On the Oil Rig Disaster

[MarketNeutral]

“This stuff is damn hard and very dangerous,” says our resident oil patch veteran Byron King, reacting to news that searchers have given up hope the 11 people missing from an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico are still alive.

It was just a few weeks ago that Byron suited up for a visit to an offshore drilling ship operated by the same firm Transocean. “I saw safety up close and personal. I had to go through two days of safety training just to set foot near the helicopter, and just to go out and set foot on the rig. After the training, I sat for specific safety briefs about the helicopter rides, as well as more safety briefings about shipboard operations. This is what they do. This is how they do it. So I know that safety is a value at Transocean.

“We don’t know what happened on the Deepwater Horizon, and I don’t want to add to the speculation.” Yet a news release from the United Steelworkers union is already calling for “an overhaul of health and safety within the oil sector.”

Says USW International Vice President Gary Beevers, “This is the oil industry’s fourth health and safety incident involving worker deaths or injuries in the past 2½ weeks. How many more workers have to pay the price for the industry’s lack of a safety culture? The industry is long overdue for a complete overhaul of its health and safety provisions.”


Tragedy in the Gulf: Rush to Judgment?

“Mr. Beevers,” Byron explains, “is referring to six workers who died as a result of an April 2 explosion and fire at Tesoro’s Anacortes, Wash., refinery. Three more workers were injured April 14 at Exxon Mobil’s Baton Rouge, La., refinery fire. Another worker was killed April 19 due to a crane accident on the Motiva Enterprises expansion project in Port Arthur, Texas.

“Based on my inspection of the Discoverer Inspiration a few weeks back, I disagree with Mr. Beevers’ assertion of a ‘lack of a safety culture.’ I saw just the opposite. Then again, we’ve got a sunken rig, and 11 missing workers. Something went wrong.

“For now, we wait and see. We’ll watch what happens with the search, salvage and environmental effort.”
http://dailyreckoning.com/on-the-oil-rig-disaster/

[keehah]

BP’s Gulf Well Leaking 1,000 Barrels a Day After Fire (Update1)
April 25, 2010, 11:05 AM EDT (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-25/bp-s-gulf-well-leaking-1-000-barrels-a-day-after-fire-update1-.html)

April 25 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc and the U.S. Coast Guard said about 1,000 barrels of oil is escaping daily into the Gulf of Mexico after a drilling rig caught fire and sank last week.
Oil is leaking out in two places at the site, BP spokesman David Nicholas by phone from London today. BP is responsible for the clean-up, Nicholas said.

“This is a very serious oil spill,” Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry, who is overseeing the rescue and cleanup efforts, said at a press conference yesterday.

The accident took place off the coast of Louisiana, where exploration was being carried out on the Macondo field. BP, the biggest oil producer in the Gulf of Mexico, had leased the Deepwater Horizon rig from Transocean Ltd. for drilling.

The spill covers a 400-square-mile section of the Gulf in the shape of a rainbow, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from the coast, Landry said. It’s unknown when the well can be capped, she said...

The fire on the rig started on April 20 after an explosion that Geneva-based Transocean said may have been caused by a so- called blowout, an unexpected surge in pressure that ejected petroleum at the top of the well. The rig sank two days later.

[Ponce]

You cannot have 3,000 oil rigs working all the time without having an accident once in a while..........is part of the business.........of making money.

[Gknowmx]

I think solar flares had something to do with this. ;D

[MarketNeutral]

You cannot have 3,000 oil rigs working all the time without having an accident once in a while..........is part of the business.........of making money.


As an added benefit, smack in the middle of hurricane alley.

[hoarder]

Check out the funnel cloud to the right of the burning rig, as if they didn't have enough to worry about.

[hoarder]

I worked in the Gulf 15 years. Don't miss it a bit.

Edit: Except for the fishing!

[MarketNeutral]

I worked in the Gulf 15 years. Don't miss it a bit.

Edit: Except for the fishing!


I guarded oil rigs for 3 years in the football. Freaking sea snakes was my biggest threat.

5 feet long and as thick as your arm and you can't see them until they are right on top of you and they hunt in groups and they come on board the rig.

And as an added benefit their bite will kill you in about 12 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO9KTGXuWPs