CSB to Investigate Deepwater Horizon Incident

photo :Oilonline.com

I'm very pleased to hear that the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has been invited to investigate the causes of the explosion on the Transocean/BP oil rig, which occurred on 20th April.

The CSB takes a very holistic approach to its investigations, looking at technical factors but very importantly, the organisational, cultural and human factors which may have contributed to such an incident.

An additional benefit of a CSB investigation is the fact that CSB is capable of producing excellent material to share all of the learnings with the wider community. The video  'anatomy of a disaster' about Texas City is a must see for chemical industry professionals.

In a letter to Senator Henry Waxman, the CSB Chairman, John Bresland, has agreed that the investigation will look for similarities with the BP Texas City explosion but stressed the importance that the investigation be carried out without preconceptions and that all of the underlying causes and factors are thoroughly examined.

This point is essential. Politicians and some media outlets have been very quick to condemn BP as 'guilty'. Some of the accusations may prove to be valid but this can only be fairly determined with a thorough and proper investigation of all of the issues and all of the parties involved.

Deepwater Horizon - Update

According to latest reports, concerns are growing for the 11 workers still missing following the explosion on the rig on Tuesday evening, which caused the rig to collapse and sink yesterday.

A team of engineers is also working to control a major oil spill, caused by very subtantial amounts of oil and gas pumping out from the oil reservoir

According to Transocean, the Swiss company that owned the rig, engineers are trying to cut off the uncontrolled flow of oil using a subsea robot. Apparently the the robot, equipped with cameras and remote-controlled arms, is being used to try to activate an automatic shut off device on the seafloor, designed automatically to clamp shut over the base of a pipe that connects the rig with the seabed.

First priority is to locate the missing persons and deal with the spillage. The investigation, when it takes place, will certainly have to look at the design of similar shut-off devices to ensure that in future, activation occurs even in extreme circumstances such as this.

Transocean Oil Rig Explosion - Echoes of Piper Alpha?

photo : Upstream Today

An explosion on Transocean's 'Deepwater Horizon' oil rig at approximately 10 pm on Tuesday has left 11 people  missing and 17 in hospital, of which 4 are critically ill.

Ther rig is owned and operated by the Swiss company Transocean and was carrying out exploratory drilling on behalf of BP.

At presnet, authorities are unable to say when the flames might die out on the rig. A large column of black smoke was seen over the Gulf of Mexico as firefighters tackled the blaze.


Adrian Rose, vice president of Transocean, said the explosion appeared to be a blowout, in which natural gas or oil forces its way up a well pipe and smashes the equipment. But precisely what went wrong is still under investigation.

According to reports, a total of 126 workers were aboard. 79 were Transocean workers, 6 were BP employees and 41 were contractors.

Still far too early to draw any conclusions but the fact that so many are missing and that many more are injured means that a full and thorough investigation must be carried out as quickly as is possible.