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Transocean’s semi-submersible drilling vessel Deepwater Horizon was finishing work on a wellbore that had found oil 18,000 feet beneath the seafloor, in mile-deep water fifty miles off the Louisiana coast. Supervisors in the control cabin overlooking the drilling operations area were directing routine procedures to cement, plug and seal the borehole, replace heavy drilling fluids with seawater and extract the drill stem and bit through the riser (outer containment pipe) that connected the vessel to the blowout preventer (BOP) on the seafloor.
Suddenly, a thump and hiss were followed by a towering eruption of seawater, drilling mud, cement, oil and natural...
Lessons From the Gulf Blowout
Carl....Those rigs are designed like the deck of a boat or ship. They are designed to shed copious amounts of water, either from the sky or the sea.
The boats were trying to keep the metal cool enough not to collapse, like the WTC, from the heat. The idea was to keep it from collapse long enough to apply the proper oil fire chemicals.