He just wants his life back!!

[Amber Lamps]

Originally Posted by Apoc

Thats the thing, a blowout preventer stack failing is unheard of. As horrible as the spill is, its a circumstance which really hasnt come up before. On a single derrick land drilling well, a BOP stack has 3 seperate defense mechanisms. I have no idea the specs on the one they were using, or whats usually used offshore, but im sure its more then 3, a lot more.

Its easy to lay blame, and say they cheaped out on equipment, but its a situation that nobody thought possible before now. BOP's dont fail. Or didn't, before this happened.

I worked on drilling rigs. I've worked on out of control wells. BOP's are your last line of defence, they ARE the back up plan. Noone could concieve that you'd need a backup plan for the backup plan that was already considered failsafe.

Always remember that we are dealing with primarily pencil pushers here that are doing good to change the oil in their bikes. They have no real experience with working on mechanical things and are mouthing off about things that they have zero practical experience with.

If BP can prove that was using the absolutely most expensive BOP ever made, will that get them off the hook? If they can prove that they followed absolutely every rule in the book, will that make this okay? I seriously doubt that you're going to find that BP was doing anything improper or out of the ordinary on a corporate level. If there is blame, it'll probably have to fall on someone that was on the platform itself. Some peon that was surfing the net when he should have been working, someone who didn't do his maintenance checks correctly, someone goofed off because it was too hot, too cold, raining, he was hungover, etc.

[Particle Man]

If they can prove that they didn't cut corners anywhere (including emergency cleanup resources) I'll back off with my opinion. Until then I guess I'm off to be "lucky I change the oil in my bike and stuff"

[smileyman]

Apoc is right. My dad and grandad are 50+ yrs experienced on land wells. Smetimes shit happens and you deal no matter how badly you want to blame someone.

[Particle Man]

Originally Posted by smileyman

Apoc is right. My dad and grandad are 50+ yrs experienced on land wells. Smetimes shit happens and you deal no matter how badly you want to blame someone.

It isn't the scale of the operation or the difficulty thereof that is really driving a lot of the frustration. The same industy doing the drilling is also responsible for not allowing alternatives to really grab hold. They "caused" the spill to happen indirectly through action along other fronts.

[Homeslice]

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-sp...g_test_of.html

[Amber Lamps]

Originally Posted by smileyman

Apoc is right. My dad and grandad are 50+ yrs experienced on land wells. Smetimes shit happens and you deal no matter how badly you want to blame someone.

My point is that the greatest amount of control is on the ground. Some suit sitting in an office somewhere has little to nothing to do with day to day maintenance... In fact, it's always been my experience that the working men spend a large percentage of their time trying to figure out ways AROUND the ridiculous safety measures that guys in suits dream up. The CEO of BP most likely has an ARMY of guys who's only job is to dream up regs and rules to make oil rigs safer.

[Flexin]

Originally Posted by Amber Lamps

My point is that the greatest amount of control is on the ground. Some suit sitting in an office somewhere has little to nothing to do with day to day maintenance... In fact, it's always been my experience that the working men spend a large percentage of their time trying to figure out ways AROUND the ridiculous safety measures that guys in suits dream up. The CEO of BP most likely has an ARMY of guys who's only job is to dream up regs and rules to make oil rigs safer.

Not from what I heard the other night. They have the worst safety record from what they said. In the time frame they were talking about BP had 7XX accidents and Exxon had 1.

James

[Amber Lamps]

Originally Posted by Particle Man

It isn't the scale of the operation or the difficulty thereof that is really driving a lot of the frustration. The same industy doing the drilling is also responsible for not allowing alternatives to really grab hold. They "caused" the spill to happen indirectly through action along other fronts.

Ummm... Are the oil companies causing protests at nuclear power plants? Are they forcing you to use plastic? They make you take pleasure trips on your bike, snowmobile or in your car? The oil companies stopped drilling in safer dry land sites because they wanted to? The oil companies are keeping you, personally from going out and buying a bicycle, selling your vehicles, and using public transportation? Everyone is looking for a place to lay the blame, and sure it's easy for the crack head to blame the dealer, but is it really viable?

[101lifts2]

Originally Posted by Particle Man

It isn't the scale of the operation or the difficulty thereof that is really driving a lot of the frustration. The same industy doing the drilling is also responsible for not allowing alternatives to really grab hold. They "caused" the spill to happen indirectly through action along other fronts.

The fact as Apoc stated is that this shouldn't have happened or it was a near impossibility. So unless you only walk to work and use solar everything, you really have no leg to stand on. It isn't like you don't buy oil/gas so you can blame BP for a spill that would only affect the enviroment (and not the availability of the product).

[Flexin]

Originally Posted by 101lifts2

The fact as Apoc stated is that this shouldn't have happened or it was a near impossibility. So unless you only walk to work and use solar everything, you really have no leg to stand on. It isn't like you don't buy oil/gas so you can blame BP for a spill that wouldn't only affect the enviroment (and not the availability of the product).

The Titanic was said to be unsinkable. That kind of thinking had cause people their lives. They need to be prepared for the worst. Having a plan in place and the gear to fix a problem like this just in case is way cheaper then what this is going to cost them.

James