Proof of a conspiracy?..."Key rig alarm disabled before blast"

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He also revealed that a crucial safety device, designed to shut down the drill shack in the case of dangerous gas levels being detected, had been disabled, or bypassed as it is called.

When he saw that the system had been bypassed, Williams protested to a Transocean supervisor, Mark Hay, who dismissed his concerns. Hay responded: "Damn thing been in bypass for five years. Matter of fact, the entire [Transocean] fleet runs them in bypass."

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LINK

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might want to edit the title a little....

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meh, as long as it gets replies what do I care....


and being that the testimony was against Trans and not BP, it's not really a big oil conspiracy.

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Tin foil hat conspiracy theorists in the case of the DWH accident = I have no clue what it's like to be on a drilling rig, production platform, or shrimp boat. But I just got my Petroleum Engineering degree online from The University of Phoenix last week, took me two whole months and 3 Kelloggs cereal box tops to get it.

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It's worse than that. It's more like: I don't understand any of this stuff about pressure and blowout preventers and mud but there's a funny looking hole in the helipad so therefore it must have been the work of al Qaeda in cahoots with Goldman-Sachs.

Not proof of a conspiracy.

But definitely puts liability on whatever oranization intentionally disabled the alarm.

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HUMAN ERROR

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so only robots should drill?

Not at all on the robots ... I'm just saying that they shut down drilling ... and that will never erase the chance of human error.

I'm saying that the MOROTORIUM (I don't think that's spelled right) ... is senseless. You can't take the human element out ...

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It's not like everyone's asleep at 3AM

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there's a fair # of people that only work days -- people like the OIM, dispatchers, radio operators, safety men, the lead company man, etc.

The problem is Exxon doesn't do much deep water. I don't think BP is going to sell off much more. They have plenty of cash at this point by withholding their div and selling some earlier assets.

You're correct as to both Exxon's operations and BP's financial status--an acquisition makes no sense whatsoever. However, people within the Administration are currently jumping through hoops for Exxon and pushing them to acquire BP while at the same time effectively pursuing BP through nothing short of a witch-hunt. They cannot decide how they want to go after BP. Was it the BOP, the casing, their alleged involvement in the release of the Lockerbie bomber, or was it Tony Hawyard's lack of familiarity and intimacy with the tactical and operational decisions in the well design that was the sole proximate cause of the blowout?

Shell and BP are partners on several DW joint ventures in the GOM. Accordingly, an acquisition by Shell makes much more sense, but Shell has effectively been blackballed in the matter.