DNV Concludes Report on Deepwater Horizon BOP (USA)

The forensic examination of the Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer (BOP) is now concluded, and DNV has submitted its report to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), and made the report publically available.

The blowout preventer, a 50 foot – 300 ton assembly was raised and taken to NASA’s secure facility in Michoud, Lousiana in August for forensic examination. DNV has utilized its forensic investigation expertise from the Columbus, Ohio office and its subsea equipment (BOP) expertise from the Houston, Texas office in the project.

BOEMRE/U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Joint Investigation Team today announced that it will hold a seventh session of public hearings the week of April 4, 2011. The hearings, which will focus specifically on the forensic examination of the Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer, are scheduled to take place at the Holiday Inn Metairie, New Orleans Airport, 2261 North Causeway Blvd., Metairie, La.

The forensic examination is one aspect of the much broader comprehensive investigation into the causes of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, loss of life, casualty loss, and the subsequent oil spill. Although the full investigation report is not expected to be released until sometime this summer, a report on the BOP and other matters is scheduled to be issued within the next month.

As investigator DNV is contractually bound to refer all media inquiries to BOEMRE, Eileen Angelico, Gulf of Mexico Region Public Affairs.

DNV in the US

DNV has more than 700 employees in USA with offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville, Long Beach, Boston, Miami, Norfolk, New Orleans, New York, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and La Porte. DNV’s main activities here are within the energy sector, both within oil & gas exploration, development and production as well as within wind energy. DNV is engaged in verification, classification and asset risk management offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and within risk management of onshore pipelines and refining. DNV has a Deepwater Technology Center in Houston and a leading Corrosion and Materials Technology Center in Columbus Ohio focusing on management of degradable structures. The Technology Center in Ohio was a leader in the development of pipeline corrosion assessment standards referenced by US Federal Regulations. DNV is the largest independent consultancy within wind energy in USA.

DNV helps the maritime industry to manage risk in all phases of a ship’s life through ship classification, statutory certification, fuel testing and a range of technical, business risk and competency-related services. DNV is among the top two classification societies for mobile offshore units. DNV is present in all maritime clusters in U.S. and our Global Cruise Center located in Miami supports our leading position in this sector.

DNV in Columbus

DNV in Columbus is a technology and research organization specializing in the evaluation of materials properties, materials selection, corrosion, corrosion control, asset integrity, and asset life extension. The total staff of almost 120 employees includes 19 Ph.D. researchers in metallurgical, materials science, and chemical engineering as well as over 50 B.S. and M.S. level engineers in a broad range of disciplines including the above disciplines plus electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering, and theoretical and applied mechanics. DNV Columbus has Licensed Professional Engineers, NACE Corrosion Specialists and highly trained technicians. This staff makeup is unique because of the interaction of scientists and researchers with field engineers. This allows DNV Columbus to provide our clients with the highest quality engineering solutions to materials-related problems, in addition to tempering our research with practical field experience.

This diverse nature of the staff allows DNV Columbus to address a broad range of materials-related problems. These include, but not limited to, mechanical defects, structual analyses, general and localized corrosion, internal and external corrosion, coating degradation, stress-corrosion cracking, corrosion fatigue, thermal fatigue, high temperature creep, hydrogen embrittlement and metallurgical defects. DNV Columbus provides a variety of services to the industry including research, testing, engineering analysis (including cathodic protection and other corrosion control systems), failure investigation, forensic services, project management, consulting, field monitoring, materials selection, materials and corrosion evaluations, equipment life extension, condition assessment, integrity and risk management services, SHE management services, and litigation support services.

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Source: dnv , March 24, 2011;