* OMG... what a disaster this is. God be with all of us... to think it could have been prevented with a $500,000 shut off valve is beyond the pale. *
I don't think that extra shut off valve would have stopped this blowout. The oil and gas down there is so high pressure that it has to be tapped in safer ways altogether. Such as narrower thicker pipes at the ocean floor and going down 100ft say. The last 100-200 ft before the bottom of the ocean. This would function as a flow restrictor, lessening the pressure so that a blowout preventer can do its job. . Oil would have to be taken at a slower rate That's the devil's crude down there full of gobs of frozen methane hydrates MEANING----the gas bubble being blamed would have blown past that shut off valve same as all the others. g
