[SSE 4 2SS]

Long post but tired of the ill informed opinions of people that have no clue of the industry or what actually occurs out here...

Originally Posted by hamidar05

I am glad to see we have some oil men setting this straight. What are the chances a rig/platform would suffer this type of catastrophic failure, I hear there is a lot of safety engineered into these things? Or do sometimes safety/procedures get a bit lax? Also, has anyone seen any interviews of the folks that were working to see if they have any ideas of what happened? I have heard some really bad theories, and am not so sure the truth would come out, or if the whole situation would not just be used for politics?

The impact is going to be bad, all the way around no matter what views you have, a tragedy indeed. God bless the folks that lost their lives and their families.

The chances of this happening are obviously very remote. A little research will reveal the number of wells that have been drilled in the Gulf of Mexico over the last 40 or more years. It boggles the mind. To give a basic idea, the average well drilling contract is 30 to 45 days, per rig, then it's off to other locations for more wells. Occasionally a rig will run a well to completion, (ready to transfer oil via pipelines) but in most cases, the well is drilled, and regardless of what is found, it is "plugged and abondoned...The oil companies will hire another rig at a later date to come back and complete the well...There used to be literally hundreds of rigs working in the Gulf, but U.S. regulations and insurance cost due to hurricanes has driven the majority of the drilling companies and oil companies out of the gulf to international locations. I can't and wont try to speak for other companies, but there are redundant systems in every area of our BOP's.(and theirs) Without getting too technical, there are at least four sets of pipe rams, one of these being shear rams, and three sets of either fixed or variable pipe rams, used for different sizes of pipe. There are inner and outer choke and kill valves, and two pods (control devices) The pods link the surface function commanded to the subsea stack.... As was mentioned by Ripgear, an acoustic device is strictly a remote control telemetry system used only on MUX, Multi-Plex fiber optic systems to allow a crew abondoning a rig to still function the stack, if the stack still has any integrity. The dual systems are for safety and operational ability. Not all of this is required by law, but the drilling and oil companies took it upon themselves to install it at great expense...As in every aspect of life when humans work, there is unfortunately some complacency that enters... History is cyclic and we tend to get get lax as we forget...Very, very hard working and prideful people are generally what you find on offshore rigs... We work hard, and play harder, though the playing is reserved for time on the "beach." 14/14, or 28/28 hitches are the norm...We work at least 12 hours a day every day, for the entire hitch, and often quite a few hours more than that... Rigs almost never ever stop working, holidays, "emergencies" at home etc... the rig keeps on working....

Originally Posted by scritchy

Not to go too far off-topic but there is a very specific (and scary) reason they picked the limit for liquids that they did. That one is far from a knee-jerk reaction but a response to an actual threat.

It was just an example, and there are multitudes of devices, liquid included that could be engineered with less than three ounces of fluid to do things that would scare the hell out of anyone that ever flies.

Originally Posted by v6sonoma

It's more likely to have an affect at the pump. With BP having to shell out 1 million a day to clean it up and having to drill a second well guess who those costs are going to get passed off to. And don't think the others won't follow.

There are some rigs operating today that are collecting day rates that are far beyond most peoples comprehension... A million a day won't hurt any of the big operators.

Originally Posted by verboten

"At 5,000 barrels a day, in two months' time it's going to be a bigger spill than the Exxon Valdez,"

Two Air Force planes will spray chemicals to help break up the Gulf Coast oil spill, Pentagon officials said Friday as they considered what more the military could do to assist.

Can you imagine what these chemicals are going to the environment? Get ready for 3 eyed shrimp.

BP has no clue what to do and our Government has just taken over the clean-up. Too big to spill. Our latest bailout!

Yes it will be a big spill, unfortunately, but there have been much bigger spills in the Gulf of Mexico, specifically the Bay of Campeche, Mexico...click out of here and do a little research on the Ixtoc I blowout...
and I have never seen any three eyed shrimp... yet these chemicals have been used to minimize environmental impacts from spills prior to now.

Originally Posted by dickholloway

Your right on the money!!

Funny that the reason BP is now a big "unsafe" corporation in the USA instead of a small third rate "unsafe" corporation in England is Hillary's and Monica 2" stud Billy....who approved the FTC mergers and let them buy both Arco and Amoco. Everyone knew BP would destroy two good companies when this happened. BP slid mega $ and some women probably under the table to Billy for sure. Love those democrats....right all you repubs sticking up for BP? Drinking buddies!!

No politics please... Read the rules for the sight... Now, you and Verboten need to march right on down to the local bookstore, and pick up a book called "Big Oil and What We Must Do to Stop It." Great read and very educational... "now a big "unsafe corporation the USA instead of a.....in England." ...What??? BP--(Standard Oil Indiana, STANOLIND --Amoco, is for the most part, one of the seven original "wicked" sisters, one of the anti-trust companies of Standard Oil...(Rockefeller) of the United States... When Standard Oil was broken early in the 20th century, there were seven companies that were derived from it...They have over the last 50 or so years re-merged, to some degree...Exxon Mobil, Chevron Standard Oil of NJ-- Esso--Now Exxon, Standard oil of NY, SOCONY, Mobil, ExxonMobil, etc etc etc... There is nothing that has ever been of Amoco/Arco/BP, that was small third rate.... and it goes back well over a hundred years, so again, drop the politics...

Originally Posted by RipGear

Try to keep politics out of this, you do know that Transocean is the driller right? Transocean employees were operating the rig when the blowout happened. BP contracted Transocean to drill the well. Also, Cameron designed and manufactured the blowout preventer that is currently not working on the sea floor. There are alot of companies involved, but BP is the largest so they are taking the heat. On a positive note, they are large enough to help support the major control effort that is underway.

Thanks for your input RipGear, People listen to ill informed talking heads on the boob-box and suddenly they are experts in everything... Well so and so said it on the news so it has to be so...Simple concept, research people, ignore the tv critics, and spend a little time doing GOOD research... the information is out there...