drilling to the limits

What do you do when you’re on an airplane sitting next to a stranger? Me, I chat them up! This is what I did likely about 16 years ago after the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010 It turned out that I was talking to a engineer who was familiar with deep well drilling. As I recall, the Deepwater Horizon well was around 5,000 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico. I asked him the feasibility of digging a well that deep underwater. He shared that it working at the absolute limits of the technology of the day.

So then we have this announcement, Trump Administration Approves Ultra-Deepwater Oil Drilling Plan

Again, the company involved is BP, the same one involved in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Maybe it makes them more qualified than another company, due to their experience with drilling deep and also with making some BIG mistakes with the response to the oil spill disaster that engulfed the Gulf.

All of the above made me think of this quote that I’ve shared previously, “When you invent “the ship” you also invent shipwrecks.” Technology is taking us to new places where we have never been before. With those new adventures, there is bound to be “new disasters” that come with events we could not foresee. Oil-oil spills; cars—car wrecks; Artificial Intelligence--??etc., etc.