[QUOTE=alcor;36365]I don’t disagree with anything you’ve written here. BP, have screwed up everyone’s lives and will answer for that. And, many will be strung up!
I’m looking at ALL the failures. How were they able to get away with running one completion string? Where are the authorities to ensure that rules are being abided? Why didn’t Transocean lift the lid on the operations? They must have been aware that the rules were being broken.
In the absence of anyone else questioning their decisions, I believe this is an opportunity for the MMS to take better charge of all wells in order to control the corner cutting.
I’m interested in who else joins BP on the Gallows.
Is the offshore industry in the GOM rife with corner cutting or is it just BP? This question can only be addressed by comparing all offshore wells drilled in the past 5 years to see what sort of ‘policing’ is required for the future.
One problem in this case is that MMS appear to have approved the casing design. I hope they also stipulated the requirements for full circulation prior to the cement job.
I’d like to know what happened when they ran the Production string and in particular I’m interested in what was happening with well volumes. Someone is going to be crucified![/QUOTE]
As I have said before, there is only one guilty party here. It is simple. BP had a desire to shortcut safety & make it an industry standard. They are the resposible party. As I have said before, The MMS probably didn’t have the tools to run the simulations of cause & effect that BP did. Therefore they did not have the understanding BP did. They certainly weren’t made aware by BP of Halliburton’s simulations concerning the lack of centralizers. This disaster lays at the feet of BP & BP alone. They made these decisions without regard to safety simply for money? These people murdered eleven men & caused 6 others to jump from a rig in the middle of the night into burning water for the sole purpose of saving money. I pity the rotten sole of anyone who can in any way justify their actions in the casue of this accident. That person should reevaluate their whole belief system.
[QUOTE=alvis;36335]From http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/14/1680070/text-of-letter-to-bp-ceo-tony.html
It appears from this article that someone in BP was trying to establish the running of a single string of casing as the new way to finish these wells. As seen in the quote below. They mention Brian Morel, a BP Drilling Engineer, as having said this. But was he the primary driver of this new completion strategy? Or was someone else instructing him?[/QUOTE]
I have a confession to make to all of you. I know the boy who wrote the email in the letter stating “it’s a done deal.” Clearly he is justifying the decision made by his boss, Mr. Guide. I helped train the guy who wrote that email. I can tell you for a fact he wasn’t brought up like that. I can clearly remember us at dinner one night in Lake Charles in or around 1992. I had had him on his first two or thre jobs in the oilfield & I saw his desire to learn as much as possible & to move up in the business & I told him," Brett, you are the sharpest engineer I have ever had on a job & I believe one day if you continue to work as hard as you do now, you may become president of this company. I want you to do yourslef & guys like me one favor. If you never remember anything else I’ve taught you, never forget it’s not more important to move up than it is to do right." He asked me what I meant by that. I told him," don’t ever let a boss make you make a decision that will get someone hurt just to go along. Even if you get bypassed for a position because of it, in the end you will have done the right thing by possibly saving somebody’s life."
I wish to God he would have remembered that talk, because I do. I’ve given similar talks to every engineer I’ve trained.
[QUOTE=Corky;36349]Just a quick question. We know the rig was equipped with e-drill which was streaming live data to BP’s offices in Houston (this was admited to several times prior to the hearing & was confirmed by BP during the Coast Guard hearing in Kenner LA), but supposedly this data is unavailable. The Halliburton data that you posted was also transmitted to Houston, just to Halliburton’s offices instead of BPs. So, if Halliburton’s data was still transmitting up until 2149 when it is suspected the first explosion knocked their computers offline ,isn’t it reasonable that the e-drill data was transmiting to BPs offices up until this point also? I admit that maybe I just do not understand all the finer nuances of the whole legal thing, but from a layman’s standpoint it would seem to me that the only reason for BP to withhold this data from the public is if there is something in that data stream which would hurt their case liability-wise. If you can propose another viable reason to keep the data hidden please do so, maybe I am just missing the bigger picture here.[/QUOTE]
BP have all the data since day one. They will have to divulge all the details in time. Why the Senate committee haven’t asked for it prior to now is beyond me.
[QUOTE=company man 1;36377]As I have said before, there is only one guilty party here. It is simple. BP had a desire to shortcut safety & make it an industry standard. They are the resposible party. As I have said before, The MMS probably didn’t have the tools to run the simulations of cause & effect that BP did. Therefore they did not have the understanding BP did. They certainly weren’t made aware by BP of Halliburton’s simulations concerning the lack of centralizers. This disaster lays at the feet of BP & BP alone. They made these decisions without regard to safety simply for money? These people murdered eleven men & caused 6 others to jump from a rig in the middle of the night into burning water for the sole purpose of saving money. I pity the rotten sole of anyone who can in any way justify their actions in the casue of this accident. That person should reevaluate their whole belief system.[/QUOTE]
I completely agree with all your comments. Tell me this; ‘How shall we stop this from re-occurring’? Should the Gov’t in the future be responsible for ensuring well plans are followed?
What do you suggest?
Could Transocean have intervened and brought a stop to the plans. They are responsible for their assets. Should they have alerted someone as to the well conversion plans. If this type of completion affects their safety, should they have spoken up?
What powers should MMS have in the future?
Do the Gov’t have anything to answer for? Is it okay to let Operator’s dictate how the well shall be drilled and completed.
How do we ensure there is no corner cutting in the future?
These questions will be addressed before any rig gets to work again.
[QUOTE=alcor;36381]I completely agree with all your comments. Tell me this; ‘How shall we stop this from re-occurring’? Should the Gov’t in the future be responsible for ensuring well plans are followed?
What do you suggest?[/QUOTE]
By hanging the guilty party. Since we are too civilized to do this. We have civilized alternatives. No the government should not be any more responsible for a companies irresponsibility than the police if a guy decides to rob a liquor store & shoots the store owner in the face.
I have said all along & will continue to state for the record, the assets of this company should be seized by the United States & sold off to anyone not affiliated in any way with BP. This company should never be allowed to drill, produce, refine, or run pipe lines in this country ever again. The guilty parties in the chain of command from the company men & any engineers to the CEO should be brought up on multiple charges of homicide, wreckless endangerment, destruction of private property, state property, & federal property. They should be made to pay personal fines & restitution equal to all of the money they ever made while employed at BP since it is impossible for them to make complete restitution. They should also serve prison time depending on one’s involvement & decision making ability to have an affect on this or other unsafe projects operated by this company. I can guarantee, depending on the courage of this government to make the guity pay with their livelihoods & part of their lives in chains it will send the RIGHT message throughout not only this industry, but any other industries that if you cause destruction & death by virtue of putting personal & corporate gain above people’s safety & the environment, YOU WILL REGRET IT!
As I have said before, you can have all the government oversight, extravagant safety devices, & safety policies & practices, but without punishment to meet the crime all of them together will not address the real root cause of this disaster. That root cause is GREED. DO not attempt to get me to place blame on the government & say it is ok to shirk individual & corporate responsibility onto the backs of the government. I will say the government has one duty in this & similar cases. That is to make the guilty pay to the point of regret. Obviously the other hundreds of millions of dollars in fines have not detered BP from their goals of sacrificing safety for profit. The government has a responsibility to protect its citizens from all enemies both foreign & domestic. Move over Bin Laden. BP has just overtaken you.
[QUOTE=alcor;36381]I completely agree with all your comments. Tell me this; ‘How shall we stop this from re-occurring’? Should the Gov’t in the future be responsible for ensuring well plans are followed?
What do you suggest?
Could Transocean have intervened and brought a stop to the plans. They are responsible for their assets. Should they have alerted someone as to the well conversion plans. If this type of completion affects their safety, should they have spoken up?
What powers should MMS have in the future?
Do the Gov’t have anything to answer for? Is it okay to let Operator’s dictate how the well shall be drilled and completed.
How do we ensure there is no corner cutting in the future?
These questions will be addressed before any rig gets to work again.[/QUOTE]
It’s not simple enough for me not to think of spreading blame around, that’s too easy and a cop out.
BP has most blame, ie “…planning has been lagging behind operations…”, “…I would rather have to squeeze than get stuck…”, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.
But there’s also some lessor questions that I would be negligent not to consider…
did T.O. provide a rig in perfect working condition? Did they even provide the tools the crew needed to safely handle 40 brl or whatever of gas once it got in the riser and expanded 250Xs at the floor?
did Halliburton offer the option of running a DV tool once they knew BP had decided to run a tapered long string? Should they have recommended a different cement when they knew BP was only using six centralizers?
did MMS move too quickly, before they really understood the implications of BP’s requests?
Then other culpability,
did Cameron have turbines in the BOP to ensure the batteries would always stay charged during flow?
did BP solely devise the long string design or was it suggested by a vendor?
did the synthetic mud vendor offer training on identifying it’s unique gas signatures?
But consider the source, I’m an independent rig owner/oil operator/ roughneck and I always have lots of tangents crossing my mind. I was heavy into planning an underbalanced horizontal when this tragedy occurred, but I put it on hold and just picked it up again in the last couple of days. This is a mind blower. Over and out.
[QUOTE=alcor;36381]I completely agree with all your comments. Tell me this; ‘How shall we stop this from re-occurring’? Should the Gov’t in the future be responsible for ensuring well plans are followed?
What do you suggest?
Could Transocean have intervened and brought a stop to the plans. They are responsible for their assets. Should they have alerted someone as to the well conversion plans. If this type of completion affects their safety, should they have spoken up? [/QUOTE]
I agree with the Transocean part… every party (client, operator & MMS) should have well engineers that review the plan and ask hard questions when something is out of “norm”.
I don’t believe the Government should be responsible for anything but writing the rulebook and monitoring/investigating/penalizing noncompliance. But this is just how I tend to operate as a supervisor offshore… I gave my crew a long leash, how they do their job (as long as it’s safe) is their call, I verify their results, and I leave my door open for any (and all!) questions… but I yank in the leash hard if I find anyone lying or skirting the rules.
[QUOTE=pumpjack hand;36388]It’s not simple enough for me not to think of spreading blame around, that’s too easy and a cop out.
BP has most blame, ie “…planning has been lagging behind operations…”, “…I would rather have to squeeze than get stuck…”, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.
But there’s also some lessor questions that I would be negligent not to consider…
did T.O. provide a rig in perfect working condition? Did they even provide the tools the crew needed to safely handle 40 brl or whatever of gas once it got in the riser and expanded 250Xs at the floor?
did Halliburton offer the option of running a DV tool once they knew BP had decided to run a tapered long string? Should they have recommended a different cement when they knew BP was only using six centralizers?
did MMS move too quickly, before they really understood the implications of BP’s requests?
Then other culpability,
did Cameron have turbines in the BOP to ensure the batteries would always stay charged during flow?
did BP solely devise the long string design or was it suggested by a vendor?
did the synthetic mud vendor offer training on identifying it’s unique gas signatures?
But consider the source, I’m an independent rig owner/oil operator/ roughneck and I always have lots of tangents crossing my mind. I was heavy into planning an underbalanced horizontal when this tragedy occurred, but I put it on hold and just picked it up again in the last couple of days. This is a mind blower. Over and out.[/QUOTE]
I understand YOUR questions. The fact is we could question everything from here to infinity, but the bottom line is BP was in total control of who knew what. They made the concsious decision to move forward in the face of a complete shit storm that they KNEW was brewing. It didn’t matter what type of cement job Halliburton pumped if the model showed incomplete coverage it wouldn’t have worked. On another well on the Atlantis project one of the engineers admits there was a bad cement job due to lack of centralizers. This makes me wonder how poorly completed other BP wells are & what other type of future surprises are in store for us since I would imagine BP is sucking the bottom out of its other wells to cover this mess. Financially, it would be best to spread the costs around, but we aint talking finances here. We’re talking right & wrong. This company is as dead wrong as any has ever been & their negligence is hanging in the wind for all to see. Are you going to tell me after what they have done that we should allow them to continue operating so they can pay for their damages? Doesn’t the Texas City refinery teach us anything? If we let these guys get away with this then we will deserve any bad thing that happens to us in the future. We are in control of the next decision we make as a country. May God help us to choose wisely.
Forgive me if this has been discussed already…it’s all starting to run together… What is the consensus on why the Deepwater Horizon actually sunk? Thanks for your input.
[QUOTE=company man 1;36384]By hanging the guilty party. Since we are too civilized to do this. We have civilized alternatives. No the government should not be any more responsible for a companies irresponsibility than the police if a guy decides to rob a liquor store & shoots the store owner in the face.
I have said all along & will continue to state for the record, the assets of this company should be seized by the United States & sold off to anyone not affiliated in any way with BP. This company should never be allowed to drill, produce, refine, or run pipe lines in this country ever again. The guilty parties in the chain of command from the company men & any engineers to the CEO should be brought up on multiple charges of homicide, wreckless endangerment, destruction of private property, state property, & federal property. They should be made to pay personal fines & restitution equal to all of the money they ever made while employed at BP since it is impossible for them to make complete restitution. They should also serve prison time depending on one’s involvement & decision making ability to have an affect on this or other unsafe projects operated by this company. I can guarantee, depending on the courage of this government to make the guity pay with their livelihoods & part of their lives in chains it will send the RIGHT message throughout not only this industry, but any other industries that if you cause destruction & death by virtue of putting personal & corporate gain above people’s safety & the environment, YOU WILL REGRET IT!
As I have said before, you can have all the government oversight, extravagant safety devices, & safety policies & practices, but without punishment to meet the crime all of them together will not address the real root cause of this disaster. That root cause is GREED. DO not attempt to get me to place blame on the government & say it is ok to shirk individual & corporate responsibility onto the backs of the government. I will say the government has one duty in this & similar cases. That is to make the guilty pay to the point of regret. Obviously the other hundreds of millions of dollars in fines have not detered BP from their goals of sacrificing safety for profit. The government has a responsibility to protect its citizens from all enemies both foreign & domestic. Move over Bin Laden. BP has just overtaken you.[/QUOTE]
The Government may be accused of a laissez faire attitude with regard to development of deepwater wells. I think that will change, big time. Let’s hope the ground rules can be established asap, so that, drilling resumes.
What’s your feeling on TO’s position in all of this? Could they have highlighted the dangers of running one production casing string from Reservoir to WH? I feel that they are also going to get some attention.
[QUOTE=alcor;36397]The Government may be accused of a laissez faire attitude with regard to development of deepwater wells. I think that will change, big time. Let’s hope the ground rules can be established asap, so that, drilling resumes.
What’s your feeling on TO’s position in all of this? Could they have highlighted the dangers of running one production casing string from Reservoir to WH? I feel that they are also going to get some attention.[/QUOTE]
It is not in their realm of expertise to examine the effects of well casings on an oil well, neither should it be. Their job as has been well documented by you was to drill safely to TD. They did their job. Once the casing begins to go in the ground the whole thing is the operator’s resposibilty. That is the sole responsibilty of the operator. They had computer models. They had the technology. They ran the simulations of the casing pressures & said F<>k it. They had debate & discussion in house between themselves & made their own decision based on the desire to place money over safety. As far as I know Transocean wasn’t even privy to those discussions. Neither was MMS, Halliburton, the caterers, the drill pipe rental company, the mud company, the boat company, the dock, the trucking companies, or anyone else you can try to point the finger at. OK ? What part of BP F@?&ED up do you not get ?
[QUOTE=stevenPensacola;36396]Forgive me if this has been discussed already…it’s all starting to run together… What is the consensus on why the Deepwater Horizon actually sunk? Thanks for your input.[/QUOTE]
I believe it is because the well was displaced to Sea Water as instructed by BP. Volume and pressure increases, were not seen by the TO crew. If the well had been shut in when the first indications of pressure anomaly were highlighted we’d still have the DWH at surface.
The same scenario would have happened on 1000 other rigs if they also missed the signs. This will come up in the investigation.
Some blame a defective BOP. I believe it would have been functional at the time required.
BP should have set the cement plug. Above all, the lockdown tool should have been run to prevent the 9 7/8" Hanger being thrown out of the well.
Every component in the well can be a failure. It is still the duty of the drilling crew to respond to unwanted outcomes. The TO OIM is supposed to be interested in the rig’s assets and personnel, even if it appears BP are prepared to take chances. We must tell them to stop.
We have a two barrier philosophy on our rig. It applies to everything we do, and that includes what’s going on inthe hole. TO must have the same philosophy. Why didn’t the OIM look after the interests of his men? They had zero proven barriers. Just because BP say ‘go’, we don’t have to do it. We are responsible for our assets and our men. On my last trip offshore, I corrected the Co man on three occassions where he wanted to get going. He wanted derrick inspections while we were flowchecking. I said no on three seperate occasions. When we flowcheck we do a kick drill on the DF. Fullstop. Later, we do the inspections. He was concerned about capitalising on time. I didn’t care about time.
[QUOTE=company man 1;36400]It is not in their realm of expertise to examine the effects of well casings on an oil well, neither should it be. Their job as has been well documented by you was to drill safely to TD. They did their job. Once the casing begins to go in the ground the whole thing is the operator’s resposibilty. That is the sole responsibilty of the operator. They had computer models. They had the technology. They ran the simulations of the casing pressures & said F<>k it. They had debate & discussion in house between themselves & made their own decision based on the desire to place money over safety. As far as I know Transocean wasn’t even privy to those discussions. Neither was MMS, Halliburton, the caterers, the drill pipe rental company, the mud company, the boat company, the dock, the trucking companies, or anyone else you can try to point the finger at. OK ? What part of BP F@?&ED up do you not get ?[/QUOTE]
TO’s job is never complete until they move the rig off location. BP are telling us what to do in a well. We better understand the implications of the actions we take. Of course, TO knew the dangers. Why did the TO OIM have a bust-up with the BP Co Man? Because, he knew the implications of a failed Seal Assy and cement job. Why did he go to bed when he was the one who highlighted the dilemma? If he anticipated problems why didn’t he ensure the safety of all personnel on the rig? He has bigtime contribution to the demise of the DWH. He is not responsible for the environmental disaster. But, his assets went up in smoke because he wasn’t strong enough to put a stop to the displacement. Apparently, there wasn’t even a plan for volume and pressure control while displacing to SW.
He should have overseen the displacement. And the senior Co man should have been on the DF with him.
[QUOTE=company man 1;36400]It is not in their realm of expertise to examine the effects of well casings on an oil well, neither should it be.
It is in their realm of expertise. No step is taken without understanding what can go wrong.
[QUOTE=alcor;36402]I believe it is because the well was displaced to Sea Water as instructed by BP. Volume and pressure increases, were not seen by the TO crew. If the well had been shut in when the first indications of pressure anomaly were highlighted we’d still have the DWH at surface. [/QUOTE]
Thanks for the answer, but my question is in regards to the rig itself…why did the DWH [U]physically[/U] sink?
Damage to the pontoons from the fire?
Fire water flooding “watertight” compartments?
Surely a vessel such as this does not require power to remain afloat?
(NECN: Washington) - Members of Congress and a couple select others are chastising the largest oil companies, accusing them of being no better prepared than BP to avert an environmental catastrophe.
The oil executives testified at a House hearing today.
Anh “Joseph” Cao, a Louisiana congressman who represents the Gulf of Mexico, said the oil disaster has caused “great economic impact.”
“In the Asian culture, we do things differently. During the samurai days, we just give you a knife and ask you to commit hara-kiri,” said Cao in regards to what Lamar McKay, President and Chairman of BP, should do.
“The cleanup process has been a disgrace. The claims process has been dismal,” said Cao.
[QUOTE=alcor;36404]TO’s job is never complete until they move the rig off location. BP are telling us what to do in a well. We better understand the implications of the actions we take. Of course, TO knew the dangers. Why did the TO OIM have a bust-up with the BP Co Man? Because, he knew the implications of a failed Seal Assy and cement job. Why did he go to bed when he was the one who highlighted the dilemma? If he anticipated problems why didn’t he ensure the safety of all personnel on the rig? He has bigtime contribution to the demise of the DWH. He is not responsible for the environmental disaster. But, his assets went up in smoke because he wasn’t strong enough to put a stop to the displacement. Apparently, there wasn’t even a plan for volume and pressure control while displacing to SW.
He should have overseen the displacement. And the senior Co man should have been on the DF with him.[/QUOTE]
On this & your last previous post, you & I can almost completely agree. I believe it was the TP on duty that disagreed with the company man though. I also want to know why the company man wasn’t on the rig floor.
[QUOTE=stevenPensacola;36406]Thanks for the answer, but my question is in regards to the rig itself…why did the DWH [U]physically[/U] sink?
Damage to the pontoons from the fire?
Fire water flooding “watertight” compartments?
Surely a vessel such as this does not require power to remain afloat?[/QUOTE]
Complete speculation: All of the above.
[QUOTE=company man 1;36408]On this & your last previous post, you & I can almost completely agree. I believe it was the TP on duty that disagreed with the company man though. I also want to know why the company man wasn’t on the rig floor.[/QUOTE]
We’re making progress! I’m not sure if you’ve come around to my way of thinking or I’m coming around to yours. Anyway, I’ve enjoyed the challenge of getting to the bottom of this. And, it’s far from over.
[QUOTE=Cynthia;36407]http://www.necn.com/06/15/10/Louisiana-congressman-suggests-hara-kiri/landing_politics.html?blockID=254058&feedID=4212
(NECN: Washington) - Members of Congress and a couple select others are chastising the largest oil companies, accusing them of being no better prepared than BP to avert an environmental catastrophe.
The oil executives testified at a House hearing today.
Anh “Joseph” Cao, a Louisiana congressman who represents the Gulf of Mexico, said the oil disaster has caused “great economic impact.”
“In the Asian culture, we do things differently. During the samurai days, we just give you a knife and ask you to commit hara-kiri,” said Cao in regards to what Lamar McKay, President and Chairman of BP, should do.
“The cleanup process has been a disgrace. The claims process has been dismal,” said Cao.[/QUOTE]
We all know that BP are no different to the others. They got caught with their pants down. The others all perform wells exactly the same. That’s why there has always been such an emphasis on drilling crews observing for pressure/gain. It’s always been that way.