what will happen when a hurricane hits Gulf spill?

It WAS F'ing anchored (according to the info this news agency got from BP) http://trends.fabecom.net/rig-explo...er-horizon-oil-rig-explosion-shows-new-risks/ Why are you people speaking of things you don't know? At least I said mine was conjecture!
Okay, I have limited experience with DP (dynamic positioning - I have done work on a system that not only maintains position but maintains a heading, as well. Invision staying on site, with bow pointed into the sea without human input.) which is more than you, I'm sure. It is typically used for temporary mooring and some may ASSUME this rig was not anchored because of the depth of water but anchors, as you know them are not used. The vessel probably has no anchors nor anchor-handling gear (if it did, chain lockers, themselves, could hold enuf water to destabilize and sink it), anchors wud be placed in advance and anchor-handling ships would pass anchor rodes to the rig.
It burned crude but if it weren't to ("I seriously doubt it was burning any significant amount of crude") the crude would, indeed, act as an insulator and effectively permit the vessel to stay afloat longer while the problem was being fixed AT THE SURFACE.
Listen, I'm talking about what-ifs and POSSIBLE mistakes I believe that were made. You guys are trying to impress each other with your vast knowledge gleaned from low-level positions on oil rigs. I spend so much time with your distractions its not really worth it for me to explain real-life to you. Have fun. I'll turn the reins over to Troy again because he has fits of coherence but bear in mind, even with him, there are limits to how much a person can Wiki in an eight hour shift.

 

With my low level position on oil rigs I am speacking of things I do not know. Very funny.

The rig was NOT anchored. It was held in place with 8 Kamewa rated 7375 hp each, fixed propeller, full 360 deg azimuth.

Anchored? Ok believe what you want.

Look. I live in SE Louisiana. I was in Venice last week. Thousands of boats, docks can't keep up. It is a massive attempt by the people here to contain this. I have 6 boats and 2 quarters barges on location to assist in the clean up efforts. (The coast guard comandeered them from my pipeline lay). I am coordinating another crew right now to get on location to lay out more boom in Black Bay. You have no idea what you are talking about.

Have to go. I have work to do and I don't have time to explain these simple things.

 

If I may interrupt the rant for a moment? Why did your earlier post start out declaring "two things I know..." if you were only talking about possibilities? You made a flat statement that spraying the platform sank it.

I consider that to be complete nonsense, and will continue doing so until you provide proof to back up what you stated as a fact, not as conjecture.

 

Everything I find says the ship was anchored.
Okay, Troy, they sprayed water on the ship until it sunk. I overstepped to conclude that they sunk it. The Jindal part, I know.
Sounds like that dude is excited! It got like that for our spill here - we're still waiting for our next... I'm just trying to figure out if I shud take mine down there come September or run one of theirs.

 

And... we have our first finalist in the "Dumb Question of the Year" contest.

On April 29, The New York Times reported that [BP CEO Tony] Hayward, apparently exasperated, turned to fellow executives in his London office and asked, “What the hell did we do to deserve this?" (A possible answer might be the company's 760 safety violations over the last three years. ExxonMobil, in contrast, has had just one.)

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/02/what-not-to-say-when-your-company-is-ruining-the-world-.html

As much as I hate ExxonMobile's propaganda machine sometimes, there's no doubt they run a professional operation on the ground (or at sea).

 

I've edited your rant quite a lot, but my response is regarding your knowledge of dynamic positioning.
Most modern vessels constructed for work in deep waters have DP systems with lots of redundancy built in, so that they can work for months on a station more economically than with the costs of laying mooring systems and anchors. In deepwater work there will probably be subsea wellhead modules, pipelines and umbilicals all around (seabed furniture they call it), so laying anchors can sometimes be a tricky and expensive task.

Back in the early nineties I was part of the project management team on a new platform being installed in the North Sea. A semi-submersible accomodation barge was alongside, but because of unfinished yard work it became necessary to bring in another floater to increase the workforce. This new semi-submersible (one of the Poly fleet) sat on the opposite side of the platform on DP throughout the project. It broke a world record at the time by having a gangway down, on DP, for over 4 months without once pulling off.

I worked on another project, about three years ago, on one of the largest subsea vessels, it had the world record bollard pull at that time. Everything was done in DP mode.
We were repairing a damaged pipeline from 2000 ft down. It involved cutting the line, lifting up and reeling a good section between two jointing modules and then pulling up the damaged line and installing a new end connection and joining it to a new joining module and a new piece of line on deck. Everything would be tested on deck and lowered back to the seabed where the final connections would be done using specially designed connections by the ROV's.
While the vessel had the pipeline lashed over it's stern, two of the four generators decided to shut down. There was a small loss of control while non-critical systems shut down and the remaining two generators took over.
At a meeting later that day the Captain reported that the vessel had only moved six feet off station during the incident. It took hours to restart the generators and it was a worrying time all round.

 

I am certainly no expert on DP on drilling rigs (but I have experience with DP and fixed drilling rigs). All I said was that THIS drilling rig was not DP according to BP.
What was the world record bollard pull and what vessel?

 

Tho it is hard to top the "I would like my life back comment" and the one you pointed out, we had a pilot land without running gear about fifteen years ago and before looking back to see if everyone was okay, said "there goes a career..." Also had a kid flood $80,000 worth of engines and almost lose six passengers on the charter boat he was running proclaim "I lost my I-Pod."
People say the darnedest things!

 

Today's record bollard pull is 435 Metric Tonnes, Far Samson, unless another has beat it since.
The one I was talking about was over 100 tonnes less in 2006. I can't qoute the name as I still work with the same client.
It goes to show how all this deepwater work is leading to bigger and more powerful ships.

 

There used to be a rescue tug out of SA that used a bridled pair of huge towlines - bigger than anything I know but I couldn't find mention with Google. I broke a million pound 15" spectra emergency tow-package with this vessel http://www.crowley.com/vessel-specs/ocean/seavictory.pdf but the winch slipped and grabbed which created a shockload. I have no experience with anything that can pull harder than this ( I have been on big tractors which were more maneuverable but could not pull as hard on a direct pull). As always, take company numbers with a grain of salt - The 9,000 HP is including toilet pumps, tow winch, and cook's blender. (They sell day rates by HP or bollard pull). The numbers you post are twice what this one can do.

 

Mark 775, just google world record bollard pull. These things are measured during trials. I think it was actually 423 Metric tonnes the finally achieved.

 

“The most powerful offshore vessel ever built" – Far Samson – which was designed by Rolls-Royce and built by STX Europe for Farstad Shipping in Norway, will receive Offshore Support Journal’s ‘Ship of the Year 2009’ award.
Rolls-Royce developed the design of the UT 761 CD working closely with Farstad to meet the terms of a long-term charter contract. Far Samson, which was formally named and delivered in March, has demonstrated a continuous bollard pull of 423 tonnes using all available power and more than 377 tonnes using her main propulsion system.

The entire article is here:

http://thepilotboat.blogspot.com/

 

I envision a worse disaster than interaction between a hurricane and oil spill, and it is this. The pressure forcing oil to squirt from that pipe isn't all water pressure. There is a shield of rock being held up by that diminishing dome of oil. When its volume is sufficiently reduced the sheild will begin to collapse under its own weight, perhaps with a loud crack, which will initiate an underwater earthquake and perhaps even a tsunami. I'm just sayin'...

 

There isn't going to be enough subsidence from one blowout to worry about. Ekofist, a Norwegian oil field in the North sea, has 29 platforms. It has subsided five or six meters since 1969, but that's because chalk formations are dissolving as water replaces the oil, and recompacting. As far as I know, that's the worst case of rapid subsidence in the world.

There has been subsidence at Goose Creek oil field in Galveston Bay, but it's been active since the early 1900's; they've pumped almost 150 million barrels out of it in the last 100 years.

 

Are they injecting anything back in to replace the volume?