Gulf Coast Oil Spill

[Flames in 07]

Originally Posted by Cactus Jack

As an HR/Healt&Safety professional in oil and gas, I know regulations are more lax in the US than in Canada. Yes, it would be nice if they tightened up regulation in the US, but you all need only look at healthcare and the proposed financial regulation to see how congress and the public feel about government regulation. That being said, just because your company was given the benefit of the doubt and more due dillegence and site visits weren't conducted, doesn't mean its the governments fault when a company screws up this badly. The government can't be everywhere to check everything, especially in a country where the majority want the government out of everything. Yes, one giant spill out of thousands world wide is good odds but realistically this shouldn't happen. I also think a lot of people have forgotten that this cost 11 people their lives.

Reminds me of when all those ducks died in the tailings pond in Ft Mac a real live person died next door ... zero news about that.

[Leon Kennedy]

Two Chinese oil workers with no family in Canada don't make for great headlines. Cute ducks do though.

[amorak]

Originally Posted by Leon Kennedy

Two Chinese oil workers with no family in Canada don't make for great headlines. Cute ducks do though.

Chris? Is that you?

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by Leon Kennedy

Two Chinese oil workers with no family in Canada don't make for great headlines. Cute ducks do though.

There were a few stories about that tank collapse at Horizon. I agree though it attracted less fan fare.

[ipuckedyourmom]

Effin BP!

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

Reminds me of when all those ducks died in the tailings pond in Ft Mac a real live person died next door ... zero news about that.

Who cares, people are a dime a dozen.

[Cactus Jack]

Originally Posted by fotze

Ohh everyone stop what you are doing, we have help, the safety guy is here.

Don't make me write you up

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Leon Kennedy

Two Chinese oil workers with no family in Canada don't make for great headlines. Cute ducks do though.

Actually they do. Especially for the media.

But the fact is that it wasn't such a big deal. It was localized and different effect a lot of people.

[macker]

Should have listened to the team from Schlumberger who 6 hours before the rig blew up told BP to dump kill fluid down the well because it was unstable. The team from SLB knew it was unsafe and they took a chopper earlier in the day....

[Tron_fdc]

So what are the chances of something like this happening to an oil well on land?

What would actually happen? Would you get crude shooting up into the air Beverly Hillbilly style?

[Azure]

It probably happens all the time.

The BOP probably works most of the time too.

From the little I understand its not that the BOP was doomed to fail, but because everything is underwater it makes it so much harder to plug.

[Tron_fdc]

Well what would happen if everything failed though?

I recall during the gulf war there was a Calgary company that went around putting out all the wells that were on fire, would you have to do the same thing? Or would you just park a mud truck there and pump it full of cement until it stopped leaking?

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

Well what would happen if everything failed though?

I recall during the gulf war there was a Calgary company that went around putting out all the wells that were on fire, would you have to do the same thing? Or would you just park a mud truck there and pump it full of cement until it stopped leaking?

http://www.redadair.com/

Red Adair needs to team-up with Aquaman.

[mykalberta]

I think it was a company from Drayton Valley that was "blowing up" the wells - basically sucking the O2 to stop fires so you can go in and cap it.

I am surprised this hasnt happened before given the number of wells. You would think on land they could actually plug it by filling the hole since its easier to work on land than below the ocean where they have to do everything with robots.

I am sure this happens on land, but the rigs arent near populated areas and they stop it before it starts to flow any great distance.

[mustache ride]

Wells take kicks all the time in Alberta. The two most common reasons are hitting a big pocket of gas when the mud isnt heavy enough or having a facture in the drilling formation in which the rig loses its mud or cement into the ground outside the hole. The other reason is human error. My first week on the rigs, the rig on the lease next to us blew up. The official reason was they hit a pocket of gas but it is common knowledge that the driller just forgot to fill the whole while tripping. As soon as the pipe stared to come out it bucked and lit the whole thing on fire. That was a couple of years ago but it wasnt the last time. These kinda things happen quite a bit but you never here about it for some reason. Just like you never hear about another roughneck dying but it keeps happening every year. And no most of the time its not the crackhead that bites it. Those guys have been pretty much weeded out of the industry.

[Boblobla]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

So what are the chances of something like this happening to an oil well on land?

What would actually happen? Would you get crude shooting up into the air Beverly Hillbilly style?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwaiti_oil_fires

Worst case.

[Sluggo]

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Sluggo

duh duh.......duh duh...................................duuuuuuuuuh

[Calgaryborn]

I do wonder if BP and the American government have looked seriously at the idea of blowing up the well. I've been told that the pressure in the well comes from the natural gas which usually sits on top of the crude. What they do is drill up to the natural gas and then seal the hole with cement. They then drill through the concrete and the natural gas into the crude oil. The pressure that pushes the oil that 5 miles to the surface is really the natural gas. An explosion that broke that seal of cement should cause the well to expel natural gas rather then crude. The only down side would be the complete loss of the well and possibly the find.

[mustache ride]

I think that this thread has a youtube video of some company blowing up a well. But they have to drill another relief well to get down to the zone anyway and i think there is already two started so they should be able to just recement.