Tankersley, Yolanda J From: Sent: To: Subject: Fesmire, Mark E Monday, September 10, 2012 6:38 AM Feldgus, Steven H Re: Have the sea trials started? Steve: It should be complete in a little more than a day from when they start. Things have been going very well and could be done before that. Anchoring is the real time consumer. Mark Sent from my iPad On Sep 10, 2012, at 7:26 AM, "Feldgus, Steven H" wrote: > Thanks very much, Mark. If they start deployment at midnight tonight, > approximately when would they be finished, assuming all goes well? Is > it still a two-day test, or was it two days assuming they started in > the middle of Day 1? > > --Steve > > -----Original Message----- > From: Fesmire, Mark E > Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 10:25 AM > To: Feldgus, Steven H > Subject: Re: Have the sea trials started? > > Yes, they got away from the dock about midnight, are anchoreing and > doing tests for CG. Deployment may start as early as midnight. > > Mark > > Sent from my iPad > > On Sep 10, 2012, at 6:04 AM, "Feldgus, Steven H" > wrote: > >> Steve 1 Tankersley, Yolanda J From: Sent: To: Subject: Fesmire, Mark E Tuesday, September 11, 2012 7:12 PM Feldgus, Steven H Re: Was having a hard time hearing you. Loose connectioh. Corrected back in water. Mark From: Feldgus, Steven H Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 03:47 PM To: Fesmire, Mark E Subject: RE: Was having a hard time hearing you. Hmmm... ok, keep us updated. Thanks. From: Fesmire, Mark E Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 5:39 PM To: Feldgus, Steven H Subject: Re: Was having a hard time hearing you. Steve As I was talking to Margaret we lost connection to some of the dome winches. Don,t know how big a problem yet. Recovering dome to repair. Mark From: Feldgus, Steven H Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 02:00 PM To: Fesmire, Mark E Subject: RE: Was having a hard time hearing you. Thanks very much, Mark. Margaret has asked if there is anyone else from your office that would be able to go to the Halifax meeting? Would you have time to give her a call on the subject? --Steve From: Fesmire, Mark E Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 3:21 PM To: Feldgus, Steven H Subject: Re: Was having a hard time hearing you. Steve Things are going well, but slow. Looks like time to pull plug on my Halifax trip to PAME. Is there any problem? Exhausted and need to deal with APDs and APMs. 1 Sticking with my estimate of finishing test about midnight. Recover anchors and travel in another 4. Reprovision and repair 12 to 18. That makes sail off, if all goes well late tomorrow Wed afternoon. CG agrees this is possible. Mark From: Feldgus, Steven H Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 06:37 AM To: Fesmire, Mark E Subject: RE: Was having a hard time hearing you. Great, thanks! I'll try to come up with other "All The President's Men" forms of verification for future calls. From: Fesmire, Mark E Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 8:26 AM To: Feldgus, Steven H Subject: Re: Was having a hard time hearing you. Y From: Feldgus, Steven H Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 06:15 AM To: Fesmire, Mark E Subject: Was having a hard time hearing you. For some reason the reception seems to be bad out in the middle of Puget Sound. But I believe you said it would take about another 18 hours to finish the deployment test, and then four hours to get back to the dock? Just reply 'y' if I got that right, and some letter from from y on the keyboard if I got that wrong. Thanks, --Steve 2 Tankersley, Yolanda J From: Sent: To: Subject: Fesmire, Mark E Wednesday, September 12, 2012 10:09 PM Feldgus, Steven H Re: Response to PEW letter we received last week. Steve ROV tangled in rigging. Shell to get divers out. Am going to hotel to sleep. Will call when I know more. May be Noon or later washington time. Mark From: Feldgus, Steven H Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2012 08:00 PM To: Fesmire, Mark E Subject: Re: Response to PEW letter we received last week. Nice. From: Fesmire, Mark E Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2012 07:24 PM To: Feldgus, Steven H Subject: Re: Response to PEW letter we received last week. Steve Rov repaired, back in water. No need to go to plan "B". Mark 1Tankersley, Yolanda J From: Sent: To: Subject: Fesmire, Mark E Thursday, September 13, 2012 10:59 PM Feldgus, Steven H Recovered rov Steve; Just recovered ROV. It will take 4 to 6 hours to fix. Shell has asked to continue tests using divers. Asked if they would use divers in real situation. Safety would not allow them to use divers. Told them that they could use divers to replace connections they undid to recover ROV but I would not consided it a successful test unles completed with ROV. They countered that they had already demonstrated all of the functions of ROV and that they would have other ROVs in the Arctic to help. Repairing ROV before continueing. Director may get call. Mark 1 Tankersley, Yolanda J From: Sent: To: Subject: Fesmire, Mark E Friday, September 14, 2012 10:51 AM Feldgus, Steven H Re: Recovered rov Back in business. Going well. ----- Original Message ----- From: Feldgus, Steven H Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 05:22 AM To: Fesmire, Mark E Subject: Re: Recovered rov Thanks - will alert him. ----- Original Message ----- From: Fesmire, Mark E Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 12:58 AM To: Feldgus, Steven H Subject: Recovered rov Steve; Just recovered ROV. It will take 4 to 6 hours to fix. Shell has asked to continue tests using divers. Asked if they would use divers in real situation. Safety would not allow them to use divers. Told them that they could use divers to replace connections they undid to recover ROV but I would not consided it a successful test unles completed with ROV. They countered that they had already demonstrated all of the functions of ROV and that they would have other ROVs in the Arctic to help. Repairing ROV before continueing. Director may get call. Mark 1 Tankersley, Yolanda J From: Sent: To: Subject: Fesmire, Mark E Saturday, September 15, 2012 12:13 AM Feldgus, Steven H Re: Cell # 12:30 PM. Watching operations after we got the support bouy disconnected when the ROV screen filled with bubbles. The dome suddenly lifted to the surface and breached like a whale. Massive venting and dome then sunk to the end of a safety bouy about 20 feet off bottom. Don't know cause or next steps. Will try to get some sleep while they figure it out. Will call when I know more. I have not told anyone else yet. Mark From: Feldgus, Steven H Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 03:15 PM To: Fesmire, Mark E Subject: Cell # Call anytime. (b) (6) 1 Tankersley, Yolanda J From: Sent: To: Subject: Fesmire, Mark E Saturday, September 15, 2012 1:23 PM Feldgus, Steven H Re: Got your message Steve As bad as I thought. Sent you a picture, but basically the top half is crushed like a beer can. Going back to hotel. Be on conference monday, weather permitting. Mark ----- Original Message ----- From: Feldgus, Steven H Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2012 12:54 PM To: Fesmire, Mark E Subject: Got your message Thanks for the update. The CG sent a report to the Director that mentioned the breaching of the dome, so he won't be surprised if you give him a call. 1 Tankersley, Yolanda J From: Sent: To: Subject: Fesmire, Mark E Monday, September 17, 2012 1:49 PM Feldgus, Steven H RE: Shell test Steve: My memory of the event is as follows: At about 12:30 AM, Saturday 9-17, the dome had been released from the Oceanguard buoy that was supporting the weight and had been transferred from negative buoyancy to positive buoyancy to provide an upward force on the clump weights (they had been attached by the ROV), in preparation for using the winches to traverse laterally and down to a predetermined target that we had established. The movement was stopped by the Shell representative who wanted to calculate the lift available from displacing water in the chamber with Nitrogen. He was apparently satisfied with the calculation and the process continued. As ballast was being adjusted, I was watching on the video feed from the ROV in the survey control room across the hall from the process control room, when the screen filled with bubbles. The dome started to rise and breached the surface for some period of time variously estimated by witnesses on deck as between 15 seconds to 2 and one half minutes. It vented gas (probably the nitrogen used to displace water out of the center chamber and ballast compartments) and then sunk. From the readings available in the survey room where I was, it probably did not hit the bottom, but was suspended by a line from a safety buoy a short distance above the bottom. A survey of the dome by the ROV showed some crushing damage to the dome. Later that morning, when the dome was retrieved, the crushing was more evident and appears to have been caused by the pressure differential in the ballast chambers in the cylindrical portion of the dome. That evening, there had been two warning indicators that were determined to be bad sensors, one in a venting valve, and the other with the Hydraulic Power Unit that provided power to the winches. When the dome was retrieved, one of the 4 clump weights (8,000# each) was still attached to the dome, but was sitting on the bottom. The other 3 did not appear to be attached. At this point, I do not have the information to determine the cause of these events. Mark Fesmire From: Feldgus, Steven H Sent: Monday, September 17, 2012 12:33 PM To: Fleming, Julie S; Fesmire, Mark E Subject: FW: Shell test Morgan's looking for some info on the Shell deployment test - Mark, is there any additional detail about the test that you think would be appropriate to share with Congress? From: Gray, Morgan [mailto:Morgan.Gray@mail.house.gov] Sent: Monday, September 17, 2012 4:21 PM 1 To: Feldgus, Steven H Subject: Shell test Steve, would it be possible to provide me additional detail about the test Shell conducted over the weekend of its capping dome for the Arctic? Specifically, I am looking for additional information on what exactly went wrong, whether we know why it went wrong, and whether we think this problem is specific only to Shell's technology or whether we have reason to believe that other similar devices might also be at risk of such an event. Thanks and please let me know if you have any questions. _______________________ Morgan Gray Senior Policy Advisor Democratic Staff Natural Resources Committee 2 I. it .f