Deepwater Horizon - Transocean Oil Rig Fire

Offshore
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Couple of Questions;

  1. They ran the production casing (hangs off the wellhead),cemented, tested, slacked off, released the casing and was displacing the riser. Where is the casing running tool? is still attached to the drill string?

  2. When they were displacing the riser they had over 1000bbls to displace, did they have a pit full of seawater and taking returns back to the pits? and record returns? or where they filling up one of there smaller pits with seawater while pumping out at the sametime and taking returns back to the pit and pumping those returns to the work boat at the sametime - not recording returns?

  3. I read reports that the crew saw water hit the crown, was it water or was it mud?

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[QUOTE=domer;32320]Are the mates & captain aboard required to have tankerman PIC endorsements?[/QUOTE]

Yes, they are. I don’t know if it’s a Transocean, bp, USCG or SMD requirement, but the DEN’s crew does or did include tankermen.

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[QUOTE=offshoremackem;32589][ATTACH]843[/ATTACH]

Gents please to go this report and you will find it informative, not only will it give non drilling people an insight but also show you position of rams on the rig, also the well schematic.
Or read attachment

http://www.deepwater.com/fw/main/Speeches-and-Remarks-950.html[/QUOTE]

Nice link, on page 10 of the PDF, I see the BOP.
Yeah, it looks like that thing is designed to stop 10,000 psi.

So, again…

What is the pressure coming out of the leaking pipe?

No one wants to give that information, but isn’t that the most important information out there?

With that and knowing pipe diameter and size of the leaking hole, we could calculate flow and not have to rely on their numbers.

By the way,
Admin deleted a post I made earlier and I emailed them to ask why they deleted it, no answer yet. For those that didn’t read the post, it sarcasticlly pointed out the ridiculousness of the golf ball/shredded tire “solution”.

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Active Patriot,
For what its worth, be careful calling out the admins like that…
Also I’m not well controll expert (hell, I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night) but from what I understand the junk shot has been used before on well control issues with similarities to the DWH situation. Even if it doesn’t work, it’s not a risky think to attempt, so if it wont make the situation worse who cares if it doesn’t work? I saw throw everything you can at it as long as you arent taking unnecessary risks at making the situation worse. (And yes, it can get A LOT worse than it is right now…)

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TxKingfisher,
Yeah, hopefully I won’t get banned or something. Just frustrating, I could see how some may have taken offense to my post but, it was basically showing a Larry the Cable Guy approach to fixing the problem. If someone took offense, it was probably because they thought I am some blue blood environmentalist troll bashing everyone in the industry. From what I’ve read here, I think most are highly skilled and professional. My problem is that there is no official statement as to the pressure in that leaking pipe. From the sounds of it, it could be in excess of 10,000 psi. It has also been alleged BP was drilling closer to 25,000 feet which could put the pressure at closer to, what…16,000-18000 psi?

As far as myself, I’m a land owning Texan complete with an old '49 Ford 8n tractor. I actually do have duct tape and bailing wire and I use it for just about everything except what is was designed for! Everyone knows duct tape is lousy on ducts! It made me feel like a “real” Texan when they did some oil & gas exploration across our land, so I’m not against the industry at all.

Point is, I’m not in the industry but I do work as a technician and deal with high pressure air and my guess is that 10,000 psi would totally disintegrate a golf ball blocking it. Even a Titleist!

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[QUOTE=ActivePatriot;32628]
Point is, I’m not in the industry but I do work as a technician and deal with high pressure air and my guess is that 10,000 psi would totally disintegrate a golf ball blocking it. Even a Titleist![/QUOTE]

A golf ball can take quite a licking and keep ticking. Loads of 4000 lbs-f from a driver hitting the ball are not uncommon.
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/EmilyAccamando.shtml

647

4,000 lbs impact pressure. The way I play golf, I end up in the rough and hitting off hard-pan all the time. By the time I’m done with 18 holes, the ball can have all kinds of scuffs and cuts on it.

How about oil, gas, sand and rock blowing against it at 10,000 psi.

Do you truthfully believe it can stand up to that, or are you trying to placate me?

Maybe I was off base on this being some time of hillbilly “solution”. Maybe it was a BP executive on the golf course during this catastrophe who looked down at his golf ball and had a brilliant idea!

You want to defend the golf ball idea, then come out and put your reputation on the line and say it’s going to work.

OK, people say “Junk Shots” have worked before.

On what? Wells at a few hundred feet.

Show me one that was attempted and worked at this depth.

You know what, don’t bother

Just tell me the pressure coming out of the pipe at the leak.

648

Maybe a bigger picture going on here. BP, Transocean and others are all in the crosshairs of the government for this incident. According to the congressional testimony report the well was sealed and the cement and casing catastrophically failed. Reasons unknown by the public now. Possibly, the stack is sitting on a damaged casing and if closed may not hold the pressure anyway. So the best option may be to drill the other well to relieve pressure on this one so it can be properly capped. But that takes time. 30 days or so. All the while oil is migrating toward the coast and we all have heard the doomsday environmental predictions. The politicians and media wants immediate action and will accuse the oil companies of negligence if they don’t do something. So the junk plug suggestion may just be buying time while they get the relief well bored.

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this has appeared on the BBC:
“
US House of Representatives investigators say they have uncovered significant problems with one of the well’s crucial safety devices, its blowout preventer (BOP), which may have contributed to the explosion.
The BOP, built by Cameron International, had a leak in its hydraulic system and lacked the power to cut through joints to seal the drill pipe, Representative Henry Waxman told a hearing on the spill.
Just hours before the explosion, the well failed a negative pressure test, he said, citing BP documents received by the Energy and Commerce Committee.
The hearing was also told that the BOP had been modified, which made it difficult to operate after the accident, and its emergency back-up controls may have failed because the explosion that destroyed the rig also disabled communications preventing workers from sending signals underwater.
On Tuesday, BP and other oil industry executives traded blame in Congress.”

any word on the state of the BOP and what the “modifications” were?

650

Senate testimony from Steven Newman, CEO Transocean 5-11-2010 pg 4 "…let me turn to the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion and its possible causes. What is most unusual about the explosion in this case is that it occurred after the well construction process was essentially finished. Drilling had been completed on April 17, and the well had been sealed with cement (to be reopened by the Operator at a later date if the Operator chose to put the well into production). At this point, drilling mud was no longer being used as a means of reservoir pressure containment; the cement and the casing were the barriers controlling pressure from the reservoir. "…The attention now being given to the BOPs in this case is somewhat ironic because at the time of the explosion, the drilling process was complete. The well had been sealed with casing and cement, and within a few days, the BOPs would have been removed. At this point, the well barriers – the cementing and the casing – were responsible for controlling any pressure from the reservoir. Not sure of Henry Waxman’s sources and I question his motives.

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From Wednesday’s USCG/MMS hearing,

“Odom also found the current Coast Guard stipulation for lifeboat weight capacity — 165 pounds per person – is in his opinion “completely inadequate”.
Odom said he does not know what standard was implemented aboard the Deepwater Horizon, but commented that most deep-water rigs had voluntarily upped their weight limit standards to 185 pounds per person.”

The DWH’s boats were very nice Fassmer boats but they did meet the old standard, 165 pounds. Transocean was being proactive. The rigs were ordered last year to make sure if they load the boats in during drills, not to exceed the SWL, by weight, not by number of people. And I believe the DWH was scheduled to replace her boats with new ones during their next UWILD, in 2011.

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More USCG/MMS testimony:

“They also had trouble getting a life raft free from the burning rig, rescuers said.”

They had to get a knife from the Bankston’s FRC. I wonder if the required knife was missing in the raft or did they not find it in the dark and confusion.

The crew of the Pride of Baltimore, Concordia, and now the DWH have had to cut themselves free. Can we please revisit the no knife policy that many companies have? Did the investigators check the raft afterwards?

I wonder too if the rolled down long sleeve coverall policy actually made a difference with the burns.

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[QUOTE=cmjeff;31420]I wish John wasn’t at Sea right now because, having been fired after Transocean’s cover-up of there last major fire, he has a better grasp on the issues behind this incident than anyone else in the world. Yes, the USCG is making mistakes but, as John wrote a few weeks back (http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/top-10-recent-failures-of-the-uscg-part-2/ read part 1 also!), their mistakes didn’t start yesterday… they go back may years. I just hope the officers talk to a maritime license lawyer (JonesAct helped reffer a good one to a friend of mine if anyone here needs legal advice ) because the USCG is better on shining the spotlight on mariners than it is at shining it on it’s own errors and faults. MMS also has fundemental problems but I’m hopefull that the two agencies can get along together long enought to find and fix the real faults n the system.[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by [B]c.captain[/B]
I also want to weigh in on the loss of the rig…I am appalled that the USCG allowed so many support vessels to flood the rig with so much water.
Ironically, I am just starting as chief mate on a brand new deepwater rated drillship at the moment and what a thing to happen in my first week? I am dazed and contused!

I do believe that the DAMON BANKSTON master stated at the hearing in Kenner that a vessel (Norbert???) contact BANKSTON and requested to know who was directing the firefighting operations to take place, and the answer was the MASTER of the DWH.

There are COAST GUARD men and women who would do this for free…because we care. And we are aware of our issues. Trust you/me.

654

I did not feel it was appropriate for this discussion. As a general note, jokes belong in the “Scuttlebutt” section.

For what its worth, be careful calling out the admins like that…
On the contrary, feel free to call us out anytime, we make mistakes like everyone else.

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[QUOTE=fixin;32576]Together with my dear friends Laurie and Steve (survivor of the Horizon Explosion) we are selling these Memorial Shirts. All proceeds will be donated to the Memorial Funds that have been setup for the families of the 11 men that did not survive.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]842[/ATTACH]
[/QUOTE]

Many thanks for your efforts making the shirts and for posting the link here. Please also let us know more about the Memorial Funds are being set-up, for those people who want to donate directly to the cause.

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[QUOTE=john;32693] Please also let us know more about the Memorial Funds are being set-up, for those people who want to donate directly to the cause.[/QUOTE]

http://www.deepwaterhorizoncondolences.com/donate.asp

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See attached safety information about lifeboat seat sizing.
Responsible companies have required them to be sized to ergo data , 210 pounds, instead of 165 pounds.

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[QUOTE=company man 1;32515]Who might you be addressing sir?[/QUOTE]

My comment was directed at Active Patriot, whose initial (now deleted) post just seriously rubbed me the wrong way.

To Active Patriot: I apologise for reacting so strongly to your post. As an ex-Transocean SSE myself, I have more than a passing interest in this catastrophe, and I’ll admit that this fact sometimes clouds my better judgement. I believe that there are a huge number of the best, most experienced minds in the business trying in good faith to find a workable solution to this nightmare, and the dismissive tone of your initial post raised my defensive hackles.

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[QUOTE=caledonia;32637]this has appeared on the BBC:
“
US House of Representatives investigators say they have uncovered significant problems with one of the well’s crucial safety devices, its blowout preventer (BOP), which may have contributed to the explosion.
The BOP, built by Cameron International, had a leak in its hydraulic system and lacked the power to cut through joints to seal the drill pipe, Representative Henry Waxman told a hearing on the spill.
Just hours before the explosion, the well failed a negative pressure test, he said, citing BP documents received by the Energy and Commerce Committee.
The hearing was also told that the BOP had been modified, which made it difficult to operate after the accident, and its emergency back-up controls may have failed because the explosion that destroyed the rig also disabled communications preventing workers from sending signals underwater.
On Tuesday, BP and other oil industry executives traded blame in Congress.”

any word on the state of the BOP and what the “modifications” were?[/QUOTE]

Caledonia, I have (unsurprisingly) read nothing about what modifications were allegedly made to the DWH stack, but I can tell you first-hand that before running that stack there was an exhaustive sequence of function and leak tests that needed to be performed. Every component of the BOP stack is pressure tested to its rated capacity (15000 psi in this case) and every component is function tested numerous times to make sure that it does what it is designed to do. All of these tests would have required a sign-off from the BP representative (Company Man) on board, and more than likely an independent inspector such as DNV, MMS etc.

In addition to these pre-deployment checks, there is a further requirement to function-test the BOP every 14 days after it has been run subsea. Again, everything has to work and everything has to be signed off.

To put this into a more human perspective, the job of a Subsea Engineer is to ensure that every component of the stack is working as it is designed to. You simply don’t run or operate a stack that’s not working properly, because at best (in 5000 ft) you’re looking at 3-5 days of non-stop work to retrieve, repair and re-run the BOP. At worst, it will kill you.

If, as you quote, there was a hydraulic leak sufficient to compromise the operation of the shear rams then that stack should/would have been pulled to surface immediately. And even if it wasn’t, the well was cased and cemented. The BOP should not have been the last line of defence against a well kick. To me (and this is just my personal take), it sounds like BP are so desperate to cover up bad decisions that they made while abandoning the well that they are attempting to blame anybody but themselves.

660

I’ve been reading through this thread for quite a while. I would like to extend my condolences to the families and best wishes to the injured. I would also like to thank everyone who has posted the technical explanations, posed questions and answers… I now know what I don’t know about offshore drilling.

Because of this thread I have since found my eyebrows shooting up over some things hitting the media, such as BP apparently providing “confidential documents” to a Congressman purportedly showing the BOP damaged in various ways… but this also appears to be stuff found by ROV days (weeks?) later.

So I have to ask the more experienced people here: wouldn’t one expect a “dead battery” after all this time if the BOP was trying to close itself starting 4/20 or when DWH capsized/signal lost, etc. (and isn’t battery the wrong concept anyhow? accumulator bottles mentioned).

Ditto re the leaking hydraulic lines.

BP mucketymuck also telling Congress hearing that Halliburton had installed the final plug, when it was pretty clear they had not done so yet and said so. Good grief.

I figured from early on reading this thread that BP is ultimately responsible for what done, and since early on(great quote from a poster here “let the blames begin”) I have been increasingly sceptical of what BP has said and is saying because it just didn’t make sense.

Meanwhile, in light of someone posting here about the (I think it’s called) “e-drill” data sent live to Houston or BP somewhere from DWH during operations… Here’s an interesting AP story (retrieved 8.30 pm Eastern time so I don’t understand why it’s datelined today 10.31 pm EDT unless it’s embargoed to others til then…

[I]Missing data causing rig reconstruction mystery

…there are no records of a critical safety test supposedly performed during the fateful hours before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.

They went down with the rig.

While some data were being transmitted to shore for safekeeping right up until the April 20 blast, officials from Transocean, the rig owner, told Congress that the last seven hours of its data are missing and that all written logs were lost in the explosion.

The gap poses a mystery for investigators: What decisions were made — and what warnings might have been ignored? Earlier tests, which suggested that explosive gas was leaking from the mile-deep well, were preserved.

“There is some delay in the replication of our data, so our operational data, our sequence of events ends at 3 o’clock in the afternoon on the 20th,” Steven Newman, president and CEO of Transocean Ltd, told a Senate panel. The rig blew up at 10 p.m., killing 11 workers and unleashing a gusher that has spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf.

Houston attorney Tony Buzbee, who represents several rig workers involved in the accident, questioned whether what he called “the phantom test” was even performed.

“I can just tell you that the Halliburton hands were scratching their heads,” said Buzbee, whose clients include one of the Halliburton crew members responsible for cementing the well to prepare for moving the drilling rig to another site.

Buzbee said that when Halliburton showed BP PLC and Transocean officials the results of the pressure tests that suggested gas was leaking, the rig workers were put on “standby.” BP is the rig operator and leaseholder.

Buzbee said one of his clients told him the “Transocean and BP company people got their heads together,” and 40 minutes later gave the green light.

The attorney said the Halliburton crew members were not shown any new test results.

“They said they did their own tests, and they came out OK,” he said. “But with the phantom test that Transocean and BP allegedly did, there was no real record or real-time recordation of that test.”

Buzbee suggested that BP and Transocean had monetary reasons for ignoring the earlier tests.

“The facts are as they are,” he said. “The rig is $500,000 a day. There are bonuses for finishing early.”

None of the three companies would comment Thursday on whether any data or test results were purposely not sent to shore, or on exactly who made the final decision to continue the operations that day…

[/I]http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gIXWYBTpLtSayJtg41LKXpxSxVPAD9FM8NJ80

Feel free to weigh on this. It seemed an interesting wrinkle.