re: #11 lawhawk

Actually, I’m more interested in what went wrong with the supposed shut-off systems that are designed to prevent oil leaks following such problems on the surface.

There are plenty of things that can go wrong on an oil rig causing explosions, but there were various safety systems in place (or could be in place) to shut the flow from the well. Those systems - the blowout-preventer - apparently failed - possibly because of the explosion or other reasons.

Several foreign countries have a remote system (an acoustic based system) to shut down the wellhead but the US doesn’t require that type of system and the oil companies have said that that system is unproven.

They didn’t have a remote sonic shut off switch of last resort, which is de facto mandated on european rigs. 500k to install was deemed too expensive.

It’s never actually been employed on any of those rigs but at least they’ve got it. Now we’ve got a month of 5000 barrels of oil a day spilled directly into the gulf. Well that 500k should basically cover the clean up costs, right?