This Drill-Pipe Killed 11 Men 

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Something is very wrong if employees are afraid to sound the alarm and press emergency buttons though everything around them is on fire and exploding.

I’m an offshore worker, currently on a transocean rig watching this. These types of documentaries are equally fascinating as they are a valuable learning tool. 👏

"your pay depends on you doing this quickly" "we don't pressure our employees to cut corners"

Their exemplary “safety” record was more a record of LUCK than safety looking at the gross neglect of major safety systems and training!

"We can't let staff unilaterally activate alarms or shutoffs because we might lose a few hundred thousand dollars in lost drilling time; we prefer to mandate captain / manager approval, virtually _guaranteeing_ loss of life and an eventual pricetag of billions..." - BP, probably

I have no idea why, but this specific disaster fascinates me. It’s such a perfect storm of errors that showcases the breakdown of a complex system.

Executives should never be allowed to make decisions because they are driven by monetary values rather than life issues.

Those blind rams are a deadman solution for when everything else fails. Theres literally a valve on the BOP that opens and closes like a tap like you suggested. The BOP in the case of the DWH disaster was a story unto itself. The well casing buckled inside the bore of the BOP and caused all kinds of problems and on top of that It wasnt put together right, and it WAS designed to kill the well on its own if it lost communication with the rig. The system was powered by onboard batteries, one bank per ram. Iirc, on one bank the batteries were faulty and had no charge, and on the other ram they had the switch wired backwards. You'd expect a little tighter QC on a $45,000,000 piece of equipment but hey thats the times we live in.

This is like a caricature of corporate greed causing death and destruction. Unreal.

I worked for this company and quit shortly before this happened. I’d had enough of seeing close calls because of cutting corners.

This whole thing stems from a bad test that no one is willing to call bad cause they would be replaced. Then the corner cutting and lack of training in an emergency situation compounded the severity, it’s a miracle that about 92% of the people made it off that rig with their lives

I only worked on this rig for a short period filling in for someone. I spent over 30 years in the oil field and was shocked at this tragedy. The search for scapegoats was enormous and costly. Lots of training resulted and many changes. I have never had a chance to read any official results of investigations or what needed changing. So many errors caused and missed by Transocean and BP. I have retired now, so I hope things have drastically improved.

The men who took action as they should, the drilling crew, paid the price for all those in clean coveralls that took no action.

I've seen the Movie Deep Water Horizon and I've learned more about how the Disaster happened in the last 22:30 than I ever did watching the Movie. Top Job ☝🏻

I think my blood pressure elevated while watching this story. I hate management.

This is a massive case of “not my job, someone else can do it” .. everyone was to scared to take action for fear of reprisal if they’re wrong .. instead of looking at it like “if I don’t do this and the rig blows up, it’ll destroy 1000 square miles of ocean and habitats and cost billions of dollars of environmental damage” they looked at it like “if I do this and I’m wrong, it’ll cost the company 10’s of millions of dollars and I’ll loose my job”

Your editing and content is superb. You're a one-man production crew who ought to have a syndicated show

Nobody wanted to make the shut off call and have in their hr file

Wow this still drives me nuts every time I hear this story. And I remember living through it thinking they will never be able to catch this well and we're going to live with this oil spill for the next 30 years just continuously pouring oil into our ocean. And everything that BP got away with, it's mind-blowing. And the fact that they are afraid to hit the cap off after multiple explosions back to back to back they still want someone higher than them to hit the cap off. If I was on a thing like that and there was multiple explosions non-stop and there was no way to stop it because the oil pressure was massively too high I would have made the executive decision to push the cap off immediately. And if I lost my job due to it I could live with myself because I've saved probably countless lives doing that. If these peons would have just thought for themselves and push the cap off everyone would probably be alive

My understanding is that BOPs do have "on/off" options as well. There's one for sealing the well when there's no string down hole and there's one for closing the annular space between the string and casing. When there is drill string down hole like in this scenario the annular space is closed and that valve the floorhand would have been trying to attach is attached in the open position so you can attach it during a kick or blowout and then the valve is closed after. I'm fairly new to oil and gas work though so take what I've said with a grain of salt 😅 great video as usual

I was on a church beach trip to Panama City in junior high right after this happened. We were swimming around one of the mornings when a large fridge sized box was floating to shore and so we were swimming out around it to see what it was. It was leaking a bunch of fluid so we watched for a while and then the beach staff started getting people out of the water and getting people back. Soon after the hazmat crew showed up and told us it was leaking crude oil and we could see it had a logo from BP or deepwater horizon on it. It was a wild day but my buddies sister got on the local news for it for an interview lol. Cool to see the story broken down so well like this. Awesome video

I like the oil rig stories, as tragic as they can be.

My dad has worked offshore my whole life, at this time he was a BOP Inspector currently working on the Horizons sister rig, Nautilus. That was a scary time. Butt it’s so shitty to hear, essentially, big corpo ignoring the voices of safety personnel and ending up costing lives all in the effort to save some profit. My dad was also on the team to investigate the BOP after this, in his words he said that there wasn’t much left to inspect.

I remember seeing somewhere else that the blind-shear ram of the BOP was wired incorrectly. One of the electrical solenoids that activated one ram had its polarity wrong, that caused the EDS batteries located in the BOP to drain. So only one side of the shear activated, merely kinking the pipe in the annular space.

I really like this guy with his almost unlimited knowledge of what he is talking about. He has a wonderful South African accent and is so articulate in his delivery. Others on similar subjects on You tube are not quite in the same league as this great man who really knows how to put together a professional video. One might say good enough for television. One hopes he continues with these documentaries in the future. They are far more superior than the American versions. Peter Starr London UK

I remember looking up the engines that tore themselves apart from their runaway... The level of violence associated with the rods and crank flying out of the block would be almost unfathomable... And the depiction of it in the movie Deep Water Horizon is worth seeing, make sure you crank your stereo up for the full effect.

This event and Chernobyl share rather a lot of similarities. As far as what leads to the accident and how it was handled

Thank you for this excellent video. Tragedies like this need to be studied by everyone. No matter where you live or where you work, there is always a chance of finding yourself in the middle of disaster. In times like that it is up to each and every one of us do what we can to be part of the solution, because if you cant keep your head about you then you are only adding to the crisis.

Waterline, I didn't think your videos could get any better but the research and reporting in this video takes the cake. Congrats. I can't wait to see what else this channel's future has in store for us.

Transoceanic didn’t want an automatic shutdown system, not because it’s less safe than manual, but because a false alarm can be very expensive - especially if the guillotine is triggered. I guess they didn’t consider the cost of losing the whole rig.

Step 1: Ignore any possible measure to prevent disaster Step 2: Cry Pretty much the summary of the state of humanity.

Wow the negligence !! Would never work for these companies

A tragic and complex disaster. Very thoroughly explained, thank you. 👌

The tap idea is neat. I know people that make bops. I'll ask.

3rd time I've watched this story and again I still believe that ALL the safety precautions must not be made by humans!!! They seem to get confused and then nothing is done. Greatly awaiting for your next video 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

None of those people were qualified to be there ! Especially the contractors!!

In the process of doing a risk analysis our contractor introduced the phrase "brain-dead operator". The idea was to design so that an error from a human would compromise safety. At the same time the question was raised how many levels of safety are needed. Do you design for a single human error (Level 1)? Do you add in a sensor failure (Level 2)? What happens when you push a button and nothing happens (Level 3)? And so on, and so on? I was shown a design where there were up to five levels of redundancy along with all sorts of interlocking controls by a different contractor. The design belonged to another company. When asked what I thought, my response is the system was so complex that if it could be made to work, failure was inevitable. My next comment was that bypasses and work-arounds were inevitable. When you back up a sensor with a second, if one shows one number the second a different number, which one is right? Voting logic helps choose an answer. But, what if it is wrong? I was asked to give a presentation to senior management of a number of companies on the results of the risk analysis that was now complete and the progression of design work that was being done. In my presentation I related the story about the "brain-dead operator" and the designs that were being done. I then told the audience that it was not only risk of "brain-dead operators" and "brain-dead designers" that posed a risk. But, the greatest risk may come from "brain-dead management" that wasn't overseeing the projects that were being designed, built, and placed into operation. In the case of the Deepwater Horizon it was a combination of "brain-dead operations", "brain-dead supervision", and "brain-dead management" that resulted in disaster.

My ex boyfriend worked for Transocean on the Deepwater Horizon when this happened. He was on his rotation home so he was lucky. It affected him deeply as many of the guys that died were friends of his. He was a drill operator in the drill shack (I can't remember if that's the exact name). And then my husband (now ex) helped in the oil spill clean up.

Nice to see your channel growing. Great work.

Thanks for the in depth review of the sequence of events. I, like many, feel this incident perfectly shows that automation in safety is a must. There is so much money involved that, even with this incident in mind, any employee will feel very hesitant to make the call and probably leave it too late. If you were to make the call too soon and shut down systems necessary for production, you'll be fired and never work in oil and gas again. I know that it will increase cost, automation will by definition shut down too soon every now and then, but I think we should consider that the cost of doing business. Incidents like this should simply be considered unacceptable, the cost to human life and the environment is just too high. Even if no alternative to these permanent blowout preventers is found, drilling a new hole is cheaper than this.

The part missed was just before when the "company man" insisted that HE WAS BOSS, DO WHAT I SAY and the contractors did just that (safety? We dont need no pesky stop work authority)

Instant on/off isn’t practical at this scale. The bigger the pipe and the faster the flow, the slower a valve needs to move to prevent pressure hammer.

I find it astonishing how people can survive being blown 20' off their feet, or being hit in the head by a bulkhead door.

I used to work drilling on land I hate when the suits rush the work and pennypinch

Trained to take the least costly option as a first resort. That's such a good point. This is one of the key issues in a lot of these vids.

Another perfectly presented documentary. I always look forward to your postings. There always interesting and clearly explained. Thanks mate. 👍👍

As for your question about BOPs, no. You can't effectively shut a valve that has drillpipe strung up through it -- that's what the shears are for. The feature you're looking for *IS* the Disconnect, not something added to it.

I absolutely love watching these video's. They are traumatic and exciting at the same time. My take away, it seems like humans need to be taken out of the sequence, to many decisions NOT made. Can't wait for the next story. I watch this one again and again.

Riveting. Tragic. For such a matter of fact presentation, I've never felt so invested, even knowing the resolution. Great video.

This was fantastic, but you could have went into further detail on the mechanical failure of the blowout preventer. It had multiple fail safes and backup systems for redundancy and all of them ended up failing or jamming.

Remember, the company was not meaningfully punished. They blamed dead heroes and recorded high profits anyway.

As you say, they didn't activate the BOP until a blowout had already occured meaning they have 5,000ft of oil and gas coming upon them. Let's say the pipe is only 9" in diameter, that's 62,000Litres or 16,000US Gals of oil and gas that's getting to the rig regardless of any on/off solution they have for the BOP The real tragedy here is that no-one had ever thought about or trained these guys to know that if a blowout occurs you ARE going to blow up your rig unless you divert the oil & gas directly overboard and immediately shut off all power to the rig, but no company would ever willingly have dump over board as a solution because it would ruin their reputation and destroy the environment, despite the irony of how much worse the environment was damaged because of the failure. Awesome video, presented way more facts about the situation then i've been able to find on other videos, cheers.

Outstanding outstanding video

I’m also not an engineer, but I wonder why a remotely actuated ball valve can’t be used to close a well? I know it’s a lot of pressure, but a big ball valve can hold back thousands of psi, and be opened again.

Putting aside the immense human and ecological tragedy of this event for a moment, it occurs to me that the whole business of deep sea drilling is truly one of humanity's greatest achievements. Just thinking of immense complexities involved at every stage of the process blows my mind, the sheer number of people who need to think and work in concert, the materials science, the geological science, the construction work - there isn't one single person on the planet who could explain it all from beginning to end, or even comprehend 1% of it, and yet somehow it all works and we do something seemingly impossible, and in doing so we drive the engine of civilisation. Amazing.

Their exemplary safety record was just pure blind luck and everything was based on saving money not lives but that is typical of big business

Great video mate 👌🏻Thanks for sharing this story

This video was very informative on what really happened… Thanks for sharing…

Nice well done video. I actually suggested a way to seal off the well which BP responded to me and went on to use a very similar idea, by attaching a valve to the existing Blow Out Preventer; I suggested a manual turned valve to close the well, and BP would go on to use a powered one. So yes, if they can do that, then they could seal off a well without killing it. Another option is to freeze the well which would take some time, but could work too.

The thing with those shear rams is that they are designed to have as close to zero mechanical failure points as possible once closed. Something you could close and open like a tap would introduce failure potentials that especially severe kicks (like Deepwater Horizons one) could overwhelm. The shear rams slice through the pipe then the two blades and their ram bases completely cover the pipe and annulus space (the area outside the pipe but inside the well casing) below the Riser column, meaning the well would need to blow them physically out of the BlowOut Preventer (BOP, the massive equipment stack between the casing and the riser) to overwhelm them. This is why the Shear Rams are the last resort option. You only use them when its shear or burn. There are a number of mechanical options which can be closed and reopened in the "tap"like fashion, and they are used whenever any driller has a doubt about the possibility of a kick taking place. Drill crews are trained to monitor for and immediately report any sign of a potential Kick event. These include Losing Mud (pumping in more than is flowing back out) to the well formation which left unchecked depletes your mud column and its associated Hydrostatic Pressure value (how much force the mud exerts onto the well formation when the pumps are turned off) and allows oil and gas to flow/Kick into the wellbore, Gaining mud (getting more mud flowing back than youre pumping in, meaning the well is already overwhelming your hydrostatic pressure value and oil and gas are flowing/Kicking into the wellbore), Cavings (specifically shaped shards of rock) coming back out of the well during drilling which is a sign that the rock youre drilling into is pushing in much harder than your mud is pushing out. Basically, the ENTIRE drilling crew on shift is watching for their own individual potential warning signs depending on which area of the operation they are working in. As soon as those signs are reported the Driller should have the authority to shut in the well via the Taplike options without the need for ANY higher blessing, and in dire circumstances they ABSOLUTELY should have the authority to function those Shear rams. People die when the people onsite have to ask permission to do their jobs.

Great video that presents this straightforward and easily understood.

$496,800 PER DAY! and BP have the gall to claim they need to put prices up while their profit margins are constantly growing....

This seems similar to what happened on Piper Alpha, when 167 men lost their lives while oil and gas were allowed to flow to the rig from neighbouring rigs because nobody had the balls to shut the flow down, even though the other rigs could clearly see Piper Alpha burning. Why is it that 'following procedures' and working according to the rule book is more important than saving lives, especially on US-operated rigs? I worked four years in the southern North Sea, and there was a world of difference between working on a small UK-run gas platform and a US-run drilling rig: on the gas platform all of us base crew knew how to blow down and shut down all the wells, even the cook and steward, and we all knew how to lower and man the lifeboats and life rafts; on the drilling rig nothing could happen without the OIM's approval, and if he wasn't available then nothing would happen. I was glad to stop working on the rig: that workplace ethos is a disaster just waiting to happen.

It’s absolutely tragic to know there was this much loss off life that could have likely been easily prevented if these oil companies weren’t such cheap bastards and did the inspections as they were recommended and kept one of the most important safety measure automatic instead of relying on human input because no one wants to be the person to push the button that’s gonna cost millions of dollars on even the slightest chance there is another way, these companies regard safety as the lowest priority and now we have so many family that will never see there loved ones again because of it

Been binge watching and so cool to see you cover this! Despite it being relatively infamous and well known, I was still hooked. It always seems a great frustration that the entire system incentives are against safety and it's always up to a select few of underpaid maintenance people to try and fight against those incentives to fix the situation. And of course those in the C suite designing the system never face the consequences

Another great video, I wasn't really familiar with the whole story, but when I heard the delay, deadlines, bonuses, I immediately thought human error

Anyone else remember that the oil companies promised us gulf states that this would never happen in the gulf if thay were allowed to drill

So many parallels between this and Fukushima. Great video, informative rather than dramatic like the movie about the disaster.

Brilliantly narrated. Well done.

High functioning autistic people would not be frozen in fear during an emergency like this. I recommend hiring them to their Damage Control teams.

we got a hoodie and a shirt from you, and we get asked all the time where we got 'em! Love the channel!

I'm a vereran of the Ekofisk oil field. On 2/4Bravo they actually installed the BOP upside down! Nobody actually knew which end was up and which was down! This sort of mistake was rife in the North Sea. Another time a paint crew Phillips Pet. hired constructed a scaffolding structure under the lifeboats so that none could be launched. Then during a major Riser Platform overhaul they needed to get nitrogen to the hydrocarbon piping so it could be flushed out before being cut open safely. What piping goes everywhere on the platform? The compressed air platform! So they disconnected the compressed air and filled the system with nitrogen. Warning signs out the bazoo! So here comes a painter over the side to sandblast. He jacks his hood and blaster into the compressed air system, climbs over the side and goes to work. About a minute later, "MAN OVERBOARD!" A safety engineer jumps from the 20 meter deck into the ocean and supports the man until pickedup by a large supply boat, and brought to the Hotel Platform where the medics were. Norwegian Government Safety held a big hearing. (I had to appear) Upshot (Worker) Did you read the warning signs? Answer: What signs? Heck, you couldn't even use the restrooms without staring at a sign! They were friggin' everywhere, The amazing thing to me was that there weren't MORE accidents than happened. Lets not forget the Alexander Kieland, the quarters platform that broke apart, turned turtle and sank. I missed that by less than 24hrs. 123 of my friends and coworkers died. That was another management mistake. Requiscat In Pace. 😢

I’ve worked in the oil field since I graduated high school. I’m 42 years old now and something like this still makes me wonder what if. We do so much training to help us in these difficult situations but I still wonder, is it really enough?

The Deepwater Horizon disaster showcases many faults in the system, and much of it came down to complacency and greed. For the main decision of using the final failsafe, one is looking at millions of dollars in loss and there's the knowledge that the company will not take such a choice lightly, especially if there is *any* way that they can claim it wasn't warranted. There's an astronomical amount of pressure. Instead of having a handbook that says in *these* instances one should consider using the failsafe, they leave it to human interpretation and clearly that led to problems. The Deepwater Horizon was heralded as top of its class concerning safety and protocol, however it had been systematically cutting corners both in inspections and maintenance. The reason the backup generators didn't start was because the batteries for them were dead, something that should have been caught in an inspection. Many safety features had been disabled, and of course you touched on how BP and Transocean opted for human driven safety rather than automated under the guise of being better for crew, but I'd much rather be woken at 3am by a false fire alarm, than die because the alarm didn't sound. There was a breakdown in communications, no one knew who to report to, what to report, or even what to do because the chain of command was muddy. People became so engrossed in trying to fix what they could *see* that they didn't radio or communicate the gravity of the situation. And of course, the explosions occurred within 10-15 minutes after the blowback. That's a very short amount of time, and had the information been relayed at the very start those in the engine and control rooms could have shut things down preventing the explosion. This all doesn't even touch on the fact that the companies in charge were pushing HARD to maintain their schedule despite geologic difficulties and dangers. Instead of proceeding cautiously and doing things right, they prioritized money and speed which ultimately cost billions. Of course, for these companies that's just a sting and not really consequential. People lost their lives, ecosystems were devastated, and petroleum that could have been collected safely had they done things properly was lost. Personally I couldn't care less about their loss of revenue, I'm just pissed that they caused a disaster of that gravity and had to be uncomfortable for... What? A few years? And then they're making 60 BILLION in profits again like it never happened. Of course they'll promise to do better next time, but another Deepwater Horizon is inevitable so long as they prioritize unrealistic schedules, cost cutting, and safety shortcuts.

As a oil and gas worker the absolute ignorance and stupidity of this crew is amazing

Ones agian amazing video, love your videos, keep it up

Events like this happen because of corporate decisions in an office that has no idea how dangerous rigs are.

in terms of the valve thing it might be possible but would most likely involve a ridiculous amount of power to operate (either a large motor operated/solenoid valve with something to divert flow into sea)

Great breakdown, nice job.

I saw the movie about this. Felt like I was watching it again. I remember when this was first in the news. When I was driving home from work one day I passed a BP gas station and just shuddered about the loss of live and the terrible damage to the environment. I wonder if those folks learned anything from this disaster. Very well told.

You have to take the human equation out to preventing accidents like this. Nobody wants to take the ultimate responsibility and it all goes back to job security and greed. A friend of mine lost her husband and her kid's father. I knew him, he was a REALLY COOL guy.

everything that happened this day was caught on video but bp has done everything they can to bury the footage

Greed is almost always at the epicenter of all man made accidents.

Love your channel! You should have 10x the subscribers :)

They have that “tap” it’s called a stabbing valve, which is what the floor hand was trying to install by himself, I’m not sure if it would be possible to have multiple stabbing valves attached to each pipe as they’re sent downhole, but from what I’ve seen they’re only kept in reserve on the floor and installed when needed

Asking the question if it is possible to shut it off is about the same as giving the answer. I’m not an oil driller, I just happen to look at a lot of air crash investigations. Don’t be undecided, if you have to push that button, Push it!

A 9 volt batterys incorrect wiring was one of the many failure points that prevented the blow out preventer from functioning.

Great presentation!

I work in the oil refinery for five years I was on several jobs were heavy equipment was being moved around. If you saw some thing that was wrong you got on the radio right then and there and you told your supervisor and you took the appropriate measures to make the situation safe. My crew were well trained, and very confident of their abilities The fact that they didn’t know who had the authority to stop this shows you a lack of training and a lack of leadership I do not blame this on the crew. I blame this on the executives at transocean and BP. On a sidenote, the last thing anybody really wanted to do is push that button because they knew if they pushed it and they were wrong they would lose their job their livelihood, and God knows what else I hate to say this, but I’ve worked in this industry for so many years at the end of the day. It really is about money. You cut corner as you do whatever the hell it is you have to do you have a quota deadline in the budget do you have to meet the refinery or just as easy kick you out and hire a new company if you do not meet their budget and their deadline See your safety is good to think about when it’s convenient but when money comes in to play, safety always takes a backseat And it’s not going to change you could have 14 different oil spills just like this in this industry will continue to operate the same exact way And this is the only industry there’s a lot of industrial Cecherz, other than operate in that same exact rhetoric Appear to be safe at all times but one putting foot the ass safety takes a backseat we have to get this done I was holding a Hammer wrench on boiler bolts in the pouring rain. My finger got smashed by a 17 pound sledgehammer. I did not go to the hospital I force the bone back through my finger taped it with some medical gauze took a paint stick, broken, half splitting it with that, cut the finger of my glove off, and then put my glove on and went back to work If the refinery would’ve found out about that incident. They will stop the whole job. We would have a safety violation an OSHA inspection would’ve gotten done and we probably would’ve lost the contract along with millions of dollars and I probably would’ve lost my job.

The amount of oil spills, pollution, co2 being pumped in the air from factories/trucks/boats/planes/rockets, nuke tests etc. makes me sick. This poor planet 😢

This is one of the best tales I’ve seen on this. Not an expert, but I love the matter of fact, drama free take. Very little judgement insinuated which leaves it up to the viewer 🥂

I can’t imagine the big brains on the people who were able to design and construct this thing. Seems a lot more complex than any space tech. $496,000 per day just to rent the rig and a total of approx $1m per day. Insane.

Another top drawer production. Thanks again for your hard work.

Hearing those big diesels run away is absolutely terrifying on its own!! Especially when theres a big bank of them all doing it simultaneously, its making the hair on my neck stand up just typing this

-that's a lot'a oil isn't it?

love your vids man

a drill pipe is like a steel straw that fits loosely inside inside the well bore. when the blowout preventer needs to close both the drill pipe and the well bore it's going to be destructive. sometimes it may be practical to close only the bore and leave the drill pipe open (by kissing the pipe); but if the nuclear option is needed it's going to break the drill pipe.

This wasn't about disbelief or being unable to comprehend the situation or even being punished. It was all about the bonuses and making the timetable... That was THE cause of this disaster...

I absolutely love how you explain all the little details. Even if some of us dont understand any of it it helps to put the events of what happened together. Ive been binging your videos for the past two days. Very informative and entertaining. Thank you.