Some really outstanding photographs here!
This is a true tragedy.
Gulf of Mexico oil disaster
30 Friday Apr 2010
Posted in Uncategorized
30 Friday Apr 2010
Posted in Uncategorized
Some really outstanding photographs here!
This is a true tragedy.
No Longer The Only One 
I can't tell you how incredibly sad and angry this makes me. And I haven't heard anything about a probable cause. Why not???
I understand that the explosion and fire that destroyed the rig fractured the undersea pipeline leading up to it. There is a cut-off valve installed in this seabed pipe, but it has jammed or cannot be activated in some way. That's why oil is just pouring out.
I haven't heard what caused the explosion yet. It's pretty easy to understand what's causing the oil spill. It's the explosion I'm curious about.:sherlock:
Same question I have, Deb. What happened?
It's a puzzle. If it's anything like the Piper Alpha[/i] disaster, it will be human error, but I'm really hoping that the lessons learned from that will have eliminated those causes. Possibly it was an unusual pressure surge from the drill that overloaded the equipment. Most likely it's something no one foresaw – that may become obvious with hindsight! It's a salutary reminder that oil drilling is both a highly dangerous and highly risky business.
I, personally, am flabbergasted that there were not more efficient valve systems to shut off the flow.
Thanks very much for those great links, Carol. It is awful! 😦
You are welcome Richard. Yes it is very awful. 😦
This is devastating. :(Richard here are some links you might want to see. Rig had history of spills, fires before big 1 History of oil spills History's 10 Most Famous Oil Spills
No one has mentioned the possibility of terrorism. Is that, in fact, a possibility? I found it interesting that the BP dude said it was decided last year or so that a spill like this would be virtually impossible.
Terrorism is always a possibility, but, I suspect, in this case very unlikely indeed. Much more likely is an equipment failure that was not adequately foreseen – drilling scenarios such as this are very much at the cutting edge (no pun intended) of drillers knowledge and experience and things are going to go wrong. The question is, should contingency plans have been made to cope with it? Obviously yes, but if the drillers downplay the risk (saving money by doing so), then the necessity for such planning becomes less evident. The more I read about this, the more this seems like a repeat of much of the bad management practices that led to the Piper Alpha disaster. Most disheartening.