Oil spill webcam, 5000 ft bellow the sea

[RTHolmes]

yeah it had to be something like that, although £27m index-linked from 1851 to 2010 would be in the ballpark.

[Denholm]

The contract between BP and Transocean said the senior Transocean representative was in charge.

Transocean not only supplied and operated the rig, they supplied and operated the blowout preventer that failed. Transocean had to stop work on a well they were drilling off India last year after the blowout preventer failed in a similar manner. The only thing that stopped that being a similar disaster was that they hadn't struck oil when the failure occurred...

Don't mean to sound picky... Where did you find this information?

I certainly feel Transocean is at fault and BP is receiving undue treatment for what's happening. Would love to verify that Transocean was operating the blowout preventer.

[RTHolmes]

yeah thats my feeling. seems that brand-awareness isnt always a good thing ...

[Nashwan]

The drilling company has to operate the BOP because it's part of the drilling operation. Last October Transocean admitted to problems with BOPs on its deep water drilling fleet, but said they had corrected them:

Though BOPs are a necessary piece of safety equipment, one of the largest rig fleet managers, Transocean, recently pointed its finger at BOPs onboard its rigs as the source of lower drilling revenues for Q2 2009. Transocean reported an EPS of $2.79, which was below the consensus of $3.03, due to a variety of revenue and cost factors, some of which were related to BOP issues.

Steven Newman of Transocean addressed the issue during an earnings conference call a few months ago. "The deepwater segment of the fleet, which is the 4,500 - 7,500 ft segment, 16 rigs in that fleet was the largest underperformer in Q2. We had a couple of human error incidents on drill floors on a couple of those rigs, and we had a handful of BOP problems; nothing that I would characterize as systemic or quarter specific. We did a deep dive on each one of those incidents. We've identified the root causes. We are going back to address them in our management system so they don't happen again. They were anomalies."

At the time of the report, Newman remarked that none of the BOP issues should impact Q3. He said, "All of the BOP incidents that occurred in Q2 have been resolved, and we'll continue to keep our eye closely on the performance of our subsea equipment."

Newman said the age of the rig fleet had nothing to do with the BOP problems. "The BOP problems we had were a combination of modern generation and older systems. A couple of human error issues we had were really completely unrelated to the age of the rigs those guys were working on."

http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=82682

Then in quarter 3 2009:

It was one of those moments that make oil exploration in the deep seas such an unpredictable business. Early in September, a team of engineers from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and its contractor TransOcean, the world's largest offshore drilling company, watched in horror as a live camera feed showed mud gushing out vertically from a well they had been drilling for the past 35 days. The feed, captured by a remotely operated vehicle two kilometres below the water surface, showed that something was drastically wrong. The blowout preventor, an essential piece of equipment on every oil well that regulates pressure to ensure safety, had failed.
Drilling had to stop immediately.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/forbes-india-rigging-the-wild-west/101507-7-single.html

Then earlier this year:

Transocean is looking into problems experienced with another blowout preventer (BOP) involving its drillship Discoverer Seven Seas off India earlier this year as part of an urgent investigation into the reliability of its equipment and the performance of its global deep-water rig fleet in the wake of the Macondo well blowout.

http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article214256.ece

and

Indian giant Reliance Industries has temporarily suspended the KGV-D3-W1 exploration well after the blowout preventer (BOP) on board the Transocean drillship Deepwater Expedition developed mechanical problems, Reliance's partner Hardy Oil & Gas said.

"In the interest of safety, the D3 joint venture has decided to suspend the W1 well and bring in a replacement rig,” Hardy boss Yogeshwar Sharma told UpstreamOnline.

“The problems were associated with one of the two control systems for the BOP. The main control system was working, but there were issues with the back-up.

http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article216010.ece

[RTHolmes]

update: now pumping 15,000 barrels/day and flaring 30m ft^3 of gas. shame they cant capture the gas, would help pay for the cleanup.

[RTHolmes]

update: still pumping 15,000 barrels/day, estimate of leak now doubled to 40,000 barrels/day

[RTHolmes]

update: now extracting just over 15,000 barrels/day.

recovered by LMRP cap: 127,000 barrels
recovered by Riser tool: 22,000 barrels
recovered by skimming: 475,000 barrels

total recovered: 624,000 barrels

total leaked: 1,560,000 barrels (@30,000 barrels/day)


new system will be up in the next coupla days, extracting directly from one of the BOP choke lines.

[Dragon]

We watched an interesting show on Science Channel last night about this disaster.  It was very informative for those of us that don't get a chance to follow up daily on the progress (or lack thereof) of the repair and clean-up efforts.

I couldn't find the video, but it is airing again.  Schedule:

http://science.discovery.com/tv-schedules/special.html?paid=48.15381.26265.0.0

[RTHolmes]

latest tech briefing (10th June):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP5qBILLoMc

[Eagler]

say good bye to the gulf coast ..
say good bye to any economical growth in this country for years to come.
We are toast.

[RTHolmes]

  considering the USA is a nation that prides itself on its toughness and resourcefulness, I cant believe the level of blind panic and emotion being displayed by some of you at the moment.


anyways latest update:

flow estimates revised up from 20-40,000 bpd to 35-60,000 bpd

current recovery capacity (Discoverer Enterprise): 15-18,000 bpd
additional capacity from Q4000 early next week: 5-10,000 bpd
total capacity early next week: 20-28,000 bpd

additional capacity from floating riser 1, early July: 20-25,000 bpd
additional capacity from floating riser 2, mid July: 20-25,000 bpd
total capacity mid July: 55-68,000 bpd

[AKH]

say good bye to the gulf coast ..
say good bye to any economical growth in this country for years to come.
We are toast.

Wow.  Over-reacting a tad aren't you?

[RTHolmes]

update: Q4000 in operation earlier than expected.

currently recovering/flaring 25,000 bpd

[Eagler]

Wow.  Over-reacting a tad aren't you?

IMO nope - I truly hope i am wrong but don't see it.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/01/us/20100501-oil-spill-tracker.html

[Eagler]

considering the USA is a nation that prides itself on its toughness and resourcefulness, I cant believe the level of blind panic and emotion being displayed by some of you at the moment.

Nothing "blind" about the concern at all.
If/when a hurricane pushes up into the gulf, we'll see who was blind.
Even without a cane, millions of lives are screwed for decades if not generations.
Curious RT with all your sucker upper updates, when do you see the gulf back in the same shape it was say March 2010?
As political as this disaster has become, we can't even discuss it here in the detail it requires.