On 20th April 2010 something unexpected occurred during completion operations on BP's Macondo well in the Gulf Of Mexico. A 'blow out' resulted and 11 lives were lost when the drilling rig burned and sank. Untold environmental damage followed as the uncontrolled well produced oil into the Gulf of Mexico for many days.
This should not have happened. Lessons must be learned and quickly so that the risk of a similar tragedy during frontier deepwater reservoir exploration, appraisal and / or development is minimised.
This article is dedicated to those who lost their lives and to my mother (Evelyn Georgina Burrows)
October 2010
In the aftermath of the tragedy the author of this article reviewed information in the public domain (primarily the internet) relating to the tragedy. When this review was complete one key question emerged.
A 'tight oil' well in the UK, is one which encounters oil on an undrilled prospect. Strenuous efforts are made by the owners to prevent financially sensitive technical data, such as initial rate and parameters enabling reserves estimation, entering the public domain.
It is this reservoir engineer's view that there is no way the Macondo well should be considered a 'tight hole' by anyone. The reasons should be patently obvious to anyone who has worked in the oil and gas industry. One needs to know the technical details to understand what happened.
During the two-man intensive technical review of the Macondo well the following qualitative data pertinent to a reservoir engineer, was collected;
... not a lot really.
These questions will I hope will be answered by those involved in the investigation into the disaster