BP's $18BB gulf fine
BP's $18BB gulf fine
(OP)
Did the oilfield contractor (Hallburton + Transocean) have any consulting engineers work on the blow out protector? Is some poor firm who got paid $100k to design that BOP now on the hook for $18 billion?
If anyone hasn't seen the news about this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/business/bp-negl...
If anyone hasn't seen the news about this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/business/bp-negl...





RE: BP's $18BB gulf fine
Most oil drilling is a risk, and enviromental is just the newest, that will surely hit all of us in the bill fold.
RE: BP's $18BB gulf fine
RE: BP's $18BB gulf fine
A concern of mine is that an engineer with an MBA, no longer practices engineering, but seems to bring out there engineering degree only when convient.
RE: BP's $18BB gulf fine
Depends on the quality of their lawyers. From a strictly technical basis, probably not, since they would have delivered to some design specification, which they should have passed. Since that's the criteria for product acceptability, the matter is closed, unless someone can show that the product design was faulty to the specification or that the specification itself was faulty.
TTFN

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Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
RE: BP's $18BB gulf fine
RE: BP's $18BB gulf fine
Judges are under incredible pressure from the MMS and EPA and Coast Guard to shift ALL of the blame away from them to some private enterprise that can be blamed, vilified, and punished. I've talked to oil-field firefighting experts who said that their advice was absolutely ignored by the Coast Guard and all of the things that the CG was warned not to do (and they did anyway) led to the platform falling over and making the BOP inoperative and leading to the fire becoming a spill. If the oil-field fire-fighting experts (who were on site) had been listened to, this could have been a tragic loss of life and some burned hydrocarbons. Instead it is a media/judicial circus.
From the point the rig was on fire until the flow was stopped, the government stood in the way of competent action in the name of "being in control". If you want to put a face on the real villain in the piece I'd say it is Coast Guard Admiral Mary Landry. She will not face charges in this witch-hunt/feeding-frenzy.
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. —Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist
RE: BP's $18BB gulf fine
Imagine if you sold $1000 worth of bolts to the BOP manufacturer, and your QA was slightly deficient. You can't show definitively that your bolts didn't cause the failure, and you can't afford $10MM in legal fees to show up in court and argue about it for 5 years, so what's your option?
RE: BP's $18BB gulf fine
When I started in this business virtually all deals were done on a handshake (contracts did sometimes follow, but they were formalities, the details were worked out before the handshake). My whole career working for a major (23 years ending in 2003) that was the way I worked--if I needed something, I bought it and the supplier was confident that I would pay for it. Since Macondo, no one is the least bit sure that anyone has the authority to authorize work without a contract. I recently had a Supply Chain Management type tell me that since I didn't get a P.O. prior to doing a tiny job that they couldn't pay me the $5k. I ended up a the VP level before someone could tell the fool to pay me. Contracts and P.O.'s are just getting more awful every year. I'm really wondering if I'm having any fun anymore.
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. —Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist
RE: BP's $18BB gulf fine
I note from the internet that one of the solenoid valves on the BOP was wired backwards, plus there was a flat battery.
RE: BP's $18BB gulf fine
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. —Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist
RE: BP's $18BB gulf fine
And I doubt they will take any of the shame if something goes wrong with there rules.