Gas surge shut well a couple of weeks before Gulf oil spill

[highplainsdem]

Source: The Times-Picayune

Gas surge shut well a couple of weeks before Gulf oil spill
By The Times-Picayune
May 10, 2010, 10:31PM

This story is by David Hammer and Mark Schleifstein


Powerful puffs of natural gas, called kicks, are a normal occurrence in many deep-ocean drilling operations.

But one intense kick of natural gas caused the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig to be shut down because of the fear of an explosion just weeks before a similar release succeeded in destroying and sinking the platform and sent millions of gallons of oil on a collision course with Louisiana and the rest of the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

Shortly before the accident, engineers argued about whether to remove heavy drilling mud that acted as a last defense against such catastrophic kicks, and the decision to replace the mud with much lighter seawater won out.

Those are some of the new details gathered by Robert Bea, a University of California at Berkeley engineering professor better known in New Orleans as co-leader of an independent team of scientists that conducted a forensic investigation of the causes for the failure of levees and floodwalls during Hurricane Katrina.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/gas_surge_shut_well_just_weeks.html

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Much more at the link.

[KT2000]

1. Maybe we just don't know

as much as thought about oil fields, especially those underwater.

[Kringle]

2. the same problems happen on land ..nt

[Hubert Flottz]

3. Sounds like Halliburton was unpacking their mud.

And now we hear that the well is dumping out 25,000 barrels a day instead of the 5,000 barrels the company and our government agents reported to the press.

Maybe we should plug the 5' pipe with CEOs and gubmint "regulators"?

[pattmarty]

4. So at least now they won't be able to blame the "workers" for THEIR.........

.......(managements) error. If our President had "balls", this is the perfect storm of corporation greed with the oil companies, banks, and multi-nationals backs more or less against the wall. Now would be the perfect time to unite progressives and teabaggers against the corporations.


BUT IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN.