<p>FWIW, I think it’s possible that all the testing in the world would not have prevented the failure of the BOP’s. I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and have never seen a BOP fail after numerous tests over the course of a well. (The only exception is a couple of failed Hydril’s after they were used for stripping under pressure.)</p>
<p>It’s driving me nuts to find out what actually happened, because my experience with BP has shown that they go overboard with their safety programs and precautions. Serious overkill in most instances.</p>
<p>There is some indication that there may have been flow after cementing on the annulus, which was misconstrued as nitrified cement blowing down. If so, I can somewhat understand how the supervisor in charge made the terrible mistake of assuming that the flow was not actually coming from the formation. By the time the gas bubble got to surface, it was too late to do anything except shut the well in. </p>
<p>It’s still hard to believe that the BOP’s didn’t work. There is too much redundancy on those things to understand how the whole stack failed.</p>