Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

N&P: Discuss governments, nations, politics and recent related news here.

Moderators: Alyrium Denryle, Edi, K. A. Pital

Post Reply
User avatar
Temujin
Jedi Master
Posts: 1300
Joined: 2010-03-28 07:08pm
Location: Occupying Wall Street (In Spirit)

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by Temujin »

FSTargetDrone wrote:
Broomstick wrote:- the oil companies are, in fact, reducing the price of gasoline for fear of public ire. This one is likely true - gas prices have dropped $0.30 at the pump in the last week alone. This is even more significant as they normally RISE the last week of May in the US in anticipation of more driving on the upcoming holiday weekend.
The price of gasoline around these parts (outside Philadelphia) has been dropping faster than I can recall ever seeing before. I see the prices daily on my rounds. Just a day or so ago it had dropped 2 cents within a span of 8 hours. It's $2.80/gallon, as of this morning, at my local Wawa.
Well they've got to do something. They already have a bad rep from the last oil and gas price hike, and between this and the massive anti-corporate sentiment from the Wall Street fuck up they probably know that it's the beginning of the end. One way or another the transition off of oil is going to have to begin, slow and painful as it may be. It's going to be pushed pretty hard, and they probably don't feel they have a chance in hell of stopping it.

I don't know how true the rumors are, probably somewhere between lunatic fringe and reality, but supposedly many oil companies have been sitting on patents for alternate fuels and technologies. Being companies like BP are often dabbling around the edges with some of these kinds of technologies makes me wonder if they're going to start developing them more to help their image.
FSTargetDrone wrote:Okay, so the junk/mud shot may not work. Who was it around here talking about The Nuclear Option... In all seriousness, how feasible is detonating a device at those depths? Can anyone here speak to what some of the details/issues of such a course of action involve?
Supposedly some have been considering using conventional explosives to try and collapse the entrance. They were talking about it on Olbermann last night. Though It could just as easily make things worse.
Image
Mr. Harley: Your impatience is quite understandable.
Klaatu: I'm impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it.
Mr. Harley: I'm afraid my people haven't. I'm very sorry... I wish it were otherwise.

"I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe.
If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other." – Frankenstein's Creature on the glacier[/size]
User avatar
Temujin
Jedi Master
Posts: 1300
Joined: 2010-03-28 07:08pm
Location: Occupying Wall Street (In Spirit)

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by Temujin »

Broomstick wrote:- There is more than enough oil involved to kill the entire Gulf of Mexico. In fact, in a couple of months it may well hit the Gulf Stream, eventually sending oil to the UK and Western Europe if this thing isn't brought under control. If that happens, not only will the Gulf of Mexico be dead water, it will pretty much bring an end to the Atlantic fishing trade, at least north of the equator.
Again, on Olbermann they were talking about it destroying all the oxygen in the Gulf's water, essentially killing it and creating a dead zone. It was one thing when I mentioned that the other day, but it gave me a sick feeling in my stomach to hear that not only might it be true, it might be far worse.
Broomstick wrote:- Internal company rumor is that there is sufficient oil in the reservoir to keep "erupting" like this for the next 200 years. I sincerely hope that is a gross exaggeration, because if it's true we lose the Atlantic ocean as well as the Gulf.
I keep hearing various figures, either way there's a fuck ton of oil down there and right now there's nothing to stop it from coming up.
Broomstick wrote:Yep, this is starting to look like a petro-Chernobyl. I'm currently working 10-12 hour days (guess I'm not starving in Indiana after all. This month.) so I haven't time to try to substantiate or refute any of the above, but feel free to do so on your own.
If what you said above has even the slightest truth to it, its far worse than Chernobyl. Hell the seas are already suffering from acidification. Adding 100 million barrels are going to do some serious damage, at least for the Atlantic.
Image
Mr. Harley: Your impatience is quite understandable.
Klaatu: I'm impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it.
Mr. Harley: I'm afraid my people haven't. I'm very sorry... I wish it were otherwise.

"I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe.
If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other." – Frankenstein's Creature on the glacier[/size]
User avatar
FSTargetDrone
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 7878
Joined: 2004-04-10 06:10pm
Location: Drone HQ, Pennsylvania, USA

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by FSTargetDrone »

Instant Sunrise wrote:"Top Hat," "Junk Shot" and the rest are just BP's way of looking busy while the relief well is being drilled.
Top Hat may be delayed or abandoned altogether:
BP may delay 'top kill' plan to stop oil leak

Obama to visit site on Friday; families honor rig victims at memorial

msnbc.com news services

updated 5:30 p.m. ET, Tues., May 25, 2010

COVINGTON, La. - BP warned on Tuesday that a planned attempt to plug its gushing Gulf of Mexico oil well may be delayed or abandoned, as the energy giant faced mounting pressure from the Obama administration to contain the catastrophic spill.

Equipped with underwater robots, BP engineers plan on Wednesday to inject heavy drilling fluids in the mile-deep well, a tricky maneuver and its latest bid to halt the flowing oil that has shut down fisheries and soiled coastline.

BP executives have repeatedly stressed the so-called "top kill" procedure is a complex process that has never been attempted before at such depths, but the Obama administration, under public pressure, is impatient for swift results.

Before BP engineers try to seal the well, scientists will run diagnostic tests to make sure the top kill procedure does not backfire and make the oil leak worse, BP senior vice president Kent Wells told reporters.

"What we learn during this diagnostic phase will be crucial to us," said Wells, whose London-based company has seen around 25 percent, almost $50 billion, wiped off its market value.

Engineers were doing at least 12 hours of diagnostic tests Tuesday. They planned to check five spots on the well's crippled five-story blowout preventer to make sure it could withstand the heavy force of the mud. A weak spot in the device could blow under the pressure, causing a brand new leak.

Wells cautioned that engineers are speeding through a planning process that would normally take months. He warned that the top kill could be delayed or scuttled if Tuesday's pressure readings are bad.

Company executives said on Monday the procedure had only a 60 percent to 70 percent chance of working.

"We have to be careful in terms of setting expectations," Wells said.

Obama visit

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday ordered an investigation of whether his agency failed to properly oversee the oil rig involved in the spill, in light of a new report revealing ethical lapses under prior administrations.

The report found it was common before 2007 for Minerals Management Service employees at a Lake Charles, La. district office to accept gifts from energy company representatives.

After days of lambasting the company's handling of the spill, the Obama administration appeared to step back from Salazar's threat on Sunday to "push out" BP if it did not do enough to plug the leak.

The U.S. government needs BP's deepwater technology to try to shut off the oil well, said Carol Browner, President Barack Obama's adviser on energy and climate change.

Obama is dealing with a political hot potato over the failure to control the leaking well, with analysts warning that voters may punish his Democrats in November elections widely expected to erode the party's control of the U.S. Congress.

Obama will visit Louisiana on Friday to inspect efforts to combat the spill, the White House said, adding that the federal government had deployed more than 1,200 vessels and 22,000 personnel in "one of the largest responses to a catastrophic event in history."

The administration has deflected calls for it to take charge of the operation, saying it is BP's legal responsibility to cap the leak and contain the spreading spill. It stresses that federal authorities have oversight in the operation.

But, state and local officials in affected states like Louisiana have been critical of that approach. Frustrated by BP's failure to seal the well and disperse the oil, they want Obama to take more direct, forceful action.

"He needs to step up to the plate, put somebody in charge that will protect the wetlands and will keep this oil out," said Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, where sheets of heavy oil have already washed into marshlands.

Oil flow uncertainty

Since the April 20 explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon rig and killed 11 workers, the blown-out well beneath the surface has spewed hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf in what threatens to become the United States' worst-ever oil spill.

With oil and tar balls from the spill now soiling more than 70 miles of Louisiana's 400-mile coastline, the U.S. government has declared a "fishery disaster" in the waters off Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, making those states eligible for special federal assistance.

Commercial fishing, shrimping and oyster harvests have been shut down for weeks along much of the U.S. Gulf Coast, home to a $6.5 billion seafood industry. Louisiana's industry alone accounts for up to 40 percent of the U.S. seafood supply and more than 27,000 jobs.

BP has estimated that about 210,000 gallons have been leaking every day, although some scientists have given much higher numbers for the size of the leak — up to 20 times more.

Besides the "top-kill" option, BP said on Tuesday it was preparing another control method, a lower marine riser package cap containment option, to try to capture and siphon off the oil flowing from the ruptured well.

If the short-term efforts fail, it will take BP several months to drill a relief well to stop the leak.

The company said it may shut off a live video link of the oil spewing from a pipe connected to the well when it tries its "top kill" option. "It is under review," a spokesman told Reuters, declining to give a reason for such a move.

Some lawmakers have accused BP of covering up the full extent of the spill, a charge the company has denied.

About 1,000 people arrived in Jackson, Miss., on Tuesday to attend a memorial service for the 11 workers killed in the rig explosion.

The memorial, held in the Jackson Convention Complex, began with the Joyful Gospel Choir singing "This Little Light of Mine." The stage was adorned with a cross and 11 bronzed hard hats, each representing one of the workers who died.

Lawsuits planned

Two groups say they'll sue BP for killing endangered species in the Gulf by failing to stop the oil spill and by using dispersants under water and on the surface.

The Southern Environmental Law Center and Defenders of Wildlife on Tuesday sent BP a required 60-day notice that they plan to sue under the Endangered Species Act.

Attorney Catherine Wannamaker said they want to make sure that BP is held accountable for all the losses that may occur, and for restoring endangered species.

At least three environmental lawsuits have been filed under the National Environmental Policy Act, which doesn't require prior notice.

This report includes information from Reuters and The Associated Press.
Image
User avatar
MKSheppard
Ruthless Genocidal Warmonger
Ruthless Genocidal Warmonger
Posts: 29842
Joined: 2002-07-06 06:34pm

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by MKSheppard »

At this point, BP should just find the fifty most endangered species of animals possible, duct tape them to a 1 megaton nuke from DoD surplus, and put it down the hole to stop the oil leak.

Additionally, kill orders need to be put out on all the animals we find -- if they're covered in oil, and aren't endangered like bald eagles; shoot them in the head with a pistol; to save resources for those important animals.
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong

"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
User avatar
ShadowDragon8685
Village Idiot
Posts: 1183
Joined: 2010-02-17 12:44pm

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by ShadowDragon8685 »

MKSheppard wrote:At this point, BP should just find the fifty most endangered species of animals possible, duct tape them to a 1 megaton nuke from DoD surplus, and put it down the hole to stop the oil leak.
Besides the absurdity of the casual slaughter, that wouldn't work. If you put the bomb in the hole, it's going to blow the hole wide open, not crush it shut! Even the crush maneouver really mightn't work, nobody knows.

But putting it in the hole is likely to turn an epic disaster into a clusterfuck of biblical proportions.
Additionally, kill orders need to be put out on all the animals we find -- if they're covered in oil, and aren't endangered like bald eagles; shoot them in the head with a pistol; to save resources for those important animals.
Um... What purpose is that supposed to serve? What 'resources', anyway? If you mean the time and labor of a bunch of well-meaning idiots who show up and ask to be given a toothbrush and shown to where the oil-soaked animals are so they can assauge their consiences, it's not likely they'll be useful for much else.
CaptainChewbacca wrote:Dude...

Way to overwork a metaphor Shadow. I feel really creeped out now.
I am an artist, metaphorical mind-fucks are my medium.
User avatar
CaptainChewbacca
Browncoat Wookiee
Posts: 15746
Joined: 2003-05-06 02:36am
Location: Deep beneath Boatmurdered.

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by CaptainChewbacca »

Dragon, I don't think you've mastered 'sarcasm' yet. Work on that.
Stuart: The only problem is, I'm losing track of which universe I'm in.
You kinda look like Jesus. With a lightsaber.- Peregrin Toker
ImageImage
User avatar
The Yosemite Bear
Mostly Harmless Nutcase (Requiescat in Pace)
Posts: 35211
Joined: 2002-07-21 02:38am
Location: Dave's Not Here Man

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by The Yosemite Bear »

besides being a can of worms to move, couldn't the Glomar Explorer be used in this case, I thought it was designed for working at deeper waters?
Image

The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin
User avatar
CaptainChewbacca
Browncoat Wookiee
Posts: 15746
Joined: 2003-05-06 02:36am
Location: Deep beneath Boatmurdered.

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by CaptainChewbacca »

The Yosemite Bear wrote:besides being a can of worms to move, couldn't the Glomar Explorer be used in this case, I thought it was designed for working at deeper waters?
The Glomar is basically a giant grappling arm on the bottom of a big boat. Its not really able to do anything to help in this situation.
Stuart: The only problem is, I'm losing track of which universe I'm in.
You kinda look like Jesus. With a lightsaber.- Peregrin Toker
ImageImage
Simon_Jester
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 30165
Joined: 2009-05-23 07:29pm

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by Simon_Jester »

J wrote:Various sources from BP and others put the amount of oil in the reservoir at around 100 million barrels. Estimates for the leak range anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 barrels per day, so we're looking at 3-30 years or so of gushing oil if they can't plug the hole.

Oh, and Simon, you need a new slide rule. There's 1000 litres per cubic metre and a billion cubic metres per cubic kilometre so you're off by a factor of 1000.
OK, I tripped up going from cubic meters to cubic kilometers. Gotcha. Thanks. The silver lining is that fixing my order of magnitude error makes my conclusion stronger than it was before with my foolish mistake; 0.367 cubic kilometers of oil definitely isn't enough to affect the average density of Atlantic seawater to any meaningful degree.

The cloud, of course, is that the order of magnitude stuff I did wrong was the part I didn't use the slide rule for. So I don't need a new slide rule; I need a new brain.
This space dedicated to Vasily Arkhipov
User avatar
Jaepheth
Jedi Master
Posts: 1055
Joined: 2004-03-18 02:13am
Location: between epsilon and zero

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by Jaepheth »

Temujin wrote: I don't know how true the rumors are, probably somewhere between lunatic fringe and reality, but supposedly many oil companies have been sitting on patents for alternate fuels and technologies. Being companies like BP are often dabbling around the edges with some of these kinds of technologies makes me wonder if they're going to start developing them more to help their image.
Between lunatic fringe and reality in the same way 1 is between 1 and 100. Unless you're the NSA, patents are public record and there'd then be specific examples of these supposed advanced technologies. And not filing for the patents would be retarded, because then any person who knew about them could file for a patent in a country that has a "first to file" system. (As opposed to a "first to invent" system the US has)
Children of the Ancients
I'm sorry, but the number you have dialed is imaginary. Please rotate the phone by 90 degrees and try again.
User avatar
Sea Skimmer
Yankee Capitalist Air Pirate
Posts: 37390
Joined: 2002-07-03 11:49pm
Location: Passchendaele City, HAB

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by Sea Skimmer »

CaptainChewbacca wrote: The Glomar is basically a giant grappling arm on the bottom of a big boat. Its not really able to do anything to help in this situation.
Actually the Glomar Explorer was leased to a private company and converted into a offshore drilling ship in the late 1990s, and is now operated as GSF Explorer drilling in Indonesian waters. Fully configured it its deepest drilling ship in the world, but they aren't using it for that right now. But if we still had the thing in the US and had not converted it, it would be an ideal way to lower a giant cap with a really big pipe onto the leak. But such a massive cap would take months to weld together in the first place, and likely a few weeks to lower down to the bottom.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
User avatar
Broomstick
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 28846
Joined: 2004-01-02 07:04pm
Location: Industrial armpit of the US Midwest

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by Broomstick »

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
Broomstick wrote:My contractor boss was approached last week by BP to do some work for them in regards to spill clean up (mainly, building structures to house men and machines that are hurricane proof for storage, maintenance, living, etc.). He's worked for BP in the past in our area, which is probably why they contacted him, as he has a record with them of being a reliable contractor.

[snip
Wow. Your boss is hardcore, and if he's telling BP to go take a flying fuck onto a spiked dildo, that should be saying something. In fact it is: :shock:
Yes, he's hardcore. He hasn't ruled out going down there entirely but it has to be a situation he's comfortable with. If he's comfortable with it and can use me I might be gong down there, too - but the situation is so changeable and volatile right now no one on our side wants to commit at the moment.

Bottom line - it has to be something that meets both the reasonable work and the reasonable safety threshold.
I wonder how long it's going to be until real violence erupts: locals try to commandeer something owned privately, the owner fights back, and a brawl escaltes into a lynching... Can they lay that one on BP as well?
A lot depends on what happens with the top kill procedure, how BP treats the locals, how quickly things get awful, all sorts of factors. If something starts to look useful and constructive public ire will diminish. If the situation just keeps getting worse, that's when things get ugly.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. Leonard Nimoy.

Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy

Sam Vimes Theory of Economic Injustice
User avatar
Instant Sunrise
Jedi Knight
Posts: 945
Joined: 2005-05-31 02:10am
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Contact:

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by Instant Sunrise »

The thing that concerns me right now is that BP seems to be skimping on protective gear for a lot of the cleanup operations on beaches along the GoM. The most I've seen is plastic coveralls with no breathing equipment. Given that crude oil contains nasty substances like benzene, as well as the dispersant BP is using (in spite of the EPA telling them to use a safe, more effective dispersant), COREXIT, which contains 2-butoxyethanol.

Obviously BP doesn't want to take the PR hit of photos of people dressed in proper HAZMAT gear which would make the GoM beaches look like Chernobyl. However, this is placing the people performing the cleanup at a strong risk for health problems down the line.
Hi, I'm Liz.
Image
SoS: NBA | GALE Force
Twitter
Tumblr
User avatar
Steven Snyder
Jedi Master
Posts: 1375
Joined: 2002-07-17 04:32pm
Location: The Kingdom of the Burning Sun

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by Steven Snyder »

Watching the live-feeds now.

I see a huge plume of mud coming out and the leaks seem worse now, I don't think this is working.
User avatar
Broomstick
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 28846
Joined: 2004-01-02 07:04pm
Location: Industrial armpit of the US Midwest

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by Broomstick »

Instant Sunrise wrote:The thing that concerns me right now is that BP seems to be skimping on protective gear for a lot of the cleanup operations on beaches along the GoM. The most I've seen is plastic coveralls with no breathing equipment. Given that crude oil contains nasty substances like benzene, as well as the dispersant BP is using (in spite of the EPA telling them to use a safe, more effective dispersant), COREXIT, which contains 2-butoxyethanol.

Obviously BP doesn't want to take the PR hit of photos of people dressed in proper HAZMAT gear which would make the GoM beaches look like Chernobyl. However, this is placing the people performing the cleanup at a strong risk for health problems down the line.
BP skimped on safety for the fucking oil rig - why are you surprised they're skimping on safety for the clean up? That protective shit costs money, you know :roll:

OK, keeping repeating this: BP doesn't give a flying fuck. Not about the marshes. Not about the fishermen. Not about you. Not about me. Not about the guys cleaning up their mess.

BP does not care - except about profits. That's it. The rest is complete indifference to anything else, including human life.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. Leonard Nimoy.

Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy

Sam Vimes Theory of Economic Injustice
User avatar
FSTargetDrone
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 7878
Joined: 2004-04-10 06:10pm
Location: Drone HQ, Pennsylvania, USA

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by FSTargetDrone »

Instant Sunrise wrote:The thing that concerns me right now is that BP seems to be skimping on protective gear for a lot of the cleanup operations on beaches along the GoM. The most I've seen is plastic coveralls with no breathing equipment. Given that crude oil contains nasty substances like benzene, as well as the dispersant BP is using (in spite of the EPA telling them to use a safe, more effective dispersant), COREXIT, which contains 2-butoxyethanol.

Obviously BP doesn't want to take the PR hit of photos of people dressed in proper HAZMAT gear which would make the GoM beaches look like Chernobyl. However, this is placing the people performing the cleanup at a strong risk for health problems down the line.
From FOX News, no less:
Louisiana Fishermen Helping in Spill Cleanup Report Getting Sick

Published May 25, 2010

Some Louisiana fishermen affected by the massive oil spill in the Gulf — including some hired by BP to help in the cleanup — are reporting cases of debilitating headaches, burning eyes and nausea, and some industry and public officials are pointing the finger at chemical dispersants as the cause.

Gary Burris, a fisherman who works along the Gulf Coast, said he has observed planes spraying dispersants into the water, a chemical rain meant to stop oil slicks from forming and break down the crude more quickly.

Now Burris says that after breathing in the dispersants he grew ill and disoriented, confining himself to bed for days and ultimately going to a doctor for treatment and antibiotics.

"It filled my lungs with fluid," he said. "I'm hurting — I'm sore from coughing."

Burris and other residents of the Gulf are reporting a slew of symptoms that some biologists say are directly attributable to the chemicals now gushing into the Gulf on a daily basis.

"These are the exact symptoms that you could expect from overexposure to crude oil and to the chemicals that are being used out on the cleanup," said Riki Ott, a marine toxicologist and activist who worked on the cleanup in Alaska after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Ott said she had been in contact with several Louisiana fishermen suffering a range of ailments —"sore throats, burning headaches, burning eyes, skin rashes, nausea, dizziness" — that track with those suffered in the aftermath of the Valdez spill. The dispersants, she says, compound the health risks created by exposure to crude oil.

"This is like throwing kerosene on a fire," she said.

BP has sprayed more than 800,000 gallons of dispersant into the Gulf since an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20. At the same time, the oil giant has been enlisting the paid help of Gulf fishermen, whose fleet of hundreds of boats provides them broad access to areas affected by the spill.

BP's "Vessels of Opportunity" program employs commercial fishermen to hem in surface oil and help clean oil clumping along the coast, creating work for the industry likely to suffer most in the fallout from the oil spill.

But critics say the rudimentary safety training given to the fishermen isn't enough. While BP's "key requirements" include a four-hour training session and a dockside examination by the Coast Guard, the company does not appear to be providing special Hazmat equipment for the ad hoc cleanup crews.

"We are not seeing correct personal protection equipment," said Clint Guidry, secretary of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, who touted his own experience with toxins from working on oil rigs before he became a fisherman.


Guidry's colleague, Acy Cooper, gave a blunt assessment of the situation faced by fishermen patrolling the Gulf's oily waters.

"They're putting themselves at risk ... [with] nothing to protect themselves," he said Thursday. "Their eyes are burning, their noses are burning, but all of them need to go — they need the money."

The Coast Guard referred inquiries about the health of service members patrolling the Gulf to a unified command team set up by BP. Calls and an e-mail message sent to BP seeking comment about their safety measures were not returned.

Some fishermen aiding in the cleanup are reluctant to speak out against BP in public for fear of losing their temporary jobs, while others are willing to abide the hazards in order to keep earning paychecks from the company, according to fishermen who spoke to FoxNews.com.

"The problem is some of the fishermen don't want to lose the jobs they've got," said George Barisich, head of the United Commercial Fishermen's Association. "Kind of a Catch-22 situation."


Members of Congress are now demanding better safety precautions for fishermen surrounding the use of dispersants in order to protect those involved in the cleanup.

Rep. Edward Markey, chairman of the House subcommittee on energy and the environment, criticized BP for ignoring a directive from the Environmental Protection Agency to use less toxic chemicals to help disperse the oil.

"The release of hundreds of thousands of gallons of chemicals into the Gulf of Mexico could be an unprecedented, large and aggressive experiment on our oceans," said Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts.

"[T]he reality is we know almost nothing about the potential harm from the long-term use of any of these chemicals on the marine environment in the Gulf of Mexico, and even less about their potential to enter the food chain and ultimately harm humans," Markey said in a written statement Sunday.

Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., is urging the White House to establish temporary health clinics in the Gulf to help afflicted workers.

"Many residents and volunteers are being exposed to hazardous materials on a daily basis, and some will have to travel hours to get treatment at the nearest health care facility," he said in a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services.

"It is imperative that temporary health care clinics be established to provide basic health care services in this geographic area."

Melancon argued that BP should foot the bill for the clinics if any are set up, though it remains unclear how many would be necessary or how long they would be required.

"What is most frightening about the long-term effects of the oil and the dispersant chemicals isn't what we know, it is what we just don't know," said Markey.
Image
User avatar
FSTargetDrone
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 7878
Joined: 2004-04-10 06:10pm
Location: Drone HQ, Pennsylvania, USA

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by FSTargetDrone »

Apologies for the double post, but I just saw this:
Worker: Transocean, BP argued before blast

Rig's top mechanic corroborates other statement of BP 'taking shortcuts'

msnbc.com news services

updated 7:23 p.m. ET, Wed., May 26, 2010

HOUSTON - Before rig workers aboard the doomed Deepwater Horizion drilling platform performed a procedure that BP says may have been a "fundamental mistake," there was a "skirmish" between BP and Transocean staff about whether to proceed, the rig's chief mechanic told federal investigators on Wednesday.

The testimony corroborated other witness statements obtained by The Associated Press that show Transocean managers complained BP was "taking shortcuts" the day of the explosion by replacing heavy drilling fluid with saltwater in the well that blew out.

The accounts could give Transocean more ammunition in its verbal battle with BP to assign blame for the disaster, which caused what is likely the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

Speaking to a federal board of investigators in Kenner, Louisiana, mechanic Douglas Brown said that around noon on April 20, the day of the explosion, rig workers met in a room adjacent to the rig's galley and "there was a slight argument that took place and a difference of opinions."

Brown said "a skirmish" took place between "the company man" from BP — whose name he said he did not know — and three Transocean employees.

"The company man was basically saying, 'Well this is how it's going to be,'" and Transocean rig workers "reluctantly agreed," Brown said.

Brown said the top Transocean official on the rig grumbled, "Well, I guess that's what we have those pinchers for" — which he took to be a reference to devices on the blowout preventer, the five-story piece of equipment that can slam a well shut in an emergency.

The argument concerned "displacing the riser," Brown said, a reference to a decision made by rig personnel to remove heavy drilling mud from the drill pipe and replace it with sea water, in an attempt to wrap up drilling operations and plug the well with cement until it was ready for production.

Drilling mud is a mixture of synthetic ingredients that is pumped into the well to exert downward pressure and prevent a column of oil and gas from rushing up the pipe.

The switch presumably would have allowed the company to remove the fluid and use it for another project, but the seawater would have provided less weight to counteract the surging pressure from the ocean depths.

Because water is lighter and less dense than mud, the procedure allowed a flood of flammable methane gas to surge up the drill pipe, which ignited and led to a catastrophic fire, according to documents from the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Conflicting pressure tests

Congressional investigators say BP and Transocean made a decision late on April 20 to begin removing mud from within the drill pipe despite pressure tests from within the well that a BP official described as "not satisfactory" and "inconclusive."

Earlier in the day, well pressure tests showed an imbalance between the drill pipe choke and kill lines running from the drill deck to the blowout preventer. The pressure in the drill pipe was 1,400 pounds per square inch, while the choke and kill lines read zero PSI, according to BP documents gathered by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

In BP's internal investigation, made public by the committee, BP said it might have been a "fundamental mistake" to continue with the procedure because there was an "indication of a very large abnormality."

The statements obtained by The Associated Press include those by Truitt Crawford, a Transocean worker who told Coast Guard investigators about similar complaints.

"I overheard upper management talking saying that BP was taking shortcuts by displacing the well with saltwater instead of mud without sealing the well with cement plugs, this is why it blew out," Crawford said in his statement.

BP declined to comment.

The statements also show that workers talked just minutes before the blowout about pressure problems in the well. At first, nobody seemed too worried: The chief mate for Transocean left two crew members to deal with the issue on their own.

What began as a routine pressure problem, however, suddenly turned to panic. The workers called bosses to report a situation, with assistant driller Stephen Curtis telling one senior operator that the well was "coming in." Someone told well site leader Donald Vidrine that they were "getting mud back." The drilling supervisor, Jason Anderson, tried to shut down the well.

It didn't work. Both Curtis and Anderson died in the explosion.

'Complete mayhem, chaos'

Brown said that as methane surged up the drill pipe and enveloped the rig, a loud hiss of gas escaped from the well, which set off a stream of alarms.

"Gas alarms just kept piling up on top of each other more and more and more," Brown said. The rig was hit by a power blackout, and the explosion came soon after, he said.

"The first explosion basically threw me up against the control panel that I was standing in front of," Brown said.

As Brown raced to reach the rig's lifeboats, "it was just complete mayhem, chaos, people were scared, they were crying," Brown said.

The rig worker taking a muster of workers boarding the lifeboat, a man that Brown said he had known for nine years, did not recognize him. "This is a man that has known me for nine years and he cannot even remember my name," Brown said.

"It was just completely chaotic and nobody was really paying attention in my opinion," Brown said. "They were more concerned about just getting off the rig — escaping."

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
As an aside, the price of gasoline around here continues to drop. It was $2.73/gallon today, for 87.
User avatar
Sea Skimmer
Yankee Capitalist Air Pirate
Posts: 37390
Joined: 2002-07-03 11:49pm
Location: Passchendaele City, HAB

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by Sea Skimmer »

Gas prices are going to keep dropping until the Eurozone regains some stability.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
User avatar
Instant Sunrise
Jedi Knight
Posts: 945
Joined: 2005-05-31 02:10am
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Contact:

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by Instant Sunrise »

Broomstick wrote:BP skimped on safety for the fucking oil rig - why are you surprised they're skimping on safety for the clean up? That protective shit costs money, you know :roll:

OK, keeping repeating this: BP doesn't give a flying fuck. Not about the marshes. Not about the fishermen. Not about you. Not about me. Not about the guys cleaning up their mess.

BP does not care - except about profits. That's it. The rest is complete indifference to anything else, including human life.
I'm sure that BP has an exact dollar value on human lives.

Just look at this leaked memo from 2002 regarding the Texas City Refinery:
Image

Full story from The Daily Beast
This is a story about the Three Little Pigs. A lot of dead oil workers. And British Petroleum.

From the minute the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig exploded, BP has hewed to a party line: it did everything it could to prevent the April 20 accident that killed 11 men and has been spewing millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico ever since. Some critics have questioned the veracity of that position.

Now The Daily Beast has obtained a document—displayed below—that goes to the heart of BP procedures, demonstrating that before the company’s previous major disaster—at a moment when the oil giant could choose between cost-savings and greater safety—it selected cost-savings. And BP chose to illustrate that choice, without irony, by invoking the classic Three Little Pigs fairy tale.

A BP spokesman tells The Daily Beast that the company has “fundamentally changed the culture of BP” since the previous disaster, an explosion at a Texas refinery five years ago. But given that a $500,000 valve might have prevented the massive spill that is now threatening to devastate the Gulf of Mexico, one has to wonder.

Some context. In March 2005, BP’s Texas City Refinery caught fire. The explosion killed 15 workers, injured 170 plant employees and residents of nearby neighborhoods, and rocked buildings 10 miles away. Most of those who died were in trailers next to the isomerization unit, which boosts octane in gasoline, when it blew up.

Attorney Brent Coon represented families of the workers killed, and discovered internal BP documents that showed the oil giant had chosen to use trailers to house workers during the day, rather than blast-resistant structures, in order save money at the refinery.

Throughout his work on the case, Coon used a Three Little Pigs analogy to illustrate the cost/benefit analysis that he believed BP used to choose the less expensive buildings, with the trailers representing straw or sticks, versus stronger material the lawyer said should have been used. But whenever Coon brought up the fairy tale, he says that BP’s attorneys objected.

Then Coon received a set of documents through discovery.

“Right there we found a presentation on the decision to buy the trailers that showed BP using “The Three Little Pigs” to describe the costs associated with the four [refinery housing] options.” Says Coon: “I thought you’ve got to be f------ kidding me. They even had drawings of three pigs on the report.”

The two-page document, prepared by BP’s risk managers in October 2002 as part of a larger risk preparedness presentation, and titled “Cost benefit analysis of three little pigs,” is harrowing:

“Frequency—the big bad wolf blows with a frequency of once per lifetime.”

“Consequence—if the wolf blows down the house then the piggy is gobbled.”

“Maximum justifiable spend (MJS)—a piggy considers it’s worth $1000 to save its bacon.”

“Which type of house,” the report asks, “should the piggy build?”

It then answers its own question: a hand-written note, “optimal,” is marked next to an option that offers solid protection, but not the “blast resistant” trailer, typically all-welded steel structures, that cost 10 times as much.

At Texas City, all of the fatalities and many of the serious injuries occurred in or around the nine contractor trailers near the isom unit, which contained large quantities of flammable hydrocarbons and had a history of releases, fires, and other safety incidents. A number of trailers as far away as two football fields were heavily damaged.

Coon says that during the discovery process, he found another email from the BP Risk Management department that showed BP put a value on each worker when making its Three Little Pigs calculation: $10 million per life. One of Coon’s associates, Eric Newell, told me that the email came from Robert Mancini, a chemical engineer in risk management, during a period when BP was buying rival Amoco and was used to compare the two companies’ policies. This email, and the related Three Little Pigs memo, which has never before been publicly viewed, attracted almost no press attention.

The BP spokesman, Scott Dean, tells The Daily Beast: “Those documents are several years old,” and that since then, “we have invested $1 billion into upgrading that refinery and continue to improve our safety worldwide.” BP’s current chief executive, Tony Hayward, has consistently tried to distance himself from the track record of his predecessor, Lord John Browne, who resigned abruptly in 2007, after the company’s safety record and his private life both came under scrutiny.

The refinery explosion resulted in more than 3,000 lawsuits, including Coon’s, and out-of-court settlements totaling $1.6 billion. BP was also convicted of a felony violation of the Clean Air Act, fined $50 million and sentenced to three years probation. Last year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration levied the largest monetary penalty in its history, $87 million, for "failing to correct safety problems identified after a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers at its Texas City, Texas refinery."

So has BP changed since Lord Browne left? Does BP’s Three Little Pigs decision matrix apply to the Deepwater Horizon tragedy?

We know that the Deepwater well lacked the remote-control, acoustical valve that experts believe would have shut off the well when the blowout protector failed. The acoustic trigger costs about $500,000. How would that stand up to a similar “Maximum Justifiable Spend” analysis (especially when BP’s liability is officially capped at $75 million by federal law)?

Meanwhile, officials along the Gulf Coast continue to question whether BP has tried to cut corners on the containment of the oil gushing from the well. Just yesterday, Pensacola City Councilman Larry Johnson grilled BP’s Civic Affairs Director Liz Castro about why her company has failed to use supertankers, used to successfully clean similar sized spills in the Arabian Gulf in the 1990s, to assist with oil recovery.

“These tankers saved the environment and recovered approximately 85 percent of the crude oil,” Johnson lectured. “I think BP didn’t bring the tankers in here because it was more profitable to use them to transport oil.”

When Castro couldn’t answer technical questions, Johnson and his fellow council members banished Castro until she came back with people who could.

And while BP has repeatedly stated that it will pay all necessary and appropriate clean-up costs and verifiable claims for other loss and damage caused by the spill, the Florida Congressional delegation has repeatedly asked BP to place $1 billion in an escrow account to reimburse states and counties—instead the states have received $25 million block grants, plus $70 million to help with advertising campaigns.

While BP did announce a $500 million research project yesterday, to study the impact of the oil disaster on marine life over 10 years, that’s cold comfort to those worried about their livelihood. For all of BP’s pledges that it’s delivering a figurative brick house, a solid plan, to stop the leak, contain the spill and clean up the shore, too many people on the Gulf feel like they’re living in a house of straw.
How much is an employee's life worth to BP?

$10 Million. For a company that posted a $6 billion profit last quarter.
Hi, I'm Liz.
Image
SoS: NBA | GALE Force
Twitter
Tumblr
User avatar
wautd
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 7595
Joined: 2004-02-11 10:11am
Location: Intensive care

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by wautd »

BBC
(animation of the concept inside link)
Gulf oil spill: BP says 'top kill' plug going to plan

BP says its operation to pump mud into a breached Gulf of Mexico oil well to try to stem the flow of oil caused by a rig explosion is going to plan.

The US government is backing the "top kill" procedure, which has never been tried at such a depth.

BP is under intense pressure to succeed after previous attempts to stem the leak failed.

President Obama is expected to announce tough new drilling regulations after a key report into the spill is released.

The preliminary report from the US Department of the Interior will focus on lessons to be learned from the disaster.

Mr Obama is expected to order tighter safeguards for offshore drilling and to extend a ban on new permits for drilling in the Arctic.

On Friday he will make his second visit to the Gulf of Mexico region.

Mud pumping

A BP official said he believed mud, not oil, was exiting the well's ruptured pipe six hours after the work began.

What you've been observing coming out of the top of that riser is most likely mud," BP Plc chief operating officer Doug Suttles told reporters in Houston.

"We can't fully confirm that because we can't sample it. And the way we know we've been successful is it stops flowing."

Company officials say it could be a couple of days before they know whether the "top kill" operation has worked.

Thousands of barrels of oil have been spewing into the Gulf every day since the accident on 20 April.

Mud will continue to be pumped into the well for hours, spokesman Steve Rinehart said.

"The procedure is intended to stem the flow of oil and gas and ultimately kill the well by injecting heavy drilling fluids through the blowout preventer on the seabed, down into the well," a BP statement said.

If the oil flow is successfully capped, engineers will follow up with cement to seal the well permanently.

BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward has put the operation's chance of success at 60-70%.

The procedure began at 1300 local time (1800 GMT), shortly after federal officials approved the plan.

Officials say the method has been used before in other areas of the world, but not at the depths required to stem the oil from the Deepwater Horizon rig.

There is a risk a weak spot in the blowout preventer that sits on top of the well could breach under the pressure, causing a brand new leak at the site 50 miles (80km) off the Louisiana coast.

'No guarantees'

Speaking in California on Wednesday, US President Barack Obama said his administration would commit all resources necessary to stop the flow of oil into the sea.

"If it's successful - and there are no guarantees - it should greatly reduce or eliminate the flow of oil now streaming into the Gulf from the seafloor. And if it's not, there are other approaches that may be viable," he said.

Mr Obama said the "heartbreaking" oil spill underscored the need to find alternative energy sources.

"We will not rest until this well is shut, the environment is repaired and the clean-up is complete," he added.

'Series of failures'

London-based BP has acknowledged that a series of failures occurred on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the hours before the explosion that killed 11 workers and triggered the spill that has so far spewed at least 7 million gallons (26.5 million litres) into the Gulf.

Two leading US congressmen have meanwhile been briefed on thousands of BP documents relating to the accident.

In a memo, Representatives Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak say the explosion was preceded by several warning signs - including abnormal pressure readings and failures in some functions of the blowout preventer - but action appears to have been taken too late.

Questions have been raised over whether proper procedures were followed.

Speaking on US television on Wednesday, Mr Hayward said: "What we're seeing here is a whole series of failures. We've identified... at least seven.

"It's very clear that much more needs to be put in place to deal with this situation should it ever occur again."

He added: "It's clear that this will be a transforming event in the history of deep water exploration."
Lets hope it works, because if it fails there's a good chance the leak gets bigger
User avatar
Broomstick
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 28846
Joined: 2004-01-02 07:04pm
Location: Industrial armpit of the US Midwest

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by Broomstick »

Instant Sunrise wrote:
Broomstick wrote:BP skimped on safety for the fucking oil rig - why are you surprised they're skimping on safety for the clean up? That protective shit costs money, you know :roll:

OK, keeping repeating this: BP doesn't give a flying fuck. Not about the marshes. Not about the fishermen. Not about you. Not about me. Not about the guys cleaning up their mess.

BP does not care - except about profits. That's it. The rest is complete indifference to anything else, including human life.
I'm sure that BP has an exact dollar value on human lives.
Yes, they understand liability. That's what they care about - being held liable and having consequences fall on them. If they can get out of liability they don't fucking care about people. That's why they're trying to blame the problems on Transocean or God or Nature or anyone but themselves.

Wouldn't surprise me if they've claimed that the fishermen dealing with oil on their behalf are "contractors" somehow responsible for providing their own safety gear - nevermind these guys have zero experience in the petroleum industry. I hasten to add I don't know that as a fact, it just strikes me as the likely sort of "cost-saving" measure a mega-corp would use. And it wouldn't surprise me if the fishermen turned boom deployers who get sick will be chided by BP for not being "responsible" enough to prevent their own illnesses - becuase in BP's world everyone is required to be responsible except BP.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. Leonard Nimoy.

Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy

Sam Vimes Theory of Economic Injustice
User avatar
cosmicalstorm
Jedi Council Member
Posts: 1642
Joined: 2008-02-14 09:35am

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by cosmicalstorm »

They are saying it might have stopped the leak. Let's hope it remains shut!
User avatar
Crossroads Inc.
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 9233
Joined: 2005-03-20 06:26pm
Location: Defending Sparkeling Bishonen
Contact:

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by Crossroads Inc. »

CNN says it is "going as planned" but I don't believe a word of it till I see that pipeline actually stop gushing. And if other reports I've heard are true, the pipe may indeed stop... And they start leaking again somewhere else.

If.. IF however this is it, and it DOES stop this Environmental Horror, I really REALLY hope that everyone doesn't do an about face and start gushing over BP as "heros" for finally stopping things. The moment they stop the flow of Oil, we IE the government, should keep mashing their boot down on BP's throat to clean everything up and pay for it with their own pocketbook.
Praying is another way of doing nothing helpful
"Congratulations, you get a cookie. You almost got a fundamental English word correct." Pick
"Outlaw star has spaceships that punch eachother" Joviwan
Read "Tales From The Crossroads"!
Read "One Wrong Turn"!
User avatar
FSTargetDrone
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 7878
Joined: 2004-04-10 06:10pm
Location: Drone HQ, Pennsylvania, USA

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by FSTargetDrone »

As if there was any question before, this is the worst oil spill in US history:
Gulf oil spill now nation's worst
By Joel Achenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 27, 2010; 11:58 AM

As crews pumped mud at a furious rate into the damaged blowout preventer that sits on the uncapped well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, a group of scientists said the amount of oil spewing into the ocean is much greater than originally believed.

Also Thursday, a U.S. government source said the director of the federal agency charged with overseeing off-shore drilling had left her job in the wake of the April 20 spill, which appears to be the worst in the nation's history -- far bigger than the 11 million gallons that spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster.

Elizabeth Birnbaum resigned "effective immediately" from the U.S. Minerals Management Service, the Interior Department agency that has been faulted for lax oversight in the wake of the mammoth spill, the government source said. It was not immediately known whether Birnbaum, who had been slated to testify on Capitol Hill today, had resigned of her own volition or been forced out.

What was clear was that the magnitude of the spill resulting from the explosion of a BP oil rig continues to grow, with potentially disastrous consequences.

U.S. Geological Survey Director Dr. Marcia McNutt said at a news conference Thursday that two teams of scientists, using different methods, have preliminarily determined that between 17 and 27 million gallons of oil have gushed into the ocean so far.

Desperate to stop the flow, BP engineers on Thursday launched an effort known as "top kill," pumping mud into the damaged blowout preventer in an effort to plug the leak. The hazardous-but-high-reward maneuver comes five weeks into the oil spill crisis amid an intensifying atmosphere of political recrimination that has spread from the Gulf Coast to the White House and Congress.

Early bulletins on the maneuver were encouraging. "The top kill procedure is going as planned, and it is moving along as everyone had hoped," Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who has been leading the government's effort to end the leak, told CNN Thursday morning.

BP officials said that they hoped to know if the well was dead by Thursday evening, and Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry, the federal on-scene coordinator, said she was encouraged but reluctant to express optimism "until I know for sure that we've secured the well and the leak has stopped."

The billowing plumes of effluent from cracks in the top of the riser pipe no longer look like oil and gas but have a distinctly muddy appearance. "What you've been observing out of the top of that riser is most likely mud. We can't fully confirm that because we can't sample it," BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said at a news conference Wednesday night.

"It is a little like arm wrestling," BP managing director Bob Dudley told ABC's "Good Morning America," adding that the effort could last until Friday morning. "It is quite a titanic struggle of forces, and it's going to go slow."

On another front in the battle against the oil spill, the Coast Guard pulled 125 fishing vessels off the water in Breton Sound after fishermen who had been hired by BP to clean up the slick complained of nausea and chest pains, the Associated Press reported. This is the latest in a series of reports in recent weeks of fishermen feeling sick while trying to skim the oil.

President Obama, in a news conference Thursday, will outline tougher rules and regulations of the oil drilling industry and suspend exploratory drilling in the Arctic until at least next year, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made. This will delay a controversial drilling effort by Shell this summer in the seas off northern Alaska. The moves come after a 30-day review of oil drilling that Obama ordered when the crisis began.

BP officials, having studied pressure readings, finally pulled the trigger on the top kill at 2 p.m. The world could follow the top kill via live video feeds from robots on the seafloor. It was strikingly similar to watching an Apollo moon landing: grainy images of unfamiliar technology in an alien landscape.

The procedure pumps heavy drilling mud from a ship on the surface down to the seafloor and into the five-story blowout preventer atop the well. If all goes as planned, the mud will slide about 2 1/2 miles down to the bottom of the well bore, rendering the well "static." Engineers would follow up with cement plugs to seal the well permanently.

Much could go wrong. The pressure of the injected mud could damage the blowout preventer and exacerbate the leaks. The mud will go wherever it can, and not necessarily where the engineers would prefer.

"There's a hole, but it's kind of like pushing toothpaste through an obstacle course," said Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University.

"I feel for the guys who are doing it, the people whose hands are actually on the throttles there," said energy analyst Byron King. "It's like doing brain surgery using robots under a mile of water with equipment that's got 30,000 horsepower of energy inside of it."

Millions of gallons of oil, and possibly tens of millions, have leaked into the gulf since the April 20 explosion and fire that killed 11 crew members on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, which sank two days later.

Oil has touched 84 miles of Louisiana's ragged shoreline and envelops the crow's foot of the Mississippi River delta. The oil trajectory forecast by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicates that some of the oil has been captured by the gulf's Loop Current and by noon Friday could spread approximately as far south as, but considerably to the west of, Key West, Fla.

Traveling in Fremont, Calif., Obama said Wednesday that the passage of energy legislation has become more urgent because of the oil spill, which he called "just heartbreaking." Speaking to an audience of employees at a solar-panel manufacturing plant, Obama said the spill underscores the need to shift from fossil fuels to solar, wind and other types of power. He noted the great depth at which the Deepwater Horizon rig had drilled the now-leaking well.

"With the increased risks and increased costs, it gives you a sense of where we're going," Obama said. "We're not going to be able to sustain this kind of fossil fuel use."

After his news conference Thursday, the president is scheduled to receive a briefing on the hurricane season forecast. Officials overseeing the oil spill have said they are worried that hurricanes could slow or halt future efforts to stop the leak, contain the damage and clean up the water. Obama flies to the gulf Friday.

Also Wednesday, new details emerged about the hours leading up to the fatal blowout on the Deepwater Horizon rig. At a briefing for reporters in Washington, BP's head of safety and operations, Mark Bly, and other company officials detailed a cascade of breakdowns and mistakes before the accident. For example, BP's chief representative on the rig knew about an abnormal increase in pressure in the drill pipe, an indication that gas was probably in the pipe when it shouldn't have been. That representative, however, never called the Houston office for advice, despite the indications of trouble and differences between him and the top official there from Transocean, the company that owned the rig.

Moreover, the BP officials said, rig workers should have known oil or gas was in the drill pipe because when they were replacing drilling mud with seawater, they replaced 775 barrels of mud with only 352 barrels of water.

Meanwhile, at an official inquiry into the blowout in Kenner, La., the Deepwater Horizon's chief mechanic said he had witnessed a dispute between a BP official and rig workers. The dispute, mechanic Doug Brown said, was over whether to replace heavy drilling fluid in the well with lighter seawater. The rig workers didn't want to, he said, but the "company man" from BP overruled them: "This is how it's going to be."

Brown said the top Transocean official on the rig grumbled, "Well, I guess that's what we have those pinchers for," which he took to be a reference to devices called shear rams, crucial equipment on the blowout preventer that can slam a well shut in an emergency.

In addition, the Associated Press obtained witness statements given to the U.S. Coast Guard that described moments of indecision on the rig as workers waited for official approval before activating the blowout preventer. When they finally did, the AP said, there was no hydraulic power to operate it.

In Washington, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, who led the month-long emergency review ordered by Obama, used a congressional hearing Wednesday to blame the Bush administration for what he called a "reprehensible" culture that developed within the Minerals Management Service, the agency in the Interior Department that issues permits for offshore oil drilling.

"Unlike the prior administration, this is not the candy store of the oil and gas kingdom," Salazar said before the House Natural Resources Committee.

Rep. Dale E. Kildee (D-Mich.) lamented, "We want to put some people in jail perhaps, but putting people in jail does not undo the damage that was done."

Staff writers Perry Bacon, Juliet Eilperin, David Fahrenthold, Steven Mufson, Michael D. Shear and Scott Wilson contributed to this report.
Jail is sort of pointless, innit? They should put the clowns responsible for this nightmare out in the marshes, cleaning up the shit themselves, along with everyone else that's been screwed over.
Image
User avatar
wautd
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 7595
Joined: 2004-02-11 10:11am
Location: Intensive care

Re: Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Post by wautd »

FSTargetDrone wrote:As if there was any question before, this is the worst oil spill in US history:
isn't this also the worst one the world has ever seen? According to Wiki the first gulf war went close to 11 million barrels, but at 800k barrels a day for nearly one month (!) this disaster easily surpasses that number.
Post Reply