[QUOTE=company man 1;34778]I was on a rig one time when the driller accidentally engaged the shears instead of closing the annular. We had just set a packer & were going to test the annulus. Anyway, he got it open before it completley cut the pipe. From what I’ve seen, it wouldn’t be easy to fish after shearing because it doesn’t make a claen cut. It mashed the pipe & cut it half into before he got it opened. The other issue I would have with hanging off before shearing is with the weight stacked onto a set of slips or hanging rams, I believe it doesn’t give the pipe anywhere to be displced. i have cut a lot of pipe & casing & the best way to cut it is with weight hanging off, because you get assistance from the weight hanging. I liken it to trying to cut a rope & only holding one end of the rope. I have some other questions for you & didn’t mean to irritate you yesterday. I was just giving my opinion on this operation.
On the rams is the hanging ram expected to hold pressure? because I would not like to trust my life on a ram expecting it to hold say 9000 PSI & 300k hanging weight. I also have heard a lot made about the annular. I would not want to stake my life on an annular holding 9000PSI.
I have read your posts on the BOP on DWH. I agree with you that there is no way every part of it malfunctioned. I am wondering if you think it is possible/probable that it may not have malfunctioned at all. I have believed this to be a possibility all along. that is why I have not come down on TO nearly as hard as BP.
I still say those ROV operators are some bad boys. So far they’re the only ones that can seem to get anything done since this mess happened.[/QUOTE]
I do not believe the BOP malfunctioned significantly. I think the well rendered it inoperable, and/or the rig was in a no-win scenario, since the well came at them so fast, with so much pressure, there was not time.
I know many of the crew of the DWH and I think they were doomed as soon as they lined up saltwater to the mud pumps.
It’s likely the explosion/fire took out the surface controls and the EDS function from the bridge, and/or by the time it was initiated, it was too late. The timeline is not clear. Or, possibly, the button/activation circuit failed during the blackout. Maybe UPS, all possible theories.
Latent failures…due to lack of testing. Noone ever wants to test ups (especially dp and well control stuff), your on normal power, then bang, you have nothing. Also, how were electronic circuits protected from high voltage/frequency when the engines ran away. (why didn’t the rig savers prevent this?) How about the engine room dampers (notorious for seizing)…these are my equipment questions…not the BOP.
The BOP panel is used daily, tested weekly/biweekly etc. I have never seen full functionality lost. Maybe a pod has a fault, or sim, or node etc, but never the entire control panel. Very unlikely that it would fail, at the same moment there is a well control problem.
Maybe I’m wrong, maybe nobody is coming clean about losing comms with the BOP, but I doubt it.
The only major failure I can see is failure to stop the job, when the well indicated repeatedly that there was a problem.
Sadly, people tried, but they were ignored.