Oil Spill

[leo9]

It just seems like they keep making lots of excuses for not plugging it, most of what Ive seen has been top hats and domes and very little solution that doesnt also envolve pumping oil/using the well point etc. They even said. oil will continue to leak in the gulf into next year...becuase they dont have enough boats to syphon it off too.

To be so fair it hurts, they do have a huge problem there. Working on pipes by robot sub at that depth has been compared to doing heart surgery in the dark with tongs; as for dropping the dome on it, I'd compare that to putting an extinguisher on a candle by lowering it from the roof of an apartment block on a string.

But this is exactly why they should have had backups on their backups, so the insoluble problem didn't happen. A famous manual of sailing offered the advice on what to do when caught on a lee shore on a falling tide: "Never get into this situation."

[DuncanONeil]

To be so fair it hurts, they do have a huge problem there. Working on pipes by robot sub at that depth has been compared to doing heart surgery in the dark with tongs; as for dropping the dome on it, I'd compare that to putting an extinguisher on a candle by lowering it from the roof of an apartment block on a string.

But this is exactly why they should have had backups on their backups, so the insoluble problem didn't happen. A famous manual of sailing offered the advice on what to do when caught on a lee shore on a falling tide: "Never get into this situation."

"(T)hey should have had backups on their backups". Ok! Let me get this straight. The rig exploded. There should have been a system to stop the explosion and a backup system for that system? As well as a backup for the backup? The rig caught fire and there should have been at least three fire suppression systems for that? The rig SANK! Just how do you propose a backup system for that eventuality?

[leo9]

"(T)hey should have had backups on their backups". Ok! Let me get this straight. The rig exploded. There should have been a system to stop the explosion and a backup system for that system? As well as a backup for the backup? The rig caught fire and there should have been at least three fire suppression systems for that? The rig SANK! Just how do you propose a backup system for that eventuality?

In the first place, the leak didn't happen because of the fire, the explosion and fire happened because of the gas surge that burst the pipes.

There are devices to catch such pressure surges. A lot of them weren't in place on this rig, because they cost money and slow down the work. There was a valve that could have stopped the blowout, but the operator who could have closed it wasn't authorised to do it without permission from higher up, and by the time he got it, it was too late.

But the blowout wouldn't have happened if they had been drilling with mud. Oil bores are backfilled with fluid to stop pressure surges. The best fluid for this is mud because it's dense, but for that reason it's slow and expensive to handle. A week before the blowout, the drillers were told to switch to using water because the operation was taking too long.

The rest is history.. and ecology.

[DuncanONeil]

Two things. You mischaracterize what I said. I said nothing about the cause of the leak.

In the first place, the leak didn't happen because of the fire, the explosion and fire happened because of the gas surge that burst the pipes.

There are devices to catch such pressure surges. A lot of them weren't in place on this rig, because they cost money and slow down the work. There was a valve that could have stopped the blowout, but the operator who could have closed it wasn't authorised to do it without permission from higher up, and by the time he got it, it was too late.

But the blowout wouldn't have happened if they had been drilling with mud. Oil bores are backfilled with fluid to stop pressure surges. The best fluid for this is mud because it's dense, but for that reason it's slow and expensive to handle. A week before the blowout, the drillers were told to switch to using water because the operation was taking too long.

The rest is history.. and ecology.