Checkmite
Skepticifimisticalationist
Oil rig explodes in Gulf; several injured and missing
- Thread starter Checkmite
- Start date
BenBurch
Gatekeeper of The Left
Don't we have a member here who works on a rig in the Gulf???
Puppycow
Penultimate Amazing
Velshi: Rigs are some of the safest places
M'kay.
So, what's more likely, an accident or terrorism?
If rigs really are "some of the safest places," you would think that a huge explosion would be unlikely.
OTOH, maybe they aren't really "some of the safest places."
M'kay.
So, what's more likely, an accident or terrorism?
If rigs really are "some of the safest places," you would think that a huge explosion would be unlikely.
OTOH, maybe they aren't really "some of the safest places."
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Dunno- but at times like this , I'm happy to be onshore in Kazakhstan.
I've worked on Transocean semis before , but not in the Gulf. The US domestic drilling industry is heavily protective of it's jobs. You find plenty US expats in Asia and Europe, but very few foreigners work in the US.
Fingers crossed they find the missing guys, but I'm not hopeful.
The Mutha
thoroughly confused, but valiantly trying...
One of my riding buddies is on the Transocean Deepwater Endeavor. That platform is parked a couple of miles away from the Deepwater Horizon. John's rig sent their rescue teams over as soon as they saw the initial explosion.
Oil rigs are very dangerous pieces of equipment. People are injured and/or die on them far more often then do coal miners in the mines. Masts give way, Top Drives fall down, and explosions do happen. I've worked with multiple drafters with less than 10 digits on their hands due to the time they spent rough-necking... It's a dangerous job.
Speculation is that the rig hit a pocket of pressurized natural gas that kicked back the pipe and caused the explosion, but we won't know for sure until the investigation is done. The platform wasn't in production yet, it was still drilling.
Oil rigs are very dangerous pieces of equipment. People are injured and/or die on them far more often then do coal miners in the mines. Masts give way, Top Drives fall down, and explosions do happen. I've worked with multiple drafters with less than 10 digits on their hands due to the time they spent rough-necking... It's a dangerous job.
Speculation is that the rig hit a pocket of pressurized natural gas that kicked back the pipe and caused the explosion, but we won't know for sure until the investigation is done. The platform wasn't in production yet, it was still drilling.
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Darth Rotor
Salted Sith Cynic
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2006
- Messages
- 38,527
Called my cousin, who has worked on that rig previously. He wasn't on it, nor the project it was part of, but is going to be up to his butt in alligators assisting the teams who were on that project.
I didn't press him, I suspect the company has a "don't talk about this while we investigate" policy.
DR
Tricky
Briefly immortal
Yeah, that's me and that's our rig. The 11 people missing are almost certainly dead. There was a blowout and a big explosion and that's all we really know right now.
None of the missing were from my company, but I don't grieve them any less. This is a depressing place to be right now.
BenBurch
Gatekeeper of The Left
I am glad you are OK, Tricky!!!
The Mutha
thoroughly confused, but valiantly trying...
Tricky, I wonder why the BOP didn't kick in or could the explosion have been too great to be contained? Surely the BOP would have been operational...
CORed
Penultimate Amazing
Of course we all hope for the best, but in this kind of accident, missing usually means, "dead, but we haven't found the body yet."
The Mutha
thoroughly confused, but valiantly trying...
And given that the rig sank a couple of hours ago, the chances of finding any bodies are reduced substantially.
Tricky
Briefly immortal
That we don't know. All we really know is that it happened very fast. There will be a lot of investigation, of course. I'm not even sure if the BOPs were on the drill floor or the sea bottom. And I'm not an engineer, so my observations would be fairly dumb anyway.
Thanks Ben. I work in an office. Never even travel to a rig. Freeways are the greatest danger I face.
Missing pretty much does mean dead in this case. Though Gulf of Mexico water is fairly warm, they wouldn't have drifted that far in 24 hours. I'm guessing they died pretty quickly and their bodies are burned beyond recognition. The platform isn't even standing any more. Any survivors found now would truly be miraculous.
I'm not supposed to talk about this, but since I'm anonymous here...
AlBell
Philosopher
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2009
- Messages
- 6,360
I read a report that I can no longer find online that the operation was at TD 18,000' and cementing casing. There was an explosion reported about 3 hours before a series of larger explosions that led to the fire. This report suggested 8000 bopd was 'perhaps' flowing into the Gulf. BP was mentioned as lease owner.
I'd guess water depth was in the thousands of feet range and suspect BOP was on seafloor.
Rather strange occurrences with all the safety considerations in effect for Gulf operations.
I'd guess water depth was in the thousands of feet range and suspect BOP was on seafloor.
Rather strange occurrences with all the safety considerations in effect for Gulf operations.
I'm seeing some contradictory reports.
Speculation is pointless till the reports come in- but I'd expect a rig like that to have real time telemetry to the Oil co and drilling contractor office, so it should be possible to piece together what happened.
As one of the hands here said, "Looks like they made a well."
Speculation is pointless till the reports come in- but I'd expect a rig like that to have real time telemetry to the Oil co and drilling contractor office, so it should be possible to piece together what happened.
As one of the hands here said, "Looks like they made a well."
trvlr2
Muse
Yes. The hard way.
I rather doubt that anyone other than the companies involved will ever know exactly what transpired. The industry keeps a tight lid on such incidents.
It is a dangerous business- heavy machinery, marine environment, 12 hour shifts. Incidents tend to be catastrophic, sort of like the airline business.
I've spent about half my working life offshore. I'm confident we will find out what went wrong and it will become the source material for many safety flashes and lectures and redesigns and regulations.
At least I'd hope so.
This being America, I'd expect law suits against the operator and contractor, which may lead to at least temporary suppression of some information.
It's not my experience that anyone will keep a tight lid on such events.
I saw one report saying an explosion occurred 3 hours before the rig issued a Mayday call. This puzzles me greatly. But reports in these circumstances are often simply wrong. Wait. We'll find out what happened. I see two MI hands are missing - probably includes my opposite number.
Damn.
Checkmite
Skepticifimisticalationist
I didn't realize so many people here were so connected to this thing, either directly or indirectly.
And hold onto something, Tricky; if it's a depressing place now, I have a feeling it's not going to be cheering up for quite a while.
I'll be following this.
And hold onto something, Tricky; if it's a depressing place now, I have a feeling it's not going to be cheering up for quite a while.
I'll be following this.
I work in the oilfield(Seriously... what are the odds?) and can verify that companies are usually pretty open about the what, how and why of accidents. They are far more concerned about preventing repeats over maintaining secrecy.
I swear I can recite the Piper Alpha video from memory.
trvlr2
Muse
Fronzel, Soapy- I did not mean that these cases would not become a 'learning experience'. After the cases are settled, they make good lessons in safety analysis. Just that, the information is treated as secret for liability reasons, and that 'regular people' will not know what happened. No longer newsworthy, and the companies like it like that. IMO. The bigger the disaster, the slower the news-day, the more people will know about the event.
Re: Piper Alpha--A company I worked for, had footage of a semi-sub burning.( I think EI, 1964) The safety training folks determined that the footage was too graphic to show new recruits...You are told only what you need to know, as determined by others. But some things can't be unseen.
That said, if I didn't think it was 'safe enough', I wouldn't do it. And the company backed me up, on that.
Sort of. I wasn't fired, just re-assigned.
Tricky
Briefly immortal
The latest reports say it was not a failure of the Blow-Out Preventers (BOPs) and although the rig burned for a long time, there was no leakage of oil from the sea floor. If the pipe is deep in the hole, though, you can have a whole lot of water in the drill pipe itself. The company sent a massive fleet of boats to make sure no oil escaped to foul the sensitive South Louisiana estuary. They seem to have contained it pretty well, but they were lucky there wasn't an oil leak.
Yes, it looks as if the well had finished the drilling stage and was moving on to testing and perhaps completing. This was a fairly recent discovery and not a big producing field yet.
The thing about the "Three hours until mayday" is completely bogus. We are in constant communication with the rigs and if they were evacuating, you can be sure the authorities were notified within minutes, maybe seconds of getting the report.
It will probably be weeks until we get even a preliminary report on what actually happened. I know it sounds grisly, but the fact is, those who know best are probably dead.
Yes, it looks as if the well had finished the drilling stage and was moving on to testing and perhaps completing. This was a fairly recent discovery and not a big producing field yet.
The thing about the "Three hours until mayday" is completely bogus. We are in constant communication with the rigs and if they were evacuating, you can be sure the authorities were notified within minutes, maybe seconds of getting the report.
It will probably be weeks until we get even a preliminary report on what actually happened. I know it sounds grisly, but the fact is, those who know best are probably dead.