• Hey, let’s not forget about this: A report compiled by risk management firm Det Norske Veritas on last year’s oil spill in the Gulf came out today. (They were hired by the federal government, not BP, by the way.) They claim that design flaws scuttled the blowout preventer; as the well lost control, the drill pipe bent and buckled, which blocked the shear rams. Shear rams are the means by which the blowout is supposed to be prevented, as they’d cut through the drill pipe to safeguard against the well’s pressure level. Sadly, these sort of industrial fail-safe systems don’t always work as well in reality as in theory. source

Posted by Chris Tognotti • Permalink