Wiegand Inc.

Rig: Transocean Actinia Semi-Sub
Date: February 1993
Location: South Con Son Basin, Off Vietnam, South China Sea
Operator: BP/Statoil
Summary
Built in 1982 by Hitachi Zosen at the Nagasu Shipyard in Japan, the Actinia semi-sub was originally owned by South Africa’s Actinia Shipping before being hired out and eventually bought by Sedco Forex in 1997. She worked for BP in Vietnam, followed by service in Malaysia and Thailand for Total and Unocal before being moved to the Mediterranean in 1998.
In February 1993, the well being drilled by the Actinia encountered shallow gas and blew out, damaging the BOP and causing the rig to list by 15 degrees. The slick of ejected liquids measured up to 2 km wide. Reports state that the blowout subsequently killed itself, possibly by bridging.

Actinia is presently drilling a record deepwater horizontal well in hardrock granite basement in August 2010.

Actinia blowout video on YouTube.

More Offshore Blowouts
http://home.versatel.nl/the_sims/rig/i-blowout.htm

Click here to view the WiegandInc.com Quick Kill 2010. The worlds Quickest Well Kill Sheet now available online and optimized for a mobile device.

Fred Wiegand, Jr. is a licensed professional engineer with over 35 years of experience in petroleum engineering world wide, 2 degrees in petroleum enginnering and 1 degree in geology from The Univiserity of Texas in Austin, with current well control certificates for both land and subsea, 1.5 years of law school and a bonded Notary Public in the State of Texas.

Fred Wiegand is acredited and has served as an EXPERT WITNESS IN A COURT OF LAW, in various lawsuits for both Plaintiffs and Defendants, concerning technical issues of oil and gas properties, drilling accidents, negligence, Rule 37 issues in regards to Texas Railroad Commission spacing allocations, oil spills, EPA documents, DOE communications, and MMS reports.   Lieutenant Colonel Fred Wiegand served 34 years as a reservist and on active duty in the US Army Combat Engineers, Corps of Engineers, and based upon his years of work for the USA Corps of Engineers, still has certain “standing” with regard to COE issues, DOE issues, and an “equivalency of military rank” as expert witness in matters concerning the US Army Corps of Engineers, including wetlands and EPA reports and complaints.

Fred Wiegand was involved in the environmental remediation of the Ixtoc #1 historic oil well blowout and oil spill by Pemex in 1979 in the Bay of Campeche, and helped invent “The Bell” for oil spill mitigation.

As of 9 May 2010, the British Petroleum / TransOcean attempt to use a similar structure to “catch” the oil from the BP – TransOcean GOMx blowout by the Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible, has unfortunately failed due to hydrates which are ice crystals on the seafloor caused by the cold and the additional cold due to flow of formations fluid into a lower pressure seawater hydrstatic environment.  Hydrates are very well known, fully predictable, and are covered in the Wiegand Deepwater Drilling Engineering Well Design and Blowout Prevention course, which was first presented last year in July 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and may be presented in an expanded version later this year in Houston, Texas.

As an EXPERT WITNESS in a Texas State District Court, or in a Texas / Louisiana Federal District Court; Fred Wiegand is fully qualified to express a professional opinion as to the cause of the BP – TransOcean recent historic blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

Wiegand Edwards Limestone oil & gas wells in Texas were first drilled by Wiegand Brothers Drilling Company of San Antonio, Texas, starting in the late 1930s. Fred Wiegand, geologist and engineer, located most of the Wiegand Edwards LS wells on the tops of the normally-faulted structures in Caldwell County, Guadalupe County, and Gonzales County, Texas. Texas Railroad Commission reports prove that many of the Wiegand Edwards wells produced 40 barrels of pure Edwards oil to 350 barrels of Edwards saltwater, making the Wiegand Edwards wells some of the best wells in the State of Texas as to oil cut, that is, 40 / 350 = 11.5% oilcut.

Fred Wiegand, Jr. and son Carl J. Wiegand follow the footsteps of Fred, Gus and Eberhard Wiegand with their work in 2010 in the Edwards Limestone of South Texas.

Wiegand Inc. sells confidential engineering and geological reports and can help clients who want reports on Edwards oil & gas wells, leases and fields. WEI can help select “the best” Edwards drilling locations, using the Wiegand proprietary surveying method for subsurface geological mapping.