I refer to the Gulf of Mexico fatal drilling platform explosion and subsequent spill, and the earlier refinery explosion where men also died. Maybe this is not in your area of specialty so you can't give an expert opinion. but at least we can count on you not to give a bullshit opinion.
While you're at it, do you have an opinion about how risky fracking is to drinking water?
Do you work for BP? If so you know the answer
I have several acquaintances in the oil safety industry and asked them a similar question. They stated that several safety problem had occurred on the rig that the federal inspector ignored that should have shut the rig down before the blowout and indeed there are greater risks at greater depth but it was inexcusable the safety violations were ignored and the complete lack of response by the government considering that the drillers pay for response teams. Both of them thought the feds allowed the blowout to get out of control thinking it was a nice little disaster and they could step in and save the day at the last minute and then use it to shut down all exploration. They had not counted on the fact that the problem could grow so fast that delay would make the problem uncontrollable. So it became the first Obama disaster and the only thing he got out of it was shutting down oil exploration in the name of safety ignoring the fact that his inspector could have prevented the whole thing and a faster response from him could have mitigated the damage by controlling the disaster sooner. goes to show the the government only cares about its own agenda no matter who is in power.
I can't comment about BP's culture of safety. I don't know the company. I know nothing at all about the refinery tragedy. However, like all the rest of North America I was stunned by this horrific blowout when it happened. Blowouts like this one are exceedingly rare in my industry. I have never seen one 'up close and personal'. All wells drilled these days will have a blow out preventer (BOP), a brute of a device designed to prevent just such a catastrophe from happening in the first place.
The report describing the events of the accident was very curious to me. At first news of the accident my assumption was a BOP failure. The report noted two wiring mistakes on one pod of the BOP but stated that one mistake canceled out the other. The ram of the BOP fired as it was supposed to do BUT the ram pierced the pipe, making the blow out much worse. Investigators stated that the failure was caused by severe buckling in the pipe NOT by a failure in the firing of the ram of the BOP. I can add nothing more. I don't know what became of the investigation after that initial report. Rest assured that the pipe would have been examined minutely. I cannot say if there was a fault in the steel; if there was a failed weld somewhere, if there was a mistake made by the drilling contractor, if there was a shift in the drilling platform to twist the pipe.
My interest in this was focused on the BOP. I have used the same company's BOPs for my company's wells for many years. I wanted to satisfy myself that I had no worries about something similar happening to my operation.
Re: fracing
First of all, fracing takes place 100s and 1000s of metres below the water table. For example; the water well for my house is much less than 100m. The deepest water table that I ever drilled through for a nat gas well was about 400m (and that was exceptionally deep for water). Wells being drilled at my exploration project this winter are targeting formations close to 3000m deep.
As a well is drilled through the water table, the well is cased to prevent water entering the hole. Water mixed with the hydrocarbon stream is a curse. Drillers go to great lengths to prevent groundwater from mixing with the hydrocarbon stream. If the casing is true and the drillers know their business there will never be any interaction between the hydrocarbon stream and the water table once the well starts to produce, be it a conventional hole or a fraced hole.
This is not to say that fuck-ups never occur. They do occur but they are very rare.
In my province of Alberta the only examples of ground water pollution attributed to fracing have been identified as being caused by human error, not by a failure in the process. Shoddy cement work is the usual culprit.
Thanks
fa,
Problem is, most any advancement is fraught with "potential" accidents, failures mistakes, whatever. Hasn't stop civilization from leaving the swamps and getting to where we are now. Some use that small chance as leverage to stop things they don't like, no matter the greater good it might have.
How many of those types would give up their car and go back to a horse and buggy? I'm sure a lot less got killed and injured back in those days. :)
Hardly an expert, but I heard many stated at the time that having to go so far offshore and the deep water that comes with that increases the risk. I also heard the platform had just passed a federal inspection. My guess, many smaller problems created a bigger one and then obama's refusal of offered help and equipment surely exacerbated the situation.