Posted in accidents, tagged Grand Isle, Gulf of Mexico, oil spill on March 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »
From Cheryl Anderson based on Coast Guard information:
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, Australia, blowouts, BOP, Coast Guard, CSB, Deepwater Horizon, DOI, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, hearings, macondo, Montara, National Commission, oil spill, safety, well control on March 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »
While C-SPAN has broadcast some of the proceedings, the Deepwater Horizon Joint Investigation hearings have inexplicably not been streamed live by the Coast Guard (USCG) and Department of the Interior (DOI). The National Commission and Chemical Safety Board streamed their hearings live, but the USCG and DOI have not done so. Why? This is perhaps the most significant accident in the history of the US offshore oil and gas program, and the most notable worldwide offshore disaster since Piper Alpha in 1988. Eleven men died on the Deepwater Horizon. Economic costs will total in the tens of $billions. Major regulatory changes, some of which don’t appear to address identified risks, are being imposed.
The upcoming hearings are particularly important because the BOP issues that will be discussed have enormous international significance. In this era, the world shouldn’t have to travel to New Orleans to observe the hearings, rely on sketchy press reports, or wait months for transcripts to be released. (And how is it that the Montara Inquiry Commission in Australia was able to post transcripts within hours after the conclusion of each day’s hearing?)
Accident prevention is dependent on complete and timely information. Had more people paid attention to Montara, Macondo may have been prevented. The upcoming Deepwater Horizon BOP hearings are of critical importance, and should be streamed so that all interested parties can follow the proceedings.
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, DNV, drilling, macondo, oil spill, safety, well control on March 23, 2011| 3 Comments »
A shortened and simplified summary from information provided in the DNV report:
sheared off-center drill pipe
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, BOP, Deepwater Horizon, DNV, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, offshore drilling, offshore oil, oil spill, safety, well control on March 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »
The DNV report will be discussed in the upcoming hearings:
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE)/U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Joint Investigation Team, which is examining the Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting oil spill, today announced that it will hold a seventh session of public hearings the week of April 4, 2011. The hearings, which will focus specifically on the forensic examination of the Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer (BOP), are scheduled to take place at the Holiday Inn Metairie, New Orleans Airport, 2261 North Causeway Blvd., Metairie, La.
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Bob Bea, Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, macondo, oil spill, safety, UC Berkeley, well control on March 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Bob Bea
Dr. Bob Bea, UC Berkeley Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, and his Deepwater Horizon Study Group have issued their final report on the Macondo blowout. I look forward to reading the full documents.
Bob has been at the vanguard on risk management issues for many years. While he jokes that there are two things engineers can’t deal with – uncertainty and people, Bob is an engineer who understands both! Kudos to Bob and his group for their leadership and initiative.
Posted in accidents, tagged Coast Guard, Gulf of Mexico, oil sheen, oil spill on March 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Our oil spill expert, Cheryl Anderson, has been monitoring the Gulf of Mexico slick reports, and has provided the following update:
A state official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of a continuing Coast Guard investigation, said the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries traced the emulsified oil on the west side of the river to its apparent source at West Delta Block 117. He said tests by a state-contracted lab confirmed that was the source of the oil.
Wildlife and Fisheries officials found the source of the oil Monday evening and encountered workers in a boat trying to restore a cap on the well using a remotely operated submarine.
There was a USCG Media Briefing at 2 pm local time Monday [4-5 hours before the NOLA.com article was published]. The briefing confirmed that the 100-mile sheen on Saturday was not petroleum, just sediments from water disturbances.
With regard to the most recent slick, the Coast Guard said:
–no source had been identified,
–no active spill incidents had been identified,
–spill had been Federalized,
–testing showed that it was Louisiana crude, and
–LSU was still working on the tests to see if the oil matched the Macondo well or any recorded previous spill incident.
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, 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 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.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 