re: 60 minutes on CBS

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These have not proven reliable when problems elsewhere have arisen have they?

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that's too broad a statement to make. there's thousands of components to a subsea BOP stack, and they are not all interdependent -- in fact there's basically two full independent systems on the stack.

blind shear and casing shear rams have been successful and reliable over the course of subsea drilling (and surface stacks for that matter too). having a damaged annular rubber in no way implies you would therefore have some problem w/ the blind shear rams.

i have heard reference to "a hydraulic leak" on the stack, a "weak battery" and a "malfunctioning control pod". you can't really say definitely whether any of these problems contributed to the BOP stack not shutting in the well w/o additional, specific, and highly technical informaiton.

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So you have cement between the hole and the outer pipe and between the outer pipe and the production pipe.

The production pipe is then plugged with cement plugs and drilling mud?

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Yes...except this particular kind of pipe is "casing", not to be confused with production "tubing", which is put inside the production casing typically to serve as the mechanism for transferring fluids to the wellhead.

oilfieldtiger, I'm in the industry, but not in drilling.

Why the series of plugs? Why not just one big plug?

What's left between the plugs? Mud? Completion fluids? Brine?

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I know that the money financing the well calls the shots. You disagree with them, buck them, stand up to them, you will never work for them again. So STFU. I'm in the OG business, albeit a landman.

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That's completely inaccurate. I have never been on a single location where a toolpusher or OIM have been run off for a difference of opinion. In fact (and this could be that I've almost always worked for majors), every rig that I go on tells you that if you're not comfortable with things going on, to stop the job with no reprecussions to yourself or your company.

Maybe 20 years ago, your statement is correct, and maybe that's still the case on land. I've not been on a land rig in about 4 years. But offshore, at least for the company I work for, having a disagreement about procedure will not get you a one way ticket home. It's just not how it works.

And Carnage should know what he's talking about. He was one of the hands on the rig (I don't know if he said he was on location at the time of the explosion or not).

Concerning the 60 minutes story. I watched if more for the personal story of survival. Having had friends that were working on the Horizon, and hearing some of their stories, I watched to see this guys story.

One last thing for oilfieldtiger.

When this board first started, I was talking to someone who is a drilling engineer for the company that I'm contracting for in Laffy. That was you, right?

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Why the series of plugs? Why not just one big plug?

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usually you end up w/ some kind of 500'-1000' intermediate plug somehwere deeper in the well to satisfy a requirement of the MMS -- like have cement across a liner top of something. this plug may also involve a mechanical plug as well -- like a bridge plug from halliburton.

then you end up w/ something like a 500' within a couple of hundred feet of the mudline (the surface plug) -- again, an abandonment regulation requirement.

another part in the logic of the regulation is that you are putting multiple barriers in the hole to give you multiple levels of containment and guard against a situation where, let's say you pumped 1 giant cement plug, but the slurry was badly contaminated so it didn't set up properly.

you end up w/ mud left in the hole between the plugs, w/ sea water left on top of your surface plug.

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i think so, but i'm in the houston office

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Yeah, I remember. If you ever make it to the Laffy area, drinks are on me.

I'm in the process of going back to school for ME, hoping to stay in D&C. One of the Sr. engineeers here is helping me get things lined up and talk to the company about an internship.

Do you know what kind of cement they were using (class H vs. Liquid Stone)? I don't remember seeing it.

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It makes no difference how "you know". I know that the money financing the well calls the shots. You disagree with them, buck them, stand up to them, you will never work for them again. So STFU. I'm in the OG business, albeit a landman. If you disagree with the people who write your check you are gone. My two cents worth and my 4000th post.

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I'm sorry if that is how it works where you are employed. I am just trying to give an accurate description of how the day to day operations occured on the DWH.