Failure is common on offshore rigs’ blowout preventers

Various : A 1999 report commissioned by the federal agency that oversees offshore drilling suggests failures of underwater blowout preventers designed to stop oil spills like the massive one threatening the Gulf Coast are not unprecedented, as claimed by BP CEO Tony Hayward in an interview with NPR , and are far from unknown, reports McClatchy Newspapers ’ Les Blumenthal.Moreover, the tragic failure to contain the deep-seated pressures 7 kilometers beneath the Gulf of Mexico was not likely the result of overreaching, says ScienceNow’s Richard Kerr . In wells 65 kilometers off the coast of Louisiana, “the depths and pressures are rather routine” for the oil industry, says petroleum engineer Kenneth Gray of the University of Texas, Austin.Meanwhile BP, the rig’s owner, is preparing three different techniques to reduce the flow of oil, says Hayward . One involves placing a dome over the leak and channeling the oil to the surface, which has never been done at this depth; the second involves drilling a new hole nearby to relieve the pressure at the existing site; and the third requires eight robotic submarines to fix the well’s blowout preventer.Former New York Times editor Andrew C. Revkin is also compiling other alternatives and explanations for the difficulty in sealing the well, at his Dot Earth blog.