BP interfered in rig fire, contractor says

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press

Dropping robot to try to shut valve was delayed several hours, he tells hearing

BP interfered with critical efforts to lower an undersea robot to try to close the device that failed to stop the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill because of concerns over heat buildup from the burning rig, a salvage firm executive said Monday.

The testimony came from Doug Martin, president of Smit Salvage Americas, which was hired to help try to save the Deepwater Horizon after it exploded. He told a federal investigative panel that in the hours after the April 20 disaster, he thought it was important to quickly get the robot into the water so engineers could choke off the oil.

But, Martin said, BP officials discussed calculating how the heat from the fire would impact the boat that was to launch the robot. He said he believed that it was a waste of time and that BP was interfering.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39506753/ns/us_news-environment/

[groundloop]

1. Questionable "news" story

If I'm reading this correctly BP managers at the site were concerned about the safety of the boat controlling their underwater robot. That seems like a reasonable concern.

[pasto76]

3. not really

how about some thermometers on the boat? when they hit 120, turn around. "Calculating" the heat does in fact sound like a waste of time.

its hard to swallow a concern for safety, when they clearly gave a F about anything else.

[bherrera]

6. if it was not a concern for safety, maybe they wanted to lose $30 billion?

Evidently they were concerned for safety. Calculating the heat effects on the vessel is important, because the temperature could exceed 120 degrees F, and it is not so easy to turn around an industrial vessel in such situation (the fire causes a windstorm which drives the vessel towards the fire).

[PDJane]

2. I suppose I'm going to get trounced for this........

But it seems to me as though there was a lot of weenie waving going on on the rig before the blow.....and there's a lot of finger-pointing after.

[dipsydoodle]

4. Odd they've missed out the associated issue

that it was the sheer volume of water used on the rig, in an attempt to put the fire out which sunk the rig, because the stabilisers couldn't then cope.

[Nihil]

5. Logic? Facts? Pah!

"Look over there!"
:yoiks:

[petronius]

7. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, right? This would have been the same system

that was unable to close the BOP after the fire, so there's no reason to think it would have succeeded earlier when the ROV operators were sitting next to a giant burning rig. Unless there's a suggestion that the sinking of the rig itself did more damage to the equipment on the sea floor?

It seems reasonable to me to figure out exactly what conditions the boat would experience when it approached the rig, especially considering the reduced maneuverability it would have had with the ROV deployed and the local weather effects from the fire itself...

[hedgehog]

8. IIRC, the sinking of the rig bent the pipe from the BOP to the surface,

which made shutting down the well more difficult.

[petronius]

9. I do remember that the pipe was bent by the sinking - I recall that the kink

was credited with holding back some of the oil, but it makes sense that it could have tweaked the BOP as well. I suppose when they finish autopsying the BOP we'll get a better idea if/when it was possible for it to have been activated...