Government regulators have said that the failure of the Deepwater Horizon's blowout preventer April 20 was unforeseeable. But studies conducted for federal regulators in MMS or with their ...

These steel monsters known as blowout preventers or BOPs - sometimes as big as a double-decker bus and weighing up to 640,000 pounds - guard the mouth of wells.

In this image taken from video provided by BP PLC at 12:23 a.m. EDT, Saturday Sept. 4, 2010 Aug. 3, 2010 shows the blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico ...

These steel monsters known as blowout preventers or BOPs — sometimes as big as a double-decker bus and weighing up to 640,000 pounds — guard the mouth of wells.

Blowout preventers are supposed to cut off flow from oil wells ; Preventer failed on BP well in the Gulf ; Experts question reliability of device in extreme conditions ...

HOUSTON -- Cutoff valves like the one that failed to stop the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster have repeatedly broken down at other wells in the years since federal regulators weakened testing ...

The Gulf oil disaster isn't the only time a blowout preventer failed to stop an explosion. On June 3, a natural gas well in central Pennsylvania erupted despite the fact that it too was outfitted ...

ATLANTA AND NEW ORLEANS — BP and government officials said Thursday that they planned to remove the damaged existing blowout preventer on top of the company’s troubled oil well and replace it ...

The blowout preventer was placed into a metal contraption specifically designed to hold the massive device at 9:16 p.m. CDT Saturday. As it was maneuvered into place, ...

The blind shear ram, nestled 5,000 feet underwater in a five-story blowout preventer, was the last line of defense for the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. From these document excerpts it is possible to ...

NEW ORLEANS — BP PLC said the blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico was removed from the company’s well on Friday afternoon. The process of raising it ...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is readying rules that aim to boost the safety of offshore drilling and strengthen emergency equipment known as blowout preventers, a top U.S. regulator ...