Read the CSB's final report here: www.csb.gov/file.aspx?DocumentId=6112 Questions or comments about the CSB's video program? Please email feedback to videos@csb.gov Thank you for watching this CSB safety video.

The narrative style of this program makes it as gripping as unsolved mysteries

I worked rigs for two years. We were trained for blowouts. But, actually, I learned more practical safety advice in this video than I did in those two years.

This reminds me of air traffic accident investigations. There is rarely one thing that was ignored, but a whole series of safety procedures that were ignored.

I've been in a driller's cabin before and it felt about as safe as an old mobile home. It felt like the operation had a "cross your fingers" approach.

"No one on the crew had ever done the procedure before, nor did they have any written procedure on how to do it. So they decided to do it." What

Alarm fatigue is a well-known problem in hospitals. Sounds like oil rigs have the same problem. Thank you for this video!

I had to watch this particular episode as I used to work in Oklahoma doing that exact same thing. I can see exactly how the series of events could have unfolded the way they were described here. We used to work some very long exhausting hours. We eventually started working 12 hour shifts , 2 weeks on , 1 week off to reduce exhaustion. The wells there were pretty deep and after hours of tripping pipe I can understand how lapses of concentration can occur. I left specifically because I thought safety measures weren't observed as strictly as I thought they should have been. It's sad a tragic event like this has to be the reason for any industry to make appropriate changes. I didn't care how good the money was it wasn't worth my life. After being pushed past my breaking point I quit towards the end of my shift and caught a flight home.

The two "consultants" are called the company man. They call the shots on the well plan. The problem with this well was the mud weight was not thick/heavy enough. The driller and company man can monitor the amount of mud going down hole and the amount coming back. Since they were in the horizontal, there would also be a Directional Driller and MWD hand that also would see those numbers. There should be a balance. More going in than coming out means you have a leak and need to run a sweep (fibrous material or nut shells to clog the leak). If more is coming out than you are pumping in, you immediately circulate (stop drilling and just pump mud) to see if it stabilizes, usually you would thicken up the mud at that time and continue to thicken it until the well was balanced. There are formulas that can be used to calculate the hole pressure by the amount of mud returning and what mud weight is needed to regain the balance. This is very basic and happens every day. To say they were not trained is inaccurate, they just didn't do it. The company man and drillers screwed up. You don't send mud down hole from the trip tank, all mud going down hole goes through the mud pumps. That is just misinformation. They new there were issues, they were getting kick backs and had to run a flare. If they did not significantly increase the mud weight then that is on the Company Man. Adding weight to the mud costs money and can plug up the whole requiring extra circulations and possible reaming. There is no logical reason that the well over-pressure was not addressed except expense or some company dogma that you had to follow a plan irregardless of the reality of the well information. The alarm thing should not really be a factor. There are not that many alarms, especially while tripping. Pull weight and mud flow are the only ones that matter. You don't really need an alarm on these as you should be watching them constantly. If other alarms were going off, then they were likely set wrong. There already are formal procedures to address this, they just weren't followed. The company man and driller already failed to follow the basics, they would not have followed even more procedures. The warning signs were clear, it seems they were completely ignored and it cost 5 people their lives.

"The Oklahoma laws are not focused on safety, but rather on maximizing production" Imagine that

I'm just really impressed by the quality of the mud splash simulations

these animations are fantastic. Glad to see hard earned tax payer money being invested into effective, educative, and essential safety adherence. The artist/data analyzt coding these animations deserves a raise, the physics is astonishingly accurate.

I was a driller for Patterson for five years during the slow down they put me on that rig (219)about a year prior to this preventable disaster and i had mentioned to the superintendent (Jacob)and areamanager (chad) that it was dangerous out there and how nobody was killed or seriously injured would beat all I know I parted ways with Patterson one of the five guys I knew well from Patterson 132 my heart goes out to his family..and to the other four that lost there lives that day

9:19 Workers in CSB animations always have such a pimp-ass strut to them.

I love the addition of the timeline.

"The night shift driller had turned off the alarm system..." Pass me an oven glove, this is gonna be an epic face palm.

I love watching these. I’m a nurse in the Scottish highlands but I have lots of friends who work offshore in the North Sea and one guy I went to school with is in charge of the mud on an oil rig.

I have no clue about the oil and gas industry, nor do I have a remote clue on why this showed up on my recommended videos, but I was still glued to this video. Excellent production and very good information. I have found a new channel to binge watch

Regulations are written in blood.

What gets me is that there is an option to turn off life saving alarms

Announcement: No corporate "suits" were harmed in the making of this video.

Wait wait wait. You're telling me I get 2 USCSB videos in the same month!? I remember seeing the preliminary animation y'all posted of this one. Very happy to see it finished!

It's disappointing that these kinds of videos need to be made, but the quality of these videos is so good.

Having been watching a lot of these videos lately the “time frame” at the bottom makes things 100% better. Not that they were bad to begin with.

The sound design in this is so well done too. I generally prefer criticizing the government but damn they do a good job here.

I started watching one video yesterday, now it's been 6 hours watching CSB videos, even though I don't work in dangerous places. These videos are excellent, very professional and informative. I would say mandatory for people who works in dangerous places.

Alarms are usually turned off or muted. The mud man should have been looking at the tanks also. I worked on a couple Patterson, Ensign, and Nabors rigs - and most are a death trap. At least H&P rigs has the drillers house facing transversely to the rig floor leaving the rear exit open - and they all have spring loaded “no touch handles” where you could just kick it open. Stay safe my fellow oil patch brothers - if you see something wrong, say something & Everyone has stop job authority!

Anyone that has worked in an industrial setting knows how easily this accident could happen. When you're tired and under a deadline, it's safety 3rd. What a terrible way to leave this world.

Anybody else binging these highly informative and well produced animations?

Is it just me, or are these videos about industrial accidents more fascinating and suspenseful than most feature length films these days?

LMAO @ 8:50 - "they worked to clear the blockage" ... dude's just going ham on it with a wrench

Alarm management has also been an issue in nuclear power control rooms; it definitely seems like this is a problem across multiple industries. As mentioned in the video, there definitely should be different sets of alarms for different activities. However, there should also be different levels of alarms for those activities. If a driller was getting annoyed by all the alarms, they should be able to turn off the lower-level alarms and/or mid-level alarms without disabling the high-level alarms.

Outstanding video. I work in the IT industry and learned things I can apply to my profession (state based alarm profiles). Rarely do you come across informative videos of this quality. Thank you!

Oklahoma should be proud they are the only state to get over 10 recommendations from the csb

As a Control Systems Engineer who works on live refinery systems, I greatly appreciate these videos. I carry the lessons learned and recommendations with me. There are many others out there like me. Thank you CSB for helping prevent more tragedies like this one.

This has to be probably one of my fav channels now. I appreciate seeing these free safety-hazard videos even though I dont even got a job yet.

Just the other day I went in to my night shift for the boiler room, and the guys I was relieving told me about an alarm that kept going off for low/high water levels in the deaerator tank. For about 4 hours all they did was manually operate the valve every 10 minutes, but they just couldn't be bothered to actually look for the cause. I went to look and it was literally the first thing I checked: a loose set screw on the shaft that linked the float to the valve. Took not even 5 minutes to fix.

They just need a covered emergency escape slide out the back of the cabin. I used to work for a company that made airbag propellant and we had breakaway walls and escape slides. It shouldn't be too much of a problem to fit an existing model.

Your check engine light is on - nah, the engine is still there.

I love these accident assessment videos. I learn so much and they are quite engaging.

The CSB makes me almost want to pay taxes, that's a feat that i thought wouldn't be possible

Everything about these videos is extremely high quality, and the narrator deserves a standing ovation.

Having worked both on- and off-shore rigs when young, I know the hard, physical labor of the hands and the mind-numbing grind of the monitors/operators. The work is in all kinds of weather and the dirt, mud, and grime covers you and gets into places you didn't know you had. The pressure for progress/results from the suits above is as constant and relentless as the noise of the machinery. However, things can get real fast when near the "pay zone". When tunneling blind into the hot, gassy bowels of the earth, every subtle change must be noted, interpreted, and responded to quickly. Everybody needs to on the ball, trained and prepared to deal with whatever comes out of that hole, especially during a trip. I feel great sorrow for all the families, and especially for the three doomed roughnecks on that freezing, slick drilling floor who tried to find cover in that death-trap cabin. My take is this -- jackleg drillers, jackleg operators, a jackleg contractor, and a jackleg corporation conducting an extremely hazardous jackleg operation in a deregulated jackleg state run by pro-industry jackleg politicians. The poor, piteous victims were burnt offerings to the gluttonous Gods of Greed.

When i have men’s life in my hands I will listen to every alarm,and make sure they make it home to their family.

These are so interesting and well put together... Reminds me of watching history channel after school in early 2000's... Ahhh nostalgia

I always just start crying when i hear "had turned off the alarm system"

I am so glad to see the CSB have the budget to make videos like this. There is no doubt you are saving lives and promoting postive change in industry!

Thank you for a great video! I've seen a hundred or so people killed in thirty-five years of heavy construction/pipeline. That was nearly me a dozen or so times. It was almost always due to lack of adherence to safety procedures. They have those procedures for a reason. Keep your witts about you, eyes and ears open, and watch out for your coworkers.

After watching this video it shows more training is needed for all the drilling works. The loss of life is always sad. I did learn some new things about the drilling industry thank you.

I'm actually glad these videos are monitized, if the government won't give you the funds you need then please take it from where you can get it. We get high quality videos and valuable lessons / insight and you get some $$$, win win.

You'd think a fire escape would be pretty high priority on an oil rig

I don't know what it says about me that since I saw the first CSB video in my feed yesterday I have been binge watching videos where bad things happen--I can't get enough of this stuff,it is just so damn interesting watching videos about how refineries work etc,just great ,man if I pay $6.99 a month for Prime I would happily pay that for this stuff.-and as for the animation quality-well that speaks for itself-incredible.Thank You USCSB. cheers from Australia.

I work in a completely different field (networking) and I can attest to the fact that alarms don't mean much when they are drowned out by irrelevant ones. So much of my shift I spent chasing down pointless alarms when in fact only a few of them actually mean something that needs to be fixed, the rest are just normal events that don't even need to alarm in the first place. The problem is that if they turned off the hundreds of garbage alarms, then one or two actually needed alarms would be eliminated along with them. Its a tricky problem and only a complete overhaul of the monitoring system can solve that

So I was only ever a rough neck on a single ... but I remember stopping periodically in a trip... the boys would go for a smoke.. and someone would watch the trough to see if any mud was coming out of the hole. At night you would throw a little sawdust down to see if it moved. If there was any flow coming out you would notify the driller that you were taking a kick. A simple precaution but it would seem that was not followed.. and I was on a rig from 2007 to 2011. Besides that the derrick hand would be responsible for mud ... an increase of 200 barrels of mud which would be over 30 cubes... I can not see how the derrick hand would not have noticed his tanks gaining such volume?!! On a single that would be almost double the total mud volume. Also I was a rig hand in Alberta Canada drilling for oil not gas... so the procedures are most definitely different. Ok... edit here... I wrote this at 15:00 into the video... so just a minute later they describe what i'm talking about.. a flow check. Only 2 of 27 required flow checks were done!! OMG.

It’s never one mistake, it’s a series of errors one after another that in hindsight leaves you shaking your head like WTF!

I can't stop watching at these videos. Binge watching before sleep. I work in construction so i have interest in safety

I think it should be impossible to turn alarm systems off; but also that the important alarms are displayed separately

This is fantastic work done by the USCSB. The quality of your rendition and the user-friendliness thereof is fantastic. Thank you so much.

That was my rig and my crew thankfully I left to go to H&P right before this happened. Anyway, we almost never did flow checks, the alarms were almost always deactivated while tripping, and Josh the day tour driller really liked cold beer... He was a great guy. But, drank almost every day when we knocked off. I believe all of these things are responsible for this terrible incident. I reported the slow descent device in the derrick was locked up and it was never fixed this caused the Derrickhand who was working over to get 3rd degree burns over half his body. He wound up sliding down the geronimo line by wrapping his arms and legs around the cable then reportedly let go about thirty feet from the ground. I don't know how the fall didn't kill him. Y'all stay safe and God bless.

The way H&P designs their drillers cabins, they're positioned straight out away from rig and have rear exit and stairway. Far safer and on a whole different level than Patterson

The problem with safety rules at most organizations is that a lot of times they're annoying to comply with, and just make busy work for no reason.......so you have to design safety systems that are only in place for serious dangers, and are as simple as possible to comply with. If it involves a lot of unnecessary stuff, it will get turned off or ignored on a day-to-day basis.

Silencing Any Alarm is Extremely Dangerous ' Even When it Keeps Tripping '

OK, I'm going to tell you some truth. First, I worked for Patterson UTI for a year. Yes, I was new to the industry, and really had no idea what 'roughnecking' was when I started. I tripped pipe on my first day. Over 3,000' worth. Anyhow - five months into my employment I noticed my that our lead tong, motor man, and derrick man where all avoiding me and the driller. I just thought, ok, it's another 'you're the new guy' thing they did. Nope - all high as hell on Coke and whatever else you wanna say. All I know is I've never seen someones eyes that dilated in my entire life, for hours on end. Had to be coke... anyhow, when I said something about it I was told to shut up and do my damn job, "worm". The usual uneducated response from any Patterson UTI employee. The VERY NEXT DAY I was working with some guy who spoke 0 english and we were moving pipe from the stand deck to the slip, prepping for a teardown and relocation. I stepped onto the pipe rack and standing carefully started moving pipe into place. This non-english speaking employee grabbed the all terrain fork truck and tried to grab a stack of pipe, spilling the pipe all over, and one landed directly on my leg. Snapped it like a twig. The company sent out their 'company man / safety man' from Levelland, TX to take me to the hospital in Hobbs where they agreed I had a broken leg. Not that it was pointing in the wrong direction or anything. I told the safety man about the drugs and the unsafe practice and was told not to worry about it, they would take care of it and my leg. Well, yes, I had surgery and my leg was healed. Patterson UTI then stopped sending me my checks at my house, forcing me to drive an hour to Hobbs, NM from Carlsbad, NM to get my check every other week. I went to every doctor check up, followed procedure, etc. but was yelled at and berated every single day as a 'pussy' or worse because I had a broken leg (that I could NOT stand on) and that I was dead weight. The driller even tried to fire me the day after the accident because I was in surgery and didn't make it to the drill site (not that I could anyhow....). The safety man showed up and fired 3/4 of the crew. Piss tested every single one of us, and all that was left was me and the biggest asshole driller I've ever met in my life. (and the company man who would get mad and throw tools and sharp objects at you) Hired a new crew and got back to work. Driller threatened me with my life at knife point right outside the porta-jons. I told Patterson UTI who basically said, "who cares". Oh - our BOP (blow out prevention) didn't work for the first two months on the rig. We where nearly 8,000' before they dug the exhaust fire trench because 'ain't nothin gonna happen'. I watched them pour motor oil down ground hog holes straight out of the engines when we changed over. I told their safety man about that... nothing happened. Smoking on the rig was permitted if you stayed in the dog house... because, nobody has time to walk off the pad. Back to the leg - they kicked me to the curb once I was told I could walk again. I was told I would be contacted by them to settle for the damage they did to my body, but never did. Their office personnel kept loosing my checks (hoping to make me quit). When I didn't quit my driller (or someone, never got the full story) made up a story that I was neglectful and endanger everyone on the rig. Which surprised the ever lovin' sh*t out of me because I constantly tried to improve safety... never got the whole BS story. Patterson UTI has a record of being neglectful. They lie, cheat, and steal from their employees. They don't follow safety LAWS and best practices, and go out of their way to ensure you are never compensated. Hey - must be great for the investors to screw over anyone you can, no matter what it does to their body because you can't follow the most basic rule of DONT DO COCAINE BEFORE WORKING ON A RIG! If you are thinking of working for P-UTI, don't. Just about ANY other rig will be a better, more safe environment. Good luck guys. F*ck Patterson-UTI.

I've watched a number of these and am always impressed by the high quality CGI.

The work you people do is both necessary and worthwhile. It’s sad that these events happen to begin with and concerning the consequences of failure in our industrial systems.

I love these videos. So well done and informative I wish they’d release them more often

RIP those workers. Thanks for the upload and breakdown USCSB.

Such an atmospheric opening.. class fade to black after the logo, with establishing music you can just imagine this being the opening to a movie. I love the production values of the CSB

Great video! Shows what a complicated and high-tech business drilling is.

You can't depend on alarms! You need people that understand the process and are watching the gauges and listening to the team.

Worms!! I missed a rig burning down by a day. The burned out shell that was the rig was a sobering experience to see

I would love to work for csb. I find these videos so fascinating.

Im addicted to binge watching these for no reason

Always have time for USCSB vids!

The driller was probably related to one of the executives. Didn't know what he was doing, but he was being paid big bucks.

Your videos are so interesting, intelligent and informative!

Why in the hell would any alarm system be allowed to be turned off? I mean, if you want to temporarily silence it, fine; but it should re-arm itself automatically after a certain duration and only be disabled a certain number of times before you can't anymore.......

Your graphics are getting better with every new video. Very impressive.

This is just a train wreck of no common sense, poor training and not following SOPs....

I have no idea about this industry. But the narrators voice and the animations and sound effects are so captivating.

Rip!!!! Patterson 219 there was a lot of good men that worked on this rig God be with them and their families I was on this location a few days before this happened and talked to many of the guys that worked on this Rig many of times still is hard to believe this happened.

This was 100% preventable, I shake my head.

The guys doing your 3D animation are awesome... The fire and smoke effects look great!

This is very thorough.. As a mud logging field hand for 20 years this is negligence at an incredible level..

Grim is a very appropriate surname for an investigator in her field.

Finally a new video 🤩🤩🤩 will you guys do a video on the ITC deer park incident that happened a while back?

Amazing job as always! Sadly I've lived in a few buildings that have insane alarms going off randomly sometimes for days, a "cry wolf syndrome " happens every time.

Brilliant animations and highly-professionalized narrative.

Had few jobs on an oil rig where they needed survey for measurements from ground floor to KRB(?). I got to meet the riggers and company men, They were great people. Never met a group of men like them. I enjoyed conversating and meeting them. Nothing but respect to those guys.

I worked for Patterson UTI for a while before I went to another company. I left because I remember thinking to myself that someone was gonna get hurt or killed on one of those rattle trap rigs they had in the Barnett shale. Scary man.

This channel produces incredibly high quality and informative work and I would just like to say thank you for that.

1) I would have been curious to see what those connection gases were on the mudlog prior to trip. 2) when cutting off pumps for connections, was there flow and what was the level of mud at possum belly? 3) Was the gas equipment being calibrated daily? Those are the questions I have.

I worked for deep well Energy Services and we would move that drilling rig like twice a week. That crew was outstanding and they work their asses off it sucks to hear that a bunch of those dudes got killed.

I have a friend that's been working on well rigs in Alaska for 20 plus years. This video is definitely getting linked to him.

Jesus... that must’ve been a gruesome scene inside the driller’s cabin after the fire burned out..

Shutting off the alarm is a big no no when I worked as a DCS operator in a thermal power plant. But we had a very good alarm management and received a very good training.

12:00 Yup my dad, a roughneck, also always turned off all warning alarms on machines where I grew up. Never locked-out tagged-out either. Often disconnecting safety systems completely and the warning lights. I have no idea how I survived.

OUTSTANDING video! Seeing the way recommendations for onshore drilling in USA, they are so basic, things we take totally for granted here in Australia offshore. Onshore drilling looks almost like going back the 1960s - no barrier diagrams like NORSOK, no Risk Register, no bridging document. I can't believe the driller didn't spot hundreds of barrels pit gains! Such an avoidable tragedy. I wonder how much of this is also due to the loss of experienced people in the industry following 2015 and the trend to sack older workers for cheaper less experienced hands.

The first problem to this is that you have to eliminate the "culture" on rigs where it's cool to get away with something if the safety man didnt see it... Those rules are there for a reason people, so why are you standing idly by and allowing cultures like this to be fostered without stepping in? 99% of all rule breaking or anti-safety rule cultures start with a total lack of proper and supportive management...

I don’t know anything about these things but I’m addicted to this page.