Regular WUWT commenter Jimmy Haigh, a geologist by trade, sends along a PDF that is a compilation of on the scene photos taken right after the explosion and in the following two days. I’ve converted it to web format. These were taken by people on the scene during the rescue and firefighting operation. There’s also a narrative, done by a person “in the know”. You won’t find this at AP or Reuters.
You may have heard the news in the last week about the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig which caught fire, burned for two days, then sank in 5,000 ft of water in the Gulf of Mexico. There are still 11 men missing, and they are not expected to be found.
The rig belongs to Transocean, the world’s biggest offshore drilling contractor. The rig was originally contracted through the year 2013 to BP and was working on BP’s Macondo exploration well when the fire broke out. The rig costs about $500,000 per day to contract. The full drilling spread, with helicopters and support vessels and other services, will cost closer to $1,000,000 per day to operate in the course of drilling for oil and gas. The rig cost about $350,000,000 to build in 2001 and would cost at least double that to replace today.
The rig represents the cutting edge of drilling technology. It is a floating rig, capable of working in up to 10,000 ft water depth. The rig is not moored; It does not use anchors because it would be too costly and too heavy to suspend this mooring load from the floating structure. Rather, a triply-redundant computer system uses satellite positioning to control powerful thrusters that keep the rig on station within a few feet of its intended location, at all times. This is called Dynamic Positioning.
The rig had apparently just finished cementing steel casing in place at depths exceeding 18,000 ft. The next operation was to suspend the well so that the rig could move to its next drilling location, the idea being that a rig would return to this well later in order to complete the work necessary to bring the well into production.
It is thought that somehow formation fluids – oil /gas – got into the wellbore and were undetected until it was too late to take action. With a floating drilling rig setup, because it moves with the waves, currents, and winds, all of the main pressure control equipment sits on the seabed – the uppermost unmoving point in the well. This pressure control equipment – the Blowout Preventers, or ‘BOP’s” as they’re called, are controlled with redundant systems from the rig. In the event of a serious emergency, there are multiple Panic Buttons to hit, and even fail-safe Deadman systems that should be automatically engaged when something of this proportion breaks out. None of them were aparently activated, suggesting that the blowout was especially swift to escalate at the surface. The flames were visible up to about 35 miles away. Not the glow – the flames. They were 200 – 300 ft high.
All of this will be investigated and it will be some months before all of the particulars are known. For now, it is enough to say that this marvel of modern technology, which had been operating with an excellent safety record, has burned up and sunk taking souls with it.
The well still is apparently flowing oil, which is appearing at the surface as a slick. They have been working with remotely operated vehicles, or ROV’s which are essentially tethered miniature submarines with manipulator arms and other equipment that can perform work underwater while the operator sits on a vessel. These are what were used to explore the Titanic, among other things. Every floating rig has one on board and they are in constant use. In this case, they are deploying ROV’s from dedicated service vessels. They have been trying to close the well in using a specialized port on the BOP’s and a pumping arrangement on their ROV’s. They have been unsuccessful so far. Specialized pollution control vessels have been scrambled to start working the spill, skimming the oil up.
In the coming weeks they will move in at least one other rig to drill a fresh well that will intersect the blowing one at its pay zone. They will use technology that is capable of drilling from a floating rig, over 3 miles deep to an exact specific point in the earth – with a target radius of just a few feet plus or minus. Once they intersect their target, a heavy fluid will be pumped that exceeds the formation’s pressure, thus causing the flow to cease and rendering the well safe at last. It will take at least a couple of months to get this done, bringing all available technology to bear. It will be an ecological disaster if the well flows all of the while; Optimistically, it could bridge off downhole.
It’s a sad day when something like this happens to any rig, but even more so when it happens to something on the cutting edge of our capabilities.
The photos that follow show the progression of events over the 36 hours from catching fire to sinking.
First, what the rig looked like.
The drilling mast has toppled over here – they usually melt pretty fast when fire breaks out.
Support vessels using their fire fighting gear to cool the rig.
From about 10 miles away – dawn of Day 1
Support vessels using their fire fighting gear to cool the rig – note the list developing
About noon Day 1 – List is pronounced now
Early morning Day 2 – Note the hole burned through the aluminum helideck
Day 2, morning – settling quite low in the water now – fuel and oil slick forming
See also satellite images of the oil slick here
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Just a thought about the possible damage to the BOP caused by the blowout that could have caused it to become inoperative or internally jammed. Can’t BOPs be stacked one above another so that if one fails, the next one may be able to do its job?
Douglas DC says:
May 2, 2010 at 8:42 am
Thanks. I just want to stress that I only passed on the info which I received in an e-mail from another offshore worker. I would think everyone who works offshore has now received it.
There is a lot of speculation as to what exactly happened. At the time of the disaster I was on a well half way around the world from the GOM and which was in pretty much the exact same stage of operations as this one. With all my experience in the industry I could make any number of guesses as to what really happened. But I’d probably be wrong. Rest assured that BP, Transocean and the authorities are doing their damnest to get this all sorted out as soon as possible.
rbateman says:
May 1, 2010 at 3:54 pm
“None of the failsafes engaged, most likely indicating the control line(s)/remotes to the sea floor were severed.
At that point, the Deadman should have engaged. Suggests explosion travelling down.
Obama’s first action was to deplay swat teams to adjacent rigs.
Add in H.S. and you have an implied threat from undisclosed sources. Could also be that the Admin. is doing something, even if it’s wrong.
No interviews of drilling crew says the lid is on tight.
So, we do not know what transpired out there…”
Strange they allowed one of the survivors to go on air to explain it was ‘not an act of terrorism’? I too would have thought witnesses would not have been allowed to talk to the media until issues regarding legal action had been settled.
Malcolm Kirkpatrick:
Come on now. Have some respect for the deseased persons out there. Think of their familys. Stop your stupid trolling.
This is the everyday heros doing a fantastic job. They leave their familys for longer periods of time, just so society can function.
Have paitience now and let the investigation finish. There is nowhere on this planet where safety is given more priority.
R. Gates says:
May 2, 2010 at 12:00 am
curiousgeorge said:
“This gulf spill will be cleaned up and forgotten about in 2 or 3 years…”
————-
Nope…not by a long long shot. This event will change the face of both the Gulf Coast and the gulf oil industry forever. This is a man-made environmental disaster on a scale never before seen in America, and can be easily be likened to America’s Chernobyl.
Mr Gates-Remember that some 156 million gallons of crude and refined oil was discharged off the mid Atlantic in 1942 by German Uboat torpedoes with NJ to NC taking the brunt. The 1979 -1980 Ixtoc well Blowout in the Gulf was far worse than this spill lasting for 9 months. The rebound from both was fast.
Katrina released 8 million gallons of refined (worse than crude) oil the effects of which were not seen following the storm. Read The National Academies Oil in the Sea 2003 for some reassurance. We are most likely looking 3 months to 3 years tops to full recovery. (there will always be some academic grant seeker that finds some animal making twisty burrows as evidence that we have not returned to normal)
An offshore platform spill is entirely different than a tanker spill. The oil fractionates as ti moves up the 5000 feet to the surface. The more toxic BTEX fraction evaporates before landfall. The rest of the oil has time to weather. The distance off shore allows dilution. The temperatures here are high which speed things along. Importantly, the Gulf is an area with significant natural oil seeps. The biota here have developed a level of oil resistance and the bacteria, plankton are naturally in place to degrade the oil.
Remember if we stop drilling then we do more long distance oil transport and this requires super tankers. The super tanker spill risk far exceeds an oil platform – Again see the NAS risk analysis. We gain nothing by stopping drilling- we get super tankers and the drilling simply moves to Mexican and Cuban Waters
Oil spills and the threat thereof would not even make my top 5 long term Gulf risks. My list would include disruption of the sediment budget, habitat loss and alteration,
Shrimp fishing (they kill ten pounds of fish per pound of shrimp. Being the fish are mostly juveniles the population impact is enormous– I could make an argument that no Gulf spill is the equivalent of the shrimping impact), Dermo/ MSX and eutrophication.
Oil spills have short term and at times serious near term consequences- unfortunately we equate the high media profile with the relative risk to long term ecosystem health and stability.
The country focuses on stopping oil drilling thinking that we save the Gulf in this manner. Nothing could be further from the truth. The real long term threats are from diffuse sources outlined above- unfortunately diffuse sources prevents a single finger of blame. Shellfish diseases allow for no-one to sue. The real threats do not make good political speeches or news stories. They don’t make great fund raising campaigns for non-profits. Do not make the mistake that since you don’t hear of them they are not real. Oil spills are a messy distraction from the real problems that no-one seems to want to solve.
Why do they not send down some power depth charges or even a small nuclear device. That would surely seal up the well? This could have been done/and done a lot sooner than drilling a relief well.
The pictures show the structure fully involved in fire the result of some unknown catastrophic failure.
Getting to the bottom of what exactly went wrong is critical.
In the same league as plugging the well head and containing the spill in as rapid a manner as possible, preventing environmental damage, clean up and restoration of sensitive wildlife habitat.
My sympathies go out to the families of the eleven men presumed lost.
Interviews of the evacuated oil workers and other evidence needs to identify a sequence of events and timeline of the activities on the oil platform leading up to the the failure and subsequent explosion & fire.
Lets assume the following (much supported by the National Academies Oil in the Sea III study):
• Oil platforms over the past fifty years are the smallest source of oil spill in No American water
• Ecosystem recovery is often quite rapid in warm areas where the biota developed along with natural oil seeps giving rise to the ability to degrade oil and resist its more negative impacts
• Oil platforms reduce the need for super tankers which are the greater ecosystem risk
• This is the first major drilling disaster in 50 years in US.
• A US cessation of offshore drilling pushes more drilling into the 3rd world which has less infrastructure to deal with the problem
• Offshore drilling has the built in mitigation of distance from land which allows for evaporation of the BTEX fraction, weathering and dilution before landfall.
• A US Ban on offshore drilling does nothing to stop the drilling in Mexican and Cuban waters
• A ban on drilling increases the rate of oil and gas escape from the natural seeps which constitute 60% of all the oil released in US waters
• Oil spills while troubling are not apocalyptic
• The loss of drilling involves tremendous losses in revenues and opportunity costs
• The greatest threats to Gulf and other coastal ecosystems are not oil spills but habitat loss/alteration, disruption of the sediment budget, eutrophication, invasive species, disease, etc.
• We are neither currently expending nor proposing to spend the resources necessary to correct the “real” coastal ecosystem threats-
Given the fact that we gain little from an offshore drilling ban and lets say a fifty year return cycle for another such event it would seem a sensible option to:
• Place a DEDICATED per barrel /Cuft tax on offshore extracted oil and gas
• Use this dedicated fund to start the long overdue work of restoring our wetlands and addressing some of the more pressing coastal environmental problems
• Site all platforms sufficiently far off the coast to allow for evaporation and weathering forces to come into play
It would seem we assume no greater risk than we assume now, create more jobs, address balance of trade issues and would actually have the chance to fix some of our ignored but more serious environmental problems. We would build a healthier ecosystem -better able to withstand a future spill and other threats. If we do nothing to actively promote restoration/rehabilitation of our coastal ecosystem then they will slowly die a death of a thousand paper cuts. Protection as the only route to a better environment is seriously flawed and doomed to fail. Without a dedicated income stream restoration will never happen.
Unfortunately we will never have this discussion—- it doesn’t fit how we do things with respect to the environment.
Any thoughts on a blog developed proposal on offshore drilling?
A website for “Deepwater Horizon Incident” has been set up by unified command under the National Response Framework and NIMS. I encourage everyone, technical or layperson, to visit this site for updates, technical information etc.
This is a link to impressive Fact Sheets:
http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/doctype/2931/53023/&offset=0
The government is also harnessing the power of social media (Facebook, Twitter etc.) and they have found very positive results from this in the past.
This is a tragedy of epic proportions, but it is also a learning experience for everyone. Technical experts can contribute their input to the unified command center via email or phone (I’ve already weighed in on bioremediation via University of Illinois).
David Middilton said:
“Acoustic BOP switches are not in common use. They are only required in two places: The Norwegian sector of the North Sea and offshore Brazil. The main reason that industry officials lobbied against acoustic switches was the likelihood that the BOP’s could be triggered accidentally. Accidentally firing shear rams while drilling a well is a bad thing. There were also doubts about the reliability, particularly in deep water.
In this particular case, an acoustic switch would have made no difference.
-The manual switch failed.
-The “deadman” switch failed.
-ROV’s have been able to access the controls on the BOP stack; but have been unable to activate the BOPs.”
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yes, there could be concern that a simple “acoustic switch” without adequate security encoding of the transmitted signal could cause an accidental or malicious BOP closure and significant economic loss for a deep offshore drilling operation. But I cannot imagine why utilization of existing underwater acoustic communication and telemetry technology cannot be made absolutely secure with modern digital encoding technology if this is not already being done.
Sure, the transmission time for a unique security code could delay the command for BOP activation by a second or two, but this is negligible compared to human decision-making and reaction times involved in making an activation command, particularly in a backup application when all else is presumed to have failed.
And yes, the manual switch failed, and the deadman switch failed, and even the ROVs that tried to operate the BOP robo-manually failed because apparently the BOP itself had failed, perhaps because of damage it had already suffered due to the blowout expolsion before any activation command was actually given from any source. And in this case, wreckage from the sunken drill ship fortunately did not make the manual controls on the BOP inaccessible, but who can guarantee such good fortune for a future tragic accident? A properly designed secure telemetry-controlled backup BOP activation signal would penetrate underwater wreckage of any sort.
Would this argument contend that modern automobile airbags that deploy automatically when a crash occurs are unnecessary, because if a tire blowout occurs at high speed, causing the vehicle to roll over several times killing the occupants although they are protected by wearing seatbelts, airbags therefor are a waste of money? Offshore drilling in deep water at great depths obviously involves unusual risks and every available backup safety precaution should be employed.
“The drilling mast has toppled over here – they usually melt pretty fast when fire breaks out.”
“You mean…fire melts steel? You expect me to believe that? This was obviously a controlled demolition. I suspect a plot by Jewish bankers.”
Notice the words “toppled over” and not a symmetrical downward collapse. Asymmetrical injury causes asymmetrical failure, not symmetrical failure. Fire causes asymmetrical failure, not symmetrical failure, unless the fire is “designed” as in a controlled demolition.
I worked as an insurance broker for many years with many offshore drilling companies. There are many anomalies about the circumstances in this terrible event. The one thing that bothers me most, however, is the picture showing the burn hole in the heliport. The heliport is located well away from the the burning side of the rig. The hole in the heliport is very symmetrical and looks like the result of an electrical discharge. heliports have fire suppression equipment. I do not see any fire damage to anything else nearby, including the underside of the heliport as shown in other pictures.
This makes no sense to me. Any ideas?
I think the phrase “obviously a major malfunction” applies in this case. I suspect the same basic cause, complacency, is also at the root of this disaster. Perhaps there should always be a ‘Plan B’ alternative ready to go quickly if the primary containment system is damaged beyond repair.
I do believe the primary fail-safe systems must be designed for automatic actuation in worst-case scenarios. Of course, this is all more easily said than done, but I do fear the major ecological impact of this incident is going to convince a lot of environmentally concerned people that we should never allow off-shore drilling near our coasts again.
Am I the only one to find it strange that America, until recently supposedly run by Big Oil Bush cronies, is the only country to restrict oil drilling off its coastline? Not just some small part but about 80% off limits. It is madness for American oil companies to be seeking oil in virtually every offshore oil province in the world while being denied permission to do the same back home. The eco-weenies in the US are obviously far too influential but surely the rest of you must have some say here. I think it’s time for a bit good ol yankee clear thinking, you can’t keep stuffing your SUVs full of gas without some commensurate effort to obtain the stuff, preferably locally.
Some of the comments here have been extremely helpful, and I appreciate them. I also appreciate the comments by “James” on Mark Levin, and the comments by “horizon37” at the following site (from a link above) . These gentlemen seem to know what they’re talking about. As for this “shutting down all Gulf oil exploration”, I don’t think even our current government is that stupid. THAT would certainly lead to a total disaster for them come November. This is, by all accounts, just Nature proving once again that, despite our best attempts, She is still in charge.
As for this being the biggest disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, someone needs to read some history. Google “Ixtoc disaster”, or go here for the Wiki entry.
May the memory of the eleven people that lost their lives in this terrible tragedy never be forgotten.
Re: Bush cronies; I would appreciate knowing precisely what those ties are, can you elaborate? I know Dubya managed the Texas Rangers in Arlington Texas for a pretty good, spell, so we know for certain he has ties to major league ball for instance …
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Is it a matter of ‘allowing’ – or a matter of not having filed the necessary ‘gag orders’?
Maybe in your country every one must ask permission before speaking, but things do not work quite that way in the US yet … besides, anonymous sources are cited all the time in the newspapers/by the press for various stories – how is this any different (the man _was_ speaking anonymously or did you not get that)?
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Can you tell me why nobody has seen or heard from the people who worked on and seen this first hand?I don’t want what the government to spin this. I wan’t the people on the rig to tell me thank you……I bet they know something and they can”t say hmmmm…
I was just looking at a graphical representation of the platform, the connecting pipe to the sea floor, the BOP and equipment on the mud and the casing down the hole. One thing seemed to stand out to me was the lack of some sort of floatation collar around the pipe some 50-300 feet below the platform with cutoff capabilities at that location.
Why was there no near-surface cutoff / dis-couple mechanism so the platform could have been severed from the pipe and drug out of the way in such emergency? Then divers would still be able to go in and work at a reasonable depth in an emergency?
Some posting here seem knowledgeable enough to sensibly answer this question and thanks for sharing your expertise.
Your eXpert or “someone in the know” DOESN’T KNOW and is passing bad info.
The Cementing had not started. The BOP was closed and when opened to commence cementing a huge gas bubble “Kicked” and pushed water and gas all the way past the top of an over two hundred feet rig tower. “Mother nature now and then kicks up”
“Your dealing with 30 to 40 thousand pounds per square inch” “It was more than the safety and controls we had could handle.” Then “the gas spilled out rapidly within a minute of it, and something ignited it.”
So…listen to the whole thing (two parts) from a guy that was there when the accident happened.. And it was verified that this guy was who he said he was.
http://www.marklevinshow.com/Article.asp?id=1790422&spid=32364
Papa Ray
Papa Ray,
The eXpert is right. He does know. They had cemented the liner (at around 18,000 feet) about 20 hours earlier and they had left a cement plug over the liner top. They tested the BOP, circulated the marine riser to sea water and were about to set ANOTHER final cement plug before disconnecting and moving off the well. Clearly the formation oil & gas somehow got past the cement job on the liner and the cement plug placed on top.
Papa Ray says:
May 2, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Papa Ray:
As I mentioned, I never wrote the article – I just passed it on.
I agree with you on the radio phone-in interview as well. It is both informative and poignant.
Kwik,
I mock the conspiracy theorists. If anyone disrespects the dead, it’s people who make political capital from misfortune. Unanswered questions are not evidence or answers. Accidents happen. Silly people have already speculated that this event is something other than an accident.
Pat Moffitt says:
May 1, 2010 at 6:44 pm
To rbateman
I’m sure they deployed SWOT teams not SWAT (although I have seen many media centers call it SWAT). The agencies deploying make SWOT more likely-Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats. Its what one would expect after a such an accident.
—–
REPLY: Pat, thanks, there is a huge misconception going on about the difference in deployment of SWAT vs. SWOT teams! I’ve even seen the term misspelled on government websites (statements by Public Information Officers of Unified Command apparently).
You are correct, these are SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) teams for technical assistance vs. a military response!! I’ll try to reach the Deep Horizon ICS command and let them know.
RE Malcolm Kirkpatrick (May 2, 2010 at 8:24 pm) Silly people have already speculated that this event is something other than an accident.
This may be a natural reaction for people confronted with a novel destructive event they had not thought possible when they perceive their society under threat of attack by hostile forces. Now that it has been made clear that was a new well being drilled, I think sabotage is just a minor probability check-off item for the accident investigation team.