Commentary By Ron Beasley
It would appear that Obama has a personalty flaw - he sees good where there is none. He actually thought he could work with the Republicans and that turned out to be fantasy. Bob Herbert sees this same flaw at work with the oil spill disaster.
�Where I was wrong,� said President Obama at his press conference on
Thursday, �was in my belief that the oil companies had their act
together when it came to worst-case scenarios.�
With all due respect to the president, who is a very smart man, how is
it possible for anyone with any reasonable awareness of the nonstop
carnage that has accompanied the entire history of giant corporations to
believe that the oil companies, which are among the most rapacious
players on the planet, somehow �had their act together� with regard to
worst-case scenarios.
These are not Little Lord Fauntleroys who can be trusted to abide by
some fanciful honor system. These are greedy merchant armies drilling
blindly at depths a mile and more beneath the seas while at the same
time doing all they can to stifle the government oversight that is
necessary to protect human lives and preserve the integrity of the
environment.
BP has a long history of cutting corners to save time and money. The Wall Street Journal makes the case that it was just such cutting corners that are responsible for the Deepwater Horizon blowout.
Cheaper Well Design:
The cement job was especially important on this well
because of a BP design choice that some petroleum engineers call
unusual. BP ran a single long pipe, made up of sections screwed
together, all the way from the sea floor to the oil reservoir.Companies
often use two pipes, one inside another, sealed together, with the
smaller one sticking into the oil reservoir. With this system, if gas
tries to get up the outside of the pipe, it has to break through not
just cement but also the seal connecting the pipes. This more typical
design provides an extra level of protection, but also requires another
long, expensive piece of pipe.
Preparation Before Cementing:
Halliburton, the cementing contractor, advised BP to
install numerous devices to make sure the pipe was centered in the well
before pumping cement, according to Halliburton documents, provided to
congressional investigators and seen by the Journal. Otherwise, the
cement might develop small channels that gas could squeeze through.In
an April 18 report to BP, Halliburton warned that if BP didn�t use more
centering devices, the well would likely have �a SEVERE gas flow
problem.� Still, BP decided to install fewer of the devices than
Halliburton recommended�six instead of 21.
Pre-cementing:
Before doing a cement job on a well, common industry
practice is to circulate the drilling mud through the well, bringing the
mud at the bottom all the way up to the drilling rig. This procedure,
known as �bottoms up,� lets workers check the mud to see if it is
absorbing gas. If so, they can clean the gas out of the mud before
putting it back down into the well to maintain the pressure. The
American Petroleum Institute says it is �common cementing best practice�
to circulate the mud at least once.Circulating all the mud in a
well of 18,360 feet, as this one was, takes six to 12 hours, say people
who�ve run the procedure. But mud circulation on this well was done for
just 30 minutes on April 19, drilling logs say, not nearly long enough
to bring mud to the surface.
Post cementing test skipped:
BP also didn�t run tests to check on the last of the cement after it was
pumped into the well, despite the importance of cement to this well
design and despite Halliburton�s warning that the cement might not seal
properly.
The Journal also reports that when things did go wrong no one was prepared.
An examination by The Wall Street Journal of what happened aboard the
Deepwater Horizon just before and after the explosions suggests the rig
was unprepared for the kind of disaster that struck and was overwhelmed
when it occurred. The events on the bridge raise questions about
whether the rig's leaders were prepared for handling such a fast-moving
emergency and for evacuating the rig�and, more broadly, whether the U.S.
has sufficient safety rules for such complex drilling operations in
very deep water.The chain of command broke down at times during
the crisis, according to many crew members. They report that there was
disarray on the bridge and pandemonium in the lifeboat area, where some
people jumped overboard and others called for boats to be launched only
partially filled.
The oil companies are run by sociopaths who's only concern is profit. They can't be trusted and must constantly be monitored and regulated. As for BP - it should receive the corporate death penalty.
As for BP - it should receive the corporate death penalty.
ReplyDeleteIt should never be allowed to drill in the USA again. Three strikes and you're out. Criminal prosecutions and near if not actual bankruptcy through fines and damages are also musts.