Blame game

[Mousefield]

In this post you started
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/related-topics/171689-prc.html
you want jobs to stay in the U.S.

Well, here's oil production jobs in the U.S. Which way you want it?
Did you even hear what they think caused the explosion?
Did you here that BP was contracting out the work on the rig? The work was being done by the operating procedures of the drilling company, not BP.
BP has already stated that it was BPs oil and responsibility and they will pick up the cleanup tab, but they did not cause the explosion.

So it was a contractor they hired to drill for their oil?

 

[/pine]

If you really want to play the blame game...
....If BP had not been granted an exemption from a major environemental impact study for the 'Deep Horizon' platform/well by the Obama administration...perhaps the Gulf of Mexico would not be turning into what may very well become the worst man made environmental disaster ever on the planet..

washingtonpost.com

 

[CDsdad]

So it was a contractor they hired to drill for their oil?

Yes. And with only 1 exception I know of in the Gulf of Mexico, the Shell Auger platform on which Shell actually owns the rig, all oil companies contract rigs to drill their wells. It's the same overseas with few excpetions. And the Shell Auger rig is run by contract personel.

I know about a dozen of the guys that were on the rig. Two worked for the same company I work for, in the same position I hold, and both are gone. I used to work side-by-side with one of them. My wife's first cousin was there. A guy that has a kid on my son's ball team was there. A guy I graduated high school with was there. Others from my hometown, including one of the deceased were there.

The blame will be passed around as it is any time money is involved. Ultimately, I think it will come down to equipment failure. Even if the procedures used were at fault, they were procedures outlined beforehand by BP and approved by the MMS. No oil company arbitrarily just drills, completes, or abandons a well without MMS approval. I have seen MMS tell operators (oil companies) that they can't use the procedures in the oil company's drilling or completion programs.

This is a tragedy, both human and ecological. We work hard here in the Gulf to send everybody home safe and to not harm the environment.

Remember the families of those who didn't go home. I know of one family that has a 2 1/2 year old and his mother is 8 1/2 months pregnant and Daddy will never come home. Another family has grandkids on the way that will never meet their grandfather. There are 9 other families in the same situation.

But yes, the responsible parties will play the blame game.

What I know comes from over 16 years experience in the Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of these wells have been safely drilled and completed, and in many cases recompleted or abandoned, with no harm to anyone or anything.

I know this spill is a terrible environmental tragedy, and the media sensationalizes the congressional hearings and monetary and ecological damage done by it due to its location, but the industry as a whole should not be viewed as unsafe. Good people died trying to do the right thing.

Please remember the families that lost loved ones.

 

[tulenutn2o]

Energy industry(specifically oil companies) are the only business I know of, that pass any and all increased costs DIRECTLY to consumers. They set their profits, dividends, and if they are not up to snuff, we pay through the nose. Then when we conserve, and their profits go down, we pay again.

 

[tallyho8]

What upsets me is that we have been told over the years that this scenario would be prevented by the blowout protector. There are thousands of wells with thousands of blowout protectors and we finally tried one out in real time and it didn't work.

Should this be a signal that most of the other thousands of blowout protectors will not work in emergencies?

We need the oil and we need the jobs and we need to know that our fail-safe devices will work when needed.

 

[955er]

This whole thing is just real bad, no matter how you cut it. Say what you want, but it isn't even the lead story on the nightly news.

I bet that will change if and when this starts washing up, on, say, sparkling Clearwater beach.

 

[rekees4300]

If you really want to play the blame game...
....If BP had not been granted an exemption from a major environemental impact study for the 'Deep Horizon' platform/well by the Obama administration...perhaps the Gulf of Mexico would not be turning into what may very well become the worst man made environmental disaster ever on the planet..

washingtonpost.com

Let's not overlook the fact that former Vice President Dick Cheney recommended the exemption through his power as chair of President Bush's Energy Task Force.

 

[CDsdad]

What upsets me is that we have been told over the years that this scenario would be prevented by the blowout protector. There are thousands of wells with thousands of blowout protectors and we finally tried one out in real time and it didn't work.

Should this be a signal that most of the other thousands of blowout protectors will not work in emergencies?

We need the oil and we need the jobs and we need to know that our fail-safe devices will work when needed.

If one red tractor breaks down is that a signal that thousands of other red tractors will? What about all the ones that have functioned without incident to date?

BOPs or blow out preventers are tested every 14 days during drilling and completion operations. Occasionally exemptions are given, but rarely. An exemption in most cases is only good for 48-72 hours. More commonly BOPs are tested more often than 14 days because it fits better into operations. For example, testing bops while out of the hole for a bit trip because the BOP test is due within 36 hours and drilling will take longer than 36 hours.

And if anyone thinks this is the first time a set of BOPs have been tried in real time, guess what, you're wrong. I've seen BOPs function in real time dozens of times. I'd be dead if they didn't. I've had to evacuate 1 rig in all my time in the Gulf. The BOPs held. The casing below it failed.

A subsea BOP, which is what the Deepwater Horizon had, is not a simple piece of equipment. It is not new technology, though. This wasn't the first kick ever taken by the Horizon. It was however the first BOP failure, if indeed they failed. Probability says the BOPs failed, but anything is possible.

NO fail-safe device will work 100% of the time. Fail-safe devices are designed, made and operated by humans. Only 1 human has ever been perfect. And there have been a lot more humans in history than fail-safe devices.

 

[tulenutn2o]

As usual, no plan for worst case scenario. Equipment not staged where needed,etc. Some bean counter probably determine that they could save a .01 and charge us .10 if they didn't have that equipment at the ready. Big companies like this can pollute in a BIG way, pay the bill with my money and go on to make billions more. Let me have an unfortunate accident and spill gasoline or oil on my lawn and the DNR and EPA are all over that, making me remove soil and decontaminate............at my expense also. Little guy, you and I and all the other peasants always pays the tab, whether in $ or lives lost fighting a politicians war. Think about that for awhile. It's been a few years since any politicians/presidents of this country fought a war. Yet these non-servers are leading(I use that term in the loosest sense) our young men and women off to harm's way. I am a veteran and proud of it. I'm just tired of big business,big government/corrupt business and government. It's getting harder and harder for a guy to mind his own business without being harassed. I know, I'm ranting again.

 

[2manyrocks]

It's been a few years since any politicians/presidents of this country fought a war. .

We've got a bunch of career politicians is what we have.

I like the quote from Edward R. Murrow, too.