Some info on the newly approved rig(West Sirius), West Atlas (blew up) & Deepwater Horizon

I tried to sort out these 3 rigs. Two are owned by Seadrill although they are different types. The one that blew up off Australia had cementing problems by Halliburton too even though it was a different type of rig -jackup rig.(West Atlas). The other which was just approved is also owned by Seadrill and it has had blowout preventer problems already-semisubmersible rig.(West Sirius).

The one that is gushing now is owned by Transocean and leased to BP. It is the same type as the West Sirius although they are designed and built by different companies.

All this info is probably in some chart all neat and tidy. I never found it. I summarized what I think I found about each rig at the bottom.

Halliburton the cementing company and the blowout preventer company (Cameron) are the same in all.

There are so many companies and people involved, you could sue everyone for an eternity. They probably will point fingers back and forth between all the players I listed from the designer to the builder to BP.
If I got something wrong, sue me. I tried. I now have a headache.

Edit to add: Why did they get an approval???

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West Sirius rig that was approved spent 18 days of downtime already because of problems with the blowout preventer. Owned by Seadrill.
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Seadrill also said its semi-submersible West Sirius experienced about 18 days of downtime due to problems with its blowout preventer, while the semi-sub West Venture completed a short-stay for the installation of extra equipment before heading to the Troll field off Norway this week. The company said the West Venture remained on day-rate during the stoppage.
Published: 05 February 2010 09:12 GMT | Last updated: 05 February 2010 09:12 GMT
http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article205668.ece

<snip>
Meanwhile, Atlas Drilling rig manager Donald Millar said he should have picked up from a daily drilling report that cementing work done in March 2009, six months before the blowout, had failed.

The inquiry was told a cement "shoe" for the well was improperly poured, with "floats" failing during the job and seawater leaking in. Millar agreed a remedial step of pumping back an additional amount of cement and fluid after the floats failed had likely worsened the situation.

“I didn’t recognize the significance of it,” he said.
<snip>
The H1 blew out in AUGUST last year and continued to spill oil and gas into the Timor Sea until operations to plug it finally succeeded in NOVEMBER.
http://www.petroleumnews.net/storyview.asp?storyid=1133544§ionsource=s67

The West Atlas is a jackup rig which is supported by 3 or 4 legs that reach the seafloor.

The Gulf rig called West Sirius is a semi submersible rig.
the Deep Water Horizon is a semisubmersible rig.
Short definitions of types of oil rigs here: http://www.rigjobs.co.uk/oil/oilrigs.shtml

Cementing problems?? Blowout preventer problems.?? Hmmmmmmmmm...........
When will this one have problems?

West Sirius:
Semisubmersible- 5th generation deepwater
Owned by Seadrill Ltd.
Leased by Devon Industries.
Designed by Friede & Goldman ExD
Built by FG Offshore in Singapore in 2008.
Flagged in Panama
Cementing by Halliburton
Same Blowout preventers as Deep Water Horizon.

Deep Water Horizon
Semisubmersible- 5th generation
Owned by Transocean
Leased to BP
Designed by Reading & Bates Falcon RBS-8D
Built by Hyundai in South Korea in 2001.
Flagged in the Marshall Islands.
Cementing by Halliburton
Same blowout preventer as West Sirius

West Atlas is a jackup rig.
Owned by Seadrill Ltd.
Leased by PTTEP
?????????????????
Cementing by Halliburton.
It blew up off the coast of Austrailia. (Followed now by my head)

are so intertwined, it is hard to tell were the end and begin. Each part of the rig is so specialized that you will deal with a hundred companies to keep it running.

having worked as an auditor and my wife who has a lot of experience as an auditor (internal and otherwise)--the bigger the mess the more likely of something being covered up.

Of course, you start with the normal checks but if something is outside of a reasonable standards AND people appear oddly disorganized or have backup material that is messy and staped a lot (this happens a lot in governmental operations, people who swim in paper) then there tends to be a direct connection to fraud. It might not be theft it could just be incompetence, laziness, or underfunding (man power). They create a mess to make it formidable to have to dig through it.

Sounds like this with the oil industry. Other industries too, like receipts at a Chinese restaurant. But oil pays huge insurance fees and they will get more than they paid out of it. The insurance companies will do fine too....I mean who ever heard of an insurance company going under?????

You could search Wiki too, they have some good info

the rumor I read about is that the Deepwater Horizon was only permitted to drill to 18,000 ft, but they went to 35,000ft. Halliburton put in a cap that was only good for 18,000 ft of pressure and it blew with the extra pressure.

thanks.

they seem to live in making soup so no one can see the ingredients