Transocean Horizon

The investigations into the Deepwater Horizon rig's demise over the one year since that tragedy have all pointed toward the corrupting influence of the same forces I experienced first hand working for the same company.

The National Hurricane Center this morning forecasted a 70% chance that Invest 97, now just south of the Bahamas, would form into a tropical cyclone. Destination? The central Gulf.

There are so many cooks in the kitchen that the pot is boiling over while the chefs all stand around arguing about spices. I don't think anyone is actually in charge, and if anyone is, they are not interested in giving any real information.

I've been saying for weeks now that the US should change its offshore policy to "if you drill here, you live here". How hard is that?

BP's latest solution may work, but why did it take 2 1/2 months to build? In one of its presentations, BP said that this was one of the first ideas they had. If that's true, why didn't they just build the thing?

It's time to step back from deepwater development not only until we have a reliable way to keep disasters from happening, but more importantly, until we know how to cope quickly when they do.

Transocean is the world's largest offshore drilling company, but until its Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April, few American...

BP has said it is going to pay all the costs for the clean-up and "all legitimate claims." This obligation also falls to the non-ops, that is, unless BP is guilty of gross negligence or willful misconduct.

I've gotten lots of questions the last week about my posts on the BP blowout of their Mississippi Canyon Block 252 well and how they do all the work o...

View image  This morning, BP announced that their first relief well is at 17,725' and that they have completed their sixth ranging run.  The...

Hubris. Illusions of grandeur. Deepwater overseers had been so successful (lucky) that they were over-confident. Having never experienced this kind of failure, it was inconceivable to them that it could happen. It did.

BP's approach to this week's Offshore Technology Conference is wrong. Instead of hiding, BP should take advantage of this resource, call a meeting of these professionals and let them go to work.

It appears as though the containment structure is the only chance BP has of slowing the growth of the spill, at least until they get the well killed by a relief well, or if well bore damage slows the flow by itself.

Yesterday, Bob Dudley, BP director and new CEO of the company's new Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, sat for a live online interview with Ray Suar...

BP released another instructional video that sort of explains what they are planning; leaving out key how's and why's and throwing in just enough oil speak so as to be distracting from the otherwise good illustration.

It's become clear that well design, short cuts, impatience, and bad judgment led to the blowout in the first place. The other issue is why the blowout preventer did not close as designed.

Yesterday a federal judge in New Orleans refused to stay his order lifting a 6 month drilling ban on deepwater drilling that he issued on Tuesday.&nbs...

Impressive doesn't describe the scene here in the Gulf. With three semi-submersibles plus the drillship Enterprise, this is probably the most intense drilling effort in the history of offshore exploration.

While assuring us that BP will pay for this clean-up, the president gave no real details on how he plans on accomplishing that. His meeting with BP executives Wednesday could bring some result, but I'm not holding my breath.

Shortly after the BP's Mississippi Canyon Block 252 well blew out, President Obama imposed a six month moratorium on deepwater drilling, pending concl...

I'm getting lots of emails from folks who are suggesting all kinds of ideas to stop the flow of BP's blowout well in the Gulf.  While I appreciat...

Enough is enough.  We're now at day 52, and it is absolutely, positively clear that BP has been completely overrun and it's management is in full...