Corrected entry: The British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon accident was erroneously characterized by environmental activists, by some U.S. politicians, by the press and by this film as the "worst" manmade oil spill in history. It was not. The Pemex Ixtoc 1 disaster off the Yucatan peninsula in 1979 was far worse, lasted much longer, and received almost zero press in the United States, even though it impacted virtually every coastline in the Gulf of Mexico for over a year. The Deepwater Horizon spill was hyped far above and beyond its comparatively minor environmental impact for purely political reasons (i.e., it was used to fuel opposition to offshore drilling).
Charles Austin Miller
18th Jul 2017
Deepwater Horizon (2016)
29th Jul 2018
Deepwater Horizon (2016)
Question: What blew the door to Mike's workshop off its hinges?
Answer: That was the initial gas blow-out, prior to the explosion. Pressurized gas was coming out of the drill pipe with sufficient force to tear the place apart, even before it ignited.
What caused the gases to ignite?
Gas blowouts are notorious for igniting themselves. The vast quantity of gas and particulates, expelled under high pressure, create an electrostatic charge in the gas cloud that arcs to the nearest grounding point. It's like shuffling across a carpet and then touching a metal doorknob: a tiny electrostatic spark is created. Such a tiny spark is all that is necessary to ignite a cloud of petroleum gas.
9th Dec 2017
Deepwater Horizon (2016)
Question: What causes pressure in an oil well?
Answer: That largely goes back to how oil is formed: from dead organic material. That sinks to the bottom of the sea, and if certain layers of sediment build up over that, it gets buried deep enough that's it's compressed, and after enough time passes, it becomes oil. But that pressure from the massive weight of miles and miles of rock on top of it never actually goes away, so when you poke a hole in it, that pressure suddenly has a way to go, via the oil spewing up through the well.
So basically the pressure is created by massive weight of miles and miles of rock on top of the oil that creates the well pressure. Is that correct?
Geologic forces are one thing, but there are different types of petroleum wells, ranging from crude oil to natural gas to combinations thereof. The lattermost, a oil/gas well, is most dangerous because it can suddenly start spewing natural gas when crude oil was expected. Tapping into an oil/gas well can be like popping the top on a can of soda: Gases are released from the fluid and expand rapidly, creating immense and unexpected pressure. In the case of the can of soda, the thing unexpectedly spews soda all over you and your clothing. In the case of an oil/gas well, the thing unexpectedly undergoes a gas blow-out and, potentially, a catastrophic explosion when it reaches the surface.
28th Jul 2018
Deepwater Horizon (2016)
Question: Why did Vidrine not think there was anything wrong with the drill pipe, even though the drill pipe test showed a lot of pressure? Second, why did the test on the kill line show no pressure?
Answer: Vidrine didn't think there was anything wrong with the the drill pipe because there was nothing wrong with it. The problem was the cement cap they tried installing to seal the well. The thing to keep in mind is that British Petroleum didn't intend to immediately tap that well. Managers and crew of the floating platform rig planned to just cap the well and let another rig come along to handle actual production later. The crew was thus a little anxious to cement the well closed and abandon it. Some think it was this anxiousness to move on that produced the blowout. Of many procedures performed prior to abandonment was the "negative test" (whereby drilling mud was pulled out of the well to determine whether the cement cap could withstand the pressure). The negative test was bad, showing pressure in the drill line, an indication that gas had entered the well because they were applying suction to it, and the integrity of the cement cap was compromised. That's when Vidrine ordered the second test, this time on the kill line, and got a reading of no pressure (which was good, but was probably a false reading). Obviously, something wasn't right; but Vidrine, anxious to wrap the operation, decided to trust the kill line reading and basically ignore the drill line reading. This was a major mistake. As they continued pulling the drilling mud out, highly-pressurized gas shot straight up the drill pipe to the rig, and that was the end of Deepwater Horizon.
In the movie, the reason the kill line got no pressure is because the pipe got clogged. (if you listen to the audio description, you'll hear the audio describer the mud clogs the pipe during the kill line pressure test scene).
I thought it was mud that shot straight up from the drill pipe to the rig.
They were sucking the drilling mud up the pipe, but there was high-pressure petroleum gas behind it. They only realised too late that they had failed to cap the well; and then hell, as they say, broke loose.
Then what was that fluid flying upward through derrick?
You can liken a gas blow-out to somebody popping the top on a pressurized can of soda; gas and fluid alike come spewing out of what was, a moment before, a fairly stable fluid. Under tremendous pressure, all you need to do is give natural gas an escape route and all kinds of stuff comes up with it, including crude oil, asphalt, drilling mud, water, etc. The gas is blasting out of the earth and carrying anything and everything with it.
The mud contained a certain methane gas proportion, which ignited and caused the explosions.
Authorities don't think Vidrine was ultimately responsible though. They believe the an employee who died in the disaster was, because he was responsible for the bladder effect hypothesis. I think what the film is actually trying to say is that the person who made the mistake of trusting the kill line was ultimately responsible.
In real life, it was Vidrine who chose to trust the kill line reading and ignore the drill line reading.
By blaming someone who isn't around to defend themselves as they died in the disaster is considered cowardly. That's why in my opinion, money exchanged hands between BP and the Authorities to ensure no charges were brought against Vidrine. Again that's my own opinion. Here's a link to where the manslaughter charges against Kaluza and Vidrine are dropped https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/03/manslaughter-charges-dropped-bp-employees-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill.
Personally I think the idea that the actual villain was the guy who was responsible for the bladder effect hypothesis, and not the guy who chose to trust the kill line reading, and not the drill line reading is absurd.
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Correction: It's hard to analyze "worst oil spill" because there's so many factors involved beyond how long it lasted, including death and injuries that occurred. However, the 1979 event resulted in 140 million gallons spilt and the Deepwater Horizon spilt an estimated 206 million gallons and resulted in 11 deaths.
Bishop73
The Ixtoc 1 is still considered the worst accidental oil spill in history. Ixtoc 1 remained uncapped and freely flowing for 9 months, releasing over 3.5 Million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. That's barrels, not gallons. The only larger spill was in Kuwait, when Iraqi forces deliberately destroyed oil wells in that country, releasing 8 Million barrels of oil into the Persian Gulf. However, Kuwait is considered an "intentional" oil spill, not accidental.
Charles Austin Miller
Ixtoc 1 is only considered one of the worst spills, but not the number 1 worst spill. Deepwater Horizon released 4.9 Million Barrels (which is 40% more oil) and resulted in 11 deaths. Yes, Ixtoc 1 took 9 months to cap where Deepwater Horizon took only 5 months to cap, but the amount split was still less than Deepwater Horizon.
Bishop73
But Ixtoc was not a deep well, and its spillage was carried across the entire surface of the Gulf of Mexico for 9 months. The Deepwater Horizon was an extremely deep well, and much of its spillage remained in vast pools on the ocean floor, where it gradually degraded (yes, under extreme pressure and low temperature, crude oil will sink rather than rise to the surface). That fact also makes it impossible to estimate the total spillage of Deepwater Horizon. Nonetheless, some Deepwater Horizon spillage did rise to the surface, but not even nearly as much as the Ixtoc 1. Deepwater Horizon's environmental impact was negligible compared to Ixtoc 1; but, as stated in the original post, Deepwater Horizon was hyped and sensationalized in the press for political purposes.
Charles Austin Miller