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Permalink Reply by Larry T on May 2, 2010 at 7:02

Folks, i am a deepwater drilling consultant sitting on a rig off the coast of Africa. Have drilled several wells in the Mississisppi Canyon area of the Gulf, very close to where the Horizon sank. All of us in the industry are trying to figure out what could have happened. Everything is speculation and all the BS about acoustic switches and shut off shows folks should not run their pie hole without knowing what they are talking about.

We can fully understand the intial explosions and gas getting to the rig, once the gas is in the riser (above the BOP) it expands very rapidly and will be at such a speed that you would not believe, (i have witnessed twice)

What we cannot understand is once the power to the BOP was lost, it should have shut everything in, including the shear rams and closed off all sections of the well. this is called a dead man system (real name) it is common on dp (dynamic position rigs)

we are guessing that the seal assy or casing gave up, which allowed the hp gas / oil bubble in the riser at the sea floor above the bop, at that point the well was out of control above the bop, and probably caused the gas / oil on the rig floor / pits / pumps and exploded with any one of possible ignition sources. (the zapata lexington had a similar incident about 25 yrs ago)

we are only guessing why the other systems did not work as desingned and we are only guessing that there was something in the bop that the shear rams were not designed to shear or the system was not working as designed for whatever reason.

it is a sad day for as all to lose our coworkers and to see the damage inflicted on the coast and gulf, most all of us are avid outdoorsmen, hunters and fisherman and it is truly sad.

what is truly worse, is that banning the future oil and gas eploration in the gulf will only cause the price to rise, put more brakes on our economy nad put more money in the pocket of other countries.

LT

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Permalink Reply by essay on May 3, 2010 at 15:46

a relatively informed discussion of what happened that at least tries to avoid being driven by an agenda, some of the replies to the article are also interesting

http://seekingalpha.com/article/202384-bp-macondo-disaster-week-two...

i agree that using this as an opportunity to attack big oil is very dangerous as the consequences will be felt by all, not just a few "fat cats"

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on May 4, 2010 at 10:55

Interesting article. Sounds like some pretty good informed guesses.

However, one warning. I have very little faith in the seekingalpha web site. Don't put any faith in what's said just because it's posted there. Check up on the AUTHOR and see if he is credible.

I don't have an opinion on this author, other than he sounds like he knows what he's talking about in this article.

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