5000 barrels a day of oil (210,000 gallons) leak off the coast of Louisiana

[ureapwhatusow]

A hurricane passing over the oil spill, while not posing any threat to the shore, would probably be the best thing that could happen at this point. The churning waves, and the high winds would disperse the oil into a larger area (diluting the concentration of oil) while at the same time helping to accelerate the biodegrading of the oil naturally.

are you sure? curious if thats hypothesis or something that has been proven.


I heard a scientist on NPR discuss something interesting to the effect that while the oil will hurt the shores and devastate wet lands it may not be as great a risk on the bottom of the deep ocean

he said that at the bottom of the deep ocean, by the floor, that there are carbon eating microbes that have evolved into feeding on raw carbon deposits like oil

so nature does have some defense but seemingly not against holes in the crust that are made to release huge volumes of pressurized oil

 

[TheBudFather]

So they still need to stop this leak.... wtf.....Why don't they push a huge 'pipe shaped' balloon down the pipe... and fill it with either air or concrete... whatever you fill it with, it will plug the hole surely!
Have these Billionaire fucktards got no imagination or what... BP bosses should be in jail over this... I'm stunned that this is still happening!

 

[ClearBarbedFunk]

talked with a oil man, he said they hit the mother of all salt domes, pressure was unexpected and blew the rig apart, it collaped and broke the pipe.

they have nothin to cap it with, and it will have to run out before they will be able to cap it, right now there doin whatever to appease the public. its all just BS at this point. no idea how much oil will spill till it runs out.

CBF

 

[White-rhino]

talked with a oil man, he said they hit the mother of all salt domes, pressure was unexpected and blew the rig apart, it collaped and broke the pipe.

they have nothin to cap it with, and it will have to run out before they will be able to cap it, right now there doin whatever to appease the public. its all just BS at this point. no idea how much oil will spill till it runs out.

CBF

Thats what it looks like to me too, and I'm no oil man. There is nothing they can do about it. But they cannot say that.

Also, the oil is 10,000 psi at the well head! Sticking a balloon into it and inflating it will do nothing, except make a really large and cool paintball-like gun.

Seems to me they have two options, neither of which can be done publicly.

1.) Dig a deep hole next to the pipe, shove a nuke into it and pinch the well shut. Low chance of even working.

2.) Wait till the oil runs out. Current estimates are 7 years.

 

[bombadil.360]

any updates on how the Kevin Costner machines are doing?

 

[TheGerm]

Read Richard Heinberg or go to his web-site

Read Richard Heinberg or go to his web-site

talked with a oil man, he said they hit the mother of all salt domes, pressure was unexpected and blew the rig apart, it collaped and broke the pipe.

they have nothin to cap it with, and it will have to run out before they will be able to cap it, right now there doin whatever to appease the public. its all just BS at this point. no idea how much oil will spill till it runs out.

CBF

I think your right ! I didnt know there was an oil spill in 79 that they did the same shit and had to let it go for 9 - 10 months. Try to watch the whole thing. Humans aren't stupid ? Sorry, had to get that in there. Peace !


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHmhxpQEGPo



TheGerm

 

[mriko]

Pffff, as terrible as it is, all this story is pure hypocrisy. Much worse than that is happening in Niger river delta, with quantities released in the ecosystem which DWARF those of the BP leak and nobody fucking cares !

I have no car, no motorcycle, no moped and I'm glad of it !

Irie !

 

[patches]

Watch Live BP's Latest Effort to Stop Gulf Oil Leak, 'Cut and Cap' Begins

http://abcnews.go.com/video/video?id=6046305

 

[patches]

the Kostner machines arent for this type of shit, its way over their heads, youd need like thousands of them.

 

[elmanito]

Pffff, as terrible as it is, all this story is pure hypocrisy. Much worse than that is happening in Niger river delta, with quantities released in the ecosystem which DWARF those of the BP leak and nobody fucking cares !

I have no car, no motorcycle, no moped and I'm glad of it !

Irie !

Don't talk about the Niger delta.Sometimes it is here on the news, but most of the time it is kept secret for the public.Royal Dutch Shell is one of the biggest polluters in that area.Much of the natural gas extracted in oil wells in the Delta is immediately burned, or flared, into the air at a rate of approximately 70 million m³ per day.The Dutch government is talking about CO2-reduction and see what one of the Dutch companies is doing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck2TJTdjJjg

Neither do i have a car, just a bicycle.

Namaste



Namas

 

[Justin_Credible]

I just heard that it is now going to be August? ????????????????????????
WTF

 

[Maria_Vanessa]

I searched this thread and I could not find anything pertaining to this article I just found. It's from The New York Times, published on 5/29/2010.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/us/30rig.html?pagewanted=all

Documents Show Early Worries About Safety of Rig
By IAN URBINA

WASHINGTON — Internal documents from BP show that there were serious problems and safety concerns with the Deepwater Horizon rig far earlier than those the company described to Congress last week.

The problems involved the well casing and the blowout preventer, which are considered critical pieces in the chain of events that led to the disaster on the rig.

The documents show that in March, after several weeks of problems on the rig, BP was struggling with a loss of “well control.” And as far back as 11 months ago, it was concerned about the well casing and the blowout preventer.

On June 22, for example, BP engineers expressed concerns that the metal casing the company wanted to use might collapse under high pressure.

“This would certainly be a worst-case scenario,” Mark E. Hafle, a senior drilling engineer at BP, warned in an internal report. “However, I have seen it happen so know it can occur.”

The company went ahead with the casing, but only after getting special permission from BP colleagues because it violated the company’s safety policies and design standards. The internal reports do not explain why the company allowed for an exception. BP documents released last week to The Times revealed that company officials knew the casing was the riskier of two options.

Though his report indicates that the company was aware of certain risks and that it made the exception, Mr. Hafle, testifying before a panel on Friday in Louisiana about the cause of the rig disaster, rejected the notion that the company had taken risks.

“Nobody believed there was going to be a safety issue,” Mr. Hafle told a six-member panel of Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service officials.

“All the risks had been addressed, all the concerns had been addressed, and we had a model that suggested if executed properly we would have a successful job,” he said.

Mr. Hafle, asked for comment by a reporter after his testimony Friday about the internal report, declined to answer questions.

BP’s concerns about the casing did not go away after Mr. Hafle’s 2009 report.

In April of this year, BP engineers concluded that the casing was “unlikely to be a successful cement job,” according to a document, referring to how the casing would be sealed to prevent gases from escaping up the well.

The document also says that the plan for casing the well is “unable to fulfill M.M.S. regulations,” referring to the Minerals Management Service.

A second version of the same document says “It is possible to obtain a successful cement job” and “It is possible to fulfill M.M.S. regulations.”

Andrew Gowers, a BP spokesman, said the second document was produced after further testing had been done.

On Tuesday Congress released a memorandum with preliminary findings from BP’s internal investigation, which indicated that there were warning signs immediately before the explosion on April 20, including equipment readings suggesting that gas was bubbling into the well, a potential sign of an impending blowout.

A parade of witnesses at hearings last week told about bad decisions and cut corners in the days and hours before the explosion of the rig, but BP’s internal documents provide a clearer picture of when company and federal officials saw problems emerging.

In addition to focusing on the casing, investigators are also focusing on the blowout preventer, a fail-safe device that was supposed to slice through a drill pipe in a last-ditch effort to close off the well when the disaster struck. The blowout preventer did not work, which is one of the reasons oil has continued to spill into the gulf, though the reason it failed remains unclear.

Federal drilling records and well reports obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and BP’s internal documents, including more than 50,000 pages of company e-mail messages, inspection reports, engineering studies and other company records obtained by The Times from Congressional investigators, shed new light on the extent and timing of problems with the blowout preventer and the casing long before the explosion.

Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, declined to answer questions about the casings, the blowout preventer and regulators’ oversight of the rig because those matters are part of a continuing investigation.

The documents show that in March, after problems on the rig that included drilling mud falling into the formation, sudden gas releases known as “kicks” and a pipe falling into the well, BP officials informed federal regulators that they were struggling with a loss of “well control.”

On at least three occasions, BP records indicate, the blowout preventer was leaking fluid, which the manufacturer of the device has said limits its ability to operate properly.

“The most important thing at a time like this is to stop everything and get the operation under control,” said Greg McCormack, director of the Petroleum Extension Service at the University of Texas, Austin, offering his assessment about the documents.

He added that he was surprised that regulators and company officials did not commence a review of whether drilling should continue after the well was brought under control.

After informing regulators of their struggles, company officials asked for permission to delay their federally mandated test of the blowout preventer, which is supposed to occur every two weeks, until the problems were resolved, BP documents say.

At first, the minerals agency declined.

“Sorry, we cannot grant a departure on the B.O.P. test further than when you get the well under control,” wrote Frank Patton, a minerals agency official. But BP officials pressed harder, citing “major concerns” about doing the test the next day. And by 10:58 p.m., David Trocquet, another M.M.S. official, acquiesced.

“After further consideration,” Mr. Trocquet wrote, “an extension is approved to delay the B.O.P. test until the lower cement plug is set.”

When the blowout preventer was eventually tested again, it was tested at a lower pressure — 6,500 pounds per square inch — than the 10,000-pounds-per-square-inch tests used on the device before the delay. It tested at this lower pressure until the explosion.

A review of Minerals Management Service’s data of all B.O.P. tests done in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico for five years shows B.O.P. tests rarely dropped so sharply, and, in general, either continued at the same threshold or were done at increasing levels.

The manufacturer of the blowout preventer, Cameron, declined to say what the appropriate testing pressure was for the device.

In an e-mail message, Mr. Gowers of BP wrote that until their investigation was complete, it was premature to answer questions about the casings or the blowout preventer.

Even though the documents asking regulators about testing the blowout preventer are from BP, Mr. Gowers said that any questions regarding the device should be directed to Transocean, which owns the rig and, he said, was responsible for maintenance and testing of the device. Transocean officials declined to comment.

Bob Sherrill, an expert on blowout preventers and the owner of Blackwater Subsea, an engineering consulting firm, said the conditions on the rig in February and March and the language used by the operator referring to a loss of well control “sounds like they were facing a blowout scenario.”

Mr. Sherrill said federal regulators made the right call in delaying the blowout test, because doing a test before the well is stable risks gas kicks. But once the well was stable, he added, it would have made sense for regulators to investigate the problems further.

In April, the month the rig exploded, workers encountered obstructions in the well. Most of the problems were conveyed to federal regulators, according to federal records. Many of the incidents required that BP get a permit for a new tactic for dealing with the problem.

One of the final indications of such problems was an April 15 request for a permit to revise its plan to deal with a blockage, according to federal documents obtained from Congress by the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group.

In the documents, company officials apologized to federal regulators for not having mentioned the type of casing they were using earlier, adding that they had “inadvertently” failed to include it. In the permit request, they did not disclose BP’s own internal concerns about the design of the casing.

Less than 10 minutes after the request was submitted, federal regulators approved the permit.

Robbie Brown contributed reporting from Kenner, La., and Andy Lehren from New York.

 

[Maria_Vanessa]

BP abandoned its latest plan to fix the oil leak using a massive diamond wire cutter, as the oil spill enters its 45th day.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/03/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T1

BP tries again to cap well; protests set to start
By the CNN Wire Staff
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* NEW: BP launches media campaign issuing apology
* NEW: Oil company will try again Thursday to cap the ruptured well
* Protests against BP scheduled to start Thursday
* BP abandons diamond wire cutter for less-precise method

President Obama goes one on one with Larry King to talk about the oil spill, economic turmoil and war. "Larry King Live," at 9 p.m. ET Thursday on CNN.

(CNN) -- After every effort to contain the undersea oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico failed or fell short, BP devised a new strategy Thursday to cap the ruptured well, though the new plug will not be as tight as previously hoped.

The oil giant said it would try again to slice off a damaged riser pipe and then place a containment dome over the well.

But after an attempt to sever the pipe with a diamond-embedded saw failed Wednesday, the company will have to use shears that will not be able to make as precise a cut.

Even if the attempt is successful, then the cap will not be as snug and oil will still be flowing out into the Gulf.

Why oil is still gushing

The latest containment effort comes on Day 45 of the disaster, as BP, under fire from seemingly every angle, launched a national ad campaign that continued Thursday with television spots featuring Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward issuing an apology and promising to "make this right."

Hayward stars in apology ad campaign

President Obama will "visit the Gulf Coast again soon, perhaps as soon as next week," a senior administration official told CNN on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a grass-roots campaign dubbed Seize BP planned a week of demonstrations that will begin Thursday in more than 50 cities.

"From Florida to Seattle, Washington, from Hawaii to New York, all over California and many, many states across the country, people will be taking to the streets over the next week to demand that the assets of BP be seized now," said Richard Becker, a member of the San Francisco, California, chapter of the group.

"We know millions of people are deeply concerned about what's going on in the Gulf right now, and we expect large numbers of people to come out to the protests."

Anti-BP sentiment has grown as oil has made its way to or near coastal areas. It was feared oil would come ashore on Florida beaches as early as Thursday.

BP went back to the drawing board Thursday to try and place a cap or "top hat" on the breached well. It abandoned the diamond wire cutter plan when the device got stuck midway through the pipe. It was freed and taken to the surface, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told CNN.

CNN Live: Underwater video from BP

But the new attempt to cut the pipe will not allow for a snugly fit containment dome. Allen said some oil could continue leaking from that well through the summer until BP is able to put relief wells in place.

"They need to be relentless to try and contain this leak because we shouldn't have to wait until August," Allen said.

In Louisiana, where oily sludge has been fouling coastal marshes for two weeks, state officials said the White House has given its blessing to a plan to dredge up walls of sand offshore and BP agreed to fund the $360 million construction cost.

Federal officials raised concerns about the long-term environmental effects of what would effectively amount to building dozens of miles of new barrier islands off the state's coast, but Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and other officials had pushed for approval of the plan as a last-ditch effort to prevent further damage.

Meanwhile, the government has now declared 37 percent of the Gulf off limits for fishing.

The BP well erupted after an explosion and fire on the leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on April 20 that killed 11 people. The rig sank two days later, leaving up to 19,000 barrels (798,000 gallons) of oil pouring into the Gulf, according to federal estimates.

CNN's Scott Bronstein, Aaron Cooper, Patty Lane, David Mattingly, Patrick Oppmann, Kyra Phillips and Tracy Sabo contributed to this report.

 

[Maria_Vanessa]

I have a question, if anyone can answer it. If a hurricane or storm hits any part of the water where the oil spill occurred, will the storm or hurrican be strong enough to lift and carry some of the oil with it as it moves across land, potentially spreading oil with the preceptitation?

 

[Justin_Credible]

I have a question, if anyone can answer it. If a hurricane or storm hits any part of the water where the oil spill occurred, will the storm or hurrican be strong enough to lift and carry some of the oil with it as it moves across land, potentially spreading oil with the preceptitation?

I just saw on CNN last night the major concern the US govt is going through now with that very same question. Oil slapped all over people's homes etc...very big mess if a hurricane hits; as well as the fact that the oil will not be salvageable.

 

[genkisan]

I will say it again......
















Public execution for all responsible, on global TV.....straight up, do not pass go, do not collect any fucking insurance, do not drag anything thru 25 years of court.


Bang, yer fuckin' dead, evil malignant Corpo-Nazi white-collar criminal asshole scumbag.

 

[hoosierdaddy]

A marine biologist who was involved with the last large spill in the gulf in 1979 (it leaked for 10 months) stated that they were amazed at how quickly the polluted areas healed themselves, and with all the efforts they made at the time, it was ultimately nature that dispersed the oil. He stated that a certain beach in TX was oil soaked just prior to some hurricane and the day after the storm hit, the oil was gone, and they couldn't even find trace amounts of it on the beaches.
The storm also helped to not only dilute the oil, but helped it to sink which allows natural bacterium to eat the crude, as it does on a regular basis.

 

[hoosierdaddy]

I will say it again......
















Public execution for all responsible, on global TV.....straight up, do not pass go, do not collect any fucking insurance, do not drag anything thru 25 years of court.


Bang, yer fuckin' dead, evil malignant Corpo-Nazi white-collar criminal asshole scumbag.

I say we bring stupid up on charges...
How do you plead, genkisan?

 

[Maria_Vanessa]

A marine biologist who was involved with the last large spill in the gulf in 1979 (it leaked for 10 months) stated that they were amazed at how quickly the polluted areas healed themselves, and with all the efforts they made at the time, it was ultimately nature that dispersed the oil. He stated that a certain beach in TX was oil soaked just prior to some hurricane and the day after the storm hit, the oil was gone, and they couldn't even find trace amounts of it on the beaches.
The storm also helped to not only dilute the oil, but helped it to sink which allows natural bacterium to eat the crude, as it does on a regular basis.

Thank for the information HoosierDaddy. Here is an article from the The Economist. http://www.economist.com/businessfi...feature&fsrc=scn/fb/wl/ar/bpsmountingtroubles

[FONT=verdana, geneva, arial, sans serif][SIZE=+1]Hole below the water
[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-2]Jun 3rd 2010
From The Economist print edition
[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]Failure to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico spells trouble for BP[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]THE relief well with which BP is planning to put a definitive end to the oil spill polluting ever more of the Gulf of Mexico is drilling down into the sea floor at a rate of about 60 metres (200 feet) a day. The company’s share price is dropping considerably faster. On June 1st it plummeted by 13%. It had already declined by 24% over the six weeks since the loss of the exploration rig Deepwater Horizon and the start of the spill. All told the company has lost £42 billion ($62 billion) in value since the crisis started.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]The latest drop was prompted by the news on May 29th that BP’s attempt to plug the leak with a “top kill” had failed. The company now plans to cut through the pipe from which oil is leaking and cap it with a fitting that will funnel oil to ships on the surface; it may also use equipment installed for the top kill to drain off oil. These steps may slow the flow of oil into the sea, perhaps substantially, but they will not stop it altogether, and carry a slight risk of increasing it. The funnel would also have to be removed if a hurricane were to strike.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]A complete stop will have to wait for one of the two relief wells to get down to 5,500 metres, intersect with the leaking well and plug it. August is spoken of as the earliest date for this sort of success, hurricanes permitting. If numerous attempts have to be made, as they sometimes are, it is conceivable that the leak could continue for the rest of the year.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]Barack Obama, under increasing criticism for his handling of the disaster, has promised to “bring those responsible to justice”. On June 1st his attorney-general, Eric Holder, visited Louisiana and announced that he was exploring both civil and criminal charges against BP and the other firms involved in the drilling. Criminal action could leave BP facing massive fines on top of the costs of the effort to stop the leak, the clean-up operations and claims for damages by companies and individuals that have been affected. So far BP has spent some $1 billion; that said, it made $6.1 billion in the first quarter of 2010. It is profitable enough to absorb $20 billion in spill-related losses while paying a $10 billion dividend, as it did last year. That would reassure anxious investors, but worry rating agencies (on June 3rd Fitch trimmed BP's ratings) and outrage politicians who want the dividend scrapped. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]Robert Reich, a former secretary of labour, has suggested that BP’s American operations should be put under temporary receivership to allow the government to take control of plugging the leak. This seems unlikely. But the idea that the company as a whole might be taken over has become significantly more likely as its share price has plummeted. BP’s market capitalisation is now less than that of its rival, Royal Dutch Shell (see chart), which has discussed a merger before and may now be contemplating one again. The scale of the stock’s fall makes it possible that the foreseeable losses, huge as they are, have not only been priced in, but even overpriced.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]Reputational loss, and the possibility of losing further access to the gulf, where BP is a large player, are harder to calculate while the spill and its attendant inquiries continue. When the waters finally clear, though, there could be some interesting sharks swimming in them.[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

[MarquisBlack]

So I hear Goldman Sachs dumped $250 million in BP stock 3 weeks prior to the explosion.. Anybody hear about this?

http://moneycentral.msn.com/ownership?Holding=Institutional+Ownership&Symbol=BP