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BOP after removal for examination. Click to Enlarge

The Gulf Oil Disaster could have been minimized had the BOP (Blow Out Preventer) succeeded in disconnecting the oil rig from the oil well and closing off the flow of oil.  The investigation and report by Det Norske Veritas (DNV), the Norwegian company hired by federal investigators to perform forensic analysis on the Deepwater Horizon’s recovered BOP, indicates that when the blowout occurred the forces were great enough to dislodge and bend the drill pipe inside the BOP sufficiently that the BSRs (Blind Shear Rams) were not capable of centering the drill pipe for a clean cut when the BOP was finally actuated by the rig crew some 7 minutes after the drilling rig exploded on the surface some 5000 feet above the BOP.

This is leading to speculation that the inherent design standards for BOPs are not adequate to protect against this violent of a blowout.

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Here are some links of articles I found on the DNV report issued in March.

• http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2011-03-23-gulf-blowout_N.htm
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/23/bp-oil-spill-blowout-prev_n_839649.html
• http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/03/blowout_preventer_failure_in_g.html
• http://www.whistleblower.org/blog/31-2010/1032-report-confirms-deepwater-horizons-qblowout-preventerq-failure-prior-warnings-from-whistleblowers-silenced

One gets a much better picture by reading several perspectives on this same DNV report.

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BOP on sea floor "leaking" oil while robot attempts manual operations.

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