Someone with links to some regulatory body in the industry, told me that the rumours abound that this particular well had a double check-valve type affair. And that one of the valves failed.
And was never repaired on economic grounds by the rig operators…
Who are American.

I just think its a tragedy, & sadly one thats likely to happen again as oil reserves once deemed too risky to plunder become more viable due to diminishing reserves in more accesible fields. Imagine what state the Poles will be in when they start drilling them on a big scale.

Why send an Email – just complain to HR that you found the original email offensive and racist against you as a briton, and watch the sparks fly 😈

The worst thing is that the first thing you learn in safety engineering is that check valves have awful failure rates and as such should never be considered as a safeguard…

We are a small company (3 UK and maybe 20 US employee's) and I know the people sending the mails so I'll keep it friendly but I do feel the need to reply……..

The Americans used to do atomic bomb testing in the open (atmospheric) in America (Nevada etc) and the fallout would land on them.
Makes Chernobyl look mild in comparison, and Three Mile Island a bit unexciting.
The fall out could be so bad that water (contaminated rainwater) used during manufacturing by Kodak Eastman would damage their film.
More info in this book: The Nuclear Barons by Peter Pringle and James Spigelman.
People used to drive out to the desert to watch the explosions.

Plus http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=030906175X

http://www.naav.com/

Not oil related, but Three Mile Island wasn't the yanks best moment was it?