This is pure hindsight, but perhaps still relevant for all the other rigs with iffy blow-out preventers: There should be another BOP on (or just below the drilling deck.That way both the pipe and riser could be sealed at the top--where the structure would be accessible to humans. The upper BOP should also have one additional means of activating the shear: an explosive device. Just like the shotgun shell starters that were used on early aircraft, except that the BOP charge would operate in two manual stages: The first would draw back a steel shield between the primer and the charge. The second would fire the primer. Bang-o, slam-o. Blowout stops. With the primer walled away from the charge, detonation from static energy or a random power surge could not trigger the sealing charge. I also noticed in the video that only one of the two sealing rings was activated. Why not always activate both? Why EVER activate only one? If there were two installed, someone must have thought two might be needed. So why not activate both from the git-go and be "double-safe"? To save a little money? Who knows?
IF you haven't seen the Movie, it's pretty darn good, it dove tails in nicely with the known facts at the time! Huge Curt Russel fan anyway, so it was a given!
Yes. BOPs are tested in the dry before installation. Well, supposed to be. Both the bottom and top BOPs get the same testing protocol, supposedly. I wish Minuteman were still hanging around, he is a well control expert.
What supprised me, the BOP didnt have manual trigger to blow the valve shut, could have sent an R.O.V. down to manually trigger it, and/or replace the charges if/when it failed. Same with the battery sysyem for shutting the pipe down, should have been able to service/replace the system! Then we get to all the other failures that all compounded together to make it as bad as it was! There is NO EXCUSE for what happend!
Here's more. Minuteman contributes to this and other threads on the subject. Site search on Macondo -- Oil Rig Explosion
Hydraulics, solenoids, batteries, motors, pumps, rams, shears? When in, doubt C4. We can compress a mass of uranium or plutonium down to half it's volume with something like 6,000,000psi using explosive lensing. Cant we crush and weld shut a drill pipe with 10,000psi in it?
When the BOP was raised off the bottom Federal marshals were there wait on it to break the surface. It was then covered with tarp and escorted by the marshals to a location where it was housed and guarded 24/7 by the marshals. Very serious business to assure no tampering was done before a federal investigation and inspection.
