Really upset with BP (understatement)

[bobcooter]

Guys, I'm sure everyone's heard about the BP well blow out. The bad thing is that the entire thing could have been prevented. Long story short, you keep hearing that the BOP won't close. Well, it was closed during a test and someone either pulled the drill pipe up the hole or pushed it down the well and tore the large rubber seals out of it. The BOP is closed now but the seals are gone. They should have stopped right there and fixed it but it could have taken up to a month to do all the work. At close to a $1,000,000 per day. They were almost finished with the well so they keep going. Later they tested the cement plug in the well and it was leaking. Again they have shut the job down but again, they kept going.
  These decisions were made by a very small group of people, possibly as small as two or three, who decided to throw established practice, all regulations and common sense to the wind and roll the dice. They lost big. They are responsible for the deaths of 11 hardworking men plus causing the largest oil spill in US history.
  I have close to 30 years in the offshore industry and almost every time there has ever been an accident that caused a fatality it is not one thing that failed. It is usually a series of things going wrong or a series of bad decisions. This was caused by a series of bad decisions.  Now the Feds in a typical knee-jerk reaction have shut down all deepwater drilling for at least six months. This will put around 10 to 20,000 more people out of work. No fishing, shrimping, crabbing. No oysters or tourists and now a big hit on the oilfield too. Thanks BP.

[Lt.Del]

Thanks BP.

It's not just BP.  I have never been one that backs up the gov't for sticking its nose in places it has no business.  But, this is a place it needs to regulate due to what's at stake.
Now, as usual, the gov't is not proactive, but reactive.  Something happens, then gov't reacts.  Why shut down everything dealing w/ off shore drilling when decades of experience have shown, except for one case, it is safe?  Why shut down the entire industry?  It's all politics. "i have to appear to be doing something for the constituents."  Yet, it makes no sense.  

[bobcooter]

Ken Salazar, the head of the Dept of the Interior, the guys who oversee all offshore drilling and production stated " oil will continue to be an important part of America's energy program until we get our green economy in place." That told me everything I need to know. This is another ploy by the Gov to try to force everyone into going green. The technology is a long, long way off. I have nothing against alternative fuels or energy sources, but it doesn't happen overnight.
 The funny thing is, as soon as the Deepwater Horizon sunk, the MMS Inspectors blitzed every deepwater drilling rig and only found three minor safety violations. Then, after every one had been inspected and given a clean bill of health, they shut them down. A safety violation can be as minor as a paper coffee cup on the deck.

[smitty77]

All finger pointing aside, I'm started to get really irritated every time I hear the President utter the phrase "and cleanup will come at no cost to the taxpayer..."  He picks NOW to be frugal with MY/OUR money???  A BILLION dollar financial bailout and a huge automotive industry bailout were crafted and authorized nearly overnight, with repayment an uncertainty at worst and "down the road" at best.  But he chooses now to close the purse strings?  SPEND SOME MONEY ALREADY and get this mess cleaned up and worry about cost recovery later.

As for leveling blame at BP -

You cannot expect a for-profit company to do what is right 100% of the time.  Especially when you consider the tremendous safety record of these rigs.  A company gets lax, cuts corners (how dangerous can this really be?), and yesterdays "shortcuts" become today's "standard procedure" just so you can keep up with the competition.  This is why we have regulations, and a government agency to enforce them.

I'm not familiar with the day-to-day operations of oil platforms, but it seems to me there should be a federal regulator (or several) on EVERY rig EVERY hour it is in operation to be sure none of these shenanigans take place during drilling.  I work in the road paving industry, testing hot-mix asphalt as it is being produced for paving jobs.  When we make mix for state highways, we have a state inspector watching every facet of our production to be sure the state is getting exactly what they paid for.  Then we also have OSHA and MSHA safety inspections, air quality regulations, water runoff regulations, etc.  I'm willing to bet our business is more closely watched by more people than offshore drillers are.  There are so many things wrong with that notion on so many levels, but it comes down to this:  Out of sight and out of everyone's mind.

[Lt.Del]

i agree Smitty.  It's obvious the oil industry posts the biggest profits every quarter in the history of the U.S. economy.  Have them pay for 3 or 4 feds to stay on the rigs, it's just a drop in the bucket in pay for these guys making billions in profits each quarter.  Then again, if it's more than 13 miles off the coast, is it considered federal jurisdiction or international waters?  either way, if an accident happens, it effects the closest shore line, so, i think it shouldn't matter.

[bobcooter]

Want to hear something weird Sgt Del? Over two miles offshore is Federal waters. I have made my living for the past ten years just making sure my company follows all the rules and regulations that are already in place. I work in production which is different from drilling. We flow and produce the wells after they have been drilled. There are so many rules and laws we have a department just to see that we comply to all of them. All of the equpiment out there is loaded up with shutdown and safety features. Temp, levels, pressures, all kinds of stuff. It all has to be tested and documented monthly and the Feds inspect everything yearly. There is so much paperwork it's insane anymore.
 The weird thing is that when you are is state waters (closest to the beach as you said) there are barely any rules at all. That never made since to me because like you, I think there is a greater chance of harming the beach and the wildlife.
 We had a Perish President suggest that they put an Inspector on every deepwater rig to let them start drilling again but that idea was turned down by the Feds. Downhere when the oilfield got slow, you went fishing, shrimping or crabbing to make some extra money but you can't now.

[topp]

While I too am pissed at BP, there is a thing that has been left out here.

The US COAST GUARD was the group that SUNK the rig, causing the leak.
Had the rig not been sunk during fire operations, they could have plugged the pipe.  Now, they have a 1 mile pretzel at the bottom of the ocean to deal with, and the leak (caused as the rig sank and collapsed the pipe.

I also BELIEVE that the Fed is using this to force us to go green by doing NOTHING for 6 weeks.

The oil industry is very regulated, and to think otherwise would be just what the government wants you to believe.

[Grim 82]

I wasn't going to touch this one, but I just can't help it. You guys hit the nail on the head. They firmly plant their thumb for 6 weeks just to make sure that enough damage has been done to give them ammunition to fight their war on eveything that isn't green. It's a power play and that's it. Smitty I agree, I would rather have my money go to take care of this problem and keep the hard working people on the coast in business, than to rescue a bunch of crooked fat cat bankers. They will use this to expand government, create more departments; but those guys won't be anywhere near a rig making sure things like this don't happen. They will be too busy spending our tax money at fancy restaraunts with the green lobbyists.

[bobcooter]

The Gov used tax money off of everyone involed in deepwater drilling's paychecks to bail out the banks, airlines, automakers and who knows who else and then just shuts them down.  The Gov is too already and growing by the day. It just ain't right.

[Irish_Alley]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts2851

[rugger]

i sway on the fence on this one. i work in the oild feild. i have been on the horizon several times. it was a nice rig. there were things that could have been done in the first couple of days. bp wanted to go in with rovs while the rig was still floating, the coast guard would not let them. so is it all bps fault? mybe. you had the company man on the rig trying to save money and cut a few corners. the transocean oim on the rig was trying to keep the company man happy. the bop that did not close. should cameron be shut down? no the bop was SOLD to transocean. it has to be maintained by them. all the people who want to stop drilling. to them take a hard look at the stuff you use everyday that was made from oil besides for gas.

[topp]

i sway on the fence on this one. i work in the oild feild. i have been on the horizon several times. it was a nice rig. there were things that could have been done in the first couple of days. bp wanted to go in with rovs while the rig was still floating, the coast guard would not let them. so is it all bps fault? mybe. you had the company man on the rig trying to save money and cut a few corners. the transocean oim on the rig was trying to keep the company man happy. the bop that did not close. should cameron be shut down? no the bop was SOLD to transocean. it has to be maintained by them. all the people who want to stop drilling. to them take a hard look at the stuff you use everyday that was made from oil besides for gas.

Shampoo, makeup, anything plastic, polyester, ink, soap, most food packaging, rubber seals, insulation, almost everything involved in medicine...........

[rugger]

you are correct!

brandon

[topp]

Oh the list goes on and on....
Asphalt for roads, sheathing for wires.....

We would all live like the Amish.....

[bobcooter]

It's hard to get some people to understand how much oil affects their daily lives. Then there are people who have no concept of how anything works, like a guy I saw on TV a while back who said,"We don't need oil, we'll ride the bus!" I want to get in their face and scream, "Are you high?" And I'm sure that everyone of these people has already reproduced.