Came across this elsewhere, a tuna fisherman describes the events from his bird'eye view directly at the rig where the tuna were biting moments before the Deepwater lit up. Complete with pictures.
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Kheris, great find, thanks for digging this up and posting the link.
It's an eyewitness account from two guys out tuna fishing right below the Deepwater Horizon on the night of April 20th. One of the guys had worked offshore, and from the story, that experience probably saved his life, as he knew what the "kick" they were watching meant, and yelled for his buddy to get their boat away from their fishing spot by the platform ASAP, which they did.
I've excerpted the following verbatim, with spelling/grammar errors as is, from this account that Kheris linked to above.
ROCKMAN; as I read through the story that these two tell, it sure sounds like the unconfirmed report you heard and which you posted around 12:30 pm today, which is that someone on the platform missed seeing the well kicking back at them until the ship reported the disconnect between the tanks full of mud vs. the amount of mud that should have been pumped, is a very plausible explanation. And, when someone up top did recognize the kick, it was too late. Methane was already venting (the eyewitness account of the decibel level is scary), and when power was cut the backup system started up but sparked, and that caused the initial explosion.
Their observations are VERY interesting, and if these two eyewitnesses are right, it was the start-up of the backup electrical power system that caused the initial explosion:
Around 10pm the entire center of the rig started rushing water downwards over all the pipes... I've never seen such an event take place. I looked at my friend who previously worked offshore, and he said that's BOP something another and the rig took a 'kick!' I thought the rig was sinking and that was their way of bilging... But nope! Methane gas began BLOWING out of the West side of it and the noise of the thrust was louder than anything I've ever herd (except for a sonic boom I herd once, and what I'm about to tell you next) My eyes began to burn and that friend I was telling you about earlier began to SCREAM, "GO, GO, GO, GO, GOOOOO!" I positioned my compass North and put the gears in WOT! At approximately 100 yds from the rig it Exploded! Puts a new meaning to explosion.
The rig continued EXPLODING. A very large crew boat was tied to the rig as it blew and the ppl began rafting to that boat as it floated away slowly. I got on the radio to try to help and they told me to stay away for safety. The rig blew a few more explosions after that and began to burn down. Some of the rig began dripping into the water and the platform tilted in and turned RED HOT.
When the gas started blowing out the side of the rig they turned off the power to prevent electrical spark which would ignite the gas, but when they shut power the generator kicked on and thats all she wrote!
I DO NOT HAVE CONFIRMATION OF WHAT I’M ABOUT TO SAY!!!!
Did everyone hear that? Maybe true…maybe just BS. But just heard a story re: the displacement of the drilling mud with sea water from the riser. The mud was being pumped into a boat at the rig. Normal procedure. But at one point the boat captain notified the rig his tanks were almost full. But that didn’t match the volume of mud that could have been pumped in the time span.
What this might mean: when you’re drilling and you stop to add a new section of drill pipe you monitor the return mud tank. When you stop your mud pumps, the flow of mud from the well bore should also stop. If it doesn’t then something down hole must be pushing the mud up and out… oil/NG/water or any combination. That’s why you do a “flow check”. To make sure the hole is static. Pure speculation on my part based upon the unconfirmed report of excessive mud pumped to the boat: the well started coming in and no one was monitoring the flow back. There are also electronic monitors to watch for this but they don’t work very well (or at all) during such an offloading op.
But if true this goes a long way toward explaining why the accident happened so fast. As others have mentioned there are procedures to kill a kick or an actual well flow. But those actions are only taken when you know they well is coming at you. As we say in the oil patch: “When you see it coming at you through the kelly (the drill floor) you’re probably already dead.”
http://blog.skytruth.org/2010/04/gulf-oil-spill-6-million-gallons-per.htmlHOUSTON -- Genesis Energy, L.P. (AMEX:GEL) announced today that it has completed its approximately $560 million acquisition of five energy-related businesses focused on the transportation, storage, marketing and procurement of petroleum products and refinery services, primarily in Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. Genesis acquired the businesses from several entities owned and controlled by the Davison family of Ruston, Louisiana.
The acquisition consideration was comprised of 13,459,209 common units and approximately $318 million in cash, which included the purchase of working capital. The cash consideration was funded through Genesis' $500 million Revolving Credit Facility led by Fortis Capital Corp. and Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. In conjunction with the issuance of those common units to the Davisons, Genesis' general partner (which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Denbury Resources Inc. (NYSE: DNR)) exercised its right to maintain its pro rata ownership of common units by acquiring 1,074,882 common units for approximately $22.4 million. In addition, as required under Genesis' partnership agreement, the Partnership's general partner contributed approximately $6.2 million to maintain its capital account balance.
The Davison family now holds approximately 48% of Genesis' outstanding common units and, depending on their continuing level of ownership, will have the right to designate up to two directors to the board of directors of Genesis Energy, Inc. Initially, James E. Davison, Sr. and James E. Davison, Jr. will be directors on the general partner's newly expanded 10 person board.
Grant E. Sims, Chief Executive Officer of Genesis said, "I am very pleased to announce the completion of this transaction. I want to express my appreciation to the dedicated Davison employees with whom we worked to complete this transaction. We look forward to working with them to continue to build Genesis on a combined basis.
Having completed this transaction, we are now positioned to move forward to negotiate several anticipated transactions with Denbury involving certain of their owned or planned CO2 pipelines and related midstream assets. We currently expect these transactions to be structured as a combination of transportation or similar service arrangements and direct financing leases. We anticipate the total value of such transactions with the Denbury affiliates could exceed $350 million over the next year or two, of which $200 million to $250 million is anticipated during 2007.
We will recommend to the board of directors an increase in our quarterly distribution payable in November 2007 of $0.04 per unit to a total of $0.27 per limited partner unit. That distribution would represent an increase of 35% from the distribution paid for the third quarter of 2006 and an approximately 69% increase relative to the same period in 2005. Thereafter, we would expect to be able to grow our distribution, based on our current properties and plans, in the range of 12 to 15 percent per year for at least the next couple of years."
Genesis Energy, L.P. is a diversified midstream energy master limited partnership headquartered in Houston, Texas. Genesis engages in four business segments. The Pipeline Transportation Division is engaged in the pipeline transportation of crude oil and, to a lesser extent, natural gas and carbon dioxide. The Refinery Services Division primarily processes sour gas streams to remove sulfur at refining operations, principally located in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. The Logistics and Supply Division is engaged in the transportation, storage and supply of energy products, including crude oil and refined products. The Industrial Gases Division produces and supplies industrial gases such as carbon dioxide and syngas. Genesis' operations are primarily located in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.
This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Although Genesis believes that its expectations are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its goals will be achieved. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward looking statements herein include the timing and extent of changes in commodity prices for oil, ability to obtain adequate credit facilities, environmental risks, government regulation, the ability of the Company to meet its stated business goals and other risks noted from time to time in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Each year, Forbes magazine releases its famous list of billionaires. The just released 2010 classifications provide insightful information that in one year, the number of billionaires increased from 793 to 1011, and their accumulated wealth is 3,600 billion, up 50% compared to the previous year. For the super rich, the crisis is long gone.
No matter that Bill Gates is only the second, passed by Mexico’s Carlos Slim, whose wealth reached $53.5 billion. The most important is that such an amount, concentrated in the hands of one person, represents 12 times the budget of a country like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which houses over 68 million people. It also represents more than 3.3 million years of minimum wage (guaranteed) in force in France.
This sharp increase in the number of millionaires happens when billions of people see their living conditions deteriorated after the crisis. This shows vividly the manner that the rich have successfully managed to let the cost of this crisis be borne by greater numbers. In many countries, North and South, the state debt has soared, particularly for the relief of those responsible for this crisis (private banks, hedge funds …) or to pay the consequences. The increase of this debt is then the excuse to impose antisocial measures that penalize the people, but spare the richest.
In contrast to the capitalist system that shows every day its disastrous social consequences, one idea is gaining ground: that of a global tax on large fortunes, advanced by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 1995. For example, a 20% tax on the wealth of the few thousand millionaires would get 720 billion dollars, half the public external debt of all developing countries in 2008 (1,405 billion) and 3.5 times their total annual payments under such debt (211 billion dollars).
