Leaking Oil Well Lacked Safeguard Device (required by Brazil and Norway) - WSJ.com

[JohnWxy]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704423504575212031417936798.html


The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn't have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills.

The lack of the device, called an acoustic switch, could amplify concerns over the environmental impact of offshore drilling after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig last week.

U.S. regulators don't mandate use of the remote-control device on offshore rigs, and the Deepwater Horizon, hired by oil giant BP PLC, didn't have one. With the remote control, a crew can attempt to trigger an underwater valve that shuts down the well even if the oil rig itself is damaged or evacuated.

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The U.S. considered requiring a remote-controlled shut-off mechanism several years ago, but drilling companies questioned its cost and effectiveness, according to the agency overseeing offshore drilling. The agency, the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, says it decided the remote device wasn't needed because rigs had other back-up plans to cut off a well.
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[Ruby the Liberal]

1. If the valve was damaged (ie, they can't close it manually)

would this remote closure even have worked?

[Wilms]

2. Thanks for asking that.

It's not clear from what I've read.

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. Good explanation below this post...

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Probably not. From what I've heard, it's triggered not by a wire or radio signal, but...

by a sonic code sent through the water. Just like radar doesn't work underwater, so you use sonar.

I've heard experts say it probably wouldn't work because it's a mile deep, there are several thermoclines (the place where layers of water with different temperatures meet) and then with severe disruption going on around the pipe a clear signal would likely get lost.

[Ruby the Liberal]

7. Good information. In light of this, I am thinking that until a PROVEN

backup solution is found, all deep water drilling should cease and desist.

[Submariner]

9. I work with sonic transducers

we lower the transducer on the end of a cable until it is a couple of hundred feet from the sonic receiver release mechanism that lets our gear, usually a current meter (ADCP) float back to the surface for retrieval. The transducer, even with background noise, would have slammed the back-flow preventer valve SHUT if it was installed.

Cheney policies allowed BP to avoid the half-million dollar expenditure, so now BP is paying out about $10 mil a day.

[tomm2thumbs]

11. true, they are stupid beyond stupid, because they undermine themselves at every corner

and continue to kill off the ocean's life at the same time - lose/lose, and yet it seemed such a good idea at the time - uh huh

[TreasonousBastard]

12. OK, it makes sense to lower the transducer, but...

how would it work lowering it a mile down? Lots of things to go wrong down there.

I heard something I can't verify about the failure rate on these things being pretty high, around 50%. If it's normally that bad, then why would one expect it to work on a well this deep?

[Submariner]

13. I am not aware of the failure rate

I just know that the back-flow preventer valve and the associated sonic closing trigger can be designed and built to operate at extreme depths.

We got screwed because between 2000-2008 Cheney obviously gave the oil goons carte blanche to drill away without having to deal with safeguards the good ole boys considered annoying, like an automatic back-flow preventer.

[JohnWxy]

5. According to the article they do not really know what happened or why the valve did not work ..

I don't know if they have determined the valve was damaged.


"Transocean Ltd., which owned and operated the Deepwater Horizon and the shut-off valve, declined to comment on why a remote-control device wasn't installed on the rig or to speculate on whether such a device might have stopped the spill. A BP spokesman said the company wouldn't speculate on whether a remote control would have made a difference.

Much still isn't known about what caused the problems in Deepwater Horizon's well, nearly a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. It went out of control, sending oil surging through pipes to the surface and causing a fire that ultimately sank the rig."
"

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. I thought I heard that the reason the robots couldn't activate it is because something

down there was damaged or malfunctioned.

No telling where I got that though.

[Doctor_J]

3. If the Hate Radio of print is saying this,

they must have found a way to blame it on Obama.

[madmax]

10. This was considered under the Clinton Administration

Prior to USSC selection of 2000.

"The U.S. considered requiring a remote-controlled shut-off mechanism several years ago, but drilling companies questioned its cost and effectiveness, according to the agency overseeing offshore drilling. The agency, the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, says it decided the remote device wasn't needed because rigs had other back-up plans to cut off a well".

[JohnWxy]

14. As everybody knows, the GOP front men for the oil industry won out...but that may change now..

Oil Spill Silences Once-Raucous 'Drill, Baby, Drill' Camp

"Drill, baby, drill" is now, "Hush, baby, hush."

The Republican battle cry that crystallized the growing popularity of offshore drilling has dropped from view since the Deepwater Horizon rig sank last week and the well it drilled started shooting crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

As Democratic opponents of the oil industry stepped up their attacks and demands for a sharp turn away from drilling, Republican leaders in Congress have slipped out of rapid-response mode and are generally holding their tongues.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has issued at least 11 broadsides at Democrats since the rig sank in 5,000 feet of water. Most dealt with financial regulatory reform. None addressed the rig explosion or spill. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has focused on jobs and health care in the nearly 20 statements he has issued in the past week without a word about the spill or loss of life, though at his on-camera news conference this week, reporters did not ask him about it.
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[paparush]

15. Exempt from Environmental Review

Just say that out loud a few times. I did and I'm about to punch the wall.

The Interior Department exempted BP's calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.

The decision by the department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP's lease at Deepwater Horizon a "categorical exclusion" from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 -- and BP's lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions -- show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050404118.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x294784

[JohnWxy]

16. Dept of MMS - environmentalists refer to it as: Dept of Minerals Mis-management