What is really tragic is that there are anwsers available to future deepwater blowouts but they are being ignored by the oil industry. There is a system being developed at LSU that can rapidly seal off a deepwater blowout at any depth. It does it in a matter of days, not months. Just like a heart attack results from clogged arteries restricting blood flow; an EMOPP clogs the annual space between casing and drill pipe or centerline using patent pending technology and trade secrets. I am shocked and disgusted at the obvious lack of knowledge you have on this subject, ie how a blowout preventer is supposed to react in this type of emergency. This peice of equipment is designed ugg bailey button boots to close around drill pipe, seal off, or completely shear the drill pipe in half when an event such as this occurs. In this case the ( casing ) was pushed up into the preventer itself from high pressure being exerted from below. The BOP is designed to close around drill pipe. Not something as large as casing. Once the casing became lodged in the BOPs, the equipment was unable to operate correctly and they ( the BOPs ) were unable to close I have worked in the oilpatch for over 30 years, 11 of those offshore, and have never seen one BOP fail. The loss of life in this catastrophe is of course a tradgedy, and I feel for the families of the lost men. This was an industrial accident, and ugg boots clearance this type of thing happens in dangerous occupations. Get your facts straight before you start condeming the highest drilling technology we have available today.



8 Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:26 PM EDT



Julie Tade



I totally agree with you. This story should have been investigated further! I was surprised they aired it.



dtheim, there's nothing wrong with the facts in that segment, and what you describe doesn't contradict what Rachel said. To refute your comment is to read it back to you. The blowout preventer is supposed to cut the pipe and seal the well. It didn't do what it's supposed to do. Even if the pressure from the blowout bends the drill pipe, the shears should still be able to cut through and seal the well. That's definitional to what the BOP is there for. If a buckled drill pipe prevents the BOP from doing what it's supposed to do, that's a failure at the most basic level.



It's odd to me that you work in the field and yet you're not concerned that the safety equipment doesn't actually do its job. Are you saying there are no lessons to be learned from industrial accidents?



8.3 Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:29 AM EDT



While I don find it hard to believe that blowout preventers have inherent flaws and fail 45% of the time when used and maintained as directed when there is an actual blowout, that was not the cause of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. The cause was the faulty cement job by Halliburton. Maybe the blowout preventer would have failed, but the fact of the matter was it had already failed prior to the blowout.



You can watch the hearings on CSPAN from the Coast Guard investigation. The blowout preventer had a dead battery and the rubber annular had been damaged, as evidenced by large chunks of rubber in the drilling mud returns. The drilling fluids engineer on the rig testified that when he reported rubber chunks he was told to never mind; it was normal. He objected and said that it would only be normal if they were drilling for rubber. Evidently someone had accidentally activated the drill while the annular was closed for a blowout preventer test.



While I don doubt the findings of the firm that claims there is a good chance the blowout preventer will likely fail anyway, I think it is important to not lose sight of the fact that it was layers of red flags, invalid risk assessments and incompetence by actors from Halliburton, Transocean and BP that were the cause of the Deepwater Horizon negligent homicide and environmental catastrophe.



9 Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:31 PM EDT



What is a shame is ther is a way of making a difference in oil rig safety and it is being totally ignored by the oil industry.



The system is called EMOPP and it is presently being developed in cooperation with LSU. The EMOPP system can rapidly seal off a deepwater blowout at ANY depth within days rather then months. The system has been reviewed by over 130 scientists and industry professionals and all agree, the system will work ! For additional information go to Facebook :Back in the early 80's, I worked for one of the multinational, multifaceted oil corporations as a petroleum geologist in New Orleans. About once a month, that involved going offshore to one of my company's oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, just off the end of the Mississippi Delta. In January of 1983, I had been onboard one rig for about a week, there to select the interval of the well where a core would be taken. Being out longer than usual, I took the unusual step of calling my parents from the rig. My mother, it turns out, had been worried that she couldn't contact me back in New Orleans. She was so relieved that I called. But that was almost the last time she heard from me. A few hours later, hurricaneforce winds came up, and began pushing the entire rig offlocation. It snapped the drill string of oil pipe, and started walking down into deeper water (we were in about 230 ft. of water, and the rig rested on a platform on the sandy sea floor). The rig was shuddering violently, and it soon became clear we were not getting off. I decided to go to my bunk, and to face death asleep when the rig turned over. The next thing I knew, the young geologist I was there with for the coring run was at my door, shouting that we were getting off the rig. I thought he meant that we were going over, but it was dawn the next day and we had walked into a natural gas production platform overnight. Running into that platform saved our lives. During the 90mile trip back to New Orleans, I told the young geologist to take the rest of the day off, because if he stayed at the office, they would just put him to work. He did not believe me, but when I returned to the office he said that was exactly what had happened. In my own case, the Chief Development Geologist for Chevron Eastern Region walked into my office that next week, shook my hand, turned and walked out of my office without saying a word. As I stood there watching the sob go, I thought to myself that I was just as glad that I hadn't sacrificed my life for the company.



Love your show, but was disappointed in this. Yes, there are more stringent measures for deep water drilling. "The industry has constantly updated blowout preventer technology as drillers contiinue to move into more challenging environments." The new "Hydrilmade preventer for Chevron's (newly approved Moccasin well) has two pairs of shear rams to cut the pipe in an emergency."



"The extra efforts reflect the intense scrutiny the industry faces as it returns to the deep water." Quotes from the Houston Chronicle, 3/25.



My family has worked iin the Oil industry for 2 generations. The public doesn't understand all that is involved from discovery to gas station. Demand hasn't gone down. OIl companies employ the best brightest, highly trained individuals. (My sisterinlaw, Jeanmarie Tade, employed by BP, Phi Beta CappaWilliam and Mary, edtor of the UT Law Review, Masters in Environmental Law. Brother Lindsay Tade, Geologist, has experience in the North Sea, Brazil and the Gulf). They work VERY hard, sometimes in dangerous conditions.



Oil companies aren't out to "rip people off". Few have gotten really wealthy, but most are just plain hardworking, Americans (the ones you don't hear about). There are costs involved in studies, discovery, refining, pipeline, etc. Oil companies are constantly working for the American people, constantly updating procedures, to provide America a with cheap, high quality product to meet their demand.



There are thousands of wells worldwide, one accident (the Horizon) should be considered, but the overall industry is very positive.



I wish you had investigated this further. I also invite you down to Houston (beautiful city) to see the Oil Companies for yourself. Still love your show!



Just wanted to leave a note saying you made my whole week yesterday during your segment on answering the upset Dept. of the Interior about your spot on report the day before. You are doing outstanding work and you are showing the rest of the media (and politicians) what they should be doing. Investigating and telling the truth and then not walking it back when those in power don't like the sound of it. I would like to send a very heart felt thank you to you and all those wonderful people who work on your show for putting the necessary facts out there so we have access to them and allowing us to be the informed citizens this country so desperately needs nowmore than ever.