Anyone been following the Gulf oil leak fix attempts?

[Buleste]

Amazingly rich Oil companies who pay out billions in dividends make their money by cutting corners and paying off politicians to ignore it especially in America. It's only when pointless disasters like this happen that people realise that they are making a deal with the devil.

It should be mandatory that a cut off valve should be placed every mile or 2 miles so that should a leak happen to the pipeline the oil can be cut off and the leak repaired with minimal damage but in an industry that has a limited lifespan profits are key and installing such safety measures would cut down on those profits so it's cheaper to invest in politicians to turn a blind eye. Gotta love Democracy and free market economies.

[Bloodwych]

Updated with more links as the main Rov cam seems to be down.

[outlawal2]

Amazingly rich Oil companies who pay out billions in dividends make their money by cutting corners and paying off politicians to ignore it especially in America. It's only when pointless disasters like this happen that people realise that they are making a deal with the devil.

It should be mandatory that a cut off valve should be placed every mile or 2 miles so that should a leak happen to the pipeline the oil can be cut off and the leak repaired with minimal damage but in an industry that has a limited lifespan profits are key and installing such safety measures would cut down on those profits so it's cheaper to invest in politicians to turn a blind eye. Gotta love Democracy and free market economies.

Yep that all sounds good until you really take a long look at the drilling process and where they are drilling. They DO have fail safes and as I understand it there are 3 separate redundant computer controlled safety devices in place in the control room of the structure that is anchored to the seabed. So if the pipe ruptures between the structure and the floating rig, the only oil lost is the oil in the pipe.. Very small amount. As for installing shutoffs every few miles, it is currently impossible to do this since they are drilling a mile under the surface of the ocean and then drilling miles below that.

My question is how does three separate and redundant computer controlled fail safe devices all fail simultaneously causing this kind of disaster? Statistically this is near impossible..

I personally think this was an act of sabotage, but so far nothing has been mentioned about this possibility...

[Harrison]

I think the issue was that the main drilling platform was on fire and so any computer system were probably offline as the rig sank.

[outlawal2]

I think the issue was that the main drilling platform was on fire and so any computer system were probably offline as the rig sank.

The fail-safe systems are specifically designed with this possible contingency in mind. The systems are installed in the structure that is anchored to the sea floor and sits directly ON the sea floor.. This structure is sealed and completely separate from the floating rig and that is why I am very suspicious that the systems could all fail at once..

[Bloodwych]

To see what they are now dealing with since making the cut (not as clean as they would have liked):

OceanInterventionROV2




That is a lot of oil! I think now they will try and clean it up and place a cap on top.