By ENGR101.COM Staff

Last of a 4 part series

Was the whole BP incident predictable?

A criminal investigation is now underway but it is evident at this point in our own investigation that the engineers working on behalf of BP possibly created a faulty design in several technical areas. For one thing, forensic engineers need to know what caused a reported series of electrical failures that led up to the fire and explosion.

A proper engineering design would have included several “redundant” features that are normally incorporated into an engineering design and that are intended to kick into operation when other features fail. It can be easily predicted that a blowout preventer might fail, so the engineer must take additional steps in the design. What additional measures has the design engineer provided that would allow operations to continue functioning in a safe manner? The workers on the rigs only install what the engineers design.

Much has been written about how deep the Gulf of Mexico floor was at the former location of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform. The BP Horizon reportedly had a depth to the ocean floor of approximately one mile (5280 feet),which is not as deep to energy production companies as media reports have suggested. Since 1980, many drilling platforms have been built with depth-to-floor ranges well over one mile, with the world record 10, 011 foot-deep Discoverer Deep Seas Preset Moored having been constructed, and operated by Chevron Texaco. BP has no excuses for its poor design and operation of a drill site that was only one mile deep.

Mike Utt at Unocal has authored

By ENGR101.COM Staff

Part 3 of a 4 part series

Mid-Eastern wolves sense Obama’s weaknesses

On July 8, 2010, the New York Times reported that Obama’s Interior Department head Ken Salazar would issue a new moratorium, in spite of the fact that “People are being put out of jobs — rigs are leaving the gulf, and going to foreign waters.”

Libya and its sympathizers are not fools. They smell Obama’s destructive nature and BP has a deal to drill in waters off the coast of Libya. As reported in a July 8, 2010 article in the Los Angeles Times, BP’s stock value had already plunged as much as 55% and BP’s expenses had topped $3 billion.

According to the LA Times article, Libya’s top oil official said that its nation’s sovereign wealth fund should invest in BP, calling the company’s shares a “bargain.” And BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward has reportedly told the government of Abu Dhabi, a U.S. ally, that the company would be open to selling the