Jul
15
The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Mexican Gulf is a significant event. It marks the greatest oil spill in history, and the greatest clean up. Too many people don’t understand what really happened – what started all this. I offer a detailed explanation below.
On April 19th, 2010, BP had drilled to the projected pay zone (the area where the drill starts to make contact with the underground oil reserve) and was completing the well for future production. Commonly, when a well is at this stage, you run casing to the Total Depth (TD) and run cement down the casing forcing it up the backside of the casing between the earth and outer casing wall. When the cement is pumped, it is followed by a cement plug that will seat itself at the end of the casing or TD after the calculated volume of cement has been displaced. The cement and plug are forced down the casing with salt water or even mud if necessary behind them. When the plug is seated, the well is shut-in, giving time for the cement to cure. Next the plug is drilled out and the casing perforated in the pay zones.
What BP did, with permission from US regulatory agents, was not to run a cement plug that would have to be drilled out, saving a great deal of money. In addition, the fluid that they ran in the casing was not heavy enough to handle the pressure coming from the pay zone. BP had miscalculated the needed weight of the fluid in the casing, which allowed the natural gas to make its way up through the fluid in the casing. On April 20th, 2010, The high pressure gas rushed up the well pipe and erupted on the oil rig. Blowout preventers, major shutoff valves, that should have automatically sealed off the well, malfunctioned due to failed batteries. The burning, melting, and collapsing of the drilling platform greatly complicated the matter to resolve the accident.
In conclusion,
BP is responsible, but only for 2/3 of this mishap. The other 1/3 goes against the US Regulatory Agency who bought into all of this and signed off on proper procedure. It has now been almost 3 months and the leak has yet to be contained.