from Oil Platforms to Deep Well drilling

BP Oil started drilling in October 2009, but the rig was damaged by Hurricane Ida in late November that year. The company decided to switch to the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and resumed drilling on Feb. 6. The rig was 43 days late for its next drilling location by the time it exploded April 20, costing BP around $500,000 each day it was overdue it appears. With this in mind measures were hurried to meet dates and this is where the problem began and the mistakes lead to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Platform in the Gulk of Mexico and the World's worst disaster. Remember the corners cut and the engineers avoided the safety issues that could have saved this from happening --therefore human error.

The cause of the oil blowout owned by British Petroleum,may have been a faulty hydraulic line among other problems, including a failed cement job and using seawater to displace instead of heavier drilling mud.

Update:According to the Associated press, workers reported that BP was using lighter seawater to displace the drilling mud prior to pumping the final cement plug.  Heavier drilling fluid instead of seawater would have done a better job of holding back the immense underground pressure. A combination of factors led to the failure of the BOP or blow out preventer device. A dead battery in a device called a “deadman trigger” as well as a leaking hydraulic hose were both possibly part of the cause of the failure of the BOP to activate.

After the disaster a remote operated vehicle or ROV was sent down to inspect the blowout preventer which was manufactured by the Cameron Corporation. Operators on the surface tried to activate a device that initiated the “blind ram” which is designed to shear the pipe into and seal the well in case of a blowout. It was found to be inoperable. Dye was injected into the ram’s hydraulic control hose and a leaking fitting was found. It is thought that the loose fitting was not caused by the blowout since all other fittings on the BOP were tight and that the ram had been modified in 2005 at the request of BP with the approval of the Minerals Management Service or MMS for use as a test device only.

Many things can go wrong with blowout preventers simply because of their complexity. A report issued by Transocean in 2001 indicated that more than 260 things can possibly go wrong in a BOP device and lead to failure. It only takes one thing to cause a disaster like this one and it looks like there are a couple on the list thus far.

Blowout Preventer & how it Works?

The “mud’ or drilling fluid weight plus the heavy mineral barite added, holds back high underground pressure as is often experienced when the rig drills into a pocket of gas deep underground.  If the mud weight is not high enough to hold the pressure back, the well begins to experience a “kick” which can become an out of control oil rig “blowout”, such as the one that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon. To stop the kick from becoming a blowout is a device called a BOP or blowout preventer.

Basically a blowout preventer “stack”  is a large assembly of valves that are attached to the heavy surface casing or pipe which is in turn cemented into place several hundred feet into the ground before the well is drilled. The valves on a BOP are controlled by hydraulic pressure, or high pressure fluid and fast acting electronically activated valves controlled by switches.

Hydraulic pressure is stored in a device called an “accumulator” that's used to provide energy to operate an oil rig blowout preventer. This pressure is sent via high pressure hydraulic hoses either manually from an emergency control station or from an automated “fail safe” device that senses extreme pressure.    Some of these large BOP valves are designed to quickly squeeze tight around the drill pipe and seal it off to prevent high pressure oil and gas from forcing its way up the through the steel casing, which lines the well. These are called pipe rams and they seal around the drill pipe and block gas and fluid from coming up the larger casing pipe.  If these first stage oil rig blowout preventer or BOP valves can contain the pressure to the drill pipe only, it can either be capped at the surface or vented to a flare.  Another part of the BOP stack is the “blind ram”. This part of the stack acts as a gate valve and seals  casing that has  no drill pipe in it.

Another part of the blowout preventer is the shear rams. Shear rams are  designed with hardened steel cutters to actually shear the drill pipe into in the event of  a worse case scenario. These are the final part of the safety net and are the exact devices that should have been automatically activated by the “deadman” device. Gas may have erupted too fast for anyone on the surface to shut in the well via the BOP control panel. Source: Oil & energy reports.

Gulf of Mexico more than 50 miles southeast of Venice on Louisiana's tip, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig is seen burning Wednesday, April 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The evidence for not complying is documented by companies who are going bankrupt due to violating best practises around attitudinal issues. Many believe it will never happen to them like in BPs case yet BP over the years has been fined for not adhering to safety standards. Examples of companies who do not initiate good safety and environmental practices in mines are plentiful. They include:
* pollution from Iron ore ships in Northern Australia,
* lead mining pollution in Thailand,
* ocean pollution with cyanide by a gold mining company in Papua New Guinea
* oil industry accidents and spillages that had significant bottom line impacts due to loss of credibility and lower share prices, increased insurance rates and legal suits. The recent Petrobras incident where a floating drilling and production platform sank in the early stages of its production life joins many other high profile oil industry losses that distort the real value of the industry. It is also a time when deep well drilling will cause unprecedented environmental impacts due to the inefficiency of oil companies to plan ahead and be bale to work at such depths which would crush any submarine over 7000 meters etc. Now we have BP who failed to adhere to proper safety issues in a well thats over 4000 metres deep.

LARGE COMPANIES DO FACE BANKRUPTCY DUE TO MANAGEMENT GREED & NEGLIGENCE. These companies have forgotten about the simple factors facing their companies today. Gone are the days of consultants axing employees to safeguard their shareholders interests. Gone are the coverups that will come to life sooner or later. This is no longer acceptable. The real problem these companies face is Global Awareness. Don't leave it until it is too late? Ask us for help as we are the experts.

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