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Oil rig explodes in Gulf; several injured and missing

Tricky said:
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.
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As I said above, this puzzled me and I found it hard to credit.
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.
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Often the case. The people who take charge tend to be closest to hell when the door opens. So it goes.
 
Soapy Sam said:
Often the case. The people who take charge tend to be closest to hell when the door opens. So it goes.
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In this case, it was probably the unlucky roughnecks who were on duty on the drill floor when the explosion occurred. One of them may even have been at fault. It is unlikely we'll ever know for sure.

The rescue efforts have been called off. They are presumed dead.

Meanwhile, the well has started to leak and may be greating an enormous oil spill that will threaten the beaches from Florida to Louisiana. We have lots of boats trying to contain it, but it is hard to fix a broken pipe that is a mile underwater.
 
Tricky said:
Meanwhile, the well has started to leak and may be greating an enormous oil spill that will threaten the beaches from Florida to Louisiana. We have lots of boats trying to contain it, but it is hard to fix a broken pipe that is a mile underwater.
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Is it the actual hole in the sea floor oozing oil? Or just some oil that was in the equipment that now lays down there?
 
BenBurch said:
Damn I would not want to be the contractor for the job to close that.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36766567/ns/us_news-environment/

They appear to using submersibles to try and close that leak at the sea bed.

The "clean up the oil slick" operations will hopefully go into very high gear. That's beaucoup oil seeping about the Gulf ...

@ Checkmite, it appears that stopping the flow at the wellhead is the best hope ... but may not result in a happy ending.
Officials said they were trying to stop the flow by using robot submarines to activate valves at the well head, but that would take 24 to 36 hours to complete. If that doesn't work, crews are also planning to drill a relief well to cut off the flow — which could take several months.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellhead

What a well head is, for we who are not oil industry literati. ;)

DR
 
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Found out my friend isn't on a Transocean platform, it's the Diamond Offshore Ocean Endeavor. He had some spectacular pics of the Horizon rig burning on the horizon from his rig.

And yes, I once again reminded John that he's the sole provider for a family of four, works on an oil platform and doesn't have a freakin' will! Oy...
 
Water depth about 5000'; wellhead is apparently leaking about 1000 bopd.

Best hope is a valve stuck and can be closed using a remote control submersible.
 
Looking like it could end up as the worst oil spill in history. As someone who grew up on and regularly goes home to the Alabama Gulf Coast, I'm finding this quite distressing.
 
You'd think that oil slick management would have improved in the years since Valdez.
 
Has anyone heard any news about the cap? Last I heard, they were down to the last couple hundred feet, and that's where it gets tricky, but that was probably 5 hours ago.
 
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