Talk:Ocean Odyssey

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There are some problems with this part of the article:

"On 22 September 1988 it suffered a blowout while under hire to ARCO, drilling the 22/30b-3 well on a prospect in the North Sea. The ultimate direct cause of the incident was a failure of the subsea wellhead equipment after a prolonged period of kick control. During the resulting fire the radio operator, Timothy Williams, was killed. He had been ordered from the lifeboats and back to the radio room by the rig's manager — who failed to countermand the order when the rig was evacuated."

First, The Fatal Accident Inquiry did not conclude that failure of the subsea BOP or hoses caused the accident. That was a view put forward by ARCO. In fact the cause was a failure to properly control the well leading to an explosion and fire on the drill floor. Later valves washed out and hoses ruptured subsea, but that was because the well was blowing out.

Second, Timothy Williams volunteered to go to the radio room after Captain Ionescu (the rig manager) asked an older, married radio operator to stand by the radio. The explosion adn fire led to the life boats being launched, but some senior men were left on board - as well as Williams. It seems likely that Williams did not hear the shouts to him to evacuate as he was oeprating his radio set at the time.

Subsea 17:45, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

The article seems to be based on the conclusions of the FAI re: the excerpt here (http://home.versatel.nl/the_sims/rig/o-odyssey.htm).

"After the event, a Fatal Accident Inquiry (Ireland, 1991) was held at Aberdeen's sheriff court, which was quite critical:

"The death of Timothy Williams might reasonably have been prevented (i) if the Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) had not ordered him from the lifeboat to the radio room; (ii) if the OIM, having ordered Timothy Williams back to the radio room, had countermanded that order when the rig was evacuated, and taken steps to see that the countermanding order was communicated to him;"

I realize that it's difficult to determine the facts in cases such as this. This document (www.mms.gov/tarprojects/566/566AA.pdf) suggests that the Goodall choke failed but obviously the failure was caused by high pressure. I see other sources such as this (http://books.google.com/books?id=auoY6HcXROAC&pg=PA414&lpg=PA414&dq=%22ocean+odyssey%22+blowout&source=web&ots=DCdvmo1X8R&sig=IC3XiaPQhmEP1k9JayhxvE-73ro#PPA414,M1) that question the ARCO management.

It would certainly improve the article if you have any sources for other commentary on the tragedy.

Ghaff 01:04, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

I worked at the Inquiry (and gave evidence) as a techical specialist for the legal team representing Timothy William's mother. I'll look out the transcripts of the evidence and build a short section with references. Subsea 07:47, 9 January 2007 (UTC)