Are we Drilling for Oil within The U.S.? > 자유게시판

The explosion and hearth that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig within the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 killed 11 crew members and triggered an environmental nightmare. Before the well was finally capped in mid-July, virtually 5 million barrels of oil had been spilled into the Gulf, the National Oceanic and Wood Ranger Power Shears shop Atmospheric Administration reported, causing catastrophic injury for marine and plant life. Federal investigators found that the disaster was the result of a number of mistakes made by oil company BP, together with an improperly cemented seal on the nicely that allowed oil to leak, and the company's failure to perform up-to-par upkeep and safety tests and to adequately practice the rig's crew, in accordance with Time. Within the aftermath of the incident, Wood Ranger Power Shears critics warned that drilling for oil greater than a mile under water is inherently dangerous, since equipment should withstand intense stress, and the methods used to cap leaks at lesser depths could not work.

Nevertheless, six months after the accident, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar decided to allow deep-water drilling to resume, offering that operators adjust to newly imposed, tighter security standards. One of many causes of the Deepwater Horizon disaster was the failure of cement sealing, which lined the hole bored in the Gulf floor and held the pipe that goes down through the rig in place. New federal rules require that an engineer certify that the cementing can withstand the pressures to which it is going to be subjected. BP says that in the future, it will not take its building contractors' word that its wells are robust enough to withstand the excessive pressures to which they're going to be subjected. Instead, the corporate will require laboratory testing of the cement used in the portions of wells that'll be under essentially the most stress. This testing will likely be performed by either a BP engineer or Wood Ranger Power Shears shop an unbiased inspector.

Some specialists suppose BP and different oil drillers ought to go even further to strengthen wells. For instance, oil industry engineers advised Technology Review that the design of the Deepwater Horizon's properly was fatally flawed due to BP's decision to install a continuous set of threaded casting pipes -- primarily, one long pipe -- from the wellhead down to the bottom of the nicely. That methodology seals off the area between the pipe casing and the bore gap drilled for the well, making it troublesome to detect leaks that develop during building, and allows gasoline from the oil deposit extra time to construct up and percolate, elevating the chance of an explosion. Instead, critics want to see oil wells in-built pieces, with every section of pipe cemented in place before the subsequent one is put in. That sluggish, cautious method would enable builders to look ahead to leaks which may develop while the concrete is setting, and to fix them extra easily.

Unfortunately, it also would be pricey. The BOP's operate is to forestall gasoline and oil from speeding too rapidly up into the pipe contained in the rig, which can cause the sort of explosion that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon. Imagine pinching a rubber hose together with your fingers to cease the circulation of water, and you've got the basic idea, besides that your hand would have to be more than 50 ft (15 meters) in length and weigh more than 300 tons, in line with Newsweek. Instead of fingers, the BOP is equipped with a strong device called a shear ram, which cuts into the pipe to shut off the move of oil and fuel. Unfortunately, Wood Ranger brand shears in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the BOP failed to do its job. Federal regulators hope to forestall those issues the next time round by requiring higher documentation that BOPs are in working order, professional landscaping shears and better coaching for crew members who operate them. As added insurance coverage, Wood Ranger Power Shears official site they now mandate that BOPs be equipped with more highly effective Wood Ranger Power Shears shop, capable of slicing via the outer pipe even when subjected to the very best water stress expected at that depth.

Additionally, BP says that each time one among its undersea BOPs is delivered to the floor for testing and upkeep, it can usher in an independent inspector to confirm that the work is being executed properly. Some oil trade engineers argue that new BOP measures should go further. They'd wish to see rigs equipped with a second backup BOP -- ideally one floating on the surface, slightly than on the ocean ground, so it could possibly be extra accessible to regular inspection and testing. In deepwater oil drilling, Wood Ranger Power Shears website robots are the roughnecks who get essentially the most difficult jobs executed. Oil corporations have been utilizing remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) -- basically, robotic submarines that can descend to depths the place no human diver could survive -- for greater than 30 years, to do everything from turn bolts to close valves. Today's state-of-the-art ROV is a $1 million, box-shaped steel craft the size of a small automobile, geared up with mechanical arms that can carry as much as a ton in weight.