[South Florida DX Association] Possible Oil Rig explosion Cause

[Peter Rimmel]

I received this today from another Marine Chemist who has been involved in
the Oil Rig problem:

Gulf Oil Spill Rig Explosion: New Details Emerge

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO — The deadly blowout of an oil rig in the Gulf of
Mexico was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well
and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several
seals and barriers before exploding, according to interviews with rig
workers conducted during BP's internal investigation.

While the cause of the explosion is still under investigation, the sequence
of events described in the interviews provides the most detailed account of
the April 20 blast that killed 11 workers and touched off the underwater
gusher that has poured more than 3 million gallons of crude into the Gulf.

Portions of the interviews, two written and one taped, were described in
detail to an Associated Press reporter by Robert Bea, a University of
California Berkeley engineering professor who serves on a National Academy
of Engineering panel on oil pipeline safety and worked for BP PLC as a risk
assessment consultant during the 1990s. He received them from industry
friends seeking his expert opinion.

Seven BP executives were on board the Deepwater Horizon rig celebrating the
project's safety record, according to the transcripts. Meanwhile, far below,
the rig was being converted from an exploration well to a production well.

Workers set and then tested a cement seal at the bottom of the well. Then
they reduced the pressure in the drill column and attempted to set a second
seal below the sea floor. A chemical reaction caused by the setting cement
created heat and a gas bubble which destroyed the seal.

Deep beneath the seafloor, methane is in a slushy, crystalline form. Deep
sea oil drillers often encounter pockets of methane crystals as they dig
into the earth.

As the bubble rose up the drill column from the high-pressure environs of
the deep to the less pressurized shallows, it intensified and grew, breaking
through various safety barriers, the interviews said.

"A small bubble becomes a really big bubble," Bea said. "So the expanding
bubble becomes like a cannon shooting the gas into your face."

Up on the rig, the first thing workers noticed was the sea water in the
drill column suddenly shooting back at them, rocketing 240 feet in the air.
Then, gas surfaced. Then oil.

"What we had learned when I worked as a drill rig laborer was swoosh, boom,
run," Bea said. "The swoosh is the gas, boom is the explosion and run is
what you better be doing."

The gas flooded into an adjoining room with exposed ignition sources, he
said.

"That's where the first explosion happened," said Bea, who worked for Shell
Oil in the 1960s during the last big northern Gulf of Mexico oil well
blowout. "The mud room was next to the quarters where the party was. Then
there was a series of explosions that subsequently ignited the oil that was
coming from below."

According to one interview transcript, a gas cloud covered the rig, causing
giant engines on the drill floor to run too fast and explode. The engines
blew off the rig and set "everything on fire," the account said. Another
explosion below blew more equipment overboard.

BP spokesman John Curry would not comment Friday night on whether methane
gas or the series of events described in the internal documents caused the
accident.

"Clearly, what happened on the Deepwater Horizon was a tragic accident,"
said Curry, who is based at an oil spill command center in Robert, La. "We
anticipate all the facts will come out in a full investigation."

The BP executives were injured but survived, according to one account. Nine
rig crew on the rig floor and two engineers died.

"The furniture and walls trapped some and broke some bones but they managed
to get in the life boats with assistance from others," said the transcript.

The reports made Bea, the 73-year-old industry veteran, cry.

"It sure as hell is painful," he said. "Tears of frustration and anger."

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