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Accident - Deepwater Horizon Volume I and II


Quiz Questions

1. ____________ owned and operated both the Marianas and the DWH drilling rigs that were used at Macondo.
Halliburton
BP
Transocean
Cameron
2. Drilling a well requires controlling the pressure exerted by oil and gas trapped within the reservoirs that drillers are trying to reach. The pressure, known as ______________ is created in part by the weight of the water and rock pushing down from above.
Well pressure
Pore pressure
Rock pressure
None of the above
3. Of the Deepwater Horizon crew, 11 suffered fatal injuries from the explosion and fire and 17 others were critically injured. The Deepwater Horizon rig sank on April 22, 2010, about 36 hours after the initial explosions. Approximately _________ barrels of oil were spilled into the Gulf of Mexico.
5 million
15 million
25 million
1 billion
4. A ____________ test can assess the integrity of the bottom-hole cement. It simulates an underbalanced well by displacing some of the heavy drilling mud from the well and closing the BOP to isolate the bottom of the well from the hydrostatic pressure exerted by fluids above the BOP.
Negative pressure
Positive pressure
Zero pressure
None of the above
5. What does BOP stand for?
Blowout preventer
Blowout pressure
Blowout pipe
None of the above
6. The process of preparing the well so that the drilling rig can depart until another rig or production facility returns is called _________________.
Permanent abandonment
Temporary abandonment
Instantaneous abandonment
None of the above
7. When drilling mud and hydrocarbons began pouring out of the well and onto the Deepwater Horizon, the drilling crew activated a component called an ___________, which should have sealed the space around the drillpipe and prevented further hydrocarbons from rising above the BOP.
Riser
Annular preventer
Drill lockout
None of the above
8. It is much more probable that moored rigs may drift offsite than dynamically positioned rigs.
True
False
9. The AMF/deadman uses two redundant control systems, the ________ pod and the ________ pod, to initiate closure of the blind shear ram.
Green, Red
Yellow, Blue
Red, Green
White, Green
10.

Once oil and gas pass above the BOP, no robust barrier exists to stop them from reaching the rig floor.

True
False
11.

___________ regulations have a definition that includes environmental and financial effects: "Major accident means an acute incident such as a major spill, fire or explosion that immediately or subsequently entails multiple serious personal injuries and/or loss of human lives, serious harm to the environment and/or loss of major financial assets".

Norway
Australia
England
USA
12. If either the bottom hole cement job had been successful or the BOP had functioned on the day of the incident, the blowout could have been avoided.
True
False
13. A BOP can act as a barrier only if it can be closed, and manual closure of a BOP by a rig crew depends on additional human and process controls, sometimes referred to as operational barriers, which must ______________.
Detect an influx into the well
Recognize the need to respond
Ensure proper design and functioning of the BOP components
All of the above
14. In general, blind shear rams are designed to cut threaded, thick-walled ends of drillpipe, called tool joints.
True
False
15. What does SCE stand for?
Safety Code for Elements
Security Code for Elements
Safety Critical Elements
None of the above
16. Deadman systems operate __________?
Open loop
Closed loop
Infinite loop
None of the above
17. Both the BP and Transocean well control manuals recommend switching from an annular to a pipe ram; thus, they encourage the crew take an action that may actually hasten the likelihood of pipe buckling.
True
False
18. At the time of the Macondo incident, verification activities conducted by ICPs were not required by US regulations. Transocean did contract a one-time, third-party assessment of the Deepwater Horizon in the weeks leading up the incident focusing on the condition of the drilling equipment, mud system, well control equipment, marine equipment, hull, structure, power plan, electrical equipment and safety equipment. Resulting observations and recommendations from the assessment included which of the following tasks?
Apply protective coating/paint
Address corrosion
Recertify BOP annulars
All of the above
19. Neither Transocean nor BP sufficiently focused on the safety critical emergency systems of the BOP, nor were they specifically required to identify these SCEs and provide defined performance requirements for each by the offshore regulator.
True
False
20. In response to a DHIRG (Deepwater Horizon Incident Review Group) review of findings published in various public reports on the Macondo incident, the HSE (Health Safety Executive) is developing criteria for an effective BOP safety management system that will cover the working life of the BOP. The HSE suggests which of the following?
Reviewing effectiveness of maintenance activities in the context of practical experience
Involving the BOP manufacturer to provide guidance in testing and maintenance of a BOP
Ensuring that acceptance criteria defined by maintenance routines for SCEs reflect performance standards
All of the above