BP's Chairman defends company's safety record

[Vinnie From Indy]

It's just a guess, but I will venture that we are being lied to on a grand scale about the real volume of oil spilling from the well. I will also guess that when all is considered in a year's time, this will be the worst environmental accident in the nation's history far greater than anything we have ever experienced before.



VENICE, La. — BP's chairman defended his company's safety record and said Sunday that "a failed piece of equipment" was to blame for a massive oil spill along the Gulf Coast, where President Barack Obama got a firsthand update on the slick creeping toward American shores.

BP PLC chairman Lamar McKay told ABC's "This Week" that he can't say when the well a mile beneath the sea might be plugged. But he said he believes a 74-ton metal and concrete box — which a company spokesman said was 40 feet tall, 24 feet wide and 14 feet deep — could be placed over the well on the ocean floor in six to eight days.

McKay said BP officials are still working to activate a "blowout preventer" mechanism meant to seal off the geyser of oil.

"And as you can imagine, this is like doing open-heart surgery at 5,000 feet, with — in the dark, with robot-controlled submarines," McKay said.

more at:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6986345.html

[Enrique]

1. inconceivable!

BP did not build the containment devices before the spill because it "seemed inconceivable" the blowout preventer would fail, Rinehart said.

[Hawkeye-X]

2. How can it be inconceivable if they didn't even INSTALL one?

Fucking morons.

[IndianaJoe]

4. The BOP, apparently had to be operated manually.

BP says the BOP failed to activate and is claiming equipment failure. But BOPs are supposed to be checked on a very regular basis.

There's also a real question about whether the people charged with triggering the Blowout Protector actually threw the switch after the explosion happened, due to their haste to evacuate the rig after the explosion occurred.

Then there was no back up and the BOP didn't work automatically, as I understand things. There was no acoustic regulator in place (a $500,000 piece of equipment) that would have permitted remote activation of the BOP.

There's also the question about what caused the blowout to begin with.

[Arctic Dave]

8. BOPs are pressure tested before going in any hole.

It would be very odd if they did not follow this very basic procedure.

[IndianaJoe]

10. That's my understanding too. Was talking to a geologist

about it last night.

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8249623>

[Arctic Dave]

12. I'm not the only oilfield trash on DU, that makes my heart feel good.

:D

[IndianaJoe]

13. Yeah, you aren't alone.

And intriguingly, you're both saying the same thing about the functionality of the BOPs. Nicetameetcha!

[aquart]

5. This is reading like a Michael Crichton book.

[spanone]

3. it doesn't matter. this one major fuck-up erases everything else

[Iggo]

6. He's just like Dubya!

Other than 9-11, I kept y'all safe...*smirk*

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Real volume now reported @ 210,000 gal. per day

according to National Park Service Report, here:
http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2010/05/crews-gulf-islands-national-seashore-continue-take-precautions-against-oil5800

first it was 1,000, then, 2000, then 5,000...now.........

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. And McKay is lying thru his teeth about that safety record.

I posted about it earlier and do not want to repeat all of the post
BUT
I will point out that as of MARCH of this year, OSHA was STILL fining BP for behaviors
that BP stubbornly refused to fix in prior months.

full post here:

BP HAS HORRENDOUS SAFETY RECORD
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8258249

Yeah, I am mad.
I registered at our state's online newspaper sites and entered the above post information
in the comments sections too.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

[IndianaJoe]

11. You're right. Everything I've ready about their record was that it

SUCKED!