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From: Artemus on 5 Jun 2010 16:43 "Robert Baer" <robertbaer(a)localnet.com> wrote in message news:bMudnXJPhsE-RpTRnZ2dnUVZ_jydnZ2d(a)posted.localnet... > With the Gulf Coast dying of oil poisoning, there's no space in the > press for British Petroleum's latest spill, just this week: over 100,000 > gallons, at its Alaska pipeline operation. A hundred thousand used to be > a lot. Still is. > > On Tuesday, Pump Station 9, at Delta Junction on the 800-mile pipeline, > busted. Thousands of barrels began spewing an explosive cocktail of > hydrocarbons after "procedures weren't properly implemented" by BP > operators, say state inspectors. "Procedures weren't properly > implemented" is, it seems, BP's company motto. Or they hijacked AT&T's motto from the '70's. "We don't care. We don't have to." Art
From: Archimedes' Lever on 6 Jun 2010 16:56 On Sun, 06 Jun 2010 21:49:53 +0100, Martin Brown <|||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk> wrote: >It looks like BP used cowboy drillers and failed to supervise them >adequately. The hole was drilled. The fault lies with the inspectors and the BP folks that were directly involved with gifting the inspectors. Those heads should be the first to roll.
From: Martin Brown on 6 Jun 2010 16:49 On 05/06/2010 21:43, Artemus wrote: > "Robert Baer"<robertbaer(a)localnet.com> wrote in message > news:bMudnXJPhsE-RpTRnZ2dnUVZ_jydnZ2d(a)posted.localnet... >> With the Gulf Coast dying of oil poisoning, there's no space in the >> press for British Petroleum's latest spill, just this week: over 100,000 >> gallons, at its Alaska pipeline operation. A hundred thousand used to be >> a lot. Still is. >> >> On Tuesday, Pump Station 9, at Delta Junction on the 800-mile pipeline, >> busted. Thousands of barrels began spewing an explosive cocktail of >> hydrocarbons after "procedures weren't properly implemented" by BP >> operators, say state inspectors. "Procedures weren't properly >> implemented" is, it seems, BP's company motto. > > Or they hijacked AT&T's motto from the '70's. > "We don't care. > We don't have to." > Art I think that is true of all the oil companies. They can bribe politicians and regulators too easily given their very deep pockets. There does seem to be a mismatch between UK and US safety cultures in that the US system seems to be purely tick box and the UK one allows the employer to make the simplifying assumption that employees have brains. An oil industry expert on the UK Newsnight programme last week said that the cascade of problems on the Transocean rig leading to this disaster stemmed from a previous CEO deciding that drilling for oil was not needed as one of BPs "core competencies" and he cut overheads by firing everyone that knew what they were doing at the sharp end. After that they contracted all the drilling work out to the cheapest bidder. It remains to be seen if his analysis is correct. Anyway isn't it the case that most of BPs operation in the US is formerly Amoco (aka Standard Oil). Amoco Cadiz is still a memorable environmental disaster in the UK. They were never very safe. It looks like BP used cowboy drillers and failed to supervise them adequately. It is also possible that the concrete in the casing was defective in addition to whatever other faults the failsafe systems had. When you have multiple failures and noone sufficiently experienced to make tricky decisions the risk of cascade failure is very high. Regards, Martin Brown
From: Michael A. Terrell on 6 Jun 2010 17:51 Martin Brown wrote: > > It looks like BP used cowboy drillers and failed to supervise them > adequately. Cowboy drillers? They must have imported them from England. US cowboys work on cattle ranches. -- Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.
From: Charlie E. on 7 Jun 2010 11:20
On Sun, 06 Jun 2010 17:51:55 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terrell(a)earthlink.net> wrote: > >Martin Brown wrote: >> >> It looks like BP used cowboy drillers and failed to supervise them >> adequately. > > > Cowboy drillers? They must have imported them from England. US >cowboys work on cattle ranches. I don't think so. What has happened is that industry standard practices, using industry standard parts that 'just don't fail', failed. Maybe it was defective parts, or something not installed right. Or, maybe, it was just a one in a billion high pressure gas bubble that hit those parts and broke them. Ever notice how on a water hose when you get a air bubble to the nozzle how hard the water hits afterwards? It could have been something as simple as that. Like a lightning strike will take out even the most protected board... Charlie |