Faulty Deepwater Horizon Blowout Preventer

A key safety device known as the blowout preventer used in Transocean’s drilling rig, Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf had a hydraulic leak and other problems that suggest malfunction from working as designed, according to a congressional investigation. The device known as “blowout preventer” or “BOP” is the last line of defense against a well blowout and oil gushing into Gulf waters by sealing the pipe hole at the surface of the oil well. The congressional committee said that there were at least “four significant problems with the blowout preventer” used on the Deepwater Horizon drill rig. Rep. Henry Waxman says that his committee’s investigation into the Gulf oil spill reveals that a key safety device, the blowout preventer, had a leak in a crucial hydraulic system.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said that a 2001 report by Transocean, which made the device, indicated there can be as many as 260 failure possibilities in the equipment. “How can a device that has 260 failure modes be considered fail-safe?” asked Stupak. Stupak said BP confirmed in documents that a leak had been found in the hydraulic system that provides emergency power to a part of the blowout preventer. When a remote underwater vehicle tried to activate the safety device a loss of hydraulic pressure was detected, said Stupak. When dye was injected “it showed a large leak coming from a loose fitting,” said Stupak, citing BP documents. Also reported, BP confirmed that the blowout preventer had been modified so that one of its ram drivers could be used for routine testing and was no longer designed to activate in an emergency. He said after the spill BP “spent a day trying to use this … useless test ram.

Rep. Waxman said in a hearing that the investigation also discovered that the well had failed a negative pressure test just hours before the April 20 explosion. He cited BP documents received by the Energy and Commerce Committee that showed there was a breach in the well integrity that allowed methane gas and possibly other hydrocarbons to enter the well.