[QUOTE=Frarig;35483][B]Whatever I post, I post as a guy who works on rigs hands-on, in and around the moonpool more often than not. I’m out there to perform a professional duty to the very best of my ability and (more importantly, to me) to feed my family. I’m not out there to get blown up or burned to death by idiots, regardless of their nationality.[/B] Like many of us here, I’ve worked all over the world. I’ve worked in the GOM for various US companies. I also had the particular misfortune to work in SE Asia for Unocal, and I can state without hesitation that in my 25+ years of offshore experience, I have never seen such lax and cavalier attitudes towards well safety as I’ve witnessed from American company men.
perhaps this disaster is an opportunity to take a hard look at the problems within [B]your industry as a whole[/B], and to make the necessary changes to ensure that something like this never happens again.
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FraRig, I absolutely agree with you that any old-school land rig mentalities (or old school shallow water/well mentalities for that matter) have no place in the highly technical ultra deepwater operations being planned & carried out in today’s D & E environment. As you correctly pointed out, the technology on the cutting edge is rapidly exceeding the training of the folks in the field trying to deal with the challenges which arise. This is why I really do not understand the lack of real engineering personnel on the rigs (North sea included) these days. Remember the early days (think Sedco) when we were all learning about deepwater drilling & the subsea engineers on the rig actually had an engineering degree & helped design & test all the equipment. I am wondering if this catastrophe will bring back those days.
I know we are bitching, complaining & getting distracted by the blame game here & it seems like for the last few days we are all just going back & forth saying “yes it is . . . . . . .no it isn’t. . . . . yes it is”. I think part of the problem is that we all keep doing the same thing you just did. O & G is O & G, if you work on the rig in a subsea position as you allude, and it effects you personally, as you have also alluded [I]“some ignorant as%hole in a Stetson hard-hat playing the big man and dictating that: This is the way it’s gonna happen!”[/I] doesn’t that make it a problem within [B]OUR[/B] industry as a whole? Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to single you out or pick on you because we have all been doing the same thing; just saying maybe we should all quit with the you guys vs. us guys BS and try and figure out how we are going to fix OUR industry on a world-wide scale so we can all continue to feed our families. I know the NORSOK regulations are much stricter in some regards & that things there have vastly improved in that area, but it wasn’t painless & it sure wasn’t voluntary (think Piper Alpha).
It has become VERY obvious to the whole world that, despite claims by everyone involved, we in the GoM operating theater (remember - one company’s accident effects the public’s opinion of us all regardless of how different our policies & procedures may be) obviously did not learn as many lessons as we gave lip service to from the Piper Alpha disaster & this seems to be true at all levels (& yes, I know it was a completely different scenario, but it was another incident that shocked the world and placed the public & government’s focus firmly on our industry).
I am not trying to throw out a plea of “why can’t we all just get along” because most of the folks here are rig & boat trash and as such we like to bitch & pick & cuss & agrue with each other as part of our daily fun, but what I am saynig is I think we need to keep the good, honest disemination of information & facts up so we can all figure out what happened to learn from the mistakes which were made, at whatever level, so this never happens again.
Okay, I’m done ranting for now, if someone could kick my soapbox out of the way so I don’t trip over it later I would appreciate it.