| Author | Message | ||
     Whatever |
They still cannot find eleven workers down on the Gulf Coast after Tuesday's oil rig explosion... this makes me sad. I feel badly for those families who lost their loved ones. I, personally, had a near miss of this type when working on the south chicago refinery in 2006. The well we were drilling inside the tank farm was being pushed down through blowing sands with 2.5 feet of "free product" on top of the aquifer. This was gasoline/ diesel that sat there for years bc the client drained water from large tanks directly to the ground. Our safety was an A$$hat and BOTH his meters that measure LEL broke down and quit working- lower explosive limit- which at 10% the LEL we are SUPPOSED to shut down and get out (come back later with a different method that does not put us at risk). He doesn't say a word, but takes off to find another meter... I am seeing the vapors come out of the hole like thick a blanket... they looked like water coming out of the hole they were so thick... I turn around and the field manager is on her cell phone. We are standing about 8 feet away. Mind you, NOT an intrinsically safe spark proof cell phone like the refinery operators had, but a regular cell phone. I yelled at her to knock it off and reported them both to the project manager. All this OSHA training- 40 hours HazWoper and 8 hour refreshers and she and the safety had even more training -OSHA HazWop supervisor training... and they pull this crap. I became the "bad guy" on site... cause they both lied and said the meters were on and they falsified the records... Thing is, I got to come home a few months later. These guys in the Gulf do not. Anyone know what exactly causes these things... I know a few of you have worked on these rigs offshore. I have not. Although my education would have set me up with one of the big guys in oil, I never did it and took a different path... Only a few other dicey situations in my 8 years as a geologist, one we handled right another I didn't do so well cause I had less than a year behind a rig when the shit hit the fan... just curios. They are containing the spill and still looking for bodies down there.  | ||
| Gunut75 |
On jobs like that, you have to cover your own ass. OSHA dosen't mean sh1t. Ever since they lost gov. support (around 2002) it has been nothing but BS. As long as the right palms are greased, your job should run smoothly. I would have to do some research about how they have authority to impose fines anymore. I used to have to take an OSHA Saftey class every year to keep my card up to date. I'm not in the masonry union anymore, so I haven't kept up with the latest standards or regs. But, I have been 6 stories in the air, on a 2x12 plank , on a military base, just about pissin my pants cuz the scaffold is swaying 1 foot in any direction. I brought it up to my union prez, and he looked at me like I was crazy for complaining. I gathered that on large commercial jobs, OSHA is sidestepped, or it's "nobody saw nothin'" on a regular basis. It's just what I have experienced on the big jobs I have been on. My thoughts and prayers to the families. | ||
| Snake_oil |
I Millwrighted for 32 years, A company can take your safety seriously but few do. Death at work is the worst, I've known people that went to work anyway after having that feeling that they shouldn't and not make it home. I feel for their loved ones and hope they had some joy in their lives. | ||
| Whatever |
PBS had this show on McWayne... they had THE WORST safety record in the US... they had numerous deaths and then after getting their a$$es sued off turned it around...became VPP... VPP is the 'gold standard' of safety programs... http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/ generic.html?s=frol02n4ecq81 | ||
| Zac4mac |
Blowouts were more feared than hurricanes on rigs I worked on in the Gulf, mid-70s. One rig I was on had a small one the day before we got there to change crews. Mud all the way up the derrick, they shut the Hydrill and only lost a single joint of pipe. What's bad is if it escapes the casing - big containment pipe around the drill pipe. I have heard of workboats 150 feet long sinking in the foam from a big one. Scary shit | ||
| Smoke |
haven't heard any answers yet from the inside on how or why yet. condolences to the families. tim | ||
| Road_thing |
USCG has called off the search, apparently some of the folks who got off OK told them the missing workers were on the rig floor when the explosion happened. Not much chance of survival. USCG also says the well is no longer flowing, I don't know if they shut the BOP or if it just bridged itself over. This is really a disaster. rt | ||
| Whatever |
I would think they may never find the remains of those men (assuming they were all men) now that the rig has sank... I never ever thought I would say this but I think we need to open up the Arctic/ Alaskan slope for exploration and have more incentives/ requirements for the auto manufacturers to move into bio-disel and ethanol and electric run vehicles... I am convinced that this IS our biggest security issue here in the US. It will be interesting to see what Congress decides next about more domestic exploration... (Message edited by Whatever on April 24, 2010) | ||
| Road_thing |
Agreed on all counts, Char. rt | ||
| Froggy |
I had this PDF emailed to me. It contains a ton of amazing pictures of the rig. http://www.froggypwns.com/Files/Horizon.pdf | ||
| Whatever |
She was a beauty! What a shame!  |
