| Gas bubble may have caused oil explosion |
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 On Wednesday night last week blew up BP's oil-drilling platform Transocean Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. A leaking gas bubbles from the oil reservoir is 5000 feet down into the borehole from the sea surface calculated, may have caused the severe explosion at the oil rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. I do not want to speculate on exactly what happened but it is a likely scenario, says the Norwegian drilling expert, Jan Krokeide, leading Drilling Manager's Forum on OLF, oil industry's Country Club in Stavanger and has many years of experience to find oil offshore. It is well known that oil drilling at extreme depths poses major challenges. There is the danger of a "blow out". That is, the gas bubbles slip up from extreme depths, expanding and causing explosions and fires. Had stopped the test drilling The staff at Horizon Deep Water fatalities in the Gulf of Mexico where oil wells up from the borehole since last week, had found oil and completion of the test wells. - What they did was they were doing that stuff again "well", the drill hole with cement, "says Jan Krokeide. Very few details about exactly what work is yet known. January Krokeide would not speculate on the exact cause of the disaster. - But, he says, one possible explanation could be that there is suction so that the natural gas entering the cockpit and exploded up the rig and the rig is then ignited. The stocks of crude oil and the staff at Horizon Deep Water were found, located at extreme depths. It is reached at about 5500 feet down into bedrock, from sea level and 4000 feet down into bedrock, judging from the seabed, and how thick it is is unknown. The safety valve did not work Over 1500 meters the drill hole into the sea are a special safety valve, called a blow out prevented, BOP. It is a giant construction of several steel gate valves used in emergency and difficult situations in order to seal the biggest drill tube. - BOP's shall be up to 15 meters high and weighs 450 tonnes and withstand 1000 bar pressure, According to Jan Krokeide. In Norway, there is a rule requiring that they be capable of remote, in the event of an accident, as an extra precaution. The remote control can either be done by means of portable devices that can send special audio signals (acoustic control system) or, alternatively, by means of unmanned underwater robots, known as ROVs. In the case of the Deepwater Horizon did not work the safety device, BOP: n. - In this case it seems to be problems with the safety device to operate, even before they lost the rig, "said Jan Krokeide. Underwater Robots failed Just hours after the explosion sent a number of underwater robots, down to try to get the giant safety equipment and close the valve, hoping to stop the oil spraying out of the reservoir. - We must be clear to operate an ROV at 3:00 p.m. meters of low visibility and another is not easy, "says Jan Krokeide. According to U.S. media lacked the BOP operated by Transoceanic, an operator of the rig, acoustic remotely. The speculation is now healthy in such a possibly would have stopped the massive oil spill, including the Wall Street Journal and in the Norwegian press. January Krokeide makes a different assessment. - No, it probably had not helped enough in this case because the BOP: n and its main control system were not working. Why we do not know, "he says. He also notes there may be difficulties in sending down the audio signals (HD Audio) to great depths through one stream of oily water. All of the Norwegian oil industry is holding its breath over developments in the U.S. The conclusions of the accident investigation can have an impact on Norwegian companies. The oil company BP, which owns Transoceanic expects to 800 000 gallons of oil spilling into the bay outside the U.S. state of Louisiana's fragile coast each day. |
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