Gulf oil spill question

[Larryjk]

The big question of the investigation will have to be why did the BOP stack fail to activate. I believe there won't be any more deep drilling until they can say why the BOPs failed and what has been done to prevent it in the future. I don't know if they are set up like on-shore BOPs but those have three sets of rams: blind rams to close on an open hole (no drill stem in the BOP),pipe rams to close around the drill stem being used, and the top rams ( hydril, I think) that can close around whatever is through the BOPs.
On-shore the BOPs are activated by compressed air. I don't know about off-shore operations. But the MMS inspector should have in the inspection log definite comments about the BOP tests. If he doesn't have those comments, guess who is culpable.