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Modeling Software Showed BP Cement As Unstable
DMandPenfold writes "Advanced modeling software analyzed the cementing conditions for BP's Deepwater Horizon oil well as unstable, days before the blast that killed 11 oil rig workers and let millions of barrels of oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico. Halliburton, the company that carried out the cement job, used its own modeling software called OptiCem, to support arguments that more stability was needed for the piping and cement. ... An OptiCem test on 15 April, five days before the blast, stipulated that from Halliburton’s point of view, 21 ‘centralizers’ needed to be added to the well bore. The centralizers are used to provide space around the oil pipe casing within the well, as cement is poured around it, and are a vital part of safe drilling. BP initially adhered to the OptiCem software test and ordered 15 extra centralizers. But when technicians on the rig received the extra centralizers they mistakenly decided the new centralizers were the incorrect type. At this point BP proceeded with the drilling anyway, with the six centralizers, deciding another known technique of injecting cement in other places would work."
Why is this story hitting the front page on a day when you can't click on news links?
Why is the slashdot staff so incompetent as to not have this fixed already? Oh yeah, because people pay for subscriptions even though they are total failures.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Long live Cthulhu.
help fill in hidden movie endings @ End of the Credits
So what? BP has massive amounts of money, as well as political connections out the ass. Nothing is going to happen to them, even if half of the Gulf Coast population winds up with cancer. Complain away, Slashdot. If it makes you feel better to post on the intertubes, excellent. Meanwhile, nothing gets done.
"Sherlock, we could find a place to put the blame if only we knew what kind of rock they were drilling through."
"Sedimentary, my dear Watson, sedimentary."
Translation:
"We have concrete evidence that bp not only dropped the ball, but insisted on risking screwing themselves over. However we're not going to say it was their fault, as they're a big oil company that pays us alot of money."
so much for biting the hand that feeds you.
He means news.slashdot.org links.
I also get "404 Not Found" for these links, like News: Firefox 4 Regains Speed Mojo With No. 2 Placing.
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
If they had written to the correct registers they could have put the well into debug mode and sorted all this out...
So what surprises me is that there is IT involved yet we didn't see some AC whistleblower on slashdot or anywhere else during the incident.
Come on people. Give Halliburton some props here.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
We have information that will put blame on BP. But in means giving credence to Halliburton. What is a diehard leftist to do?
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
The issue isn't "omg they ignored the modeling - those bastards!"
The issues are:
1) Was their mistaken belief that the stabilizers were the wrong size reasonable under the circumstances, was it due to an understandable human error, or was it due to gross incompetence?
2) Was the backup plan based on sound engineering and sound industry practices, or was it a "we think this will be okay, let's cross our fingers and drill?"
If the mistake on the stabilizers was reasonable under the circumstances and the backup plan was based on sound engineering and sound industry practices, I don't see any blame as it relates to this particular decision.
On the other hand, if either decision was based on incompetence, then it's easy to pin blame. If the mistake was based on something less than incompetence - say, a competent person demonstrating the reality that good human beings occasionally make mistakes and making a bad or careless decision at what would turn out to be the worst possible time - then there is blame but the punishment for that person should not be as severe as that of incompetence.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
For what, you ask? Negligent homicide. Because somebody decided to drill in a situation they knew to be unsafe, putting the lives of everyone on the rig, including those with no choice in the matter, at risk for the sake of profits. A few criminal prosecutions would change that culture quickly, otherwise it's just a cost of doing business.
I am officially gone from
From the article:
The report said there was “no evidence” to suggest BP had put cost before safety.
And then:
Commission co-chair William Riley noted “what appeared to be a rush to completion” at the drilling site. He added that “one must ask where the drive came from that made people determine they couldn’t wait for sound cement, or the right centralisers”.
Is this guy stupid? That's the norm!. Ever heard of "time is money"?
“In the inhuman system of capital, every technical problem boils down to an economic one, that of the prize to be won by cutting costs and boosting returns”.
http://www.vajont.info/eNGLISH/thePiaveLegend.html
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
..BP didn't do the cementing. Halliburton did. So, if Halliburton's model showed that more centralizers were required but they decided to go ahead with the cementing anyway, seems to me that they were negligent.
It's like a builder telling the developer "We should use beams and girders in this wall to make it stronger" and the developer saying "Hmmm. We haven't got any steel beams to hand. Can you use reinforced concrete instead and maybe make the wall thicker?". If the builder says "Yeah, sure!" and goes ahead, he can't blame the developer if the wall later collapses.
I sense desperate attempts at ass-covering on Halliburton's part. Probably worried about all their lucrative no-competition Pentagon contracts.
for more than the gratification of taking a shot at them would give you. Also, you'd have to shoot an awful lot of BP managers before you would get anywhere near as much effect as shooting the guy that just fired you. Shoot just one, and he will never be able to fire you again, but BP will just put another manager in the place of the missing one, without any less effectivity of the company after your deed.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
except, maybe, to take measures to insulate themselves from repercussions
Thing is, how do you insulate yourself from these sorts of repercussions? In the case of an oil company, it's that you do pretty much whatever is necessary to prevent a well blowout like this from happening again.
Why? It's bad publicity, it costs money to clean up, you're not making money from the oil from that well, etc...
The cost of having to deal with even a rare blowout, compared to the cost of safety equipment, is such that it's nearly always better to spend the money on the safety equipment, studies, and engineering solutions than to screw up and have a major leak.
Even if the executives are moustache twirling evil, they're still driven by profit. Oil dumped in the ocean is oil that they can't sell, which costs them money. They don't want that.
I don't read AC A human right
What hasn't come to light is Halliburton's role in all of this. They're not exactly the most trustworthy company in the world and it's strange that this has come out now. As far as I know BP had outsourced all of their drilling which is probably how this stupid state of affairs came about.
So what you're saying is: If you're going to commit a crime, commit the biggest crime you can, because the bigger the crime, the better it pays, and therefore, is worth the risk to your life/freedom.
That explains Bernie Madoff then. I would suggest then, that we ALL run Ponzi Schemes and get rich, go to jail for 150 years, but at least our families will be set for a few generations.
Your argument basically states that crime is OK if the crime is for $billions, but the mugger on the street who robs you of $60 at gunpoint is a drag on society that needs to be jailed for years at a rate of $100,000 per year.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Yeah, I can't figure it out. People on the street shoot each other over liquor store robberies for a $100, but when your livelihood is affected to the tune of tens of thousands, people sit in their sofas watching American Idol.
Never mind some fisherman picking off BP execs, I'm shocked no one has been picking off mortgage brokers, bankers, and other high-ups that handed us the Great Depression, that will essentially, last for the remainer of our lives (all indicators point to things getting worse, not better, unless you're already in the top 1%).
Even more amsuing is that that south is filled with gun-nuts, you'd think that at least one of them would get riled up enough to do something. Amazing that they'll shoot at each other about a scratch on the pickup truck, but when it comes down to REAL things, they act like they have no power.
Maybe there's something to those chemtrails after all, as the populace is handing the country over to a few elite, with no fight whatsoever. John Carpenter's "They Live" is starting to look like a documentary. Where's the Hoffman lenses when you need them?
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
This mysterious fire suddenly made away with the fact that the platform was not properly done and could eventually be told to tear down the whole thing and start over, where burning it down and ending it would cost much less.....interesting!
I find this concept of a situation in which listening to Halliburton would have protected the environment and made life better highly uncomfortable.
Are we absolutely sure the ink is dry on these recommendations they supposedly made?
Pug
An Invisible Entity of Vast Power whose existence must be taken on faith alone: Liberal Media
It would be interested to read the contract between BP and Halliburton. Who was responsible for doing the design? Also surprised there wasn't more on-rig government oversight. Heck, you've gotta have a building inspector come out and inspect a new residential construction job, surely a deepwater drilling rig warrants as much oversight as Aunt Bea's new front porch.
So the technicians on the rig made a decision they weren't qualified to make, and the PHBs were happy to let them. Agile drilling?
I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
I knew obaba was a communist all along.
He is so incompetent at cleaning up oil spills he just had to blame BP for his mistakes.
LOLLOLLOL
So what? The bottom line is that the well didn't leak primarily due to cement failure or use of too few centralizers. There is post cement pressure testing and other redundancies involved too. Cement failure is a quite common occurrence; nobody in their right mind would just dump a load of cement in the hole and walk away without following up to make sure the cement job was good.
Halliburton will probably get stung a bit because of the legal system we have, but in reality they aren't the problem here.
The real cause of this leak was sloppy operations by Transocean, BP's drilling subcontractor. There were several places where they just flat fell down on the job and made faulty decisions any one of which could have prevented the spill. Many of these people are dead now, killed when the rig sank. It's unfortunate not just for the people involved but also for the process of finding out exactly what happened, but that is just the way it is sometimes.
Oh! technicians on rig were not BP staff, I understand, but drilling contractor's staff. To override a BP purchased supply may take liability away from BP.
Regards Eion MacDonald
The most effective method would be to "see" an image of The Prophet Mohammed in the oil spill, and let the extremists have their way with BP. It would be pretty hard to run a company if everyone working there fears for their life.
I jest of course.