Earlier today, the official probe into the Deepwater Horizon oil spill issued one of its first extensive reports. According to Det Norske Veritas, the classification society retained by the government, the rig's blowout preventer had serious design flaws that made it possible for a piece of drill pipe to keep it from working properly--and was at the very least a contributing cause to the Oilmageddon disaster.
The 551-page report said the piece of drill pipe prevented the blowout preventer's blind shear rams, or BSRs, from sealing the well around the time of the April 20 oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana. The shear rams are components in a blowout preventer that cut, or shear, through drill pipe and form a seal against well pressure.
"The primary cause of failure was identified as the BSRs failing to fully close and seal due to a portion of drill pipe trapped between the blocks," the report stated.
Full report is viewable here. It appears to shift the blame for the disaster to Cameron International, who built the blowout preventer, and Haliburton, who maintained it.
The report also raised concerns about the blowout preventer's performance as well.
Documents emerged early in the probe showing that a part of the device had a hydraulic leak, which would have reduced its effectiveness, and that a passive "deadman" trigger had a low, perhaps even dead, battery.
DNV noted loss of fluid and weak battery issues in its report, but did not seem to cite them as significant causes of the blowout preventer's failure.
About the only thing that may save Cameron from getting shaken pretty hard in this is that every blowout preventer in use may have the same design flaw.
Philip Johnson, a University of Alabama civil engineering professor, said the report indicates that the blowout preventer had a design flaw in its blind shear rams that may have gone unnoticed by the entire industry, not just by Cameron.
"This is the first time in all of this that there has been a clear design flaw in the blowout preventer cited," he said. "My reaction is, 'Holy smokes, every set of blind shear rams out there may have this problem.' We need to take a look at every set of blind shear rams out there and make sure they all don't have this problem."
If this is true, said redesigns need to begin fast--or else we'll have more Oilmageddons in the future.