re: #537 Stanley Sea

Totally following you now. I really think there was point where your original post was not clear and led, at least me, down the MMS is at fault path. Personally, I put more blame on BP and their management that made the decision that caused the blowout on the rig.

Of course. Had BP not pushed for the answer they got, and did what they did, there would have been no accident. The primary responsibility is always on the operator to do the right thing. Likely BP used this same procedure on several, if not dozens of other wells without incident.

Because we know now, and should have known previously, that even leading engineers proposed practices that turned out to be dangerous, and the regulators approved those practices, we see that there is a flaw in the system. The regulations and regulators themselves did not prevent the disaster, they rubber stamped it.

Whose to blame exactly in this? Many over several decades, but also the guy(s) in the MMS who said yes instead of no. Overconfidence was likely a strong factor as well. (No, Obama/Bush/Clinton, etc. would not have made the actual decision, responsible staff at the MMS would make the call regardless of the party in power.)

I understand the dilemma of the moratorium, but the way it looks with what you’ve posted, it is absolutely needed. I’m assuming all the other rigs have been approved for the same system of drilling no different than BP.

But this is not correct. The faulty plan is not duplicated on other rigs, though it may have been so on other BP jobs. The engineers I’ve spoken to were all shocked by the procedures and considered them unsafe. We could easily prevent all of the drilling from doing the same thing. (And indeed, BP will never do it that way again as they are not suicidal.)

The MMS could absolutely rule-out this particular failure, and add another measure such as a second stack of sheer-rams that would absolutely have prevented this accident and allowed for a quick shut off.