Ixtoc 1 - Never Heard Of It Until This Weekend. Wish There Was No Reason To Revisit The Subject

Ixtoc I was an exploratory oil well being drilled by the semi-submersible platform, Sedco 135 in the Bay of Campeche of the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 km (62 mi) northwest of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche in waters 50 m (160 ft) deep. On 3 June 1979, the well suffered a blowout and is recognized as the second largest oil spill and the largest accidental spill in history.

Mexico's government-owned oil company Pemex (Petróleos Mexicanos) was drilling a 3 km (1.9 mi) deep oil well, when the drilling rig Sedco 135 lost drilling mud circulation.

In modern rotary drilling, mud is circulated down the drill pipe and back up the casing to the surface. The goal is to equalize the pressure through the shaft and to monitor the returning mud for gas. Without the counter-pressure provided by the circulating mud, the pressure in the formation allowed hydrocarbons to fill the well column, blowing out the well. The hydrocarbons caught fire, and Sedco 135 burned and collapsed into the sea. SNIP

In the next nine months, experts and divers including Red Adair were brought in to contain and cap the oil well.

Approximately an average of ten thousand to thirty thousand barrels per day were discharged into the Gulf until it was finally capped on 23 March 1980, nearly 10 months later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixtoc_I

that this will not be a complete total freaking disaster. I expect the relief wells to work, and I expect that once oil is not entering the Gulf of Mexico any longer, our cleanup efforts will begin to succeed.

This is not to say that I want BP off the hook for anything, or that we should continue to explore offshore for oil. I do think it means that when existing wells run dry, they should be capped, after we have fully reviewed the systems that are designed to prevent blowouts. Anything that cannot be repaired in such a way as to reasonably assure that this doesn't happen again gets the concrete down the relief well treatment.

As long as the oil was burning off, it was a good thing.

Some stories have indicated that the water from the fire boats was what caused the rig to sink. This eliminated the possibility of capping it from the top and crumpled and broke the 5000 foot pipe between the surface and the blow out preventer.

Didn't witnesses say that?

If it was, then it was only a matter of time before it sank on its' own anyway.

This is 5,000 feet and a whole different situation.