I don't care who the hell said it, IT HAD STANDARD BLOW OUT PREVENTION DEVICES INSTALLED. The device they are talking about is a remote-activated device which is NOT normally installed.
Ok, look, people. When Lilly, Katrina, Gustav and Ike came through, they knocked over dozens and dozens of these platforms. The BOP devices on ALL of them worked PERFECTLY, so you didn't hear about a DROP of oil ending up in the Gulf. Besides the loss of revenue and equipment, not much was spoken of. When BOP's work, which seems to be pretty much all the time except this one time, there isn't anything else that need be installed. How many oil spills of this magnitude have you heard of in the past, say, 40 years? Well, in 40 years not a single BOP has failed. This is the first one. To say that they were negligent in not installing a non-standard half-million dollar safety item that wasn't common at all and that is not normally used and has never been needed in the history of drilling oil in the Gulf, is absolutely asinine. And let me ask you this....who do you think knows more about these platforms? Some newspaper based out of Washington or the MMS, whos job it is to inspect these wells weekly to ensure their safety and compliance?
Hinesight is always 20-20. That's no different than saying, after a car wreck in which the driver was killed in a side impact, that just having driver and passenger side airbags wasn't enough, it should have had side impact airbags too. Well, when this well was drilled SOP was to use a BOP, which it had.
I am not going to argue with anyone about this. This is the absolute truth, call the MMS New Orleans district yourself if you don't believe me. But supplying me links doesn't change the facts on the ground. Considering the reliability of **** on the internet, you should know better.
Knowing the facts of the situation at hand, this link actually has some fairly accurate information. It also has some photos on it that were sent to me by my dad the next morning after this happened. These are MMS photos, at least some of them. I've had these photos in my possession for quite a while. This debunks your crap about not having safety devices installed:
The Gulf oil rig explosion – on the scene photos | Watts Up With That?
Here is another one with some interesting photos:
NASA Satellite Tracking the Gulf Oil Spill | Watts Up With That?