Since the first wells in the Gulf of Mexico in 1938 were built with 14 feet of water, technological advances have made it possible to move further off the coast to find new oil reserves without planning for the worst-case scenario. A year before Deepwater Horizon drilling rig became the most lethal oil spill site in US history, it succeeded in drilling the deepest oil and gas at the time. The rigs drilled over 35,000 feet of the seabed and worked in water over 4,130 feet deep.
On the evening of April 20, 2010, the deepwater anti-submersible rig Deepwater Horizon just struck another exploration, and the rig shook in the explosion. The night's incident killed 11 people and filtered 200 million gallons of oil for two months, pumping it into the Gulf for almost three months, harming marine ecosystems and coastal economies for years.
Since then, offshore drilling has continued to spread into ultra-deep waters that reach over 1,500 meters (about 5,000 feet) deep. Today's rigs can work more than twice as deep as the deep-sea horizon. Between 2000 and 2009, only 15% of oil production in the U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico was produced in extreme regions such as Deepwater Horizon. In 2017, this rate increased to 52% and will not stop there.
Drilling at new depths will free up undeveloped oil reserves, making it even easier with new technologies. However, these opportunities are less risky and less error prone. The budge. “The lesson of Deep Water Horizon [that] Donald Boesch, Honorary Chairman of the University of Maryland Environmental Center, means extraction technology is developing very rapidly. Science.
Boack was appointed by Barack Obama to the National Oil Spill Commission, which gathered to investigate the cause of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. He thinks the United States is preparing far better than the explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, but there are new scenarios that could pose a greater risk, especially when drilling at extreme depths.
Powerful force
The Gulf of Mexico produced a record 2 million barrels of oil last year. University of Iowa oil and energy historian Tyler Priest argued that production would require more exploration, drilling and development in deep waters. The budge. The average production rate of Gulf of Mexico oil increases with depth.
“Nothing creates more cash flow than a deep well that flows,” he says. "As the old fields are depleted and clogged and discarded, more and more oil must be found."
The more opportunities for profit, the more stakes come. Drilling deeper allows you to work at greater pressures. There is a crushing weight of water. There is also greater pressure in the oil pocket and gas pocket. The league can not only work deeper, but also dig deeper than before. The deeper you dig, the more pressure and resistance you face. The temperature of the trapped oil and gas is hotter and hotter the farther from the mantle of the ground. The equipment must be able to withstand temperatures that can reach up to 180 degrees Celsius at about 40,000 feet underground.
Boesch says: The budge. A gas trapped with oil under the seabed says, “We want to expand very quickly when the pressure is somewhat relieved. [by drilling]He explains.
The probability of serious accidents, deaths, injuries, explosions or fires being reported increases by 8.5% per analysis of oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico since 1996 every 100 feet deep where the offshore platform operates. Found in 2010 This applies regardless of the age of the platform or the amount of fossil fuel produced.
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Problems caused by drilling in deeper water can complicate measures to cope with any problems that arise. “Like what happened [with Deepwater Horizon]Sierra Weaver, senior attorney at the non-profit Southern Environmental Law Center, says: “We were actually conducting experiments in very deep waters in terms of drill methods, control methods and oil purification methods,” she says. The budge.
“Who knows how“ safe ”the Gulf Coast is today at a similar event? You are really safe like today, ”says the priest. The budge. "This is a series of misfortunes."
Deep problem
On the evening of April 20, 2010, a series of misfortunes began to unfold after crew aboard the Deepwater Horizon installed a cement seal on the Macondo probe 66 miles from the Louisiana coast. This seal meant blocking oil and gas, as well as two valves that must prevent oil and gas flooding from moving over the pipe to the surface.
The crew misread the pressure test that the well was not sealed properly. They were carefully caught when drilling mud and natural gas began to flow from the pipes to the equipment. Once found, they attempted to close the valves of the “spout arrester”, a device that should prevent the release of uncontrolled oil and gas. It also failed. The crew saw the leak and within 8 minutes the natural gas exploded, causing a fire that could knock the equipment down.
When submerged, the equipment ruptured the pipe and the pipes moving under it, which is filled with drilling mud to offset pressure-driven oil and gas upwards from the earth. Without the opposite pressure, the oil flowed from the wells to the Gulf for 87 days. Several attempts to stop the leak have failed. Eventually, I tried to install a sealed dome over a well that was almost completely floating on the surface, filled with frozen methane. Finally, on July 15, a newly developed device (called a capping stack) was finally able to contain the well.
The failure of Deepwater Horizon revealed how the industry is not ready to respond to such a fatal event. Today, the capping stack remains offshore and allows for the placement of another well. It can weigh up to 100 tonnes and is built to withstand the high pressures of flying wells. The stack is connected to a blowout prevention device, which closes until the well is permanently sealed and adds additional valves that can be closed to prevent oil flow.
Steven Murawski, Chief Editor-in-Chief of 2019, said, “Now if the scenario is the same as before, we are preparing for the final war. Scenarios and responses to future deep oil spills. "I don't think there will be another 87-day explosion like the Deep Water Horizon." The budge.
Next war
There are other scenarios where Murawski and Boesch may be concerned, such as pipes bursting from the seabed rather than the sea level during the deep sea horizon crisis. If a leak occurs beneath the seabed, the oil disappears into the surrounding rock and escapes whenever the rock cracks. Murawski said, “It would be the last scenario because there is no way to discard it. It was not possible to put a capping stack on the leaky pipe. The best option currently available is to dig other wells to relieve pressure inside the rock and redirect flow. This was done after Deepwater Horizon was captured, but every second it takes precious time to drill an oil well as the damage to the leak increases. BP began drilling two relief wells in May, but oil leaked until the capping stack was added in July.
“There was clearly a difference in our ability to deploy resources to stop wells during this incident,” said Erik Milito, chairman of the National Ocean Industries Association, an offshore drilling and wind industry group. Since then, according to Milito, operations have become safer with new safety equipment to prevent spills, more capacity to respond to problems, and increased government oversight.
Others are not sure. “The oil industry says that as long as it exists. Prior to the occurrence of Deepwater Horizon, this type of accident did not occur. Then & # 39; this will never happen again, & # 39; says Weaver.
She and Boesch point to the Trump administration's efforts to simultaneously increase US fossil fuel production, including bids to open more coasts to current ocean-bound drilling while rolling back environmental protection. After Boesch's Oil Spill Commission made recommendations to prevent another Deepwater Horizon-like spill, the Obama government introduced well-controlled rules to create new industry standards in 2016. And in May last year, the Trump administration weakened these rules. About 20% of the original regulation is considered "unnecessary regulatory burden".
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The COVID-19 epidemic also affects offshore drilling as oil and demand plunges amidst globally disrupted business as usual. Boesch is worried because the wallet line has seen an enhanced effect on BP's Deepwater Horizon operation. “They cut the corners and started making hasty decisions,” he says. “How is this [the pandemic] It's safe. ” BP was convicted in 2014 by the Louisiana Federal Court for "mistakes" that led to deep-water earthquakes.
The company, which leased the equipment, said in a statement, “The Deepwater Horizon accident changed BP forever.” Because of this catastrophe, BP was $ 65 billion.
10 years after the deep sea horizon, offshore drilling is moving into an unknown area, but its impact still reaches the shore. "We didn't know that oil was expected to stay abroad," Weaver said. The spilled oil eventually washed out along the 1,300-mile coastline that reached Texas to Florida. In the aftermath, tens of thousands of animals died. And more people and wild animals have been exposed to the toxic effects. It still didn't have enough wake-up calls for oil companies like BP to withdraw. Even after 10 years, the risk of deep-sea oil exploration continues to go straight across the horizon.