My last trip

[KenC]

Damn!  Don't read the board for a day and jb sneaks back on.

jb,
Nice pics and congrats!  You knew those 2 stud muffin boys would be cornered by a clever Ruskie sooner or later!  Happy to hear all is well.
KenC

[Muckraker]

Congrats jb. 

Muck

[jb]

Thanks all, I appreciate all the compliments on my new daughter-in-law.

[jb]

To answer a couple of questions about the gulf spill, I offer the following:

[ConnerVT]

My congratulations and best wishes to the new family, and all who love them.

Good to hear from you, jb.  It's been nearly three years since I made the trip, but I'm heading back real soon.  It will also be my first *real* vacation in the past three years -- I get to turn the table on my wife, and make her handle the everyday planning and arrangements.   

[jb]

And here are some comments relative to what we are seeing in the reporting..
These comments are not mine but are well thought out:
 

This blow out had human error failures at many levels. BP should have run what is called a cement bond log after they ran their casing and chose not to. There can be ambiguity with those logs but that is the reason you run them. If there is any ambiguity you automatically go to the next step of safety until there is no longer any ambiguity. The Wall Street Journal has obtained the pressure testing BP did and had petroleum engineers review that data and they confirmed ambiguity. First Mistake. Second was ignoring this and not running cement bond logs as a back up. Third mistake was MMS engineers not requiring BP to further evaluate and perform additional safety procedures: cement bond logs and “squeezing” operations to ensure a proper cement job. Fourth mistake would be any ambiguity in BOP tests (if there were any) and Fifth mistake would be MMS not catching that and requiring maintenance prior to moving forward with any other operations.

There is already in place more regulation and redundancy necessary to have prevented this accident. I believe that complacency on many levels is at the heart of the errors here. This is an extremely dangerous job which is done at the extreme edge of engineering science. The industry has done a remarkable job of making all this possible and making it look easy. I’ve outlined above the multiple levels of complacency by those working this well.

The next part of this that will be scrutinized is the spill response. NOAA is in charge of oil spills and the regulations in place don’t give oil companies any breathing room on this. The laws were set in place for oil spill response because of a perception that only gov’t could handle such a thing prudently. Although the press and Obama Administration are claiming BP is handling this and has taken responsibility, this is a misperception. BP is employing all their efforts to this and is taking financial responsibility but NOAA and the Coast Guard is running the show. Each has specific duties by law. The former (retired) head of NOAA oil spill response has been making the talk radio circuit, from day one (an expression you are hearing a lot of these days) claiming that decisions on handling of the spill have broken long standing protocols and has resulted in a less than efficient clean up. Now there may be some Monday morning quarterbacking going on there and a lot of “if’s” involved but right now we’re seeing interagency fighting and federal gov’t fighting with state gov’ts over getting the job of clean up done. Maybe they could have done better or maybe not. My observation is that the news agencies are not doing a good job of reporting what is actually being done and what is required by law  (they love a crisis) and also some confusion in leadership with the gov’t agencies responsible for directing clean up activities. Obama Administration made the mistake trying to look like “in charge” heroes on this and is making a really bad impression with the public. The Administration really can’t do much here as they have no experience in this area and should have just publicly come out and said we’ve got the best people in the world working to solve this and let the professionals handle it. They have the authority to fine tune leadership command in the response agencies and I’m sure that will be reviewed but they set themselves for failure in the public perception arena on this one because gov’t really cannot do anything more than they are currently doing.

Public perception is that of an expectation of cheap energy with never having any idea of what goes into making their lives so easy ….complacency…the vast majority of Americans don’t even have a clue as to how easy their lives are!! This, my friend, is the sad state of affairs in our public education system and is now endemic to our culture.

I’m hearing and have read a lot of really outrageous things being put out there by journalists, talk show hosts, and tv personalities that really don’t have a clue as to what is going on here and it is frustrating.

[BC]

A hearty WB jb!

Great pics and wish the newlyweds the best.

Is kinda funny that the things we think are impossible always find a way to happen.

Regarding the gulf, with over 700 rigs and almost 4000 wells, Murphy's law will rule - something WILL happen from time to time.

Read there were around 800 explosive accidents over last year on rigs (most probably quite minor) but in the end it's only a matter of degree.

But in the end lets face it.. if this had happened in the Persian Gulf I doubt many would be interested.

Interesting reading: http://www.oilrigdisasters.co.uk/

btw.. vodka museum.. Does Boris Yeltsin reside there now?


 

 

[Gator]

JB, 

Thank you for the informed summary.  Living on Florida's Gulf coast, this incident is a very serious matter.  Fingers crossed for "top kill."

Your comments confirm the perceptions I had after reading the credible journalistic reports.  Penny wise, pound foolish.  Yet, saving those pennies has worked so many times before.

You state that there are adequate regulations already in place, and I am sure that you are correct.  Compliance and enforcement is another matter, however.  Are there criminal penalties for non-compliance?

This statement caught my attention:

This is an extremely dangerous job which is done at the extreme edge of engineering science.

Especially at 5000 feet deep!  I never knew before that the Gulf is so deep 50 miles from shore.   When grouper fishing in Tampa we travel 20-30 miles out and are still in shallow water.

When working for the UN in Iran in 1976-78, I met several drillers.  They are from another planet.

Again thanks.