Ok, It was unfortunate to here about the folks out on the rig that lost their lives and had to go through this. My prayers go out to all the families touched by this.
Now, this is what I am confused about. I'm just a dumb mechanic, welder guy and I see them trying to cap the hole some 5000 feet below the ocean. I understand you could not have a "valve" that a fella could essentially turn off the hole thus capping it. However, I can't understand why on the thing Waaaaaayyyyyy down at the bottom of the world they would not have a safety valve, something that would shut automatically with some sort of pressure or Flow monitoring devise when it exceeds what would be considered normal. Don't know why there could not be something on the line going Wwwaaaayyyyyy down there that would serve as a safety release point? A coupling of sorts that would hold under XXXX amount of strain but in the likelyhood your rig was going to sink, get uprooted and drift with the ocean tide it would let go and a safety valve would close on the oil gushing side.
Now, I'm not trying to be some smart azz....ok, well that is just in my very nature so maybe a little. But I am curious as I sit here in front of the puter thing reading about how their 100 ton butt plug did not work because of the crystals forming within. Meanwhile back at the hall of justice oil gushes out making me wonder if I'll ever eat fish again. I mean really, engineers, officials standing around looking at the 100 ton butt plug scratchin' their heads saying, "hmmm??? Any ideas?". With the BILLIONS and BILLIONS.....TRILLIONS of dollars that these companies have made off of everyone of us, the 100 ton butt plug is the best they can come up with?? I mean, is this just a long tube running up out of the hole in the earth to the rig? Cut it off like a straw and Whoosh!! Free flowing mess?
If I am missing something, as I most likely am, please enlighten me as I do NOT know all and never will and if I am missing something I will learn and probably write in a later post, "Oh, ok I see now I understand."
Help me understand,
signed,
Confused
Thanks Henry, excellent vids and reading that pdf. That Piper Alpha vid was something else! Melted the whole darn rig!! I am no longer confused, first video after the metal plate on the pipe went boom the control room supervisro "pushes the emergency shutdown button" shutting down the rig, closing the valves in the pipes. Also liked the vid of the Marlin, dumb fish kept swimming back into the thing!
Thanks again,
Shawn
Cummins,
Brazilian newspapers reported that, in fact, there should have been a "safety" valve on the wellhead to prevent an oil spillage if something went wrong, but, in order to save a few thousands dollars, they (British Petroleum), decided not to put it.
First comment. I wrote "safety" between brackets because, of course, it's not the same safety valve we're accostumed to see on a boiler or a compressed air storage vessel.
Second comment. Along my many and many years of professional life I've seen a few times (just a few, fortunately) the same thing: in order to save a handful of dollars, millions are lost afterwards because of an accident that would have been avoided if the safety requirements were observed.
Third comment. You Gentlemen know how newspapers are: they like to inflate a simple case and turn it as a complicated one, so I won't sware that what Brazilian newspapers say it's true.
Giovanni S. Crisi
Sao Paulo - Brazil
Hi Shawn!
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