BP oil spill, are we all going to die?!?

[Daywolf]

Originally Posted by Excision Rottun [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Most of my friends either drill or work in the oil industry.

Some are pump-jack operators, crackers etc.

A couple drill in either Mexico or Saudi Arabia....serious $$$ there.

Pumpjack. That’s the pumping units they install after the well is in. Maybe they set those up? That’s good pay. On drilling you have ropeman (or worm), cahinman, motorman, derrickman and mud pit or mudman (mud pits you see the steam rising from rigs). Off the rig you have one guy hiding in a trailer or room monitoring the drill angle on a computer. Then a company man moving from site to site handling any issues, taking people to the hospital etc.

Outside of the company you have Haliburton that comes by once or twice to probe the hole with radioactive sensors, checking integrity. Then you have all the support crews like welders to attach the well head and truckers to move the rig. This is probably beyond that reality tv show most likely, I watched a little and thought it was a riot, made for tv etc.

When they blow out, it sounds like a jet engine, super sonic, usually everyone dies. But not always, depends on the pressure from the depth. Running doubles (derrick height for 2 pipe connects) we usually went 2k feet which isn’t bad, and is pretty avg on land, takes 3 or 4 days actual drilling. We had a 200 lbs cap for the well if it blew, that we would pick up by hand and screw in lol. Blow outs are very rare though, like what happened in the gulf. Mud rigs are singles and go pretty shallow, only need 3 in the crew maybe. Mud because they are not on a platform but in the wet mud on the ground doing their thing, and covered in it. Not as common these days.

Natural gas is the major hazard, silent death. Die in under 3 seconds. A big problem with the gulf blowout right now as natural gas is everywhere. They don’t even allow anyone into the area any longer, I mean like reporters or public etc. Have helicopters falling out of the sky lol. Does not take many natural gas particles to kill, I mean the deadly stuff in it.

Anyway, for this gulf blowout, no idea how they are going to stop it. Probably won’t be able to until next year unless they nuke it. Problems with using nukes though, like tsunami potential and then radioactive water seeping up in time. They would need to write off drilling that deposit again of course, probably shut down adjacent rigs. They should lighten up on land exploration restrictions though, it’s stupid how intensive the restrictions are. Wells are not that dirty, cleaner than coal really. It’s just politics, really-really screwed up politics. But in the end those hyper-aggressive regulations only make for bigger screw-ups as we are seeing.