This is my first post on here concerning the blowout. I’ve been in the oil & gas service industry for 34 yrs. All of it concerning wireline pipe recovery work. In those 34 yrs. I’ve worked on quite a few blowouts where land rigs have burnt down and others offshore that had to be evacuated and wells that have taken a kick and stuck the pipe and I’ve got plenty of stories to go along with those. I’ve also worked with the majority of the well control specialists in the field , Red Adair, Joe Bowden’s Wild Well Control and Bobby Joe Cudd way back in the ‘70’s when he first started out.
While no two well’s are alike, definitely no two blowouts are alike, especially this one with the wellhead sitting on bottom in 5000’ of water.
I do believe BP is doing their best for being in the situation that they are in and trying what ever they can till the relief well can be drilled. I do fault them for cutting corners and I know that everybody that has worked in the oilfield at one time or the other has done the same, except this time it cost lives. The multi million dollar rig can be replaced, the enviorment will eventually return to normal but the lives that were lost can never be replaced.
Now I would like to commend Company Man 1 on his comments, some for his knowledge of the situation and some that he commented on where he may have been a little over zealous about but not derogatory. Now days, JMO, a company man on a rig is no more than a glorified dispatcher, he can’t turn a valve without approval of the office. What ever happened on that rig that day will eventually come out and we’ll all learn from it. It’s gonna be an expensive mistake. Lord knows we didn’t need to lose lives over it and hopefully it will never happen again…….