2010 Gulf Oil Spill

In the wake of tragedy of the BP oil spill I hope to see some kind of money put in to research to keep things like this from getting out of hand.

BP tried using the ‘TOPHAT’ or  40 foot dome on top of the last string of riser to stop the leak. BUT hydrate ice crystals formed and wont allow the oil to pass through the top. this problem was anticipated but not to this degree.

A similar method of this nature was used in June, 1979 for Ixtoc I called the ‘steel sombrero’. Oh and that didn’t work either.

Technology  of 1979! That did not work then is still in use today so why is it still in use today? Unproven and untested  I’m pretty sure if BP was to announce a 2 million dollar prize to the person with the best solution to a problem of this nature they would have already fixed it. BP is projected to pay over 500 million dollars in cleaning up this spill and thats on the low side. 500 MILLION DOLLARS! Thats one hell of a pay day. BP should go ahead and throw in an extra 10 million for research and development for oil spill containments and leaks. Better yet why not 10% of the cost to clean up this whole mess also be put back in to future innovations in being able to prevent or respond to such events. Proactive is better than reactive. This type of event will happen again. The next time it may not be BP or PTT (Montara oil spill in Australia Aug 09) but it will happen again. The question is will the oil companies be ready for it or will there at least be a service company ready to show up and save the day at a moments notice?

OTC 10 Review

OTC 10 was a blast! I went everyday yes everyday. First off my legs were really sore by thursday afternoon. I got the chance to see some really amazing technology. I got the chance to meet some amazing people who truly believe in and love what they do and the products and services they offer. Everything from down hole tools to REALLY BIG BOATS. I cant recall the name right now but the 600POB  accommodation ship with the cinema and pool sounds like a great way to spend a 28 on 28 off rotation to me.

The most impressive exhibit had to be the Lincoln Electrical exhibit. They had actual products on the floor along with some really innovative displays of what they can do. Not to mention the most important part PEOPLE who know their product and are willing to talk to you about it.  Best part of the exhibit was the VRTEX 360. WOW! what an amazing piece of equipment. I will have a follow up blog about it later.

The least impressive….Halliburton. This is mainly due to the people of Halliburton. While I was there trying to ask questions about a particular topic of interest it seems as though the guy had already had a few too many beers and could truly care less about what i was talking about it. At another point an individual took a picture of something like the Halliburton sign and a Halliburton person i thought was going to beet him up if he did not delete the picture he took. Maybe next year a sign that says no pictures and less beer would help.  Granted there migth have been others who fit the bill for weakest or least impressive but this one got my vote.

Feel free to put down your vote for best and worst of OTC

First Post

I’m currently getting ready to head off to OTC 10. No better way to meet  the people we will soon be writing about. Soon we hope to be bringing you nothing but the best and greatest from what the oilfield has to offer. Today i truly hope to see some game changing technologies that make the industry more efficient safer faster and more cost effective. I will return tonight with a full report of my thoughts of Day 1 of OTC 10. If you can’t wait that long feel free to follow the day on twitter at Oil_innovation.