This Drill-Pipe Killed 11 Men

In the worst disasters, disbelief, complex decision-making and indecision lead to a waste of time that always gives an advantage to the events that unfold on April 20, 2010, while

drill

ing the Makonda prospect, an explosion in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig kills 11 crew and ignites fireball. Visible 40 miles away, two days later the platform sinks below the water line, leaving behind the largest marine oil spill in history. Deepwater Horizon is a dynamically positioned ultra-deepwater semi-submersible marine

drill

ing platform. The platform is capable of drilling oil wells in such deep waters. At 8,000 feet, its high-tech dynamic positioning system uses eight azimuthal thrusters.

Each asthma booster can rotate 360 ​​degrees to keep it in a stable position 24/7. Each of its legs is filled with seawater to act as ballast and stabilize it in rough seas. owned by the Swiss company Transocean and operated by BP, which rents the platform at a cost of 496,800 dollars per day. BP then commissions the rig, provides equipment for drilling and hires support vessels to keep it operational, adding an extra 500,000 a day to almost a million dollars a day to drill an oil well, you could say the pressure is on. to drill a new well as quickly as possible and move on to the more important job of pumping and selling the oil.

It is also equipped with a drill that transmits in real time. drilling data to technical staff in Houston, Texas Deepwater Horizon drills wells in the Atlantis and Thunderhorse oil fields. It is considered a powerful platform with an exemplary security record. As of September 2009, the rig drills the deepest oil in history at a vertical depth of 35,000 feet in the Tiber oil field in Keithley Canyon approximately 250 miles southeast of Houston during its lifetime. The rigs have been in operation for 93 years. Her workdays the rest of the time are spent moving between sites or undergoing regular maintenance She measures 367 feet by 256 feet The drilling rig is almost as big as a football field Her derrick reaches 320 feet in the air and has Two cranes along with a Qi stabilized reach a depth of 136 feet below deck there are accommodations for up to 146 people with amenities such as a gym and a cinema room.

The crew referred to it as a floating Hilton. It is equipped with the latest technology and explosion prevention. An explosion occurs when high-pressure oil or gas escapes uncontrollably. An accidental spark during an explosion could create a catastrophic fire. It can divert oil and gas, seal and then break. clear of the well if there is a blowout has systems to prevent blowouts and alarms to warn the crew the crew regularly practices how to respond to emergencies and has experienced leaders they have a 400 ton blowout preventer on the seabed with several different methods of shutting it down disconnect the well in an emergency, the most extreme is a powerful set of hydraulic shears that can cut the drilling part, seal the well and disconnect the Horizon from the well.

This system is called EDS or emergency disconnect system. A red button on the drill cabin and bridge activates the shears, but Transoceans' well-controlled manual says they should only be used in exceptional circumstances that might not matter because the translation does not perform an expensive 90-day maintenance inspection that, according to manufacturer, should be performed every three to five years. Federal standards and regulations say the same. 2010 Deepwater Horizon begins drilling at the Macondo prospect off the coast of Louisiana the prospect is owned by BP Anadarko Petroleum and moex offshore on the morning of April 20 the drilling team met to discuss the day with their bosses the main task of the day is to finish the Pit of Hell.

The Macondo well is delayed and a deep order is sent. Horizon is sent back to work. Between February and April, Horizon retires quickly, which is good news for the team whose bonuses are tied to meeting schedules. Piercing rapidly increases the risk. Horizon faces a powerful and unpredictable geological system. Forces pushing rapidly toward a high-pressure oil and gas reserve three miles deep is risky. The Gulf of Mexico has unstable and porous formations that make it even more challenging. Heavy drilling fluid known as mud continues to disappear into cracks in the rock formation. Mud is pumped into the borehole. wellbore to lubricate the drill head and stabilize the wellbore, the mud then circulates back through the wellbore tubing which transports the rock up and out of the wellbore to the horizon on the drilling platform, the rock is separated from the mud which is then It is pumped down to repeat the process.

The process of releasing mud into the porous rock formation reduces the weight supported by the rising oil and gas, causing violent pressure surges that make well control difficult. A few weeks earlier, a particularly strong hit had left millions of dollars in drilling tools trapped. Well operations were halted for nine days as gas continued to leak into Riggs' office known as the Drill Shack. Two BP executives and two senior Transocean officials are meeting with Jimmy Harrell, the manager of the Riggs, to whom they traveled to praise the team's safety performance. And to discuss Horizon's busy schedule, the rig has to finish the Macondo well and complete several workovers before starting two other high-priority projects for BP.

Executives want to keep Horizon on schedule. Bonuses are based on saving money and meeting deadlines. BP denies having pressured the platform. The Horizons crew takes shortcuts, but their plans for completing the world keep changing in ways that save time and increase risk. A crucial test remains in the early afternoon before Horizon can cover the macondo and move on. During the negative pressure test, the crew will remove the weighing. mud from the well and replace it with lighter seawater to see if pressure builds up in the

pipe

, if

this

occurs it could mean that oil and gas are leaking into the

pipe

.

There are no industry standards or government rules. BP's instructions for the test are 24 words long. BP executives and the drilling team work on engineering, but they disagree about the test results during the test, the pressure is building and Wyman Wheeler, who is in charge of drilling operations, is worried. A BP executive believes the test went well, and Rick manages to debate whether the test should be repeated. By 2000, the test was repeated and everyone agrees that the Macondo well is stable. In a few hours, the drilling team's 21-day work tour will end and a new rig will join the rig.

Joseph Keith is monitoring blast meters that he has never seen so frequently. activity while sealing a well in its seven years on the horizon,

this

makes him uncomfortable, so many jobs being done simultaneously could disrupt his instruments, but he doesn't tell anyone that he is worried about monitoring the well by the year 2050, the drilling team is pumping mud from the well. Well, to prepare to plug it, this reduces the burden on oil and gas. Mr. Caballete, who is in charge of the drilling, has been awake for almost 18 hours and is checking in one last time with the team to detect any lingering doubts about the final tests they are securing.

Tell him everything is fine and tell him to get some sleep in 2138. The oil and gas pass through the Horizon's five-story blowout preventer at the bottom of the sea. The blowout preventer is a fail-safe device, but once the oil and gas passes the blowout preventer, nothing stops. From the run up the 5,000-foot riser to the platform, drilling mud gushes and sprays from the well like a water fountain, a floor hand on an upper deck sees the torrent of oily mud and his training becomes active, he looks around for help to install a special valve in the drilling portion that will suppress the explosion, but quickly realizes that there are no personnel on the drilling floor to respond.

Everyone is hurriedly preparing the platform so they can seal the pit and return home. Mud and water are bouncing off the derrick. in all directions with Incredible Force the explosion sounds like a jet engine a shrill howl now the operator on the upper floor heads to the drilling floor instantly soaks his goggles covered in mud a crane operator watches the mud calm down for a The moment you think the drilling team has it under control, but then it explodes again, even stronger than before, a smoky mist of gas sprays from a pipe high up in the derrick.

The horizon has two ways of defending itself against oil and gas reaching the drilling platform. The crew can turn a valve and divert the explosion out to sea or they can contain it on the platform by funneling it into a device called a mud-gas separator. The mud separator is preferred for smaller explosions because it avoids any cleanup and investigation of an oil spill. Spill The rig is now working to control a blowout using the mode separator. Quickly overwhelmed, a cloud of gas spreads over the outer deck. The Horizon's six main diesel engines are fed by air intakes on the deck.

If the engines begin to take in air mixed with gas, they risk accelerating to the point of separating. engine control room is located in the middle of six main engines a computer console in the engine control room lights up warning that sensors have detected gas somewhere on the deck on the bridge the crew feels a jolt could the captain The Vessel's 34 year old feels something is wrong there is a high pitched hiss on the CCTV they can see mud flying into the ocean the gas alarms start to go off through the computer console in the control room the gas is spreading through the platform from the drill floor to the main platform, the lights are all magenta, indicating extremely high levels of combustible gas.

The alarm system is based on dozens of sensors strategically located throughout the horizon. When a sensor detects fire or gas, the corresponding alarm goes off. on the computer consoles not only on the bridge but also in the other two crucial parts of the platform, the slime hut and the engine control room, in theory this means that anyone in the three critical locations can quickly respond to the first sign of trouble for this system. to automatically activate the general master alarm to signal platform evacuation if high gas levels are detected. Transocean removed this automatic feature and configured the master master alarm to activate manually.

The change has the blessing of the Coast Guard, but concerns have been raised by the crew about the security of the facility Transocean did not want people to be woken up at three in the morning by a false alarm a young bridge officer Andrea Fletus agrees guard with her boss Yancey Keplinger the senior officer in charge of dynamic positioning, has been trained to raise the alarm and knows that they can also activate the emergency shutdown system, but has not been trained to use the system. The emergency shutdown system would turn off fans to inhibit gas flow, shut down electrical equipment, and limit ignition. sources and even shutting down the engines, this is different from the emergency disconnect system on the bridge, they do not activate any of these emergency response systems.

Horizons' emergency stop system is based on human judgment. Transocean has been warned that crew members must act quickly and correctly. under stress that makes the shutdown system vulnerable, a safety consultant has previously urged Transocean to change the system so that human intervention is not critical to success. Transocean disagrees and says an automated system is less secure. Most of the crew members know nothing about the unfolding emergency, although they sleep watching television. call home and post on Facebook as a fine mist of gas envelops the drilling floor, the hands on the floor fighting the explosion can feel and taste it.

Mr. Trestle, who is in charge of the drilling, wakes up 15 minutes after his soNecessary sleep for a drilling call. cover that they are trying to fill the world but need help on their way through the hallway, he passes one of the Trans Ocean executives who wants to know what is going on, he doesn't respond, the drillers have had the foresight to turn off the pumps they They remove mud from the well, but they don't want to cover it. They know they still have the 400-ton blowout preventer with its powerful set of hydraulic shears to cut the drill pipe and seal the well, but they would prefer someone else do it. decision, then drilling fluids begin to cascade onto the ship Damon B Bankston a 260 foot work boat moved to the Horizon the captain of the Bankston radios the Horizons bridge and is told to move to a safe distance The men in the engine control room listen to the conversation with the Bankston on their radios.

They have access to the emergency stop system. If they lift a plastic cover and press a button, the engines will shut down in seconds, but no one has raised the alarm. said that there is a well-controlled situation but they have no reason to do so. They must believe that it is more than a routine kick. They don't know that highly explosive gas is building up overhead. There is a risk of overreacting if the engines are turned off. The Horizon will shift from its position above the well, possibly damaging drilling equipment and causing costly delays. In any case, they do not believe they have the authority to perform the emergency shutdown.

The practice is to wait and listen to the instructions from the bridge. In fact, there is no communications or coordination between the bridge to drill Shack and the engine control room, men. in the engine control room they do nothing the emergency lights flash on their console someone has activated an emergency shutdown of the electrical and ventilation systems near the drill floor the bridge and the engine control room have not activated the Emergency Shutdown The men in the drilling cabin did activate a system to prevent an explosion on the drilling floor, but that system does not affect the engine's broader ventilation systems.

Two of the platform's six engines are running. Engines 3 and 6 are starting to accelerate. They rotate in a high pitch. came, a safety device, the deck protector should shut off the motors if they run too fast, but the high pitch keeps going up in the electronics store below. door, a computer monitor explodes, then light bulbs start exploding, a For one, the men on the drilling platform are now jumping pipes and running towards the stairs that will take them down from the main platform, all the lights go out, throwing them into the darkness, they go down the door. stairs when they are hit by an explosion engine 3 has exploded the engine control room and the electronics store is closer to the explosion the first explosion blows up the door of the electronics store hitting a technician in the head the blood hits him runs across the face presses a light pen in his mouth and begins to crawl, reaches another door, but a second explosive engine throws him back 30 feet 6. begins to crawl again, passes two men in the control room of the engine, assume they are dead because they die, don't do it. he responds, he reaches the lifeboat deck just outside the engine control room, the structure near engine 3 has been destroyed but the two lifeboats are intact, they are meant to hold 73 people.

He considers launching one of his own, but instead decides to offer his help on the bridge. Two minutes after the first explosion, the bridge crew activates the Master's general alarm to wake up the sleeping crew. The explosions reach the members of the crew. Horizon crew who are unaware of the threat One crew member washing dishes in the kitchen is knocked out Another in clothes is trapped and battered A crane operator places the crane arm in its support and then becomes engulfed in smoke and flames as he leaves the cabin and descends the spiral staircase. The blast from the second explosion briefly extinguishes the fire but also knocks him head first onto the deck where he dies in a pool of blood with his head sunken on the other side of the deck the second crane operator blown into the rear of his crane cabin by the second explosion a fireball envelops the derrick and envelops his cabin Mr.

Trestle, the drill boss has been blown 20 feet into a bulkhead When he enters his office, he crawls his way following a flow of air until he realizes there is gas, he keeps calling, he has to leave, the crew members do their On the way to the bridge, the The engine control and drill cabin are destroyed and the bridge is the only control sensor left standing. They enter to find Captain Kutchter yelling at bridge officer Andrea Fletus for pressing the Horizon's distress signal. A crew member yells at the captain. that the engine control room is no longer there and without power there is no way to fight the fire or control the platform they are on a dead ship the captain seems not to be able to calculate that information nine minutes have passed since the mud gushed out onto the floor of drilling the captain asks Andrea which flight should make an emergency announcement, but she is frozen with fear and says she can't do it now.

Yancy Keplinger, the senior officer in charge of dynamic positioning, gets on the intercom and yells fire, fire, fire, there's still a way to stay. In order to keep the Horizon from sinking, they need to activate the emergency disconnect system or EDS, which will indicate that the blower cannot free the Horizon and seal the well. A supervisor responsible for the blast system yells at the captain that he is hitting the Eds. This is the strongest possible measure. He left to save the platform and there is still resistance. Someone says they need Jimmy Harrell, Riggs' boss, to approve the use of the Eds.

Jimmy Harrell is in the shower when the explosion begins, an explosion goes through the glass of his cabin and the insulation is thrown through the shower. The eye is injured, so with blood on his face and half blind he heads to the bridge when he arrives, the captain asks permission to hit the Eds, which he immediately approves, now they need to turn on the backup generators that would give them enough power . To start one of the remaining engines and fight the fires, three crew members head to the generators but are unable to turn them on, that doesn't matter because only one member of the two firefighting teams makes it to their fire station after the explosions.

It is clear whether poor maintenance is responsible or perhaps the system was damaged in the explosions, but the emergency shutdown system is not working. Horizon is tied to a well they can't seal. There is nothing left for the crew to do but abandon the platform. A mass of stunned men and women make their way to the lifeboats on the crowded lifeboat deck. They can feel and hear the flames engulfing the derrick. The crew pile into the lifeboats. The men shout at the Coxans to set the derrick on fire. It could collapse at any time. they are crying Lifeboat number two leaves first without many of its assigned passengers Darren rupinski the coxson 4 Lifeboat 1 refuses to leave with empty seats now Men begin jumping from the deck of the lifeboat into the Gulf, some lose their balance on the crowded deck and fall into the water.

The gulf water is calm and those who reach the water can swim away from the burning wreckage. Nitrogen tanks burst on the main deck. Both lifeboats depart with at least 10 people still alive on the platform. The three crew members who went to turn on the generators. They return to the bridge and find that Captain Andrea Fleitas and Yancy Keplinger are still there. They decide it's time to abandon ship. They find an inflatable life raft but have trouble freeing it from the deck, inflating it, and lowering it. They have not practiced this during the evacuation. They practice small explosions around them and intense heat waves emerge from beneath the platform, they lower the life raft but cannot move away from the burning platform.

Captain Kuchta swims to a rescue boat launched by the Bankston, fetches a knife and returns to free the raft the remaining survivors jump from the Haley deck almost 200 feet above the ground of 126 crew on board 11 died most of them from of the drilling rig that were at the epicenter of the flames within 36 hours the Deepwater Horizon slipped below the water line oil continued to spill from the well until it was capped on July 15, almost three months after the accident, making it one of the largest oil spools in history. It strikes me that in accidents of this scale decision making is compromised by three factors: Disbelief that the events unfolding are actually happening, which is a very human response to a traumatic event.

The first stage of grief is denial training that promotes the least expensive remedy as a first resort, leading to the crew's inability to recognize the seriousness of a situation and have to determine whether to go far enough to prevent it. situation get worse, most of the time the situation is already five steps ahead of them now that I'm not an engineer, so I couldn't say if it's feasible to make an explosion preventer that has a single job instead of several degrees of decision making. decisions, everyone is trying to avoid pressing the button because the result is so finite that the shears cut the pipe and it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to get back to the starting position, maybe there Are some engineers who could answer this?

Could a blowout preventer be designed to shut off the well like a faucet that can be turned on as quickly as it is turned off? Imagine how easily any of these decisions could be made if the faucet could be turned off. It turned off a problem solved without the pressure of time and then 10 minutes later it turned back on. BP and Transocean faced fines and cleanup costs of more than $20 billion and other undisclosed paths to those involved in the accident or affected by the oil spill. show gross quarterly losses for BP of $17 billion in the months after the accidents, in 2011 its annual gross profits recovered to around $60 billion