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- Greed is a terrible disease.
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- 60 minutes: Leading the news industry in ?fuzzy journalism?
Dr Bob Bea is not very knowledgeable on offshore operations and as such is not correct in several of his comments
1. The annular may or may not have been damaged. Rubber from a drilling well with a mud motor down hole could be coming from anywhere. Annular BOPs are made to move the pipe through. They will close on a pencil. Annulars are designed to loose small amounts of rubber all the time and still have plenty left in them to operate. Dr. Bea obviously does not understand how annular BOP?s work.
2. Dr. Bea said that the cement plugs were set and that the displacement of the mud to seawater started the flow. However, Halliburton has testified that it did not set the final plugs in testemony before congress.
3 Dr Bea's assertion that displacing the mud to sea water was done for speed is mistaken. The time to displace the riser to sea water is the same before the cement plug is set as after.
4. Losing one BOP pod is not like loosing a leg. One is primary one is backup. Is that how he thinks of his legs? Also, there are surface backup lines as well. The BOP failed for some other reason. It is far more likely that they did function and they were being closed on the tool joints of the drill pipe and couldn't completely cut the pipe.
Mr. Williams was the Electrician on the boat. He therefore had very limited contact with actual drilling operations on the boat. Several of his comments show that he is a novice when it comes to downhole drilling operations.
He is very lucky and also very tough. By his account he had two, approximately two hundred pound water proof steel doors that seal against a steel seal, blow in on him and knock him across the room and came away with only a minor head wound. I would think that would warrant some more investigation by 60 minutes.
In short another typical half truth/half bs report that we are all used to getting from all our major news organizations both liberal and conservative. - Reply to this comment
- I watch MSNBC,CNN,Fox News but clearly 60 Minutes is the best. When you watch the 24 hour news shows you tend to get the story in pieces. 60 Minutes took the time to tell a compelling story. They are the best in the business.
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- Seems that once again money was the evil issue that put the rig in jeopardy. A rush to accomplish results at the risk of safety. The buck stops at BP. It's that simple. Someone wants to look good by pushing for better stats on paper and the world suffers for...nothing more than greed.
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- I'm quite frankly frusrated by the lack of technical knowlege demonstrated by every single person who's tried to explain this tragedy, including Sixty Minutes and your professor from Berkeley.
You made a major point about the rubber from the annular which was circulated out of the well after a procedural error.
- The annular is designed to 'strip' pipe in and out of the well;
- It is not unusual for rubber to come off the annular element after pipe has been stripped through it under pressure (this is a cause for concern, but not a 'show stopper').
- There are two annulars in the BOP, so if one fails there is another;
- If the annular element failed, this would be obvious in bi-weekly pressure tests, which must be signed and available for MMS inspection;
- Most (not all) pressure tests are performed against the pipe rams, not the annular, because the large rubber element in the annular gradually compresses under pressure, masking the bahavior of the rest of the system.
Mike Williams' description of his escape from the inferno was riveting; he was truly fortunate, and I congratulate him in his wise choices during the incident, and his escape.
However, talking to him about the accident is similar to asking a flight attendant why a plane went down - he/she may be an expert and very experienced in their area of expertise, but has no idea about piloting the plane/rig.
Talk to the driller; talk to the BP or Transocean rig supervisor. Talk to the subsea engineer about the control pod which may have failed before the incident. Don't talk to the electrical technician.
I posted before that I believe this is BP's tragedy, caused by a bad attitude starting at the top. But if you're going to talk about the proximate causes, get someone who knows what they're talking about. - Reply to this comment
- BP's CEO condemned himself and his organization by the first words out of his mouth - blaming BP's rig contractor, cementer, and/or BOP manufacturer. BP is totally responsible for all activity on its drilling rig, and its lease;
- BP inspected the rig and all the equipment before hiring it;
- BP reviewed and approved all safety procedures on the rig;
- BP reviewed and approved all pressure testing and equipment testing procedures for the BOP;
- BP witnessed all routine and nonroutine pressure tests, drills, procedures, etc. performed on the rig;
- BP prepared and supervised all downhole procedures used on the well;
- BP stipulated the conditions under which the cement would have been designed and tested;
- BP prepared the placement and pumping procedures for the cement plugs (as well as the casing before that);
- BP supervised the placement and pumping operations for the cement plug;
- BP supervised all operations on the drilling rig.
As your Berkley professor said at the last of his statement - Tony Haywood's attempt to shift responsibility makes me sick. That attitude, from the very top, poisons an organization, and is a recipe for disaster. We've now had 4 for BP in, what 6 years? Texas City refinery; North Slope corrosion; Thunderhorse; now Macondo. Is it time to toss the bums out of US waters?
I'm a retired drilling engineer with 40 years' experience, most offshore and most in 'deep' water, although the definition of 'deep' has changed radically over those 40 years. - Reply to this comment
- I wonder if the boats speeding away from the burning rig leaving people on board were those BP executives?
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- Sometimes I wonder if we are currently witnessing the final stages of civilization? I think most people do not understand the toxic relationship between oil,water and life forms. We risk so much in the extraction and transport of crude over oceans and within oceans. No measure of safety and dilegence is too much when it comes to off shore exploration, extraction and transport of crude. If we can not guarantee ourselves that these kinds of disasters will not happen then we really need to learn to live without oil from under the seas. Mike Williams, I am pleased that you have spoken out and 60 Minutes that you brought us the real story. I know many would just remain tight lipped and carry on. I am pleased to see that Mike Williams and others survived but saddened to know that others did not. For all the death and damage that is and will be there is no excuse for the actions not taken by those that denied the unsafe operations under which people were told to carry on with work. We look to our superiors as mentors and as people of greater knowlege and often do not question that authority. I really think it's time that we humans really take a closer look at our relationship to this planet and how we ultimately fit into it for the benefit of those that follow.
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- Brilliant piece of journalism - the 60 minutes I have been watching since the beginning.
Mr. Williams is a very brave man! - Reply to this comment
- Dear Sirs and Madams,
I just wanted to take a moment to applaud your organization. It took courage to air the segment with Mike Williams on your show "60 Minutes". On behalf of the entire crew here at Whale Tails Chips and everyone involved in ocean conservation thank you for bringing the truth to light. It was shocking and disgraceful to learn what had been going on with that drilling attempt just weeks before the whole thing blew. Kudos to 60 Minutes for some great reporting. Now let's see where this all ends up. BP had better not get a pass on anything connected to this situation.
Years ago British Petroleum shortened its name to BP and began promoting itself as the environmentally-friendly oil company with their $200 million Ogilvy & Mather ad campaign. BP transformed its corporate brand insignia from a shield to a wholesome natural sunburst.
BP appears to be fake, while Mike Williams is the real deal. - Reply to this comment
