Deepwater Horizon – Failure of Blowout Preventer (BOP)
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Blowout in the Gulf: the BP Oil Spill Disaster and the Future of Energy in America
UCLA Electronic Green Journal Title Blowout in the Gulf: The BP Oil Spill Disaster and the Future of Energy in America Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1ps043ht Journal Electronic Green Journal, 1(32) Author Ferrara, Enzo Publication Date 2011 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Review: Blowout in the Gulf: The BP Oil Spill Disaster and the Future of Energy in America By William R. Freudenburg and Robert Gramling Reviewed by Enzo Ferrara L'Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, Italy Freudenburg, William R. and Gramling, Robert. Blowout in the Gulf. The BP Oil Spill Disaster and the Future of Energy in America. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2011. 240 pp., 5 graphs. ISBN: 9780262015837.US$18.95, cloth. On April 20th 2010, eleven oil workers died as the Deepwater Horizon, a gigantic offshore plant rented by BP to drill deep in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and, after burning for 36 hours, sank, causing an uncontrolled eruption of oil one mile below the sea level. Oil poured out at a rate of 56,000 barrels per day, until July 15th, causing one of the largest marine disasters in the history – second only to Saddam Hussein’s intentional opening the oil spigots as his forces retreated from Kuwait in 1991 – and frustrating the hopes of the Gulf residents, reassured in vain by BP and the government of a quick solution of the spill. Just like the complexity of its assessment, the magnitude and duration of the Gulf disaster were distinctive, due to its wide-reaching and prolonged impact in the region associated with the extensive use of dispersants. -
Matching Gift Companies to the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston
Matching Gift Companies to the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston AbbVie ConocoPhillips Petroleum Co. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company ACE INA Foundation Cooper Industries Nuevo Energy Company Administaff Dell Occidental Petroleum Adobe Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation Ocean Energy Aetna Foundation, Inc. Dominion Foundation Pepsico Foundation AIM Foundation Dow Chemical Company Pfizer Foundation Air Liquide America Corp. Dresser-Rand Phillips 66 Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. Duke Energy Foundation/ECO6Q PipeVine, Inc. Albemarle Corporation Dynegy Inc. Procter & Gamble Allstate Foundation ECG Management Consultants Inc. Prospect Capital Management Amerada Hess Corporation Eli Lilly and Company Foundation Prudential American Express Encap Investments LP Rockwell International Corporation American General Corporation Entergy SBC Foundation American International Group Inc. Enterprise Products Shell Oil Company Foundation Ameriprise Financial EP Energy Southdown, Inc. Amica Companies Foundation EOG Resources Southwestern Energy (SWN) Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Equistar Chemicals LP Square D Foundation Anderson Greenwood Equiva Services LLC Teleflex Foundation Anheuser-Busch Foundation Exelon Foundation Tenet Healthcare Foundation Apache Corporation ExxonMobil Foundation Tenneco Apple Inc Fleet Boston Financial Foundation Texaco Inc. Arco Foundation, Inc. Ford Texas Instruments Foundation Arco Steel Inc FMC Technologies, Inc. The Boeing Company ARS National Services, Inc. General Electric The Clorox Company Attachmate General Mills, -
Cooper Cameron Corporation; and M-I, LLC As Follows
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE NASHVILLE DIVISION CARDEN SIMCOX, and all others similarly situated; Plaintiff, CASE NO. VS. BP, PLC; BP AMERICA, INC.; BP JURY DEMAND CORPORATION NORTH AMERICA, INC.; BP COMPANY NORTH AMERICA, INC.; BP PRODUCTS NORTH AMERICA, INC.; BP EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION, INC.; ANADARKO PETROLEUM CORP.; MOEX OFFSHORE 2007, LLC; TRANSOCEAN LTD.; TRANSOCEAN, INC.; TRANSOCEAN OFFSHORE DEEPWATER DRILLING, INC.; TRANSOCEAN DEEPWATER, INC.; HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES, INC.; CAMERON INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION f/k/a COOPER CAMERON CORPORATION; and M-I, LLC, Defendants. CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT Plaintiff, Carden Simcox, on behalf of herself and all others similarly situated, brings this class action against Defendants BP, PLC; BP America, Inc.; BP Corporation North America, Inc.; BP Company North America, Inc.; BP Products North America, Inc.; BP Exploration & Production, Inc.; Anadarko Petroleum Corp.; MOEX Offshore 2007, LLC; Transocean Ltd.; Transocean, Inc.; Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling, Inc.; Transocean Deepwater, Inc.; Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.; Cameron International Corporation f/k/a Cooper Cameron Corporation; and M-I, LLC as follows: Case 3:10-cv-00514 Document-11 Filed 05/25/10 1 of 30 1 879716.1 Page PagelD I. INTRODUCTION Plaintiff is an owner ofbeachfront property in Panacea, Wakulla County, Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico. She brings this class action on behalf of herself and all others similarly situated against Defendants for losses and damages arising out of the catastrophic and avoidable oil spill off the Gulf Coast that was caused by the April 20, 2010, explosion and fire aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig ("Deepwater Horizon"), and the subsequent sinking of that rig and the discharge of oil into the surrounding water. -
The Economic Impacts of the Gulf of Mexico Oil and Natural Gas Industry
The Economic Impacts of the Gulf of Mexico Oil and Natural Gas Industry Prepared For Prepared By Executive Summary Introduction Despite the current difficulties facing the global economy as a whole and the oil and natural gas industry specifically, the Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas industry will likely continue to be a major source of energy production, employment, gross domestic product, and government revenues for the United States. Several proposals have been advanced recently which would have a major impact on the industry’s activity levels, and the economic activity supported by the Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and natural gas industry. The proposals vary widely, but for the purpose of this report three scenarios were developed, a scenario based on a continuation of current policies and regulations, a scenario examining the potential impacts of a ban on new offshore leases, and a scenario examining the potential impacts of a ban on new drilling permits approvals in the Gulf of Mexico. Energy and Industrial Advisory Partners (EIAP) was commissioned by the National Ocean Industry Association (NOIA) to develop a report forecasting activity levels, spending, oil and natural gas production, supported employment, GDP, and Government Revenues in these scenarios. The scenarios developed in this report are based solely upon government and other publicly available data and EIAP’s own expertise and analysis. The study also included profiles of NOIA members to demonstrate the diverse group of companies which make up the offshore Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas industry as well as a list of over 2,400 suppliers to the industry representing all 50 states. -
News from Hiring Source
September 2015 A New Perspective on Crude Prices West Texas Intermediate flirted with $60 a barrel in June, but the commodity is unlikely to return to that neighborhood anytime soon. The world has just too much of the black stuff. The International Energy Agency puts the global surplus at 3.0 million barrels per day, which exceeds the combined daily output from the Eagle Ford (1.5 million barrels) and the Bakken (1.2 million barrels) oil basins. With slower growth expected in China, Iranian crude soon to hit global markets and OPEC’s refusal to cut production, crude will likely remain below $60 for some time. Analysts hoped for a brief downturn. They pointed to the plunging rig count in the spring, forecasted a decline in output by summer, and expected a rebound in prices by fall. In April, a month after WTI averaged $47 on the spot market, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecast crude to hit $55 this month and $70 by February. But the drop in U.S. production never materialized. Production is still 600,000 barrels above June 2014, the month in which WTI peaked at $108 per barrel. WTI now trades in the mid-$40s and the EIA doesn’t expect crude to reach $55 until the middle of next year. The futures market supports the EIA outlook. WTI contracted for December 2015 delivery now trades at $47 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude for delivery in December 2016 trades at $52. Weak oil prices have chewed up corporate balance sheets. -
NEPA Exemptions, Tragic Results the Devastating 1969 Blowout and Oil
NEPA Exemptions, Tragic Results The devastating 1969 blowout and oil spill at the Union Oil platform Santa Barbara Channel was one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation’s history, and is widely regarded as one of the events that impelled the passage of NEPA in 1970. Alas, we don’t always learn from our mistakes. In response to the energy crises of the 1970s, the U.S. undertook to dramatically increase domestic oil production, which, unfortunately, enshrined exemptions to NEPA for the central and western Gulf of Mexico. The 1978 Amendment to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act required fast- tracked approvals of exploration plans and: “expressly singles out the Gulf of Mexico for less rigorous environmental oversight under NEPA. As a result of political compromise with oil and gas interests, the Act exempts lessees from submitting development and production plans (which include environmental safeguards) for agency approval. Accordingly, Gulf leases, unlike those applicable to other offshore areas, are not subject to the requirement of at least one NEPA environmental impact statement for development plans for a particular geographic area.” (BP Oil Spill Commission Report, page 80) The Interior Department went even further: “In January 1981, the Department promulgated final rules declaring that exploration plans in the central and western Gulf of Mexico were ‘categorically excluded’ from NEPA review” (page 81), and though it later allowed for NEPA reviews in certain circumstances, that was the exception rather than the rule. As a result, the Minerals Management Service “performed no meaningful NEPA review of the potentially significant adverse environmental consequences associated with its permitting for drilling of BP’s exploratory Macondo well” (page 82) or subsequent drilling permits, and therefore one of their plans “carefully considered site-specific factors relevant to the risks presented by the drilling of the Macondo well” (page 83). -
Bop) Control System
RISK ASSESSMENT OF THE DEEPWATER HORIZON BLOWOUT PREVENTER (BOP) CONTROL SYSTEM April 2000 - Final Report Prepared for: CAMERON CONTROLS CORP. EQE INTERNATIONAL Confidential Treatment Requested by Transocean Holdings LLC TRN-HCEC-00056391 Deepwater Horizon BOP Control System Risk Assessment April 2000 • 4. EVALUATION RESULTS As discussed in the introduction, the evaluation of the fault trees by boolean reduction results in the identification of the minimal cutsets, or the minimum combinations of failures that will result in the occurrence of the undesired event. Each of these cutsets is composed of one or more failures and each of the failures is assigned a probability of failure as discussed in Section 3. The product of the failure probabilities for all failure events in a cutset represents the probability of occurrence of the cutset. The sum of the cutsets for each fault tree model represents the probability of occurrence of the associated undesired event. In addition to these quantitative results, potential problem areas are often identified durmg the development of the model. These are discussed in Section 5. Table 4·1 summarizes the probability of occurrence of each of the undesired events. The number of cutsets shown in the table are those with a probability of occurrence greater than 1E-1 O. The overall potential for any of the events occurring which lead to the failure to perform the EDS function is 3.1 2E-4 (1183 cutsets). which is less than the sum of the individual events in Table 4-1. This is due to the fact that some of the cutset combinations result in failure of more than one of the functions but are correctly only counted once when looking at the overall likelihood. -
Success Story
VAM ® BOLT-II selected by LUKOIL for its Caspian Sea well Overview SUCCESSSUCCESS LUKOIL-Nizhnevolzhskneft has chosen Vallourec to deliver its VAM ® BOLT-II solution with a large (18") outer diameter for the STORY Caspian Sea Khazri-2 well. In February, its high performance levels were proven when the VALLOUREC connection was successfully deployed with zero reject on a Neptune jack-up drilling rig. Technical Sales Manager in Russia, Ukraine, CIS, Andrei Motovilin talks us through each step of this success story. "We are particularly proud SEPT. 2020 of this success. LUKOIL- Nizhnevolzhskneft is one of our key customers developing some of the most complex Challenge The VAM® BOLT-II solution has a double- start thread design and make-up is quick offshore oil fields and wells." and easy — it saves platform installation Andrei Motovilin The most recent design-improved Technical Sales Manager in Russia, Ukraine, CIS time and make for perfect connection to generation of VAM® flush connections large bore subsea well heads. "We were gives higher torque capacity and able to deliver on time and, by working outstanding performance. Vallourec hand in hand with Lukoil, run perfectly supplied LUKOIL with 5 casing strings our VAM® BOLT-II solution, demonstrating and 345 tons of VAM® BOLT-II as well as operational product performance with zero accessories such as lifting and handling rejection." said Andrei Motovilin. circulation head. A complex well LUKOIL-Nizhnevolzhskneft, is a LUKOIL has been especially 0.64 inches with a maximum make- wholly owned subsidiary of LUKOIL technically demanding, as the up torque not exceeding 109.9 klb and specializes in oil and gas field nearest gas formation was at per ft. -
Halliburton Look to the Future
ENERGYPOINT Customer Satisfaction Update V. 1.1 RESEARCH Halliburton January 17, 2013 SATISFACTION Resilient Through the Ups and Downs RATINGS When EnergyPoint published its first-ever report in 2004, Halliburton was in the midst of a high-profile juggling act of sorts. The company was not only grappling with asbestos-related legal issues inherited as part of its ill- fated Dresser Industries acquisition, its now-jettisoned KBR subsidiary was taking flak, both in the media and in ATTRIBUTES Washington D.C., over a series of inutile contracts with the U.S. military. At the time, we weren't sure if these dual distractions were contributing to the company's then-lackluster oilfield customer satisfaction scores. In Rating Trend retrospect, it appears they were. Halliburton's ratings improved appreciably once the issues were resolved and management was able to more fully concentrate on its mainstay energy-services business. And concentrate it did. The company smartly swore off major acquisitions, choosing to focus on organic growth opportunities TOTAL SATISFACTION AVG STABLE within its existing portfolio. As shale development began to take off domestically, its hydraulic fracturing expertise became increasingly coveted by upstream clients. By mid 2009, after managing through the prerupt decline in global rig count in late 2008 and early 2009, our surveys indicated Halliburton was effectively hitting Job Quality AVG STABLE on all cylinders. Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. As both demand and expectations grew, customer satisfaction began to decline in 2010. Everything from equipment wear and tear to soaring prices for guar gum Post Sale Support AVG STABLE played a part. -
The BP Blowout: What the Evidence Reveals | Kvue.Com | KVUE News
9/9/2010 The BP blowout: What the evidence re… The BP blowout: What the evidence reveals by Dave Fehling/11 News Posted on September 9, 2010 at 11:46 AM HOUSTON -- The report BP released on its website Wednesday morning is the company’s version of the events that led to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, but the 11 News I-Team has been sifting through evidence gathered by a more objective source. That is the Deepwater Horizon Joint Investigation, the ongoing effort by the U.S. Coast Guard and the new Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management and Enforcement (BOEMRE). For months now, Houston-based employees have been grilled by government investigators in sometimes tense exchanges. There have been hundreds of hours of testimony given and thousands of pages of internal documents and e-mails gathered. Some of the testimony has been dramatic, some of the documents revealing, but does any of it yet show one clear-cut cause, a “smoking gun?" Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) was quick to pounce on one e-mail that he said showed BP’s corporate attitude to "cut corner after corner" to save time and money -- proof, he said, of what led to the disaster. Written by BP engineer Brett Cocales in Houston just four days before the rig exploded, the e-mail is about the debate they were having over what some say were shortcuts taken in drilling the well. Cocales wrote: “But who cares, it's done, end of story, will probably be fine and we’ll get a good cement job." In testimony, August 27th, Cocales told investigators, "I did write: but who cares, it's done, end of story." But far from proof of a “who cares” attitude, Cacales’s lawyer, Philip Hilder, told the 11 kvue.com/…/The-BP-blowout-What-th… 1/3 9/9/2010 The BP blowout: What the evidence re… News I-Team that the e-mail was taken out of context. -
Well Blowout Rates and Consequences in California Oil and Gas District 4 from 1991 to 2005: Implications for Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide
Well Blowout Rates and Consequences in California Oil and Gas District 4 from 1991 to 2005: Implications for Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide Preston D. Jordan and Sally M. Benson P. D. Jordan (&) Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA e-mail: [email protected] S. M. Benson Department of Energy Resources Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA Abstract Introduction Well blowout rates in oil fields undergoing Migration up abandoned and active wells is thermally enhanced recovery (via steam considered to pose perhaps the greatest risk of injection) in California Oil and Gas District 4 leakage for geological storage of CO2 (Gasda et from 1991 to 2005 were on the order of 1 per al. 2004; Benson et al. 2005). Well blowouts are 1,000 well construction operations, 1 per 10,000 formally defined as ‘‘the uncontrolled flow of active wells per year, and 1 per 100,000 shut- well fluids and/or formation fluids from the well in/idle and plugged/abandoned wells per year. bore to the surface (surface blowout), or into This allows some initial inferences about leakage lower-pressured subsurface zones (underground of CO2 via wells, which is considered perhaps blowout; Hauser and Guerard 1993).’’ The the greatest leakage risk for geological storage of ‘‘Underground geological storage’’ chapter in CO2. During the study period, 9% of the oil the IPCC special report on carbon dioxide produced in the United States was from District capture and storage (Benson et al. 2005) 4, and 59% of this production was via thermally concluded that the local risks of geological CO2 enhanced recovery. -
Company Policy on Sustainable Development
APPROVED BY Rosneft Board of Directors On 7th of November, 2017 Minutes dated 7th of November, 2017 No. 4 Effective as of 7th of December, 2017. By Order dated 7th of December, 2017 No. 760 COMPANY POLICY ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT No. P3-09 P-01 VERSION 2.00 MOSCOW 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTORY PROVISIONS ....................................................................................................................... 3 PURPOSE 3 SCOPE 3 VALIDITY AND AMENDMENT PROCEDURE .......................................................................................................... 3 1. TERMS AND DEFINITION ......................................................................................................................... 5 2. DESIGNATIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................. 7 3. GENERAL PROVISIONS ........................................................................................................................... 8 3.1. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY GOALS OF THE COMPANY ..................................................... 8 3.2. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT TASKS ........................................................................................................ 8 3.3. PRINCIPLES OF THE COMPANY’S ACTIVITY IN THE AREA OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ........... 8 4. CORE AREAS