My Thoughts On The BP Disaster

It was exactly one year ago today that the explosion happened on the BP Deep Water Horizon oil rig in the Gulf Of Mexico which killed 11 men and caused the worst oil spill in United States history.

My office had a guy on the rig that left the rig five days before the explosion. My company had people on the rig who were lucky enough to have left the rig in the morning on the day of the explosion.

When the explosion happened and the rig sank two days later, I told everyone I knew to not rush to judgment in the matter. Wait and see what the investigation yields before saying anything. A lot of things have been said in the media by oil industry people, politicians, and pundits on both sides of the political spectrum. I have also said a lot of stuff (not here till today) as well, except I tend to use a little bit of common sense when it comes to giving my opinion on things.

Disasters such as this one rarely have just one cause for accidents. If you look historically at accidents which are deadly, there is a multitude of causes which led to them. Having looked at the accident and the findings thus far, I place 90% of the blame on BP for poor well design (ie cutting corners) and a culture of safety mishaps including not learning from previous mistakes. I put 5% of the blame on Halliburton for not refusing to do an unsafe job based upon the poor well design. I also put 5% of the blame on Transocean for the same reasons as Halliburton.

If you look historically at BP as a company, they have a history of poor safety performance.

Look at their operations at the refinery in Texas City, Texas. They had an explosion there that killed around 15 people. BP found the cause of that accident, yet did not do the same exact modifications to their other refineries in the United States to prevent a similar incident from happened again. An almost identical accident almost happened at another refinery less than a year after the explosion in Texas City.

Wikileaks reported a while back that the same type of accident which happened in the Gulf Of Mexico happened two years prior in the Black Sea. Poor well design/implementation in the Black Sea well lead to an uncontrolled leak of gas. Although in that incident, the BOP was able to shut in the well and there was no explosion there and thus you heard nothing of this incident.

In another incident in the North Sea, BP had a severe gas leak on a production platform due to poor maintenance. Thankfully no explosion happened but the potential for one was still there.

So as you can see from just a little bit of highly condensed information, BP has a bad tract record when it comes to safety. It was not the whole industry which had this accident, but it was one bad company. Yet my whole industry on a whole was put on trial.

So when the explosion happened, the rig sank, and the oil started spewing all over the Gulf sea shores, the government put a drilling moratorium in place which stopped all offshore drilling until the cause was found.

When an airplane crashes do we shut down all of the air traffic? The answer is no. We find out what happened and then if the problem is limited to a problem with a certain type of air craft, then we fix the problem with those air craft. The last deadly crash in our country was the Air Colgan/Continental flight which crashed on approach to Buffalo. The main cause of that accident was pilot fatigue. And that problem of pilot fatigue with commuter airlines still has not been addressed and fix.

When a pipeline ruptures and explodes do we shut in all pipelines in this country? No we don’t. Remember the huge natural gas pipeline in a California neighborhood which rupture inside the neighborhood and exploded? It killed around 5-10 people and destroyed a dozen or so houses, and did we stop all of the pipelines from flowing? No we didn’t. The cause of that pipeline explosion was corrosion of old pipe.

When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound spilling millions of gallons of oil, did we stop all tankers from carrying oil? No we didn’t. The cause of the accident was found to be one drunken man allowed to pilot a ship. The cause was found out and stuff put in place to prevent it from happening again.

When two trains collide in a head on collision on the same track, do we shut down all the trains in our country? When there is a coal mine explosion do we shut down all of the coal mines? When there is a huge pile up on the freeway involving many cars, do we shut down all automobile traffic? The short answer to all of these questions is no.

So without even having a cause of the accident, a knee jerk reaction was done by our government by halting all offshore drilling. I don’t have a problem with a short stoppage of drilling to find out the cause of the accident, but that was not the intention of the government. The governments cause for this was to get us off of oil and gas and to also push the “green movement” in wind and solar energy. Don’t forget wind and solar don’t do anything for transportation needs or replace the stuff that oil is used in making. The president even went as far to blame George Bush and say that the MMS had an incestuous relationship with the oil industry and it was his fault. Yet when the president took office he appointed a woman to head the MMS and she was “lured” away from BP to come to the MMS (I bet you didn’t know that one). Just a tad bit of hypocrisy wouldn’t you agree?

The economy of the gulf coast relies solely on three things which are fishing, tourism, and the oil and gas industry. The nonstop oil spill destroys fishing and tourism, and then to kick a man when he is down, the government shut down oil and gas industry offshore. The media has said that the drilling moratorium only affected a few thousand jobs, which is non sense.

Tens of thousands of jobs were hurt by the drilling moratorium. Think each drilling rig directly employs 400 people. Then there are the service company employees who go to the rigs. The service companies have employees whose revenue from offshore supports other employees within those companies. Then there are the supply boats and their employees. There are helicopters which ferry people to and from the rigs who employ people. The rigs need supplies such as food, tools, etc which come from companies. The supply companies also need supplies as well. Then there are the land shipping companies which haul the offshore materials to and from the docks and offices. Also there are the hotels and crew transports on shore which are used. This is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to the people who work in the industry along the gulf coast. It numbers in the tens of thousands of people not the mere few thousand that the media reported.

Now I am not trying to defend BP by saying all of this, quite the opposite actually. BP should have to pay for all of the damage (environmental and other) that they have done to the gulf coast. I also think that BP should also have to pay for the people who have lost their jobs because of their accident. Not just the fishermen but also those who have lost their jobs in the oil industry as well due to the drilling moratorium.

What I am saying is that this thing could have been handled better. It should have been investigated, the cause found, and measures taken to prevent it from happening again in the future. Seems simple right?

Well that is not what happened here. Politics entered the situation and we all know how politics fucks up things. To this day the governments answer to this is more regulation upon more regulation. We all know that the only industry more heavily regulated is the airline industry and those regulations can't even keep air traffic controllers awake on the job. What is needed is that the current regulations need to be enforced and actually verified by the MMS. Instead the government keeps changing the rules or not coming out with the new rules in a timely manner. To this day (at the time I am writing this) there have been a total of ten permits to drill issued. Of those ten permits, nine of those are for projects which were already drilling when the BP rig blew up a year ago. One permit for a new well has been issued and will likely never get drilled due to legal challenges from environmental groups.

And speaking of the environmental groups, did you notice how they were all up in arms saying that we should not be allowed to drill offshore here in the US because the coast is just to precious? You didn't hear them say jackshit about drilling offshore in other countries. Don't drill here in my yard, but you can drill across the street in my neighbors yard. Yea, that hypocrisy is one of the reasons that America and Americans in general are not well liked in the world. 

The gulf coast has mostly been cleaned up and life (both man and animal) is starting to recover. Recovery though will take a long time as the effects of the oil spill are still happening and things are still being discovered.

My hope for all of this mess that BP has caused is that with all of the shit being slung by all of the parties, that the memory of the 11 men who lost their lives that day are not forgotten.And that an accident such as this is prevented in the future as the damage to the environment, lives, the economy, etc are too great.

EDITED TO ADD: I watched the news last night and was not shocked at all. BP still has not paid a ton of people on the coast who had ligetimate claims and there is still oil washing up on some coastal areas. And BP is mostly gone. Funny how those commercials said that BP wouldn't leave until this was over, and it turns out that there definition of over was when the news cameras left. They really piss me off.

All About Oil

I figured since I work in the oil and gas industry that I would take a little time to educate you a little bit about oil. Especially since what the media tends to tell you about this industry is complete and utter bullshit 90% of the time.

Most people think that the only thing which comes from oil is gasoline and motor oil. That is not really all that comes from oil. A multitude of stuff is made from oil and has been for a really long time including stuff that you probably had no idea is made with or from crude oil.

The standard unit of measure when talking about oil is the barrel, which is 42 gallons. Of the 42 gallons of oil in barrel, here is the breakdown of what it is used to make.

19.4 gallons – gasoline

10.04 gallons – diesel

3.91 gallons – jet fuel

1.68 gallons – heavy fuel oil

1.24 gallons – heating oil

1.72 gallons – liquefied petroleum gases

6.80 gallons – other products

Now I know that the total here adds up to above 42 gallons, and that is because the process used to refine crude oil into something useful gets out more than the original amount. Pretty neat huh?

But what I really wanted to inform you about is the 6.80 gallons of crude oil that goes into making “other products”. Some of the products made from this portion of a barrel of crude oil are either made directly from the crude oil, or the crude oil is involved in some form or fashion of making the compounds used to make these other products.

Here is a nice little list of stuff made into these so called “other products”: cold cream, fan belts, refrigerators, movie film, car enamel, golf balls, contact lenses, shaving cream, toothpaste, drinking cups, ammonia, solvents, ink, upholstery, tires, dresses, cassettes, motor cycle helmets, cd players, curtains, vitamin capsules, dashboards, putty, percolators, skis, tool racks, mops, umbrellas, roofing, denture adhesive, speakers, tennis rackets, nylon rope, water pipes, shampoo, guitar strings, antifreeze, clothes, combs, vaporizers, heart valves, enamel, anesthetics, dentures, floor wax, sweaters, car bodies, bicycle tires, dishwasher parts, caulking, faucet washers, food preservatives, antihistamines, cortisone, dyes, life jackets, tv cabinets, car battery cases, slacks, yarn, toilet seats, linoleum, synthetic wood, rubber cement, candles, hand lotion, wheels, luggage, football helmets, toothbrushes, cd’s, dvd’s, balloons, crayons, pillows, artificial turf, model cars, motor oil, ballpoint pens, boats, nail polish, golf bags, tool boxes, petroleum jelly, antiseptics, basketballs, purses, deodorant, panty hose, rubbing alcohol, shag rugs, epoxy, insect repellent, fertilizers, fishing rods, ice cube trays, electric blankets, fishing boots, trash bags, roller skates, paint rollers, aspirin, awnings, ice chests, paint brushes, sun glasses, parachutes, dishes, artificial limbs, folding doors, bearing grease, football cleats, insecticides, fishing lures, perfumes, show polish, tape, clotheslines, soap, shoes, footballs, refrigerant, linings, electrician’s tape, paint, oil filters, hair coloring, lipstick, synthetic rubber, glycerin, dice, house paint, surf boards, shower curtains, safety glasses, eyeglasses, detergents, tents, telephones, cameras, bandages, and hair curlers.

That is just a list of roughly 100 or so of the products that are made from crude oil. There are THOUSANDS of products which are made either directly or indirectly from crude oil. And this does not include any of the associated natural gas or condensate related products which come from the gas phase during oil and gas production.

So why did I tell you all of this you ask? So that you can see that more comes from oil other than gasoline or travel related stuff. Plus in some of my upcoming posts I will refer you back to this post as well.

And if you are one of the anti-oil people, try living without all of the products that I listed above. Because unless you are Amish (and if you are Amish, chances are you are not reading this post), you are using crude oil. You don't hear the "environmentalists" talking about how they are "living like the Amish" when they lecture you about the evil oil and gas industry.

Sammich Energy

I have for years been trying to think about a way to come up with a solution to the world’s energy problems and future demands for energy. We do need a new source of energy as oil and gas will not last forever, and solar and wind only work as long as the sun is out and the wind is a blowing.

So after many years of thinking about the problem, I got some inspiration from a children’s movie that I love and recently watched again for the 100th time.

The movie “Monsters Inc” had the right idea but the wrong people. Initially they went after kids and scared them and captured their screams as a way to get cheap, clean, green energy. Then they realized that there was more power to be made from kid’s laughter, so they then started telling jokes to the kids to capture their laughs as way to generate power.

And this was a good idea, but I would like to take their idea a step further since there is a more powerful source of energy than the screams and laughs of children.

I want to bottle and store the anger of women. Think Monsters Inc but for with women instead of children. As we all know the anger of a woman is a powerful thing. If you don’t believe me ask any divorce attorney.

Can you imagine the amount of energy released by telling a woman she looks fat in them jeans? Or try telling a woman that her dinner tastes like shit. The amount of energy that could be produced by saying either of those two things to just ONE WOMAN could power a city the size of Houston for a month. Then take that one woman and multiply that by one billion. Everyone on the planet would have electricity cheaply and efficiently just by pissing your woman off once per month. I mean you are going to piss her off once a month anyways, at least this way you would be saving the planet at the same time.

I already know how to piss them off, now if I could just figure out how to collect, store, and harness the power of a woman scorned.

Yep you guessed it, I could be rich if I ever figure this shit out.