Chemical Safety Board launches Oklahoma rig explosion investigation
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board said Thursday it will launch a full investigation into the Oklahoma rig explosion that killed five people this week as Oklahoma authorities suggested that an equipment failure might have contributed to the tragedy.
The Chemical Safety Board, an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents, typically only gets involved in the largest, deadliest industrial disasters. The board averages about six investigations a year.
The well fire, which swept through a drilling rig owned by the Houston company Patterson-UTI, was the deadliest U.S. accident in the oil and gas industry since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 people. Oklahoma regulators said their initial findings suggest that the failure of the blowout preventer -- the same type of equipment that failed in the Deepwater Horizon accident -- may have led to the explosion at a drilling site near Quinton, Okla., about 100 miles southeast of Tulsa.
A blowout preventer is equipment at the wellhead designed to control and monitor the well. It's the last line of defense to seal the well and prevent an uncontrollable release of oil or gas.
The initial report from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates oil and industry in the state, said an uncontrolled gas release from the well led workers at the drilling site to engage the blowout preventer to shut off the well, but the blind rams -- two heavy steel blocks that meet in the middle of the wellbore to seal a well -- failed to close.
More: http://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Chemical-Safety-Board-launches-Oklahoma-rig-12525773.php
Oklahoma regulators say early findings suggest that a blowout preventer's failure may have led to the blast in eastern Oklahoma.
