Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, David Dykes, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, Hung Nguyen, investigation, Jason Mathews, Kirk Malstom, macondo, offshore oil, safety, Sylvia Murphy, well control on October 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Capt. Hung Nguyen, David Dykes, and Jason Mathews question the witness. Sylvia Murphy and Kirk Malstrom monitor attentively from the 2nd row.
I would assume that one of the CSpan stations will be covering the hearings, but their broadcast schedule for next week has not yet been posted.
Posted in accidents, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, macondo, offshore oil, regulations, safety, safety management, SEMS, well control on September 30, 2010| 2 Comments »
Today, BOEM released fact sheets describing the Drilling Safety and Safety and Environmental Management (SEMS) rules. The complete documents will be available for review as soon as they are published in the Federal Register.
Based on the fact sheet, the Drilling Safety Rule does not appear to include any significant surprises. The rule seems to be generally consistent with the recommendations in Secretary Salazar’s 27 May Safety Measures Report to the President (the “30-Day Report”). This is an Interim Final Rule that will be effective upon publication.
According to the fact sheet, the SEMS Rule will incorporate all elements of API RP 75 into BOEM regulations. This is an improvement, in my opinion, from the proposed rule which incorporated only 4 elements of RP 75. The effective date for this rule is not indicated in the fact sheet.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged accidents, Australia, blowouts, Canada, macondo, Newfoundland, NOPSA, offshore oil, safety, safety culture, well control on September 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Safety culture is how the organization behaves when no one is watching.
Also, NOPSA’s September Newsletter has some interesting updates including information on the jackup failure offshore China.
And how does a reporter question the humility of engineers? 🙂
Engineers do amazing things, but they aren’t always as smart as they think, nor their systems as robust as they seem on paper.
Posted in cuba, tagged accidents, cuba, Gulf of Mexico, hurricanes, macondo, mooring, offshore oil, oil spill, safety on September 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »
In our last Cuba update, we noted that their next deepwater well always seems to be a year away. So it came as no surprise when we saw this in a New York Times article:
Yet next year, a Spanish company will begin drilling new wells 50 miles from the Florida Keys — in Cuba’s sovereign waters.
Comment: We have been hearing this for five years. Will the well really be spudded next year?
The nascent oil industry in Cuba is far less prepared to handle a major spill than even the American industry was at the time of the BP spill. Cuba has neither the submarine robots needed to fix deepwater rig equipment nor the platforms available to begin drilling relief wells on short notice.
Comments: (1) Not a good time for the US to be lecturing Cuba about oil spills. (2)In the event of a spill, all well intervention, relief well, and spill response equipment would no doubt be made available to Cuba without hesitation and with the full support of the US government. (3)A Cuban blowout is unlikely because every operator and contractor in the world will be focusing on well integrity and BOP performance issues that were factors in the Macondo blowout. (4)Informed international contacts have advised us that Cuban offshore officials are knowledgeable and committed to internationally accepted safety and pollution prevention standards.
My biggest concern with regard to Cuban offshore operations, assuming a moored rig is used, is that the rig would be set adrift during a hurricane and that anchors, mooring lines, or hulls could damage coral reefs and other sensitive seafloor features. In the US, the MMS and industry did a lot of good work on mooring risk assessments and improved anchoring systems and mooring lines. Given the significant probability that Cuban rigs will be exposed to hurricane conditions, it is imperative that US and Cuban specialists meet to discuss these issues. Once a rig is adrift, there is not much that can be done to stop it.
Also, in an award winning project, a multi-agency US government team demonstrated enhanced satellite monitoring capabilities that provide timely information on the location of evacuated rigs. These capabilities can be combined with gps systems to ensure continuous rig-tracking.
US-Cuban cooperation on offshore safety and pollution prevention issues is in the best interest of both countries, and should be encouraged without hesitation.
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, Australia, blowouts, BOE, Colin Leach, Deepwater Horizon, macondo, Montara, offshore oil, safety, well control on September 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »
We have commented frequently about the similarities between the Montara and Macondo blowouts, particularly the root cause casing shoe issues. In this post, Colin Leach draws attention to the float shoe and collar issues that permitted oil and gas to enter both wells. Click here to view the full post. The Bly report (page 70) noted some significant “inconsistencies” in the operation of the float shoe/float collar (see full post). This is so similar in nature to the “inconsistencies” in the 9 5/8″ cement job on the Montara well to be scary. The bottom line is that both disasters could have been prevented if these “inconsistencies” had been recognized and additional barriers placed above the float collar. In fact even if there are no “inconsistencies”, the placing of an additional barrier or so seems like an exceptionally prudent step, which would not take that much time or effort.
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, bly, BOE, bp, Deepwater, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, Montara, offshore oil, safety, well control on September 28, 2010| 1 Comment »
As previously posted (July 27, 2010), deep water had little to do with the well integrity problems and other contributing factors leading to the Macondo blowout. The Bly (BP) report further confirms this position.
Of the eight key findings in the Bly report (listed below), only number 4 could be considered to be more of a deepwater issue. The BOP failures may also have been influenced by deepwater factors. However, as previously noted, surface BOPs have a much higher failure rate than subsea stacks.
While the Montara blowout was in relatively shallow water, slight variations of findings 1 through 4 were the primary causes of that accident.
BP findings:
Posted in accidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, National Commission, offshore oil, oil spill, safety on September 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Secretary Salazar, Deputy Secretary Hayes, and BOEMRE Director Bromwich testified at today’s National Commission hearings. Director Bromwich made several important announcements and comments of interest to BOE readers:
Chairman Reilly expressed concerns about the leasing and regulatory functions reporting to the same Assistant Secretary under the new organizational structure. He also drew attention to the regulatory regimes in Norway, the UK, and elsewhere, and the importance of studying those programs.
Secretary Salazar’s goal is for the US offshore oil and gas program to serve as the “gold standard” for safe and clean operations around the world.
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, National Commission, offshore oil, oil spill, safety, well control on September 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Monday’s hearings will be broadcast on CSpan 2 beginning at 0900 ET. Admiral Allen will be the first witness and will address decision-making within the Unified Command. Given the number of high profile witnesses and the limited time allotted to each witness, in-depth questioning would seem to be unlikely. Will this be a day of short speeches?
Posted in accidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, Denmark, drilling, germany, Gulf of Mexico, Norway, offshore oil, ospar, safety, UK on September 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Oil-producing countries on Thursday rejected a German proposal for a moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Northeast Atlantic that reflected environmental concerns after the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
So Germany, which has essentially no offshore oil and gas production in its sliver of the North Sea, proposed a ban on deepwater drilling at an OSPAR meeting in Bergen, Norway? Does the word chutzpah come to mind? The equivalent might be a Norwegian proposal to ban the manufacturer of luxury cars at a meeting in Stuttgart!
The German proposal also called for making sure that offshore operations meet the highest safety standards and demanded an analysis of whether the circumstances that led to the Deepwater Horizon accident could also occur in the Northeast Atlantic.
Now there is some original thinking. No one has ever suggested that before! (sarcasm intended) Don’t you think Norway, the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, and other countries that actually produce oil and gas might be looking into these issues? I can assure you that they are, but that they are doing so quietly and professionally without the type of “grandstanding” demonstrated by Germany at the OSPAR meeting in Bergen.
Representatives from Germany and other nations with concerns about the safety of offshore oil and gas operations are encouraged to join us in Vancouver next month for serious discussions about the regulatory practices, technology, and management systems that minimize safety risks.
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, Australia, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, Martin Ferguson, Montara, NOPSA, oil spill, safety, well control on September 23, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Montara Blowout, Timor Sea
I awoke to two very important developments from Australia as reported by Anthea Pitt with Upstream:
By expanding Nopsa’s role, one central agency will look out for the safety of our offshore workers and the environment from exploration to decommissioning. That means it will be responsible for approvals and regulation of safety and environment, as well as integrity of facilities and day-to-day operations.
Bravo to Australia and Minister Ferguson! As I indicated in a submission to the Montara Commission and testimony before the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, a single agency must be responsible and accountable for the regulation of offshore oil and gas operations if safety and pollution prevention objectives are to be achieved.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 