Soca Warriors Online Discussion Forum
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: ribbit on April 29, 2010, 12:26:36 PM
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this thing getting pretty big. seem they "underestimated" the rate of leakage - advantageous slip to keep people quiet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/nQf3369vInk
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3 holes open and dey thinking to bun it off before it hits the coast. Man I doh know where we going to now nah ???
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BP say ah 1000 barrels a day leaking
Other scientists say dey lie..is 5000 barrels....dais REAL flickin damage commin up dey
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BP say ah 1000 barrels a day leaking
Other scientists say dey lie..is 5000 barrels....dais REAL flickin damage commin up dey
No one is really talking about the 11 people who died...
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I know dat too, but it will be much more if dey doh cap dem thing off :'(
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BP say ah 1000 barrels a day leaking
Other scientists say dey lie..is 5000 barrels....dais REAL flickin damage commin up dey
No one is really talking about the 11 people who died...
ah was thinking that...but is so much damage control they dealin wit, I bet they didnt even have time to investigate.
didnt realise it was as much as 11...i thought it was 3
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3 holes open and dey thinking to bun it off before it hits the coast. Man I doh know where we going to now nah ???
geez, is 3 different leaks? they talking about trying to reach a shutoff valve with some robots. is more than one of these? wonder if these valve(s) still operational. that sound more complicated than just changing a washer in the faucet.
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Who really knows wid dem ppl. At this point de was saying is only 1% of dey production so no big thing....
All I know is Louisiana in for one massive cleanup bill again... :'(
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Who really knows wid dem ppl. At this point de was saying is only 1% of dey production so no big thing....
All I know is Louisiana in for one massive cleanup bill again... :'(
that really something. look at the risk taken for something that not really even affecting oil prices. "peak oil" is here!
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We ain't hearing nothing from Sarah Palin and all them pro-drilling people. I ain't against drilling, but hey were using it as a wedge issue in all their congregarations. Let's hear for "Drill Baby, Drill"!!!!!!!!
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Spill baby Spill.
As always, b/c of the USA-centric news we get this is going to become the biggest story ever. the lawsuits have already started.
There have been other spills, not from rigs though. One last year off the Australian coast.
Overall, given the number of rigs in the gulf, hell, given the numbers worldwide, the spill rate is pretty low. The devastation is not insignificant though.
Katrina and Rita destroyed 116 platforms in the gulf. Of course, they knew the hurricanes were coming and could have prepared.
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looks like BP will be on the hook for the cost of the cleanup based on the law that passed after the valdez spill.
a next thing is the try to burn off the oil and figure they can scale it up to a few thousand barrels per day - might even keep pace with the rate at which is leaking.
anyone see Treme? they might try to write this into the plot somehow.
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BP say ah 1000 barrels a day leaking
Other scientists say dey lie..is 5000 barrels....dais REAL flickin damage commin up dey
No one is really talking about the 11 people who died...
ah was thinking that...but is so much damage control they dealin wit, I bet they didnt even have time to investigate.
didnt realise it was as much as 11...i thought it was 3
Nah, it's 11 people. From my perspective, this is a human tragedy first, and no one is really looking at this aspect as yet (I'm sure attention will be paid in due course). I remember fatalities always being a real traumatic thing.
Technically, this will be a hell of a challenge to cap this well (depth, lack of visibility, currents etc.), so look for more of the same for a few weeks/months at least.
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A tragedy. Human life, wildlife and the economics. Not nice!!!!!!! I wonder what kind of contingencies TT have for any type of off shore accidents?
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This morning on MSNBC some BP big wig was saying the accident was/is not their responsibility, its Translation's (I think that's the name of the company). They say its their safety system, their people, their rig.....
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A tragedy. Human life, wildlife and the economics. Not nice!!!!!!! I wonder what kind of contingencies TT have for any type of off shore accidents?
we throw breeze in de water and hope fuh de best
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This morning on MSNBC some BP big wig was saying the accident was/is not their responsibility, its Translation's (I think that's the name of the company). They say its their safety system, their people, their rig.....
i think is TransOcean. This is the company that responsible for the blowout preventer. i read this thing weigh 450 tons!
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A tragedy. Human life, wildlife and the economics. Not nice!!!!!!! I wonder what kind of contingencies TT have for any type of off shore accidents?
we throw breeze in de water and hope fuh de best
God is ah trini, why bother?
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The blow out preventor failed....and they didnt have a contingency. Transocean is de lease company that owns the rig....but i think BP would still be responsible for the cleanup costs etc. They tried capping it...didnt work.
Worse part bout it is that its heavy crude...burning it is real pressha...plus the release of the byproducts.
Real sad.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/photogalleries/100429-gulf-oil-rig-spill-worse-pictures/#gulf-oil-rig-spill-rise-surface_19690_600x450.jpg
(http://s.ngeo.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/196/cache/gulf-oil-rig-spill-thin-layer_19692_600x450.jpg)
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BP to fisherman: since allyuh cyah fish, we go find yuh a wuk IF yuh waive your right to sue (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/bp-pulls-forms-asking-fishermen-to-sign-away-rights-to-sue/article1554200/). BP = BOLD Petroleum.
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BP to fisherman: since allyuh cyah fish, we go find yuh a wuk IF yuh waive your right to sue (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/bp-pulls-forms-asking-fishermen-to-sign-away-rights-to-sue/article1554200/). BP = BOLD Petroleum.
BP= Barack Petroleum,, yuh done see he tell dem fellahs dey have ah big bill to pay
dem men duckin every dollar commin out of the next 4 quarters
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Hopefully this helps with some of the misinformation (http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?hpf=1&a_id=92765)
From indications..apparently a gas kick happened.....which pushed out gas at much higher pressures than they anticipated....blew the BOP....and the explosion got triggered on the platform. Add to the fact that natural gas is odorless, tasteless and colorless......yuh get the idea all the challenges that were faced. Real pressha in de scene.
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Hopefully this helps with some of the misinformation (http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?hpf=1&a_id=92765)
when the lawsuits start in full swing swing ah wonder if this fellah go get some money to deny or re-cant.
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ah hearing how BP worse than most in the petro industry in terms of safety. they had another blowup in texas city in 2006 killed 15 people injured a few hundred. yuh gorn work for BP, know de score.
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BP to fisherman: since allyuh cyah fish, we go find yuh a wuk IF yuh waive your right to sue (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/bp-pulls-forms-asking-fishermen-to-sign-away-rights-to-sue/article1554200/). BP = BOLD Petroleum.
BP= Barack Petroleum,, yuh done see he tell dem fellahs dey have ah big bill to pay
dem men duckin every dollar commin out of the next 4 quarters
is "Barack Petroluem" for real...
Obama biggest recipient of BP cash (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64420A20100505)
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Hopefully this helps with some of the misinformation (http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?hpf=1&a_id=92765)
when the lawsuits start in full swing swing ah wonder if this fellah go get some money to deny or re-cant.
From all what he said there..i doh think BP or transocean could be as accountable. It could have been an overpressured zone that wasnt detected by seismic or other surveys so they didnt know the balance that was needed. By the time they would have detected the kick....the BOP still wouldnt have been able to deal with it.
Buh who knows. He wasnt identified anyhow.
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Hopefully this helps with some of the misinformation (http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?hpf=1&a_id=92765)
when the lawsuits start in full swing swing ah wonder if this fellah go get some money to deny or re-cant.
From all what he said there..i doh think BP or transocean could be as accountable. It could have been an overpressured zone that wasnt detected by seismic or other surveys so they didnt know the balance that was needed. By the time they would have detected the kick....the BOP still wouldnt have been able to deal with it.
Buh who knows. He wasnt identified anyhow.
me eh no engineer, but according to one of the comments here (http://blogs.reuters.com/ask/2010/05/04/is-it-still-drill-baby-drill-in-light-of-the-spill/), they have expensive equipment (c.f. "sonar valves") to handle this kind of scenario that the operators were reluctant to pay for.
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ah hearing how BP worse than most in the petro industry in terms of safety. they had another blowup in texas city in 2006 killed 15 people injured a few hundred. yuh gorn work for BP, know de score.
I worked for and on the verge of working for Bp again , safety is as important as any other of the big majors but since Hayward take over from John Brown they started a cost cutting program called deep dive that was a massive head count reduction of expats (I pass in the rush in Dec). The result was a lot of experience has moved on and within the organisation least cost option is now the order of the day. So the safety culture is there , the training is done but they gone cheap cheap and as the saying goes you get what you pay for.
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Hopefully this helps with some of the misinformation (http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?hpf=1&a_id=92765)
when the lawsuits start in full swing swing ah wonder if this fellah go get some money to deny or re-cant.
From all what he said there..i doh think BP or transocean could be as accountable. It could have been an overpressured zone that wasnt detected by seismic or other surveys so they didnt know the balance that was needed. By the time they would have detected the kick....the BOP still wouldnt have been able to deal with it.
Buh who knows. He wasnt identified anyhow.
me eh no engineer, but according to one of the comments here (http://blogs.reuters.com/ask/2010/05/04/is-it-still-drill-baby-drill-in-light-of-the-spill/), they have expensive equipment (c.f. "sonar valves") to handle this kind of scenario that the operators were reluctant to pay for.
If it was mandated by legislation den dey dead. Buh i vaguely remember reading somewhere that even doh de equipment available, it wasnt required by law in that territory..but...like in Brazil it is. We go see. Me eh no engineer yet.
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Here is an account from someone who was on the rig when it went:
http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?hpf=1&a_id=92765
Mark: Dallas Texas WBAP. Go right ahead, sir.
James: Just want to clear up a few things with the Petroleum Engineer, everything he said was correct. I was actually on the rig when it exploded and was at work.
Mark: Alright, let's slow down. Wait, hold on, slow down, so you were working on this rig when it exploded?
James: Yes sir.
Mark: OK, go ahead.
James: We had set the bottom cement plug for the inner casing string, which was the production liner for the well, and had set what's called a seal assembly on the top of the well. At that point, the BOP stack that he was talking about, the blow out preventer was tested. I don't know the results of that test; however, it must have passed because at that point they elected to displace the risers -- the marine riser from the vessel to the sea floor. They displaced the mud out of the riser preparing to unlatch from the well two days later and they displaced it with sea water. When they concluded the BOP stack test and the inner liner, they concluded everything was good.
Mark: Let me slow you down, let me slow you down. So they do all these tests to make sure the infrastructure can handle what's about to happen, right?
James: Correct, we're testing the negative pressure and positive pressure of the well, the casing and the actual marine riser.
Mark: OK, I'm with you. Go ahead.
James: Alright, after the conclusion of the test, they simply opened the BOP stack back up.
Mark: And the test, as best as you know, was sufficient?
James: It should have been, yes sir. They would have never opened it back up.
Mark: OK next step, go ahead.
James: Next step, they opened the annular, the upper part of the BOP stack
Mark: Which has what purpose? Why do you do that?
James: So that you can gain access back to the wellbore.
Mark: OK
James: When you close the stack, it's basically a humongous hydraulic valve that closes off everything from below and above. It's like a gate valve on the sea floor.
Mark: OK
James: That's a very simplistic way of explaining a BOP. It's a very complicated piece of equipment.
Mark: Basically, it's like a plug. But go ahead.
James: Correct. Once they open that plug to go ahead and start cementing the top of the well (the well bore), we cement the top, and then basically we would pull off. Another rig would slide over and do the rest of the completions work. When they opened the well is when the gas well kicked, and we took a humongous gas bubble kick up through the well bore. It literally pushed the sea water all the way to the crown of the rig, which is about 240 feet in the air.
Mark: OK, so gas got into it and blew the top off of it.
James: Right.
Mark: Now don't hang up. I want to continue with you because I want to ask you some questions related to this, OK? Including, has this sort of thing ever happened before, and why you think it may have happened, OK?
Mark: Alright, back to James, that's not his real name, Dallas WBAP. I'm not going to give the working title of what you did there either, James, but I wanted to finish. So, the gentleman was right about the point that obviously some gas got into the, I'll call it the funnel, OK?
James: Correct, and that's not uncommon, Mark. Anytime you're drilling an oil well, there is a constant battle between the mud weight, the drilling fluid that we use to maintain pressure, and the wellbore itself. There's a balance. The well is pushing gas one way and you are pushing mud the other way. So there is a delicate balance that has to be maintained at all times to keep the gas from coming back in, what we call the kicks. You know, we always get gas back in the mud, but the goal of the whole situation is to try to control the kick. Not allow the pressure to differentiate between the vessel and the wellbore.
Mark: Well, in this case, obviously, too much gas got in.
James: Correct, and this well had a bad history of producing lots of gas. It was touch and go a few times and was not terribly uncommon. You’re almost always going to get gas back from a well. We have systems to deal with the gas, however.
Mark: So, what may have happened here?
James: Well, the sheer volume and pressure of gas that hit all at once which was more than the safeties and controls we had in place could handle.
Mark: And that’s like a mistake on somebody's part or maybe its just Mother Nature every now and then kicks up, or what?
James: Mother Nature every now and then kicks up. The pressures that we're dealing with out there, drilling deeper, deeper water, deeper overall volume of the whole vessel itself, you’re dealing with 30 to 40 thousand pounds per square inch range -- serious pressures.
Mark: Not to offend you, but we just verified that you are who you are, which I'm sure you already knew that. I would like to hold you over to the next hour because I would like to ask a few more questions about this, as well as what happened exactly after the explosion, during the explosion and after. Can you wait with us?
James: Sure, I don't know how much of that I can share, but I'll do my best.
Mark: Alright, well I don't want to get you in trouble. So if you can stay, fine, but if you can't, we understand.
Part 2 of Mark's Interview:
Mark: We are talking to a caller under an assumed name who was on the rig when it blew up, and we've been talking about how it happened. And now James, I want to take you to the point of when it happened. What exactly happened? Where were you standing?
James: Well obviously, the gas blew the sea water out of the riser, once it displaced all of the sea water, the gas began to spill out on the deck and up through the center of the rig floor. The rig, you have to imagine a rectangle, about 400 feet by 300 feet, with the derrick and the rig floor sitting directly in the center. As this gas is now heavier than air, it starts to settle in different places. From that point, something ignited the gas, which would have caused the first major explosion.
Mark: Now, what might ignite the gas, do you know?
James: Any number of things, Mark. All rig floor equipment is what they consider intrinsically safe, meaning it cannot generate a spark, so that these types of accidents cannot occur. However, as much gas that came out as fast as it did, it would have spilled over the entire rig fairly rapidly, you know, within a minute. I would think that the entire rig would be enveloped in gas. Now a lot of this stuff, you can't smell, you can't taste it, it's just there, and it's heavier than oxygen. As it settled in, it could have made it to a space that wasn't intrinsically safe. Something as simple as static electricity could have ignited the first explosion, which set off a series of explosions.
Mark: Alright, so what happened? You're standing where? You're sitting somewhere? What happened?
James: Well, I was in a location that was a pretty good ways from the initial blast. I wasn't affected by the blast. I was able to make it out and get up forward where the life boats were. The PA system was still working. There was an announcement overhead that this was NOT a drill. Obviously, we have fire drills every single week to prepare for emergencies like this (fire and abandonment drills). Over the intercom came the order to report to life boats one and two, that this was not a drill, that there is a fire, and we proceeded that way.
Mark: So, the eleven men who died, were they friends of yours?
James: Yes sir, they were.
Mark: Did they die instantly?
James: I would have to assume so. Yes, sir. I would think that they were directly inside the bomb when it went off, the gas being the bomb.
Mark: So, the bomb being the gas explosion?
James: Correct. They would have been in the belly of the beast.
Mark: Now, let me ask you, and we have to be careful what we say because there are people that will run wild with ideas, so I just want to make sure
James: Sure.
Mark: So, let me ask you this, why would the government send in a SWAT team to a rig? What’s that all about?
James: Well, believe it or not, its funny you would mention that. Transocean, the drilling company, maintains a SWAT team and that's their sole purpose. They're experts in their field. The BOP, the blowout preventer, they call that subsea equipment. They have their own SWAT teams that they send out to the rigs to service and maintain that equipment.
Mark: Yeah but I'm talking about what are interior SWAT teams? What is that?
James: The interior, from the government now, I don't have an idea about that, that's beyond me. The other gentleman also mentioned the USGS that comes out and does the surveys. I've been on that particular rig for three years, offshore for five years, and I've seen a USGS one time. What we do have on a very regular basis is the MMS, which is the Minerals Management Service.
Mark: They're all under the interior department.
James: OK. Yes. As a matter of fact, we were commended for our inspection record from the MMS. We are actually receiving an award from them for the highest level of safety and environmental awareness.
Mark: Well, I thought you were going to receive that award. Didn't they put it on hold?
James: No, we have actually received that award. We received it last year. We may have been ready to receive it again this year.
Mark: Let me ask you this, so the life boats, how did you get into these life boats? Where are these life boats?
James: There are actually four life boats - two forward and two on the left, depending on where the emergency or the tragedy has taken place.
Mark: Did you wind up jumping in the water to get in to the life boat? Sometimes you have to do that.
James: I'll just say that there were five to seven individuals that jumped and the rest went down in the life boats.
Mark: Alright, I won't ask because you don't want to identify yourself that clearly. Good point. How fast were the rescue efforts? How fast did they reach you?
James: It is common to have a very large work boat standing by, to bring tools out, groceries, and supplies; it's a constant turn around. So we actually have a very large vessel real close by. It was actually along the side with the hose attached, taking mud off of our vessel on its own. It had to emergency disconnect and then pull out about a mile to stand by for rescue efforts. So, it was fairly quick.
Mark: How quick till the Coast Guard got there?
James: Mark, it's hard to say, between 45 minutes to an hour is when I recall seeing the first helicopter.
Mark: Which is actually pretty fast because you are 130 miles offshore right?
James: Correct. If you look at the nearest spill of land which would be Grand Isle, Louisiana, somewhere in that area, we were only about maybe 50 miles where the crew flies up. From civilization, such as New Orleans, it would be 200 miles. The helicopter was more than likely 80 to 100 miles away.
Mark: You are going to be beset by lawyers, with the government, and others looking for an opportunity to make money. It's going to get very, very ugly and the officials going there have really no backgrounds or experience... I mean, to what extent is that going to help anything? It's silly.
James: To me it seems knee jerk. The number one focus right now is containment. I like the idea about the boom. They are going to try to lower it down into the water to capture the leak.
Mark: How long might that take? I've been reading about this boom and it says that it could take 30 days to do that.
James: It very well could. You have to remember that this is a challenging environment. You know its 5,000 feet deep, there's a tangled wreck of a rig with the marine riser still connected and twisted into a big wad down there. So it's going to take some time to get all that stuff in place. The engineering has to be there; obviously they don't want to rush into it. You want to move it expediently but you are risking the lives of those men that are going to go out there and try to attempt it - that’s just not right.
Mark: I was just going say that. That's very dangerous, I mean extremely dangerous.
James: Absolutely, absolutely. There will be oil. There will be natural gases. All the same things that caused us to explode are still present, and they're there. The pressure had been cut off dramatically, from the simple fact of the folding of the riser. Basically take this big garden hose and kink it several times.
Mark: How old is this rig? How long has it been there?
James: It was put in service in 2001. It's a fairly new rig.
Mark: And, what is the sense in shutting down every rig in the Gulf of Mexico in response to this?
James: Absolutely senseless, whatsoever. This literally could very well be a once in a lifetime freak accident, or it could be negligence. That's for other people to figure out. From my position, it just seems like every now and then, you can't win against Mother Nature. She throws a curve ball that you are not prepared for.
Mark: But to shut down every rig in response to this? I mean... I'm not sure why.
James: The BOP tests are literally mandated from the Mineral Management Service and they are conducted like clockwork. I mean, if any of those tests ever failed, they would have immediately stopped operations, sealed the well up, pulled the BOP stack back up on the deck, which is 48 hours minimum, and made the necessary repairs or replacement parts, and then would get it back down, re-connect, re-test, and keep testing it, until it passed or kept on repairing it until it passed.
Mark: So this was a… I mean this must have been harrowing to you. I mean to experience something like this.
James: That’s putting it mildly.
Mark: Anything else you want to tell me?
James: No, I just got into the truck to make a short trip and I heard a gentleman say something about possible terrorism and I want to put that to bed now. I understand you have a large audience. I appreciate your point of view. I try to listen to you as much as I can, the terrorism call just needs to leave everyone's minds and let's focus on the 11 men that are dead and the survivors. That's where the focus of this country needs to be right now.
Mark: Alright my friend, we wish you all the best and I tell you that it's really God's blessing that you survived, it really is.
James: Yes sir, I completely agree.
Mark: Alright James, thank you very much for calling and we appreciate it.
James: Thank you, Mark.
Mark: Alright, God bless.
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http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html)
(http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/oilspill_05_12/o23_23313163.jpg)
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I heard the containment tank thing they built didn't work on first try....what happen since?...
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Dey made a smaller one....were supposed to try it today. Right now more of the news centered around the blame game dat going on.
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wow - dutty, that pic says it all. :(
an engineering prof from purdue uses a different method to calculate the leak rate and gets 70 000 barrels per day! compared to 5 000 from BP.
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BP to try pipe insertion today to stem oil gushing into Gulf (http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/14/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T1)
(CNN) -- BP will try again within the next day to cap a well that has gushed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the energy company said Friday.
An effort last weekend to plug the leak with a four-story containment dome failed when natural gas crystals collected inside the structure, plugging an outlet at the top.
The latest attempt will involve a tube designed to be inserted into a ruptured pipe, collect oil and send it to a vessel on the surface, said Mark Proegler, a BP spokesman.
The insertion tube is on the sea floor, and engineers plan to move it into place Friday, Proegler said. The company also has lowered a smaller containment dome for use if the insertion tube does not stem the flow of oil, he said.
In Washington, President Obama criticized executives from BP and two other companies for blaming each other for the catastrophe.
"It is absolutely essential that going forward, we put in place every necessary safeguard and protection so that a tragedy like this oil spill does not happen again," Obama said after meeting Friday with Cabinet members to discuss the spill.
"This is a responsibility that all of us share," he said. "The oil companies share it. The manufacturers of this equipment share it. The agencies in the federal government in charge of oversight share that responsibility. I will not tolerate more finger-pointing or irresponsibility."
BP's efforts to plug the leak come amid growing concern that the company has been low-balling how much oil has poured out of the well: A researcher says up to 70,000 barrels of oil could be leaking per day, and BP stands by a 5,000-barrel figure.
Rep. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, sent BP a letter Friday asking for more details from federal agencies about the methods they are using to analyze the oil leak.
Markey, who chairs a congressional subcommittee on energy and the environment, said he will launch the formal inquiry after learning of independent estimates that are significantly higher than the amount BP officials have provided.
"The public needs to know the answers to very basic questions: How much oil is leaking into the Gulf and how much oil can be expected to end up on our shores and our ocean environment?" Markey said in a letter to BP. "I am concerned that an underestimation of the flow may be impeding the ability to solve the leak and handle management of the disaster."
BP has said that since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drill rig that about 5,000 barrels -- or 210,000 gallons -- have been pouring out of the well. The company says it reached that number using data, satellite images and consultation with the Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"I think that's a good range," Doug Suttles, BP's CEO for exploration and production, said Friday.
But a researcher at Purdue University said BP's estimate is too low. Associate Professor Steve Wereley says about 70,000 barrels of oil are leaking each day, based on an analysis of video of the spill.
Wereley said he spent two hours Thursday analyzing the video using a technique called particle image velocimetry. He said there is a 20 percent margin of error, which means between 56,000 and 84,000 barrels could be leaking daily.
"You can't say with precision, but you can see there's definitely more coming out of that pipe than people thought," he said. It's definitely not 5,000 barrels a day."
At the Washington meeting, Obama consulted members of his Cabinet and other senior administration officials to determine the next steps in the effort to stop the oil spill, contain its spread and help affected communities.
The dispute over the size of the oil leak caps a week in which congressional committees grilled executives from BP and two other companies: drilling contractor Transocean Ltd., which owned the rig, and oilfield services contractor Halliburton, which was responsible for cementing the well shut once drilled.
The companies blamed each other.
BP pointed to Transocean, which said BP was responsible for the wellhead's design and Halliburton was responsible for the cement finishing work. Halliburton, in turn, said that its workers were just following BP's orders, but that Transocean was responsible for maintaining the rig's blowout preventer.
Obama took exception Friday.
"I did not appreciate what I considered to be a ridiculous spectacle during the congressional hearings into this matter," the president said. "You had executives of BP and Transocean and Halliburton falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else. The American people could not have been impressed with that display, and I certainly wasn't."
BP, the Coast Guard, and state and local authorities have scrambled to keep the oil from reaching shore or the ecologically delicate coastal wetlands off Louisiana. They have burned off patches of the slick, deployed more than 280 miles of protective booms, skimmed as much as 4 million gallons of oily water off the surface of the Gulf and pumped more than 400,000 gallons of chemical dispersants onto the oil.
Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the April 20 explosion at the rig, which sank two days later. Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead.
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http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html)
(http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/oilspill_05_12/o23_23313163.jpg)
that looking like one of de seven plagues...
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http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html)
(http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/oilspill_05_12/o23_23313163.jpg)
>:( :(
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Some interesting reading...
Atlantic Empress
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Empress
The Atlantic Empress was a Greek oil tanker that was involved in two large oil spills. The spills together are the third largest oil spill on record and the second largest ship-based spill.
On July 19, 1979, during a tropical rainstorm, the ship collided with the Aegean Captain, off Trinidad and Tobago, spilling 287,000 metric tonnes of oil consigned to Mobil. The damage incurred from the collision was never completely remedied, and while being towed on August 2, the Atlantic Empress continued to spill an additional 41 million gallons (all together being 276,000 tonnes of crude oil) off Barbados. The Aegean Captain also spilled a large quantity of oil from her No. 1 tank. The Atlantic Empress sank on 3 August in deep water and her remaining cargo solidified. The spill from the two ships fortunately never came ashore.
By comparison, the infamous Exxon Valdez spill ten years later only saw 37,000 metric tonnes of oil released.
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And Obama not keepin ghis promises at all. Now he seems to be agreeing with Drill baby drill as he issuing off shore drilling permits, including several to the same BP.
Obama keep your promises.
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While the impact of a large oil spill is great, the overall safety of offshore drilling is pretty good.
The US has over 4000 wells in the Gulf of Mexico alone. These have survived hurricanes and earthquakes with no resulting environmental catastrophe.
What is at issue here is the apparent lack of adequate regulatory oversight and of the equipment and plan needed to deal with a spill such as this. I would imagine that there has been a general level of complacency giving the rarity of these incidents.
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http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html)
(http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/oilspill_05_12/o23_23313163.jpg)
good thing oil does float or it would be worse
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704614204575245810666495600.html?mod=rss_com_mostcommentart
HOUSTON—BP PLC had its first breakthrough in the effort to stem the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, using robots to insert one end of a mile-long tube into a shattered oil pipe on the ocean floor. The goal is to siphon up some, if not most, of the crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.
In an early sign of success, BP said it had begun burning off gas emerging from the apparatus at the ocean's surface.
At BP's crisis center—where some 500 people are working round-the-clock—a bunker mentality eased a bit. "Everyone's encouraged now," said Richard Lynch, who is leading BP's subsea containment effort.
There's no assurance the risky maneuver will pan out. Like BP's previous efforts to curb the leak, this one has an improvised quality that exposes the difficulties of working at the frontiers of oil production. Several earlier attempts, including an attempt to place a large dome over the leaking oil well on the ocean floor, have failed.
The current strategy involves snaking a tube snugly into the leaking pipe. The tube is bent at one end like a hook and equipped with thick rubber fins intended to keep oil from leaking out around the edges.
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f**k BP....they culpabale and caused this catastrope! Ignoring the safety reports, so their honchos could buy another mansion or three.
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f**k BP....they culpabale and caused this catastrope! Ignoring the safety reports, so their honchos could buy another mansion or three.
Is a series of events. As it is....i trying to find a report about it. Apparently they put cement and started circulating the mud off..which led to the kick. The drilling contractor saying they were following instructions..buh doing that is madness anywhere....since the cement didnt get chance to set. What making it worse is the blame game. Buh....dahs de oilfield for you.
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(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.politicsdaily.com/media/2010/05/oilcap-600w.jpg)
or they could use an old unused president’s house.
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http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/849.html
Brit Hume and d eFox crew (neo-cons)saying is not ah big ting.
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BREAKING
'Top kill' method 'stops BP oil leak' in Gulf of Mexico
BP has stopped the flow of oil and gas from a ruptured well into the Gulf of Mexico, a US official told local media.
The company's "top kill" effort has "stabilised the wellhead", Coast Guard commander Thad Allen said, adding that it was too early to declare success.
This is the first step, using mud, in BP's plan to seal the well for good with cement.
Eleven workers were killed in the initial explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig five weeks ago.
Since then millions of gallons of oil have poured into the sea.
Later on Thursday, US President Barack Obama will extend a moratorium on deep-water offshore drilling for six months, the White House has said.
The move comes as his administration faces criticism of its handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
'Low pressure'
Adm Allen told US media the "top kill" procedure, which began on Wednesday, has pumped enough drilling fluid to block all oil and gas escaping from the well.
"They've been able to stabilise the wellhead, they're pumping mud down it. They've stopped the hydrocarbons from coming up," Adm Allen told WWL First News radio.
It was the first positive official assessment of BP's latest attempt to plug the well, after previous efforts failed.
BP has not yet commented in detail on the situation, saying merely that the operation was continuing.
Adm Allen said there was still pressure from the well, although at very low levels.
Once engineers have reduced the pressure to zero, they will begin pumping cement into the hole to seal the well, he added.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10174861.stm
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look like the head of the MMS gone - elizabeth birnbaum resigns. hopefully more to follow...
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look like the head of the MMS gone - elizabeth birnbaum resigns. hopefully more to follow...
What is the MMS??
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look like the head of the MMS gone - elizabeth birnbaum resigns. hopefully more to follow...
What is the MMS??
It is under the Dept. of Interior, Minerals Management Service
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BP has temporarily suspended 'top kill' effort
There's no end in sight for the situation in the Gulf of Mexico. Anderson Cooper reports live tonight from the region as BP attempts to stop the leak. Watch "AC360°" tonight at 10 ET on CNN for the latest on stopping the leak.
Venice, Louisiana (CNN) -- BP's much-anticipated effort to cap its undersea gusher in the Gulf of Mexico was temporarily suspended at midnight and was expected to resume Thursday evening, a BP executive said.
The "top kill" procedure continued until "just before midnight, when we stopped pumping operations," Doug Suttles, the company's chief operating officer, told reporters. BP has been evaluating the results of the first round of pumping over the past 16 hours.
"We have not yet pumped today," Suttles said. The light-brown material that's been seen flowing out of the well throughout Thursday was the previously pumped fluid mixed with oil.
"Nothing has actually gone wrong or unanticipated," Suttles said. He said engineers have been monitoring the process for the past 24 hours, and determining adjustments to the mud-like fluid being injected into the line to counter to flow of oil.
He said the next step will be to restock the drilling fluid and restart in the evening.
The latest development in the difficult top-kill procedure came as the Gulf Coast had been holding its breath all day Thursday over a spill that is now estimated at twice the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster.
BP's effort to suppress the oil spill by pumping heavy drilling fluid into the breach could take another 24 to 48 hours to complete, Bob Dudley, its managing director, reported earlier Thursday. At that time, the "top kill" attempt had so far been successful, and the company planned to start pumping more fluid down a second line in hopes of clogging the underwater well, he said.
Enormous brown plumes of drilling "mud" billowed from the damaged well during the process, which Dudley called "a "titanic arm-wrestling match" a mile below the surface. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is leading the government's response to the oil spill, said the work "is moving along as everyone had hoped."
"They're pumping mud into the well bore, and as long as mud is going down, hydrocarbons are not going up," Allen told reporters Thursday afternoon. The work could take another night, he told reporters in Venice, near the mouth of the Mississippi River.
http://us.cnn.com/2010/US/05/27/gulf.oil.spill/index.html
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T. Boone Pickens on Larry King now basically saying none of this is going to work. No Top Kill, No Junk Shot. He might just be doing the ornery old man thing though. He say if anything work is just luck. the relief well is the answer. So we will be here another 38 days...
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T. Boone Pickens on Larry King now basically saying none of this is going to work. No Top Kill, No Junk Shot. He might just be doing the ornery old man thing though. He say if anything work is just luck. the relief well is the answer. So we will be here another 38 days...
At that rate de oil go reach deep in the caribbean
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(http://i.imgur.com/P0qkj.jpg)
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T. Boone Pickens on Larry King now basically saying none of this is going to work. No Top Kill, No Junk Shot. He might just be doing the ornery old man thing though. He say if anything work is just luck. the relief well is the answer. So we will be here another 38 days...
At that rate de oil go reach deep in the caribbean
It looking like Pickens was correct. top kill, junk shots, all them ting buss. On to the next plan.
What I really enjoy reading is the opinions of all the online "experts" who are like, just do X. Or the conspiracy theorists who think BP not really trying to close the well.
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BP says so far, Gulf well plug isn't working
COVINGTON, La. – A risky procedure to stop the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico has yet to show much success, and BP is considering scrapping it in favor of a different method to contain the worst oil spill in U.S. history, an executive said Saturday.
The comments from BP PLC chief operating officer Doug Suttles came amid increasing skepticism that the "top kill" operation — which involves pumping heavy drilling mud into a crippled well 5,000 feet underwater — would halt the leak.
The top kill began Wednesday, and "to date it hasn't yet stopped the flow," Suttles told reporters at Port Fourchon. "What I don't know is whether it ultimately will or not."
If the top kill fails, BP would cut off the damaged riser from which the oil is leaking and cap it with a containment valve that's already resting on the seafloor. BP is already preparing for that operation, Suttles said.
Since the top kill began Wednesday, BP has pumped huge amounts mud into the well at a rate of up to 2,700 gallons per minute, but it's unclear how much is staying there. A robotic camera on the seafloor appeared to show mud escaping at various times during the operation. On Saturday, the substance spewing from the well appeared to be oil, experts said.
BP has also tried several times to shoot assorted junk into the well's crippled blowout preventer to clog it up and force the mud down the well bore. That, too, has met with limited success.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, addressing reporters after he spoke at a high school graduation ceremony in Denver, echoed what Suttles said and said officials were evaluating the next step. He said the relief well was the ultimate solution, but said something was needed to stop the spill until then.
"We're doing everything with the best minds in the world to make sure that happens," he said.
The oil spill began after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in April, killing 11 people. It's the worst spill in U.S. history — exceeding even the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 off the Alaska coast — dumping between 18 million and 40 million gallons into the Gulf, according to government estimates.
Experts and other observers were growing increasingly skeptical that BP would be able to plug the well. Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute, said Saturday that the top kill appeared headed for failure.
"They warned us not to draw too many conclusions from the effluent, but ... it doesn't look like it's working," he said.
BP had pegged the top kill's chances of success at 60 to 70 percent. The company says the best way to stop the flow of oil is by drilling relief wells, but those won't be completed until August.
Chris Roberts, a councilman in Louisiana's Jefferson Parish, said he was frustrated by BP's failures and perceived lack of transparency.
"We're wondering whether or not they're attempting to give everybody false hope in order to drag out the time until the ultimate resolution to it" — the completion of the relief wells, Roberts said.
Meanwhile, Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service officials heard a sixth day of testimony during hearings into the disaster in Kenner.
David Sims, BP's drilling operations manager for exploration and appraisal in the Gulf of Mexico, testified he was aware of well problems experienced by the Deepwater Horizon's drilling crew in the weeks and months leading up to the explosion. He said there were no serious problems the day the rig exploded.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100529/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill
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(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/04/article-1284003-09E1C11C000005DC-89_634x394.jpg)
(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/04/article-1284003-09E0E1E4000005DC-751_634x463.jpg)
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T. Boone Pickens on Larry King now basically saying none of this is going to work. No Top Kill, No Junk Shot. He might just be doing the ornery old man thing though. He say if anything work is just luck. the relief well is the answer. So we will be here another 38 days...
I heard from a BP employee that BP always knew the relief well was the answer....everything else was just PR gimmickry.....
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Oil Spill could possibly reach the Caribbean soon (Bahamas & Jamaica)..http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10650084&ref=rss
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a padnah was telling me that BP US operations will take the legal hit for this, insulating the rest of the company.
look spike lee "directing" de president on the appropriate reaction (like is denzel he looking for?):
http://www.youtube.com/v/Jw1SAL4cw70
if dis spill was off sakhalin, ah could well imagine putin's response. dem big ceo and dey spin merchants woulda be down at the beach all now with bucket and shovel. :devil:
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T. Boone Pickens on Larry King now basically saying none of this is going to work. No Top Kill, No Junk Shot. He might just be doing the ornery old man thing though. He say if anything work is just luck. the relief well is the answer. So we will be here another 38 days...
I heard from a BP employee that BP always knew the relief well was the answer....everything else was just PR gimmickry.....
Exactly. But the time needed for the relief well to be drilled woulda be time wasting and yuh woulda hear more noise. So...dey just do what they could trying to mitigate. It have no way they could stop that without a relief well. They could try and reduce the flow as much as possible..and risk the pressure forcing back the fluid back into the formation and fracturing somewhere else and thus causing further problems. So....sadly it hadda go so.
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I really like Spike, but you can't force Barak to be what he is not. I am sure he is pissed and usin all the resources and advice that is available. If another oil company of country had a solution to this accident, don't you think they would have offered it. If anyone of them can go 5000 ft and fixed it, they will be an isntant hero.
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T. Boone Pickens on Larry King now basically saying none of this is going to work. No Top Kill, No Junk Shot. He might just be doing the ornery old man thing though. He say if anything work is just luck. the relief well is the answer. So we will be here another 38 days...
I heard from a BP employee that BP always knew the relief well was the answer....everything else was just PR gimmickry.....
Exactly. But the time needed for the relief well to be drilled woulda be time wasting and yuh woulda hear more noise. So...dey just do what they could trying to mitigate. It have no way they could stop that without a relief well. They could try and reduce the flow as much as possible..and risk the pressure forcing back the fluid back into the formation and fracturing somewhere else and thus causing further problems. So....sadly it hadda go so.
they have not started the relief well as yet??
what wrong with BP man
I thought they stared one right after the accident
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T. Boone Pickens on Larry King now basically saying none of this is going to work. No Top Kill, No Junk Shot. He might just be doing the ornery old man thing though. He say if anything work is just luck. the relief well is the answer. So we will be here another 38 days...
I heard from a BP employee that BP always knew the relief well was the answer....everything else was just PR gimmickry.....
Exactly. But the time needed for the relief well to be drilled woulda be time wasting and yuh woulda hear more noise. So...dey just do what they could trying to mitigate. It have no way they could stop that without a relief well. They could try and reduce the flow as much as possible..and risk the pressure forcing back the fluid back into the formation and fracturing somewhere else and thus causing further problems. So....sadly it hadda go so.
they have not started the relief well as yet??
what wrong with BP man
I thought they stared one right after the accident
They did start one after the accident. Allyuh feel drilling...especially at that depth is a quick ting. Depending on the depth it could take anywhere from 30 to 60 days to drill and complete a well. And BP done pelt out 1.2 Billion on de clean up from this already..and it was already behind schedule. So it eh have no two ways about them just plugging it and walking away sadly. Dey hadda get someting from dis. De water go be in a state too...so it eh easy. Especially since it deviated.
I go check and see if i get some info as to how long again the relief well has.
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T. Boone Pickens on Larry King now basically saying none of this is going to work. No Top Kill, No Junk Shot. He might just be doing the ornery old man thing though. He say if anything work is just luck. the relief well is the answer. So we will be here another 38 days...
I heard from a BP employee that BP always knew the relief well was the answer....everything else was just PR gimmickry.....
Exactly. But the time needed for the relief well to be drilled woulda be time wasting and yuh woulda hear more noise. So...dey just do what they could trying to mitigate. It have no way they could stop that without a relief well. They could try and reduce the flow as much as possible..and risk the pressure forcing back the fluid back into the formation and fracturing somewhere else and thus causing further problems. So....sadly it hadda go so.
they have not started the relief well as yet??
what wrong with BP man
I thought they stared one right after the accident
They did start one after the accident. Allyuh feel drilling...especially at that depth is a quick ting. Depending on the depth it could take anywhere from 30 to 60 days to drill and complete a well. And BP done pelt out 1.2 Billion on de clean up from this already..and it was already behind schedule. So it eh have no two ways about them just plugging it and walking away sadly. Dey hadda get someting from dis. De water go be in a state too...so it eh easy. Especially since it deviated.
I go check and see if i get some info as to how long again the relief well has.
man all they had to do was pull in a drilling ship and utilise some directional drilling and boom they done
well is easy for me to say ;D
I have a pardna who was a captain on one and from what he was telling me it is real easy compared to a platform
serious: if it is as you say that relief well musbe nearly done......arm, it go take till august
here is the latest
The statement said work on the first relief well, which started on May 2, was continuing and it had reached a depth of 12,090 feet, BP said.
The second relief well, which started on May 16, had reached 8,576 feet before drilling was temporarily suspended on May 26, but it has now resumed. Both wells are still estimated to take around three months to complete from commencement of drilling, BP said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37432881/ns/gulf_oil_spill/
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T. Boone Pickens on Larry King now basically saying none of this is going to work. No Top Kill, No Junk Shot. He might just be doing the ornery old man thing though. He say if anything work is just luck. the relief well is the answer. So we will be here another 38 days...
I heard from a BP employee that BP always knew the relief well was the answer....everything else was just PR gimmickry.....
Exactly. But the time needed for the relief well to be drilled woulda be time wasting and yuh woulda hear more noise. So...dey just do what they could trying to mitigate. It have no way they could stop that without a relief well. They could try and reduce the flow as much as possible..and risk the pressure forcing back the fluid back into the formation and fracturing somewhere else and thus causing further problems. So....sadly it hadda go so.
they have not started the relief well as yet??
what wrong with BP man
I thought they stared one right after the accident
They did start one after the accident. Allyuh feel drilling...especially at that depth is a quick ting. Depending on the depth it could take anywhere from 30 to 60 days to drill and complete a well. And BP done pelt out 1.2 Billion on de clean up from this already..and it was already behind schedule. So it eh have no two ways about them just plugging it and walking away sadly. Dey hadda get someting from dis. De water go be in a state too...so it eh easy. Especially since it deviated.
I go check and see if i get some info as to how long again the relief well has.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Deepwater_drilling_systems_2.png/800px-Deepwater_drilling_systems_2.png)
man all they had to do was pull in a drilling ship and utilise some directional drilling and boom they done
well is easy for me to say ;D
I have a pardna who was a captain on one and from what he was telling me it is real easy compared to a platform
serious: if it is as you say that relief well musbe nearly done
Dahs essentially it in theory. But think of this. The further away the drill ship is...they more deviated the well would need to be..hence the longer it would take. Imagine the state of de water in the immediate vicinity of the accident. I eh have much info yet from wha i reading on the relief well..but...while i'm not an industry professional....(yet..i just a student).....I just reasoning it from what i know.
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yeah Bourbon, it is deeper than I was hoping for
see my edited ;) post above
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All them people who saying it easy, do this and do that, should step forward. Everybody, oil companies, BP, Fed and politicians out of their depth on this incident. They can blame Obama all they want, that issue will not go away until the relief wells are drilled. And the US will be stock with BP for a very long time. Because BP will have to pay for the clean-up, while the US gov't figuring out how to prosecute the person or persons responsible. It is a fine mess.
I want to see how the Republicans will deal with prosecution, regualtions and oil drilling. Because they are the ones who feels that the federal gov't should not be in this type of business. Well that is exactly what they get. They feds have no way of stopping the oil flow.They don't have the equipment or know-how. They have to depend on BP. What an irony!!!!!
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T-Boons Pickens was on Larry King last night. He said that the relief wells are the only option for trying to stop this and there's NO guarantee it will work. He said there was a spill in Mexico some time ago and it took THREE relief wells to contain it AND that was in 200 feet of water!!! :o :o (ent this spill in 5000 ft of water??)
He also said we will be talking about this for many, many months to come so brace we self.
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All them people who saying it easy, do this and do that, should step forward. Everybody, oil companies, BP, Fed and politicians out of their depth on this incident. They can blame Obama all they want, that issue will not go away until the relief wells are drilled. And the US will be stock with BP for a very long time. Because BP will have to pay for the clean-up, while the US gov't figuring out how to prosecute the person or persons responsible. It is a fine mess.
I want to see how the Republicans will deal with prosecution, regualtions and oil drilling. Because they are the ones who feels that the federal gov't should not be in this type of business. Well that is exactly what they get. They feds have no way of stopping the oil flow.They don't have the equipment or know-how. They have to depend on BP. What an irony!!!!!
republicans? steups, Dems too, Obama appointed a man that so friendly to the oil industry it eh funny. And his administration gave out permits to drill off shore even 2 to BP while this shit was going on.
When it comes to big money, rep and Dems is de same f**king ting...is jes degrees fella.
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It eh easy to get somebody with the required experience to regulate the industry that isnt friendly to the industry yuh know. To get that degree of experience.....yuh hadda be in it.
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from community organizer, to harvard law professor, to ..... "ass-kicker" ??? :
http://www.youtube.com/v/KAdhQoIIhDk
spike, whatcha do here? not to analyze a soundbite too much, but the words "potential crisis" say alot about how slow de wheels does turn with dese "big picture" fellas.
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i hearing on CNN, BP could be heading to bankruptcy.
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i hearing on CNN, BP could be heading to bankruptcy.
They discussed that very thing last week on MSNBC.....
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i hearing on CNN, BP could be heading to bankruptcy.
They discussed that very thing last week on MSNBC.....
Girl you know digital on flow doh have MSNBC , stueps :(
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i hearing on CNN, BP could be heading to bankruptcy.
They discussed that very thing last week on MSNBC.....
We'll see how that petition goes... especially since they found $50 million to fund a bone-headed PR campaign this past week.
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(http://www.drillfloor.com/relef1.jpg)
(http://www.drillfloor.com/relef2.jpg)
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If that illustration is even remotely close to scale...dais REAL fackin oil to come
and if this fellah even remotely right...lawd/allah/buddah/whoever help we.
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1097505/pg1 (http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1097505/pg1)
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http://www.youtube.com/v/Lylfya6ctSc&feature=related
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http://www.youtube.com/v/Gh76oepKFc8
why americans need to hear military rhetoric?
"Battle" "War" "Assault" "Siege"
is a damn oil spill.
and he end with a prayer. from de fella complain americans clinging to guns and religion.
cheap theatrics aside, like BP get stuck with alimony?! let see how this takes.
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$20 Billion at least from BP - a number pulled from the company's profitability rather than an estimate of the damage. BP is too big to fail.
ha ha - de nobel prize president indeed, picking de future fall guys (chu, national commission).
http://www.youtube.com/v/50GAACuKEQs
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critics saying this ban worse than the oil spill - a big chunk of economic activity in the gulf tied to off shore oil so they want to keep pumping regardless. even de big nobel-prize-winning panel of academics dey assemble distancing demselves from a moratorium.
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Obama admin loses bid to keep oil drilling ban (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1416392020100624)
by Jeremy Pelofsky and Ayesha Rascoe
(Reuters) - The Obama administration suffered a setback on Thursday in its efforts to keep its six-month ban on new deepwater drilling after the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
After overturning the ban this week, a federal judge in New Orleans rejected an administration request to put his decision on hold while the government appeals it.
The government, which can still ask an appeals court to stay Judge Martin Feldman's decision, is revising the ban to make it more flexible and possibly open some areas to drilling.
The judge's ruling was more unwelcome news for the administration, which has been on the defensive over what critics call a slow and ineffective response to the 66-day-old spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found half of those surveyed disapproved of President Barack Obama's handling of the spill. Overall his approval rating stood at 45 percent. For the first time in the survey, more people, or 48 percent, said they disapproved of his job performance. [nN23260493]
Another poll by the Pew Research Center found Obama's approval little changed at 48 percent compared to 49 percent in January 2010.
In Washington, the administration faced pressure from some Republican lawmakers to ease offshore drilling restrictions, imposed after a well owned by energy giant BP ruptured on April 20, spewing a torrent of oil into the sea.
At a Senate energy committee hearing, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said she was worried the owners of offshore rigs that have been idled by the moratorium will take their business out of the United States.
"We're starting to see what I'm calling this flight of investment from the Gulf," Murkowski told a hearing attended by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
Oil services companies, who say the ban is too far-reaching and will lead to major layoffs, went to court this week to overturn the ban, leading to Feldman's ruling.
Salazar told the hearing he was aware of the moratorium's impact on the Gulf Coast economy, but it was necessary "until we get to a level where we can provide a sense of safety to the American people that drilling can in fact continue."
BP said on Thursday its oil-capture systems at the leak collected or burned off 16,830 barrels of oil on Wednesday, a 38 percent drop from its record rate of 27,100 on Tuesday due to a 10-hour shutdown of one of the systems.
The shutdown happened when an underwater robot apparently hit a containment cap atop failed blowout preventer equipment that channels oil to a drillship a mile up on the water's surface, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
BP removed the cap Wednesday morning to assess its condition, then replaced it about 10 hours later. In the interim, crude gushed unchecked from the leak site.
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To put things in perspective.
Visualizing the area affected compared to Trinidad's Footprint (http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/#loc=Trinidad%20%26%20Tobago&lat=10.691803&lng=-61.222503&x=-61.222503&y=10.691803&z=7)
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THE LEAKING HAS STOPPED
BP: No oil leaking into Gulf from busted well
NEW ORLEANS – A tightly fitted cap was successfully keeping oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time in three months, BP said Thursday. The victory — long awaited by weary residents along the coast — is the most significant milestone yet in BP's effort to control one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
The news elicited joy mixed with skepticism from wary Gulf Coast residents following months of false starts, setbacks and failed attempts. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley's face lit up when he heard the oil flow had stopped.
"That's great. I think a lot of prayers were answered today," said Riley.
The stoppage came 85 days, 16 hours and 25 minutes after the first report April 20 of an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers and triggered the spill.
"Finally!" said Renee Brown, a 35-year-old middle school guidance counselor visiting Pensacola Beach, Fla., from London, Ky."Honestly, I'm surprised that they haven't been able to do something sooner, though."
Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said at a news briefing that oil stopped flowing into the water at 2:25 p.m. CDT after engineers gradually dialed down the amount of crude escaping through the last of three valves in the 75-ton cap.
"I am very pleased that there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, I'm really excited there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico," Wells said.
Now begins a waiting period to see if the cap can hold the oil without blowing a new leak in the well. Engineers will monitor pressure readings incrementally for up to 48 hours before reopening the cap while they decide what to do.
"For the people living on the Gulf, I'm certainly not going to guess their emotions," Wells said. "I hope they're encouraged there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico. But we have to be careful. Depending on what the test shows us, we may need to open this well back up."
Though not a permanent fix, the solution has been the only one that has worked to stem the flow of oil since April. BP is drilling two relief wells so it can pump mud and cement into the leaking well in hopes of plugging it for good by mid-August.
BP has struggled to contain the spill and had so far been successful only in reducing the flow, not stopping it. The company removed an old, leaky cap and installed the new one Monday.
Between 93.5 million and 184.3 million have already spilled into the Gulf, according to federal estimates.
For some, it was hard to believe the flow had really stopped.
"Completely?" asked Michelle Blanchard, the wife of a shrimper in Chauvin, La., when she heard about the oil stopping from an AP reporter. "Come on," she said in disbelief.
"It's a good thing it stopped. I'm excited," she said.
Steve Shepard, Gulf Coast chair of the Mississippi Chapter of the Sierra Club, said he's still skeptical about the news.
"I think it's a little premature to say it's definitely over. They've gotten our hopes up so many times before that in my mind I don't think it's going to be over until Christmas."
Nine-year-old Lena Durden threw up her hands in jubilation when her mother told her the oil was stopped.
"God, that's wonderful," said Yvonne Durden, a Mobile-area native who now lives in Seattle and brought her daughter to the coast for a visit. "When came here so she could swim in the water and see it in case it's not here next time."
Chris Roberts, a councilman from coastal Jefferson Parish welcomed the news.
"Everyone has waited on edge for this day to come," said Roberts, whose district includes the devastated tourist town of Grand Isle. "There is a lot of oil remaining. Our focus will be to clean up the impacted areas and make the many impacted industries whole as quickly as possible."
Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point man on the disaster, said at a briefing it's not clear yet whether the cap, which was mounted on the well Monday, will ultimately be used to shut in the oil or to channel it through pipes to collection ships overhead.
Randall Luthi, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Ocean Industries Association, a national trade group representing the offshore petroleum industry, said it gives everyone a chance to focus on how to clean up the spill.
"This is by far the best news we've heard in 86 days. You can bet that industry officials and their families are taking a big sigh here. We hope this is a reliable fix to the immediate flow of oil until the relief wells are completed."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100715/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill
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86 days - not bad. BP deserve a few :beermug: :beermug: :beermug:
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86 days - not bad. BP deserve a few :beermug: :beermug: :beermug:
nah man, they evil and do that to spite Obama :devil:
All jokes aside, I thought the relief wells would have been the only solution. The idea came through the clearing house set up by the incompetent gov't. The live video feed real boring now though.
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BP oil spill: 'Mystery plumber' may be brains behind containment cap
An anonymous plumber provided sketches of a flange and seal design six weeks ago that is almost identical to the containment cap lowered onto the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. It's the latest effort to stop the BP oil spill.
By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer / July 15, 2010
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2010/0715/BP-oil-spill-Mystery-plumber-may-be-brains-behind-containment-cap
"Joe the Plumber" became a household name in 2008, but will anyone ever know the identity of the plumber who may have brought BP to the brink of stopping the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.
Six weeks ago, Robert Bea, an engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, received a late-night call from an apologetic "mystery plumber." The caller said he had a sketch for how to solve the problem at the bottom of the Gulf. It was a design for a containment cap that would fit snugly over the top of the failed blowout preventer at the heart of the Gulf oil spill.
Professor Bea, a former Shell executive and well-regarded researcher, thought the idea looked good and sent the sketches directly to the US Coast Guard and to a clearinghouse set up to glean ideas from outside sources for how to cap the stubborn Macondo well.
When Bea saw the design of the containment cap lowered onto the well last week, he marveled at its similarity to the sketches from the late-night caller, whose humble refusal to give his name at the time nearly brought Bea to tears.
"The idea was using the top flange on the blowout preventer as an attachment point and then employing an internal seal against that flange surface," says Bea. "You can kind of see how a plumber thinks this way. That's how they have to plumb homes for sewage."
BP has received 300,000 ideas from around the world for how to cap the well after decades-old methods failed. Everyone from amateur inventors to engineers, Hollywood stars to hucksters, have swamped the unified command with ideas.
BP executive Doug Suttles says the new containment cap design came from weeks of trial and error. "We've been adding and trying new things constantly," Mr. Suttles said last week.
The design was originally intended to increase BP's ability to siphon oil from the well to containment ships on the surface. But in the past two weeks, it became clear to the company that the design, if it passed certain well integrity tests, could also be used to stop the flow altogether. If successful, the containment structure will be a turning point in the Gulf oil spill drama.
BP spokesman Mark Salt says, "There's no way of finding out at the moment" whether Bea's forwarded suggestion from the self-described "lowly plumber" made it into the design. "There's also a good chance that this was already being designed by the time this [tip] came in."
On the other hand, Mr. Salt adds, "I'm sure we've used bits and pieces of suggestions [from the outside] and have picked things out that could be used going forward."
As part of the response, the BP oil spill unified command has set up a triage of more than 30 technical personnel who put suggestions into three buckets: not possible; already considered; or feasible. According to the website, there are about 100 ideas from the outside being considered as ways to help stem the wellhead flow.
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86 days - not bad. BP deserve a few :beermug: :beermug: :beermug:
nah man, they evil and do that to spite Obama :devil:
All jokes aside, I thought the relief wells would have been the only solution. The idea came through the clearing house set up by the incompetent gov't. The live video feed real boring now though.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/17/AR2010071702793.html
Actually de relief wells is de only permanent solution. Eventually...the pressure build up could force off the cap..or force it back underground and it could fracture and blow out somewhere else. Is a relief that it on doh.
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TT in the list of world largest oil spills.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10860238