BP blowout preventer may have been fatally flawed – Other deepwater wells vulnerable to similar failure
By Jennifer A. Dlouhy
11 July 2011 The hydraulic system that powered the blowout preventer at BP’s failed Macondo well may never have had the capacity to stop last year’s Gulf of Mexico spill or any other such emergency, investigators say. But that possible deficiency — and other findings about the equipment used as a safeguard on thousands of wells — may never get a full airing. A government-run examination of the device ended in March, and a second round of testing was open only to the Justice Department, the oil spill victims and the three companies connected to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. “It’s only fair to the industry that they know what happened,” said Gordon Aaker, president of Kingwood-based Engineering Services. He said too many questions about the Macondo blowout preventer remain for the companies that use similar devices to be confident of avoiding a repeat of the April 20, 2010, disaster. […]
To lead the testing, the government hired forensic analysis firm Det Norske Veritas, which concluded in March that cutting rams on the blowout preventer were unable to slash through and seal a pipe that had buckled and been pushed askew by flowing oil and gas. […] Investigators at Engineering Services also want to know more about the hydraulic system that powered the blowout preventer’s automatic shut-in systems. They have questioned whether the system ever had enough pressure stored in containers called accumulator bottles to drive shear rams through the 65/8-inch-diameter drill pipe that was used at the site. […]
