference in Houston this week. Houston Chronicle
Comment: The sad truth is that the Macondo tragedy would have received very little attention if the fatalities were not followed by a major oil spill. There would have been no moratorium, no National Commission, no Chemical Safety Board review, and no Justice Department investigation. The last major multi-fatality accident in the Gulf, the South Pass 60 B fire that killed seven workers in 1989, received almost no national attention. A minor spill offshore California receives more coverage than a multi-fatality event in the Gulf.
When every casualty, every gas release, every well control incident, and every structural failure is fully and publicly reviewed, we will be well on our way toward preventing not only injuries and fatalities, but also spills and environmental damage.
Posted in drilling, energy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged Bill Clinton, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, IHS CERA, offshore oil on March 13, 2011| 1 Comment »
Former President Bill Clinton said Friday that delays in offshore oil and gas drilling permits are “ridiculous” at a time when the economy is still rebuilding, according to attendees at the IHS CERAWeek conference. Politico.com
Posted in Offshore Energy - General, oil, tagged BW Pioneer, Cascade Chinook, FPSO, Gulf of Mexico, Petrobras on March 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »
BW Pioneer
Posted in accidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, MMS, offshore oil, ohmsett, oil spill, Valdez on March 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Ohmsett
The seemingly endless crowing about the absence of improvements in spill response capabilities is a story by itself. This topic warrants a full discussion when time permits, but for now I’ll offer a few comments and observations:
NWS Earle Executive Officer Claudill, Kevin Costner, and Ohmsett Manager Bill Schmidt (1999 photo at Ohmsett)
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 