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

Quote Originally Posted by leo9 View Post
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.