Massive Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

[Admiral Valdemar]

They did try with a jury rigged cap from the start, and we all know how that turned out. Apparently working several miles down is hard.

We still have one of the relief wells nearing its target, with the second not far behind. They are the only way to fully kill this leak.

[J]

Pressure readings look somewhat odd

Yahoo news

BP, scientists try to make sense of well puzzle

By VICKI SMITH, HOLBROOK MOHR and HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press Writers Vicki Smith, Holbrook Mohr And Harry R. Weber, Associated Press Writers – Fri Jul 16, 7:59 pm ET

NEW ORLEANS – In a nail-biting day across the Gulf Coast, engineers huddled over puzzling pressure readings from the bottom of the sea Friday to determine if BP's capped oil well was holding tight.

Halfway through a critical 48-hour window, the signs were promising but far from conclusive.

Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said on an evening conference call that engineers had found no indication that the well has started leaking underground.

"No news is good news, I guess that's how I'd say it," Wells said.

Engineers are keeping watch over the well for a two-day period in a scientific, round-the-clock vigil to see if the well's temporary cap is strong enough to hold back the oil, or if there are leaks either in the well itself or the sea floor. One mysterious development was that the pressure readings were not rising as high as expected, said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man on the crisis.

Allen said two possible reasons were being debated by scientists: The reservoir that is the source of the oil could be running lower three months into the spill. Or there could be an undiscovered leak somewhere down in the well. Allen ordered further study but remained confident.

"This is generally good news," he said. But he cautioned, "We need to be careful not to do any harm or create a situation that cannot be reversed."

He said the testing would go on into the night, at which point BP may decide whether to reopen the cap and allow some oil to spill into the sea again.

Throughout the day, no one was declaring victory — or failure. President Barack Obama cautioned the public "not to get too far ahead of ourselves," warning of the danger of new leaks "that could be even more catastrophic."

Even if the cap passes the test, more uncertainties lie ahead: Where will the oil already spilled go? How long will it take to clean up the coast? What will happen to the region's fishermen? And will life on the Gulf Coast ever be the same again?

"I'm happy the well is shut off, that there's a light at the end of the tunnel," said Tony Kennon, mayor of hard-hit Orange Beach, Ala. But "I'm watching people moving away, people losing their jobs, everything they've got. How can I be that happy when that's happening to my neighbor?"

On Thursday, BP closed the vents on the new, tight-fitting cap and finally stopped crude from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since the April 20 oil-rig explosion that killed 11 workers and unleashed the spill 5,000 feet down.

With the cap working like a giant cork to keep the oil inside the well, scientists kept watch on screens at sea and at BP's Houston headquarters, in case the buildup of pressure underground caused new leaks in the well pipe and in the surrounding bedrock that could make the disaster even worse.

Pressure readings after 24 hours were about 6,700 pounds per square inch and rising slowly, Allen said, below the 7,500 psi that would clearly show the well was not leaking. He said pressure continued to rise between 2 and 10 psi per hour. A low pressure reading, or a falling one, could mean the oil is escaping.

But Allen he said a seismic probe of the surrounding sea floor found no sign of a leak in the ground.

Benton F. Baugh, president of Radoil Inc. in Houston and a National Academy of Engineering member who specializes in underwater oil operations, warned that the pressure readings could mean that an underground blowout could occur. He said the oil coming up the well may be leaking out underground and entering a geological pocket that might not be able to hold it.

But Roger N. Anderson, a professor of marine geology and geophysics at Columbia University, said the oil pressure might be rising slowly not because of a leak, but because of some kind of blockage in the well.

"If it's rising slowly, that means the pipe's integrity's still there. It's just getting around obstacles," he said. He added that "any increase in pressure is good, not bad."

The cap is designed to prevent oil from spilling into the Gulf, either by keeping it bottled up in the well, or by capturing it and piping it to ships on the surface. It is not yet clear which way the cap will be used if it passes the pressure test.

Either way, the cap is a temporary measure until a relief well can be completed and mud and cement can be pumped into the broken well deep underground to seal it more securely than the cap. The first of the two relief wells being drilled could be done by late July or August.

In a positive sign, work on the relief wells resumed Friday. The project had been suspended earlier this week for fear that the capping of the well could interfere with it.

There was no end in sight to the cleanup in the water and on shore. Somewhere between 94 million and 184 million gallons have spilled into the Gulf, according to government estimates.

In Orange Beach, Ala., long strands of white absorbent boom strung along the shore were stained chocolate brown after a fresh wave of BB-size tar balls washed up. Charter boat captains who can't fish because of the spill patrolled the shore, looking for oil slicks. Fishing guides spent their time ferrying Coast Guard personnel. A flotilla of fishing boats operating as skimmers plied the waters across the Gulf.

Large sections of the Gulf Coast have been closed to fishing and shellfish harvesting. Many fishermen have been hired out by BP to do cleanup work.

Cade Thomas, a 38-year-old fishing guide from Pine, La., said the whole mentality of the place is different.

"It's all changed dramatically. The fishing stories aren't there," he said. "There's no stories to tell except where we went to today and how much oil we saw."

In Grand Isle, La., most of the summer rental cottages are vacant, tables at the single high-end seafood restaurant are empty, and souvenir shops are barely doing enough business to pay the bills. A hand-painted sign along the main road rechristens the tourist town "Grand Oil."

Folks are grateful the gusher has been stopped, but many say it is too late to save this summer. Thousands of tourists have gone elsewhere.

Scientists cannot say for certain what the long-term environmental effect will be. But long after the well is finally plugged, oil could still be washing up in marshes and on beaches as tar balls or patties.

There is also fear that months from now, those tar balls could move west to Corpus Christi, Texas, or travel up and around Florida to Miami or North Carolina's Outer Banks.

Tim Kerner, mayor of Lafitte, La., said the crisis isn't over by a long shot.

"There's millions and millions of gallons of oil out there, and they need to keep the fishermen working," he said. "We need to constantly have that boom up absorbing oil along the banks and hard boom in the bayous to protect the marshland. It's no time to pull back. It's time to continue to fight until we know it's over."

Kerner added: "I don't want everybody to think we won this battle. This battle's going to be ongoing for a while."

I don't think there's cause for panic but until they figure out what's really going on it is cause for some concern.

[J]

It's leaking again.

Yahoo news linky

Feds let BP keep Gulf oil cap closed despite seep

By COLLEEN LONG and HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press Writers Colleen Long And Harry R. Weber, Associated Press Writers – 7 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – The federal government Monday allowed BP to keep the cap shut tight on its busted Gulf of Mexico oil well for another day despite a seep in the sea floor after the company promised to watch closely for signs of new leaks underground, settling for the moment a rift between BP and the government.

The Obama administration's point man for the spill, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said early Monday that government scientists had gotten the answers they wanted about how BP is monitoring the seabed around the mile-deep well, which has stopped gushing oil into the water since the experimental cap was closed Thursday.

Late Sunday, Allen said a seep had been detected a distance from the busted oil well and demanded in a sharply worded letter that BP step up monitoring of the ocean floor. Allen didn't say what was coming from the seep. White House energy adviser Carol Browner told the CBS "Early Show" the seep was found less than two miles from the well site.

The concern all along — since pressure readings on the cap weren't as high as expected — was a leak elsewhere in the well bore, meaning the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix. An underground leak could let oil and gas escape uncontrolled through bedrock and mud.

"When seeps are detected, you are directed to marshal resources, quickly investigate, and report findings to the government in no more than four hours. I direct you to provide me a written procedure for opening the choke valve as quickly as possible without damaging the well should hydrocarbon seepage near the well head be confirmed," Allen said in a letter to BP Managing Director Bob Dudley.

When asked about the seep and the monitoring, BP spokesman Mark Salt would only say that "we continue to work very closely with all government scientists on this."

Early Monday, Allen issued a statement saying there had been an overnight conference call between the federal science team and BP.

"During the conversation, the federal science team got the answers they were seeking and the commitment from BP to meet their monitoring and notification obligations," Allen said.

He said BP could continue testing the cap, meaning keeping it shut, only if the company continues to meet their obligations to rigorously monitor for any signs that this test could worsen the overall situation.

Both Allen and BP have said they don't know how long the trial run will continue. It was set to end Sunday afternoon, but the deadline came and went with no official word on what's next.

Browner said Allen's extension went until Monday afternoon. She said on ABC's "Good Morning America" that monitoring was crucial to make sure the trapped oil doesn't break out of its pipe.

"Clearly we want this to end. But we don't want to enter into a situation where we have uncontrolled leaks all over the Gulf floor," Browner told ABC.

BP PLC said Monday that the cost of dealing with the oil spill has now reached nearly $4 billion. The company said it has made payments totaling $207 million to settle individual claims for damages from the spill along the southern coast of the United States. To date, almost 116,000 claims have been submitted and more than 67,500 payments have been made, totaling $207 million.

With the newly installed cap keeping oil from BP's busted well out of the Gulf during a trial run, this weekend offered a chance for the oil company and government to gloat over their shared success — the first real victory in fighting the spill. Instead, the two sides have spent the past two days disagreeing over what to with the undersea machinery holding back the gusher.

The apparent disagreement began to sprout Saturday when Allen said the cap would eventually be hooked up to a mile-long pipe to pump the crude to ships on the surface. But early the next day, BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said the cap should stay clamped shut to keep in the oil until relief wells are finished.

After nearly three months of harsh criticism as it tried repeatedly to stop the leak, BP wants to keep oil from gushing into the Gulf again before the eyes of the world. The government's plan, however, is to eventually pipe oil to the surface, which would ease pressure on the fragile well but require up to three more days of oil spilling into the Gulf.

Both sides played down the apparent contradiction Sunday. Allen, ultimately the decision-maker, later said the containment plan he described Saturday hadn't changed, and that he and BP executives were on the same page.

The company very much wants to avoid a repeat of the live underwater video that showed millions of gallons of oil spewing from the blown well for weeks.

"I can see why they're pushing for keeping the cap on and shut in until the relief well is in place," said Daniel Keeney, president of a Dallas-based public relations firm.

The government wants to eliminate any chance of making matters worse, while BP is loath to lose the momentum it gained the moment it finally halted the leak, Keeney said.

"They want to project being on the same team, but they have different end results that benefit each," he said.

Oil would have to be released under Allen's plan, which would ease concerns that the capped reservoir might force its way out through another route. Those concerns stem from pressure readings in the cap that have been lower than expected.

Scientists still aren't sure whether the pressure readings mean a leak elsewhere in the well bore, possibly deep down in bedrock, which could make the seabed unstable. Oil would have to be released into the water to relieve pressure and allow crews to hook up the ships, BP and Allen have said.

Engineers are looking to determine whether low pressure readings mean that more oil than expected poured into the Gulf of Mexico since the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 people and touching off one of America's worst environment crises.

To plug the busted well, BP is drilling two relief wells, one of them as a backup. The company said work on the first one was far enough along that officials expect to reach the broken well's casing, or pipes, deep underground by late this month. The subsequent job of jamming the well with mud and cement could take days or a few weeks.

It will take months, or possibly years for the Gulf to recover, though cleanup efforts continued and improvements in the water could be seen in the days since the oil stopped flowing. Somewhere between 94 million and 184 million gallons have spilled into the Gulf, according to government estimates.

It appears the well is compromised down below and leaking into the surrounding rock. Which would explain why pressures weren't as high as expected when they closed down the well from the top. Definitely not good news, but it could be worse, at least the pressure hasn't taken a sudden drop which would indicate a blowout down below.

[ShadowDragon8685]

If the oil is leaking into the rock in the middle of the pipe, what does that mean?

It sounds like it could mean "the cap won't help because now the oil's going to be seeping out of the sea bed everywhere." If that is in fact what it means... The only way to stop this from turning into even more of a Biblical cluster-fuck would be to get as many wellheads on top of the field as possible and suck it all out before it can turn into the sea that bleeds oil, wouldn't it?

[Broomstick]

No, the only way to stop this is to get the relief wells drilled so the damaged well head can be permanently capped. That won't happen for ... another two weeks at earliest?

Yes, the current cap is leaking. But let's not lose sight of the fact that it has still greatly reduced the amount of crude going into the Gulf. Yes, it's a problem that there is a "seep" (Which means there is a leak in the pipe that is getting through a fracture in the seafloor) but if we can stop the majority of the leak that's still progress.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

If the oil is leaking into the rock in the middle of the pipe, what does that mean?

It sounds like it could mean "the cap won't help because now the oil's going to be seeping out of the sea bed everywhere." If that is in fact what it means... The only way to stop this from turning into even more of a Biblical cluster-fuck would be to get as many wellheads on top of the field as possible and suck it all out before it can turn into the sea that bleeds oil, wouldn't it?

I see you're earning your title again. What will ultimately stop the leak are the relief wells that BP has been working on for the past few months. Those are deep enough that, when they intercept the blown-out well, they can stuff them full of concrete and that'll permanently bottle up the leak below all the damaged parts of the well. That has always been the case . . . Everything that has been done, and will be done, up to the completion of those relief wells is a temporary fix; all of it aimed at mitigating the damage that would otherwise be done were the oil simply allowed to flow completely unhindered into the Gulf while the relief wells were being drilled.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Broomie is right. Currently the problem is that because we have capped the well, the pressure of the field is forcing oil through fractures in the rock. This is bad because not only does it mean oil is again spewing into the gulf, but those fractures will become LARGER as more oil passes through them and undermines the rock, and could eventually cause a COLLAPSE of the reservoir.

If that happens... well... imagine a volcano, the size of Yellowstone. With oil. Exploding all at once and releasing 2.5 BILLION barrels into the gulf. Or, approximately, 100 times the volume of oil that's already spilled, with bonus chances of spawning similar fractures at nearby large fields.

The only solution may, sadly, be to REMOVE the cap until the relief wells are completed. And you know you're fucked when 'oil spill' is the safer option.

[Broomstick]

Right now I'm hoping they can maintain the current cap, despite some leaking, to reduce the problem until the actual relief wells are drilled and operative.

But yeah, they may have to remove the cap. On the other hand, I'll give 'em a few points for continuing to try, and if they have to remove the cap, for doing the right thing despite enormous pressure not to do it. (They have, after all, removed temporary caps before, despite criticism)

Which is not to say I'm OK with BP - I'm not, they really fucked up - but right now this is the best we have.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

It's better to have one leak, than a thousand leaks that can grow.

[FSTargetDrone]

Right now I'm hoping they can maintain the current cap, despite some leaking, to reduce the problem until the actual relief wells are drilled and operative.

But yeah, they may have to remove the cap. On the other hand, I'll give 'em a few points for continuing to try, and if they have to remove the cap, for doing the right thing despite enormous pressure not to do it. (They have, after all, removed temporary caps before, despite criticism)

Which is not to say I'm OK with BP - I'm not, they really fucked up - but right now this is the best we have.

Yeah, at this point, after all of the oil-soaked nightmares we've seen, better for them to do what they are doing, even if it means more oil gets out via these other leaks. It's not good, by any means, but much better than the alternative. Of which there seem to be few.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Well, I would point out that, if the other leaks grow too large, your relief wells are going to be not as effective as they ought to be, and there will be constant leakage.

[Broomstick]

What it comes down to is that there are no good answers here and it's a matter of picking the lesser of many evils.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

What it comes down to is that there are no good answers here and it's a matter of picking the lesser of many evils.

In which case, we would have to expect that the eco system of the area will be pretty screwed for the next decade or so.

[ShadowDragon8685]

No, the only way to stop this is to get the relief wells drilled so the damaged well head can be permanently capped. That won't happen for ... another two weeks at earliest?

Yes, the current cap is leaking. But let's not lose sight of the fact that it has still greatly reduced the amount of crude going into the Gulf. Yes, it's a problem that there is a "seep" (Which means there is a leak in the pipe that is getting through a fracture in the seafloor) but if we can stop the majority of the leak that's still progress.

I'm certainly not saying it isn't, but I didn't know what it meant permanently. I mean, if the well-head itself is capped shut but there's still seepage into fractures further down the pipe from the capping, wouldn't it still be compromised and be bleeding oil into the ocean?

As I understand it, a relief well is a side-well being dug into the original well-hole, basically a bypass. But that means the original well-hole will still be in use; and potentially, leaking, right?

I see you're earning your title again.

Fuck yourself, trollface. I didn't know, so I asked.

[Broomstick]

No, the only way to stop this is to get the relief wells drilled so the damaged well head can be permanently capped. That won't happen for ... another two weeks at earliest?

Yes, the current cap is leaking. But let's not lose sight of the fact that it has still greatly reduced the amount of crude going into the Gulf. Yes, it's a problem that there is a "seep" (Which means there is a leak in the pipe that is getting through a fracture in the seafloor) but if we can stop the majority of the leak that's still progress.

I'm certainly not saying it isn't, but I didn't know what it meant permanently. I mean, if the well-head itself is capped shut but there's still seepage into fractures further down the pipe from the capping, wouldn't it still be compromised and be bleeding oil into the ocean?

It is a possibility, yes. Another possibility is that some of the seeps around the wellhead are natural "leaks" of oil into the environment. Such "leaks" are one of the reasons we knew there was oil in the Gulf in the first place. La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles are another such natural "leak" of petroleum into the environment, just one based on land instead of under water. Changing pressures due to human activity could conceivable alter natural flows. However, I do think it more likely this is a result in a leak in the well pipe. On the other hand, I am far from an expert in these matters.

As I understand it, a relief well is a side-well being dug into the original well-hole, basically a bypass. But that means the original well-hole will still be in use; and potentially, leaking, right?

Yes, it could be leaking even after a relief well is drilled. It all depends on where the relief well pipe intersects the original pipe.

It is my (limited) understanding that the purpose of a relief well is to relieve pressure, allowing the original well to be filled from above with permanent capping materials. I'm assuming after that is done even more capping materials can be force down the relief wells, further blocking the oil, or a deeper relief well could be dug, but I'm not certain. Perhaps someone with more knowledge can clarify the situation better than I can.

[aerius]

It is my (limited) understanding that the purpose of a relief well is to relieve pressure, allowing the original well to be filled from above with permanent capping materials. I'm assuming after that is done even more capping materials can be force down the relief wells, further blocking the oil, or a deeper relief well could be dug, but I'm not certain. Perhaps someone with more knowledge can clarify the situation better than I can.

The relief well would be more accurately called the "kill well". They're drilling it nice & deep to hopefully get below any damaged sections in the original well, after it intersects the original well they'll pump a crapload of mud down the relief well which then gets carried up the original well until the weight of the mud puts enough pressure on the oil to stop the leak. If that goes as planned they'll then pump cement into the relief well and let it fill up both wells along with any cracks in the rock, and once the cement sets the wells are sealed for good. Both wells are sealed for good, written off, and never to be used again.

[FSTargetDrone]

In an amusing side-note, BP has admitted to using (poor) cut and paste on a [url=hhttp://www.americablog.com/2010/07/bp-photosho ... mmand.html]photos[/url] of a command center, among other things.

[aerius]

You gotta wonder, if they're willing to fake a batch of photos of the command center, what else are they faking and covering up? Are they dicking with the ROV feeds as well? It's reached the point where there's absolutely no trust of anything that's coming out of BP and the entire crisis management team, there could be a giant fucking gusher on the seafloor for all I know.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Good Lord. At this point, there's really no distinguishing BP from a Captain Planet villain.

[Broomstick]

Chewie - or really anyone - how much of the information we are getting is being confirmed independently? And how reliable is the information?

[aerius]

Chewie - or really anyone - how much of the information we are getting is being confirmed independently? And how reliable is the information?

I don't think anyone really knows anymore, we've been lied to from day one and after 3 months of this crap I take everything with a big load of salt. I know that information's getting censored since I've seen ROV feeds conveniently go blank at all the wrong times, plus the bullshit from Adm. Thad Allen about foreign aid being accepted when the State Department reports said it was rejected or still "in process", then these reports conveniently disappeared off the internet.

Trying to sort out the info is damn near impossible, we had people saying it was a 50k barrel/day gusher from the beginning, they were written off as loons by the officials but it later turned out they were right. We had all kinds of wonky shit about the booms & beaches which were claimed, denied, and confirmed by various sources, we still don't know what's going on in some cases. It's at the point where there's practically a Youtube war going on various videos showing what's supposedly happening on the beaches, with the ROVs, and a bunch of other stuff.

[FSTargetDrone]

What's truly absurd is that there was no need to pasted copied sections of a photo over the blank screens. Would anyone have even noticed the blank screens otherwise? Who would have thought, "My God, these fiends aren't using every available screen for ROV camera feeds???" If the photo wasn't faked and someone pointed out a similar scene to me, I would have perhaps thought, "Well, maybe those particular screens were being used for other information." Or something. But I certainly wouldn't have found fault because not every screen wasn't being used for camera views. I doubt it would have even occurred to me.

I hope everyone looks at that link (apologies, I noticed I have an extra "h" in the above message link). There is too much for me to copy over to the thread, and some additional links to click on there.

EDIT:

Here is a story about this from The Washington Post:

Altered BP photo comes into question

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Apparently BP is no more adept at doctoring photos than it is at plugging deep-sea oil leaks.

A blogger has noticed that the oil giant altered a photograph of its Houston crisis room, cutting and pasting three underwater images into a wall of video feeds from remotely operated undersea vehicles. The altered photo is displayed prominently on the company's Web site.

An enlarged version of the photograph reveals flaws in the editing job. One of the 10 images sticks down into the head of one of the people sitting in front of the wall, while another piece of the image is separated from the other side of the head by jagged white space. The right side of the same image also hangs down below the area on which the video feeds were projected.

John Aravosis pointed out the alterations Monday evening on his Americablog.com and observed, "I guess if you're doing fake crisis response, you might as well fake a photo of the crisis response center." The photo doctoring comes as BP has promised transparency in a bid to regain the public's trust.

Scott Dean, a spokesman for BP, said that there was nothing sinister in the photo alteration and provided the original unaltered version. He said that a photographer working for the company had inserted the three images in spots where the video screens were blank.

"Normally we only use Photoshop for the typical purposes of color correction and cropping," Dean said in an e-mail. "In this case they copied and pasted three ROV screen images in the original photo over three screens that were not running video feeds at the time."

Dean said BP usually has a couple remotely operated vehicles on the surface at any given time for maintenance.

"We will replace the Photoshopped version currently on bp.com with the original image tonight," he added. "We've instructed our post-production team to refrain from doing this in the future."

[Prannon]

They out and out admit that they use photoshop. Incredible. From the article:

Scott Dean, a spokesman for BP, said that there was nothing sinister in the photo alteration and provided the original unaltered version. He said that a photographer working for the company had inserted the three images in spots where the video screens were blank.

"Normally we only use Photoshop for the typical purposes of color correction and cropping," Dean said in an e-mail. "In this case they copied and pasted three ROV screen images in the original photo over three screens that were not running video feeds at the time."

Ok, for what purpose would you do that other than to imply that you're doing a job that you're not? Are they so worried about presenting the best image possible that they're willing to run the risk of being found out for essentially lying? On something so small and simple as this? After all the other lies and false information they've put out? This is extraordinarily retarded.

[Terralthra]

Even more hilariously, the actual image of the command center is from 2001.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Chewie - or really anyone - how much of the information we are getting is being confirmed independently? And how reliable is the information?

There's information which is publically known; The volume of the field, the geology of the area, the type of drilling being done, and the procedures they are claiming to be doing.

The problem is, there's only a handful of organizations capable of doing what BP does, and the talent pool for some of these things is very small. How many people do you know that can spot weld something via telepresence 5000 feet underwater? Theres less than a thousand people on earth that do it well. At a certain point, we have to either accept what BP tells us or say 'nothing is real!' They COULD be faking the video feed, but I don't think they are. They COULD be lying about plumes on the seafloor, but that's something where enough other people are getting data that its a debate more than a denial.

I think they're definitely covering up some safety/oversight issues, because they tried a proscribed procedure which caused this whole thing in the first place in an effort to cut a few days off the drilling. In the cleanup and aftermath, though, I think its more a problem of too MUCH information and no single person managing it. The USCG is doing brilliantly to manage things, but even though we have protocols in place for this sort of thing a spill of this magnitude was NEVER EXPECTED TO HAPPEN, and safeguards in place were infufficient. I liken it to Chernobyl, where safety mechanisms were deliberately disabled, resulting in the ultimate worst-case scenario.

The problem is, now, that people are more concerned with assigning blame rather than fixing it. I think we're approaching day 100 here of the leak, and if you don't think the white house is shitting itself about 'Obama's 100 days' then I've got a bridge for you. Orders, counter-orders, 'brilliant' legal and logistical ideas are flying fast and furious now. A friend of mine from college is now working down there for a company that can do oil cleanup, and he's had 3 new bosses in the last 2 months. People are DESPERATE for a solution, and they don't care if its right or even good, just that its fast and semi-permanent.

I'd like to think that this is going to be a watershed event for change in the industry and government regulation, but I'm pretty sure there's going to be $10 billion fine, a congresional hearing, old men condemning things they don't really understand, and then a new underfunded agency will be born while everyone in the oil boardrooms just changes chairs.