Golmer's Blog

Let’s see. First of all, the oil rig that caught on fire was basically a huge, floating platform, anchored to the ocean floor but buoyed up just like any other ship. It had a mile long pipe full of oil/gas connected to it from the ocean floor.

At some point, the rigging caught on fire, catching the oil on fire like a big candle. No doubt about it - the top of that sucker was hotter than hell. But the pipe from the well head was still attached to the platform, right? It was still floating, right?

So what happened next? The coast guard did. They came along and started pouring thousands of gallons of water per hour onto a big float. A top-heavy to begin with-float. When you pour thousands of gallons per hour on top of a top-heavy float you don’t put the fire out (it was like pissing on a forrest fire at that point) - you just fill up said top-heavy float with WATER. You destabilize it. You sink it.

What happens to a mile long pipe (with a drill sticking out of it)? Why it crumples like a piece of wire and becomes riddled with cracks and holes. What can you do at that point? Flounder around and spew oil into the environment like a bunch of dumbasses.

If, just possibly if, they had just let the rig burn up top, the oil would have burned instead of just leaking out like it is now. The top of the rig would have gotten lighter and lighter as the superstructure burned off, but the floaty bits at and below the water line would have probably done just fine. Or they would have done just fine for long enough for the undersea robots and blowout valves to do their job on a standing, intact pipe instead of a pile of wreckage at the bottom of the ocean.