A Norwegian firm reports the blowout preventer failed because of faulty design and a bent piece of pipe, shifting some blame away from the oil giant.
The 551 page repot cast blame on the blowout preventer’s blind shear rams, which are supposed to pinch a well shut in an emergency by shearing through the well’s drill pipe. Above the Macondo well, the BOP shear rams couldn’t do their job because the drill pipe had buckled, bowed and become stuck, according to the report. The report suggests that BOPs be redesigned or modified in such a way that shear rams will completely cut through drill pipe regardless of the pipe’s position. The blowout preventer was made by Cameron International and maintained by Transocean Ltd.
Unfortunately, this may not be the end of the BOP issue as its design flaw may have gone unnoticed by the entire industry.