Deepwater Horizon Oil Blowout Disaster Threatens Gulf of Mexico

[C. Flower]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/oilr-a29.shtml

BP-contracted deep water rig, Deepwater Horizon's blowout in the Gulf of Mexico is becoming a major environmental disaster. They don't seem to have any idea how to successfully plug the blowout.

There is no sign of Obama reversing his new policy of ending restrictions on deep sea oil exploitation.




The spill threatens jobs and ecosystems over a broad area of the Gulf Coast encompassing Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas. If not contained, the oil slick will imperil Louisiana’s $2.4 billion commercial fishing industry. Among the major species fished are shrimp, oysters and grouper. It also threatens the Florida panhandle’s white sand beaches and with them the region’s tourism industry.
“We’ve never seen anything like this magnitude,” said George Crozier, an oceanographer and director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. “The problems are going to be on the beaches themselves. That’s where it will be really visible.”
Louisiana’s coastal waters and its vast Mississippi Delta contain about 40 percent of US wetlands and are home to nesting and spawning areas for hundreds of species of birds and fish. The area of the spill is also the habitat for a pod of sperm whales.


11 men are missing and others are injured.

The rising costs of oil, once the easily exploited middle eastern sources are gone, will be more than financial.

Great site here on the ecology of the region and oil.


http://www.serpentproject.com/missions_gom.php

[Cassandra Syndrome]

Conversely Carbon Taxes and laws are a form of resistance to the development of renewable cheap energy.

We are at peak oil and its going North of dollars again pretty soon. Time to learn how to run our own homes with solar panels and wind power.

[Ah Well]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/oilr-a29.shtml

BP-contracted deep water rig, Deepwater Horizon's blowout in the Gulf of Mexico is becoming a major environmental disaster. They don't seem to have any idea how to successfully plug the blowout.

There is no sign of Obama reversing his new policy of ending restrictions on deep sea oil exploitation.



11 men are missing and others are injured.

The rising costs of oil, once the easily exploited middle eastern sources are gone, will be more than financial.

Great site here on the ecology of the region and oil.


http://www.serpentproject.com/missions_gom.php

Holy crap, that's some disaster with nightmare consequences potentially

Was this reported on the mainline media over here at all or did I just miss it?

[C. Flower]

Holy crap, that's some disaster with nightmare consequences potentially

Was this reported on the mainline media over here at all or did I just miss it?

I've been following it on US Media since it happened (about a week ago?) and I think RTE mentioned it yesterday.

[johnfás]

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47743000/gif/_47743826_oil_spill_466_29.gif

Fairily good synopsis on the BBC website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8650620.stm

[C. Flower]

That isn't looking good. This was a couple of days ago. As usual, there was a lot of blandly optimistic talk. They tried to use a deep sea robot to cap it on the sea bed, but without success it seems.

http://www.minnpost.com/client_files/alternate_images/12391/mp_main_wide_DeepwaterHorizon452.jpg

[Ah Well]

That isn't looking good. This was a couple of days ago. As usual, there was a lot of blandly optimistic talk. They tried to use a deep sea robot to cap it on the sea bed, but without success it seems.

http://www.minnpost.com/client_files/alternate_images/12391/mp_main_wide_DeepwaterHorizon452.jpg

Can you just imagine if that continues to spew out crude oil for a few more weeks? :eek:

This was bound to happen at some stage - as usual, a wake up call with the most severe consequences and with plenty of folk prob going to suffer financially from it (not incl of course those unfortunately killed or injured already), not to mind the wildlife

[C. Flower]

1,000 barrels a day, according to this blog.
http://pbrla.blogspot.com/2010/04/deepwater-disaster-headed-for-pensacola.html

[Ah Well]

1,000 barrels a day, according to this blog.
http://pbrla.blogspot.com/2010/04/deepwater-disaster-headed-for-pensacola.html

The best-case scenario is that it will take two to four weeks to cap the deep water well. :eek: that's the equivalent of 14,000 - 28,000 more barrels of crude oil

The worst case scenario is that the oil well blows a bigger leak and it takes "several months" to stem all the spillage. ABC News reports that if the well itself opens, "100 times more crude could spew into the water."


Very bad indeed

[Sam Lord]

1,000 barrels a day, according to this blog.
http://pbrla.blogspot.com/2010/04/deepwater-disaster-headed-for-pensacola.html


More serious than that:

"National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration experts are estimating that 5,000 barrels a day of oil are spilling into the gulf."

[Sam Lord]

There is no sign of Obama reversing his new policy of ending restrictions on deep sea oil exploitation.



Is there any one of McCain's campaign promises that he hasn't implemented yet?

[C. Flower]

Is there any one of McCain's campaign promises that he hasn't implemented yet?

My guess would be that McCain was a glove puppet.

[C. Flower]

This is an appalling disaster. I'm posting it in full.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/oil-slick-the-size-of-jamaica-hits-us-coast-455844.html





An oil spill that is threatening to eclipse the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control and started washing ashore along America's Gulf Coast early today.

The spill, thought to be roughly the size of Jamaica, was bigger than imagined - five times more than first estimated - and closer.

Fingers of oily sheen were reaching the Mississippi River delta, lapping the Louisiana shoreline in long, thin lines.

"It is of grave concern," David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said.

"I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling."

The oil slick from the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig which exploded and sank a week ago could become America's worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast.

The area is one of the world's richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life.

The oil was thickening in waters south and east of the Mississippi delta about five miles offshore.

The leak from the ocean floor proved to be far bigger than initially reported, contributing to a growing sense among many in Louisiana that the government failed them again, just as it did during Hurricane Katrina.

President Barack Obama dispatched Cabinet officials to deal with the crisis.

Cade Thomas, a fishing guide in Venice, worried that his livelihood will be destroyed. He said he did not know whether to blame the coastguard, the government or BP.

"They lied to us. They came out and said it was leaking 1,000 barrels when I think they knew it was more. And they weren't pro-active," he said.

"As soon as it blew up, they should have started wrapping it with booms."

The US Coast Guard worked with BP to deploy floating booms, skimmers and chemical dispersants, and set controlled fires to burn the oil off the water's surface.

The coastguard urged the company to request more resources from the US Defence Department. A BP executive said the corporation would "take help from anyone".

Government officials said the blown-out well 40 miles offshore was spewing five times as much oil into the water as originally estimated - about 5,000 barrels, or 200,000 gallons a day.

At that rate, the spill could eclipse the worst oil spill in US history - the 11 million gallons that leaked from the grounded tanker Exxon Valdez in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989 - in the three months it could take to drill a relief well and plug the gushing well 5,000 feet underwater on the sea bed.

Ultimately, the spill could grow much larger than the Valdez because Gulf of Mexico wells typically hold many times more oil than a single tanker.

Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for BP Exploration and Production, had initially disputed the government's larger estimate. But he later acknowledged on NBC's 'Today' show that the leak may be as bad as officials said.

He said there was no way to measure the flow at the sea bed, so estimates have to come from how much oil rises to the surface.

Mike Brewer, 40, who lost his oil spill response company in the devastation of Hurricane Katrina nearly five years ago, said he feared the scale of the escaping oil was beyond the capacity of existing resources.

"You're pumping out a massive amount of oil. There is no way to stop it," he said.

An emergency shrimping season was opened to allow shrimpers to scoop up their catch before it was fouled by oil.

Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency yesterday so officials could begin preparing for the oil's impact. He said at least 10 wildlife management areas and refuges in his state and neighbouring Mississippi were in the oil plume's path.

The declaration also noted that billions of dollars had been invested in coastal restoration projects that may be at risk and he also asked the government if he could call up 6,000 National Guard troops to help.

The coastguard abandoned a plan on Wednesday to set fire to the leaking oil after sea conditions deteriorated.

The attempt to burn some of the oil came after crews operating submersible robots failed to activate a shut-off device that would halt the flow of oil.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was briefed on the issue, said his spokesman, Captain John Kirby.

But Capt Kirby said the Defence Department had received no request for help, nor was it doing any detailed planning for a mission on the oil spill.

Mr Obama dispatched homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano, interior secretary Ken Salazar and Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson to help with the spill.

He said the White House would use "every single available resource" to respond.

Mr Obama has directed officials to aggressively confront the spill, but the cost of the clean-up will fall on BP, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.




Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/oil-slick-the-size-of-jamaica-hits-us-coast-455844.html#ixzz0mZB5u43R (http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/oil-slick-the-size-of-jamaica-hits-us-coast-455844.html#ixzz0mZB5u43R)

[Kid Ryder]

There's been no report of this mega-disaster in the Irish mainstream media yet as far as I know. Why?

[Kid Ryder]

The attempt to burn some of the oil came after crews operating submersible robots failed to activate a shut-off device that would halt the flow of oil.

This doesn't fill me full of the joys of the safety of 'subsea manifolds'.

[Ah Well]

There's been no report of this mega-disaster in the Irish mainstream media yet as far as I know. Why?

It was on RTE News and rte.ie yesterday ... tho it did seem to be largely ignored for quite a few days alright

[Kid Ryder]

It was on RTE News and rte.ie yesterday ... tho it did seem to be largely ignored for quite a few days alright

I suppose the magnitude of the disaster is such now that it's top world news. The Irish media are a pretty bent bunch, but I'd say this time that it was their ridiculous parochiality that made them ignore this story more than not letting Irish people see the risks inherent in deepwater hydrocarbon production and judge the desirability of letting it happen here too for themselves. This has the potential to grievously pollute the whole Gulf of Mexico and maybe further beyond if BP can't get the team and tools together soon to cap this leaking well at the seabed. BP's latest statement on this is that it could be up to forty days or more before they're ready to mount a mission to cap the well. The US federal govt will commit as many resources as it can spare from its various wars (Drugs, Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, and so on), but soldiers sailors and coastguards are about as useful as neurosurgeons in this situation. Remember too that the capacity of the United States govt to deal with this disaster is far in advance of anything our govt will have on hand should a similar circumstance arise off our shores.

People here should follow this story very closely because this is what could happen off the west coast in 15 years time or less.

[Kid Ryder]

Heard the RTÉ News at One mention the story and add cursory details (that's where I heard the BP statement), but then moved on to domestic news, of which there's a lot these days. Part of me suspects a species of 'embeddedness' in the relationship between the Irish media and Big Oil (Tony O'Reilly and Providence, and the fact that Shell is now one of the Irish media's biggest corporate advertisers now), but I guess my suspicions will have to remain just suspicions until hard documentary evidence emerges about agenda-driven coverage of this story on the part of the media here.

[C. Flower]

Heard the RTÉ News at One mention the story and add cursory details (that's where I heard the BP statement), but then moved on to domestic news, of which there's a lot these days. Part of me suspects a species of 'embeddedness' in the relationship between the Irish media and Big Oil (Tony O'Reilly and Providence, and the fact that Shell is now one of the Irish media's biggest corporate advertisers now), but I guess my suspicions will have to remain just suspicions until hard documentary evidence emerges about agenda-driven coverage of this story on the part of the media here.

The reporting was massaged from day one, with BP probably being the main supplier of information in the initial days. I plead guilty to having followed this for several days before posting: hoping that they were right that it could be coped with by booms, burning etc. and with the economic news seeming overwhelming at the time.

It will be decades before the coast and fisheries recover, according to the people who have worked on the Exxon Valdez disaster.

[Kid Ryder]

The reporting was massaged from day one, with BP probably being the main supplier of information in the initial days. I plead guilty to having followed this for several days before posting: hoping that they were right that it could be coped with by booms, burning etc. and with the economic news seeming overwhelming at the time.

It will be decades before the coast and fisheries recover, according to the people who have worked on the Exxon Valdez disaster.

The 'embeddedness' of the mass media with Big Oil is a global phenomenon I daresay. I'd imagine BP and the US Coastguard have navigation restrictions in place around the concerned area. I'd also imagine that overflights are either banned or subject to prior approval. Journalists are completely dependent on BP and US govt sources I'd guess - a situation similar to how military acts of aggression are allowed to be 'covered' today by the US Empire war machine.

[Kid Ryder]

Looks like the Obama administration are prohibiting further deep-water drilling until the causes of the accident are investigated:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8654138.stm

[C. Flower]

Looks like the Obama administration are prohibiting further deep-water drilling until the causes of the accident are investigated:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8654138.stm


He was trying to get a bill through to enable more deep sea exploitation.

[Sam Lord]

He was trying to get a bill through to enable more deep sea exploitation.

At the risk of being boring with my Counterpunch links, here is a good article on the topic.

http://www.counterpunch.org/grossman04292010.html

[C. Flower]

For the people who say that there's plenty of oil left, just a bit more expensive to get at but nothing much to worry about really, an object lesson.

[Murra]

Shocking. It's just getting worse and worse. VERY serious consequences for the gulf.

[Kid Ryder]

Shocking. It's just getting worse and worse. VERY serious consequences for the gulf.

Given that BP have said that it may take 40 days or more to send a team out to the wellhead to cap it, the following article by Dave Lindorff at OpEdNews is a timely reminder that the 'official' start of the Carribbean's hurricane season is only one month away. I really do hope Big Oil is not bull$hitting us.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Uh-Oh-Hurricane-Season-an-by-Dave-Lindorff-100430-66.html

[C. Flower]

My cynical suspicion is that they think most of the oil will be out in 40 days time.

[Newsy]

More serious than that:

"National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration experts are estimating that 5,000 barrels a day of oil are spilling into the gulf."

RTE taking their numbers from there. Reports these Nos. today.

What is happening there is absolutely terrible. The potential damage to the wildlife, eco system is enormous.

[Cassandra Syndrome]

Is there are a possibility of sabotage?

[Kid Ryder]

My cynical suspicion is that they think most of the oil will be out in 40 days time.

5,000bbd x 40days comes to 200,000bbl, assuming BP are being honest about the estimated rate of leakage. If this field is anyway commercial it's in the hundreds of megabbl range, and would have to be at that depth for BP to be interested even in exploring it. This, by the time it's 'over' could be a disaster at least ten times greater than Exxon Valdez. It could even exceed the oil spillage in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War, and that is rated as the largest oil spill ever by volume. To make handy comparisons, I offer you the Wikipedia page and subsection:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_spill#Largest_oil_spills

P.S. Deepwater Horizon has already been tentatively included in the list.

[Kid Ryder]

Also, compare Deepwater Horizon to the last oil spill megadisaster to strike the Gulf of Mexico, the blowout and sinking of Ixtoc 1, rated by Wikipedia as the second-worst oil spill in history.

Ixtoc I - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixtoc_I)

[C. Flower]

http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/offshore/deepwtr.html

http://www.newsweek.com/id/237268

This is an environmental disaster, but it also has big implications for US energy strategy. Newsweek asks "Is this Offshore Drilling's Three Mile Island".

[C. Flower]

Shares are falling in Halliburton and other companies who have worked on the rig, because of potential liability. Also obviously BP shares have fallen.

France 24 reports that Halliburton was working on the rig 20 hours before the accident.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN3013627220100430?type=hotStocksNews

50% of US fishing is in the area.

[C. Flower]

A State of Emergency has been declared in Louisiana and Alabama - oil is coming in to the Missippi Delta.

It took 10 days before any senior government officials came to the area and Obama is under pressure on this.

The National Guard is out, but there isn't a whole lot they can do.

Last night there were reports that a second rig had collapsed: no mention of that as yet today.

[C. Flower]

B.P.'s Environmental Impact Statement for Deepwater is being scrutinised now: no serious risks anticipated, apparently.
http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/bp-oil-spill-spreads-to-shoreline-habitat-456048.html

Like the horrific gas pipeline accident in February in Connecticut, this underscores the risks attached to developments like Corrib gas. The EIS is always written by the developer and he who pays the piper calls the tune.

There is a lawsuit out against Halliburton for failing to cap the well properly.
http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/bp-boss-heads-to-us-as-oil-slick-reaches-coast-456072.html

[Cassandra Syndrome]

Here's a good diagram showing the horrific carnage that is happening in the Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/04/whats_going_on_beneath_the_sea.html

That estimate has been revised upwards fivefold.

There are now 25,000 Barrels of oil a day. There are 85 Million Barrels produced a day. Thats 0.02% of that amount. Complete ecosystem disaster.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703871904575216382160623498.html?m od=rss_Today's_Most_Popular

[Gruffalo]

The petroleum giant operating the Gulf of Mexico oil rig that exploded last week, causing millions of litres of oil to spew into the sea, de-emphasized the risk of a catastrophe in paperwork it submitted last year to the U.S. government.

British energy company BP Plc. said it was "unlikely that an accidental surface or subsurface oil spill would occur" from the well it was proposing to drill 80 kilometres off the Louisiana shore.

And if such a spill did occur, the company said, "due to the distance to shore and the response capabilities that would be implemented, no significant adverse impacts are expected."


http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/30/louisiana-oil-spill.html

Mystic Meg must be quaking in her boots as she reads about these amazing clairvoyants.

[Ah Well]

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/30/louisiana-oil-spill.html

Mystic Meg must be quaking in her boots as she reads about these amazing clairvoyants.

In fairness, they were hardly likely to crap in their own corner when making an application first day

Then again one would wonder what exactly they did or were allowed to do

[Gruffalo]

In fairness, they were hardly likely to crap in their own corner when making an application first day


These kinds of assessments are required to be honest so that the necessary contingency plans can be put in place. Imagine if they had of taken the potential for a catastrophe serious. They may well have had plans in place which could have prevent this disaster from getting so out of control. The oil business is one of the most dangerous in the world and that is why only the best are hired for the health and safety and contingency planning. That's why honest is necessary.

[C. Flower]

The US Military produced a report recently saying that the world is facing an oil supply crisis by 2015. Even before this report the US Government was pushing to drop environmental protection and exploit risky areas in the deep water and in Canada. They are undoubtedly looking also at how to get complete control of middle eastern supplies.

A 10 million barrel deficit a day is predicted. Ironically, the world's biggest single user of oil is the US military.
http://www.peakoil.net/headline-news/us-military-warns-oil-output-may-dip-causing-massive-shortages-by-2015

There is very good coverage on Reuters site with short videos and slide shows as well as reports. It's looking as though thousands of livelihoods from the fisheries will be gone. 200,000 barrels a day, did I hear ? BP were originally trying to tell us it was 5,000.

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=79793190

[Kid Ryder]

Here's a good diagram showing the horrific carnage that is happening in the Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/04/whats_going_on_beneath_the_sea.html

That estimate has been revised upwards fivefold.

There are now 25,000 Barrels of oil a day. There are 85 Million Barrels produced a day. Thats 0.02% of that amount. Complete ecosystem disaster.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703871904575216382160623498.html?m od=rss_Today's_Most_Popular

In 40 days: 25,000bbd x 40days = 1,000,000bbl. Heading towards the scale of catastrophe of Ixtoc 1 back in 1979/80.

[C. Flower]

I just read the depressing report on breakingnews.ie - BP just don't know how much is coming out, or is going to.

Fishing is such a big invesment to get started in - the Florida coast is full or little fleets of shrimp and fishing boats and one-man operations. They are just sitting there, waiting to be wiped out, going off their heads.

[meatloafs]

there was reports that health and safety issues were been ignored and blocked if this is the case they knew it was a accident waiting to happen i suppose the God forsaken dollar took over $$$$$

[Murra]

I just read the depressing report on breakingnews.ie - BP just don't know how much is coming out, or is going to.

Fishing is such a big invesment to get started in - the Florida coast is full or little fleets of shrimp and fishing boats and one-man operations. They are just sitting there, waiting to be wiped out, going off their heads.

While I naturally feel sorry for the livelihoods which will be lost because of this disaster, and the lives that have already been lost, my fear for the eco-system outweighs even those concerns. How do we know when this leakage will ever stop? What if 25% of the worlds oceans, (or more) are polluted? What effect will that have on the world's population?

Scary stuff.

[C. Flower]

While I naturally feel sorry for the livelihoods which will be lost because of this disaster, and the lives that have already been lost, my fear for the eco-system outweighs even those concerns. How do we know when this leakage will ever stop? What if 25% of the worlds oceans, (or more) are polluted? What effect will that have on the world's population?

Scary stuff.

I quoted back on the thread that these livelihoods involve up to 40% of US fisheries. Shrimp price is already going through the roof. The leakage will stop ultimately when the well is empty, if not before. The damage will last for decades.

[Kid Ryder]

I quoted back on the thread that these livelihoods involve up to 40% of US fisheries. Shrimp price is already going through the roof. The leakage will stop ultimately when the well is empty, if not before. The damage will last for decades.

So true C Flower, +1. And Oireland Inc. are welcoming this type of deepwater oil and gas production to the relatively untainted seas off the west coast. What's more, they're inviting Shell, the originators and practitioners of the TFA ('Touch **** All) safety and maintenance policy on their North Sea facilities for a decade or more before the date of the article below referenced (June 23 2006), to start this dirty dangerous (and thieving!) ball rolling.

You can read about Shell and their 'TFA' safety & maintenance policy here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2006/jun/23/oilandpetrol.freedomofinformation

[Kid Ryder]

Just when you thought Henry Kissinger cornered the market in irony all those years ago when he won the Nobel Peace Prize, the ABC News website reports that Transocean's Deepwater Horizon won a top safety prize from the United States' Dept. of the Interior last year!

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/louisiana-oil-spill-feds-gave-safety-prize-transoceans/story?id=10528236

[Kid Ryder]

Here's another damning indictment of BP (and by extension the rest of Big Oil) from the ABC News website:

BP Fought Safety Measures at Deepwater Oil Rigs - http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/bp-fought-safety-measures-deepwater-oil-rigs/story?id=10521078

[Kid Ryder]

Here's some latest news on the blowout from WMBB - an ABC affiliated TV station from Florida:

http://www.panhandleparade.com/index.php/mbb/article/dep_releases_newest_information_on_deepwater_horiz on_oil_spill/mbb7723093/

The report quotes the Florida State Emergency Response Team as stating the daily spill rate as 5,000bbd, the earlier estimate of spillage given early last week and not the 25,000bbd estimated by industry experts as reported on 30th April by the Wall Street Journal. Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703871904575216382160623498.html?m od=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular. Readers, you can make your own minds up as to who's nearer the true figure.

The overall tone of the WMBB report is quite optimistic given the circumstances, but as you read down through the details of the emergency response to this disaster and the capabilities of the equipment being deployed in containing the slick and protecting wetlands, beaches and estuaries, a lot of that optimistic sheen just falls away.


The booming strategy focuses on identified environmentally sensitive areas.

Estuaries and inlets are at the top of the list, not the beach areas.

This is to protect sensitive habitat that support wildlife and fish.

If the oil washes on the beach, the sand can be cleaned.



This is where the report is candid about the actual effectiveness of the equipment deployed:

Note that booms are not a failsafe solution.

They can become ineffective in high seas, strong winds, or currents over one knot.


However, the report offers sound advice to affected citizens should BP representatives or other parties visit them in the near future offering them cash compensation in return for signing any documents:

Florida residents are encouraged not to sign any documents provided to them in return for money from BP or anyone else until they know the extent of their loss, which may be significantly higher than the money being paid. These may be fraudulent or premature.

The Attorney General’s fraud hotline is open to receive any reports of fraud or price gouging. The hotline is 1-866-966-7226.


Now that's advice from competent people used to dealing with Big Oil and their tricksy swindling ways, not the brown-envelope-trousering halfwits and incompetents we're stuck with over here. Your average gombeen FFer, FGer, GPer or Labourite would advise you to take the money proffered now; they'd tell you that the oil co. would fight you tooth-and-nail for years in the courts and then land you with the costs at the end of the struggle!

[C. Flower]

BP is trying to capture most of the spill in a concrete structure to be put in place by undersea robots. Nothing like this has ever been done before at these kind of depths, but I hope it works.

Oil has started to reach the shores.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6430AR20100507?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r1:c 0.379310:b33742806:z0

[C. Flower]

The funnel was put in place, but when the oil started to move up inside it, the change from high to low pressure made it crystallised and clog up the tube.
They are now thinking about a "high risk" approach - basically to try to plug the hole with junk.
http://news.malaysia.msn.com/top-stories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4079230

[Kid Ryder]

The funnel was put in place, but when the oil started to move up inside it, the change from high to low pressure made it crystallised and clog up the tube.
They are now thinking about a "high risk" approach - basically to try to plug the hole with junk.
http://news.malaysia.msn.com/top-stories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4079230

It appears that BP are really ******* desperate - they're going back to the inverted funnel approach:

BP tries new tactic to stop Deepwater Horizon oil spill (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7122298.ece)

The following quote says it all for me:

Mr Hayward warned that the latest strategy might not work because, as with BP’s attempt to place a much larger box on the seabed, it has not been tried in 5,000ft of water. “We will solve it. It’s simply a question of how long,” he vowed.

Yes, and how long does the Gulf's wildlife have?

Just as importantly, in comparison, how long does the future of deepwater oil and gas production have?

[Kid Ryder]

Florida looks like escaping the brunt of the pollution for now - the change in winds locally is blowing the slick west towards Texas and Louisiana:

Three day forecast has oil spill heading west (http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/oil-28829-subtopic-topic.html)

[Juan Reley]

Photographs of oil slicks from the LA Times:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-html,0,6610369.htmlstory

BP is obliged to be seen to be doing something. Maybe the sandbags and booms will protect some areas and is worth trying.

[C. Flower]

Photographs of oil slicks from the LA Times:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-html,0,6610369.htmlstory

BP is obliged to be seen to be doing something. Maybe the sandbags and booms will protect some areas and is worth trying.

2,000 square miles of oil slick now, according to Bloomberg.

[BrendanGalway]

Hi guys, I dont know if anyone has posted on this already. But given that the number of Barrels of Oil in this well could be in the Hundreds of Millions, is it possible that eventually so much of it Enters the Sea that the Gulf Stream could pick it up and draw it into the Atlantic, even off our own Coast?

[People Korps]

Live hearing BP at oil spill hearing
Admiral Thad Allen and Lamar McKay, Chairman and President of BP America testify on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=stream1

[Kid Ryder]

Hi guys, I dont know if anyone has posted on this already. But given that the number of Barrels of Oil in this well could be in the Hundreds of Millions, is it possible that eventually so much of it Enters the Sea that the Gulf Stream could pick it up and draw it into the Atlantic, even off our own Coast?

Don't know about our own coast, but the slick (or part of it) is due to fetch up on the Florida Keys at one of the entryways to the Atlantic Ocean, according to this blog:

The Great Beyond - Deepwater Horizon spill update - May 18, 2010 (http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2010/05/deepwater_horizon_spill_update_7.html)


University of South Florida researchers warned today that oil from the spill seems to be entering the Gulf’s Loop Current. This means it could be carried to the Florida Keys by 26 May, they say.

The same posting carried information (?) from a press release from BP claiming that a 'riser insertion tube tool (RITT) containment system' was collecting 2,000 barrels per day of the estimated 5,000bpd (not bbd, my mistake). Even so, 3,000bpd minimum are still spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.

BP Global - Update on Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response - 18 May (http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7062184)

[C. Flower]

The Mexican Government is now getting furious about the damage being done and the lack of action by BP. Serious row in Houston today.

[C. Flower]

Predictably, the dispersant being used by BP is considered toxic by the EPA and they have asked them to stop using it.

The idea that this situation is fixable is just spin, imo. The crude oil is going to have to be scraped off the beaches and rocks for years.

[Sam Lord]

A fairly substantial PR exercise (or cover up if you like ) is apparently in place. Teams going out from 6 a.m. to collect all the dead wildlife on the shores. Photographers and press being directed away from certain areas by officials. Local being told by BR PR that talking to the media will damage their compensation chances etc. etc.

They do not want the worlds media saturated with horrific images ...

[Sam Lord]

The idea that this situation is fixable is just spin, imo. The crude oil is going to have to be scraped off the beaches and rocks for years.

The damage has already been done. Everyone is waiting for the stuff to wash ashore but apparently what has been falling to the bottom of the ocean for weeks now is just as damaging ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100505/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill

[People Korps]

the royal family might donate Fergies hair after the beheading

[People Korps]

The damage has already been done. Everyone is waiting for the stuff to wash ashore but apparently what has been falling to the bottom of the ocean for weeks now is just as damaging ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100505/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill


In fact the underwater spraying, which has never been done before, first creates a cloud mid ocean, what happens next god knows but its "supposed" to break up into little pieces.

It is a terrible disaster and dont believe the hype its really, really bad.

[C. Flower]

A fairly substantial PR exercise (or cover up if you like ) is apparently in place. Teams going out from 6 a.m. to collect all the dead wildlife on the shores. Photographers and press being directed away from certain areas by officials. Local being told by BR PR that talking to the media will damage their compensation chances etc. etc.

They do not want the worlds media saturated with horrific images ...

Just watching film of shrimp fishing boats paid by BP to fish for oil.

[Ah Well]

The latest plan is to use a "top kill" procedure. Apparently BP plans to pump 50,000 pounds of thick, viscous fluid twice the density of water into the site of the leak to stop the oil flow and so that the well can then be sealed permanently with cement.

More here http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/05/25/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T2

CNN's Anderson Cooper due to run this on his CNN/CNN International Show AC360 at 10pm ET for any of you nighthawks. Might be worth watching

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/

[Kid Ryder]

I was just doing a google check on the Irish web media's coverage of the Deepwater Horizon blowout disaster. I was expecting there to be little coverage of it, because of the parallels between what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico and what might happen off the west coast here in the years to come, if Corrib is a harbinger of more extensive developments in Irish deepwater hydrocarbon production. I was pleasantly surprised by the volume of coverage Deepwater Horizon is getting here, but it appears that such reportage is sticking to the 'facts' (insofar as Big Oil is capable of honesty) and no opinion is being sounded on what events in the Gulf of Mexico might mean for the future of oil & gas exploration and production in Ireland. It appears nobody is asking the obvious question; perhaps it's the most unwelcome question in Irish 'churnalism' given that the media here almost to a wo/man have been giving it socks for Shell for nearly half a decade now. Is there even a peep on the letters pages?

[Kid Ryder]

This report from RTÉ - BP says it might delay or even abandon its current well-capping mission at Deepwater Horizon.

BP may delay latest oil plug bid (http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0525/gulf.html)


Armed with underwater robots, BP engineers plan to inject heavy drilling fluids into the mile-deep well tomorrow in its latest effort by the company to cap the five-week-old spill.

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, facing a public backlash, 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.

I find the RTÉ report's statement that 'hundreds of thousands of litres of oil' are leaking from the wellhead somewhat risible; it's like giving the depth of a heavy snowfall in millimetres.

[Ah Well]

Video here of Anderson Cooper in Louisiana where it seems incompetence and lack of action due to bureaucracy in a devastated region is staggering

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2010/05/26/tsr.cooper.louisiana.oil.cleanup.cnn

Reminds one of the mismanagement which goes on here ...

[Cassandra Syndrome]

Livefeed of the spew. Horrific amounts. Internal memo with BP says it could be 15,000 barrels a day. Apart from the chronic wildlife kill, this is toxic for people on land. What happens if a hurricane comes along and absorbs this oil and sprays it inland?

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html

[C. Flower]

Euronews is saying that the amount of oil leaked has been slowed by the "dump" of material by BP, but that at this stage, more oil has leaked than in the EXXON Valdez disaster.

The Obama Administration has hung onto the line that its BPs disaster and they must deal with it but has come under more and more criticism. Obama announced suspension of a number of exploration areas today.

[Murra]

Apologies if this is a stupid question, me not being technical minded, but would it not be better for them to try to put a new pipe into the hole rather than capping it? I'm just thinking that the oil must be coming out with some pretty high velocity and capping it might put pressure on some other weak areas, whereas extracting the oil might diffuse the situation a bit better?

[C. Flower]

A 22 mile plume of oil, possibly mixed with dispersants has been found in deep sea, drifting across the continental shelf inland. This is seriously bad news.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/scientists-discover-huge-new-oil-plume-in-gulf-459403.html

[moss]

Apologies if this is a stupid question, me not being technical minded, but would it not be better for them to try to put a new pipe into the hole rather than capping it? I'm just thinking that the oil must be coming out with some pretty high velocity and capping it might put pressure on some other weak areas, whereas extracting the oil might diffuse the situation a bit better?

They've attempted 2 variations of that.
The first failed completly and the second managed to pipe about 1/5 of the oil with the rest still escaping.

[PaddyJoe]

Apologies if this is a stupid question, me not being technical minded, but would it not be better for them to try to put a new pipe into the hole rather than capping it? I'm just thinking that the oil must be coming out with some pretty high velocity and capping it might put pressure on some other weak areas, whereas extracting the oil might diffuse the situation a bit better?

I'm not very techie on this either but I think they tried that already. However it only diverted a small percentage of the flow. I'll see if I can find a link. Anbody who knows better pls feel free to let us know:)

They tried a pipe solution May 17 which didn't really work:
http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/science-scope/bp-plugs-oil-leak-with-a-tube-but-its-not-a-solution/1829/

[moss]

I'm not very techie on this either but I think they tried that already. However it only diverted a small percentage of the flow. I'll see if I can find a link. Anbody who knows better pls feel free to let us know:)

The first attempt was to place a large metal funnel over the leak, sealing it with a pipe to the surface. It didn't work.

The second attempt was rather feeble were they placed a small pipe into the large leaking pipe and were able to pipe some of it to the surface. Most of it was still leaking out though. It sounded more like an attempted stop gap or a PR exercise.

[C. Flower]

The first attempt was to place a large metal funnel over the leak, sealing it with a pipe to the surface. It didn't work.

The second attempt was rather feeble were they placed a small pipe into the large leaking pipe and were able to pipe some of it to the surface. Most of it was still leaking out though. It sounded more like an attempted stop gap or a PR exercise.

Most of it looks like doing something so they can say they are doing something.

[moss]

Most of it looks like doing something so they can say they are doing something.

And they've managed to fail there also.

The thing I find interesting is that BP seem to see it as a bit of collateral damage. They can afford it in the long run.
No word on BP going bust is there ?

[People Korps]

And they've managed to fail there also.

The thing I find interesting is that BP seem to see it as a bit of collateral damage. They can afford it in the long run.
No word on BP going bust is there ?

No chance of that maybe a few Lloyds names though or did they restructure ????

[PaddyJoe]

Obama news conference. Getting to be a very tricky issue for him.

“In case you’re wondering who’s responsible, I take responsibility,” Mr. Obama said as he concluded the news conference. “It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. It doesn’t mean it’s going to happen right away or the way I’d like it to happen. It doesn’t mean that we’re not going to make mistakes. But there shouldn’t be any confusion here. The federal government is fully engaged, and I’m fully engaged.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/us/28obama.html?hp

[C. Flower]

Obama news conference. Getting to be a very tricky issue for him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/us/28obama.html?hp


After weeks of speeches passing the buck to BP. Privatisation of profit, socialisation of environmental damage and costs ?

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Apparently there is now a three or even possibly four way argument going on. Lloyds are now disputing BP's insurance claim. Under US legislation BP are liable for something like $4000 dollars per barrel spilled and at the moment that adds up to a potential damages bill north of $40billion for BP. Of course there is the contractor involved (Transocean?) and they are arguing with BP over who was responsible for the original blow-out and it appears there was a row between BP and contractor engineers just hours before the blow- over BP's minimal use of casing on cost grounds.

It is alleged that a very thin casing was used and that this was pointed out actually on the day of the spill. The issue of course is complicated by another of the world's favourite companies- Halliburton who are involved somewhere in the mix.

Does anyone remember the last incident in Texas some years ago when Lord Browne who was then head of BP was questioned over cost cutting measures ordered by BP in London? 14 men died in a BP refinery explosion and it transpired that the refinery had been ordered repeatedly to cut costs and when they actually said they had nowhere else to go except to save on structural inspections the answer came back 'cut the costs'.

Lord Browne of course is swanning around as a non-executive Director and has a role in the new Con/LibDem advisory group I'm told. Never any danger of those actually responsible being held to account is there?

If Lloyds succeed in passing the buck on the insurance payout I'd say its hard to see how BP would survive.

Basically the Americans will own that company shortly. I bet no-one will be prosecuted on corporate manslaughter charges on this incident either in which eleven people died because of corporate cost-shaving.

[Kid Ryder]

Here's a photo gallery from the CTV website:

Home : Photo Galleries : Epic Oil Disaster (http://www.ctv.ca/gallery/html/oil-spill-wildlife-damage-20100528/index_.html)

There are some excellent photos of seabirds coated in oil, wetlands slicked with oil, people working on the ongoing cleanup, and underwater photographs of the oil plume discharging into the ocean, among others.

[C. Flower]

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/170188/thumbs/r-GULF-OIL-SATELLITE-huge.jpg




http://i.huffpost.com/gen/170188/thumbs/r-GULF-OIL-SATELLITE-huge.jpg

[Kid Ryder]

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/170188/thumbs/r-GULF-OIL-SATELLITE-huge.jpg




http://i.huffpost.com/gen/170188/thumbs/r-GULF-OIL-SATELLITE-huge.jpg

Well done Big Oil. WELL FÚCKING DONE!:mad:

[Kid Ryder]

I was just doing a google check on the Irish web media's coverage of the Deepwater Horizon blowout disaster. I was expecting there to be little coverage of it, because of the parallels between what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico and what might happen off the west coast here in the years to come, if Corrib is a harbinger of more extensive developments in Irish deepwater hydrocarbon production. I was pleasantly surprised by the volume of coverage Deepwater Horizon is getting here, but it appears that such reportage is sticking to the 'facts' (insofar as Big Oil is capable of honesty) and no opinion is being sounded on what events in the Gulf of Mexico might mean for the future of oil & gas exploration and production in Ireland. It appears nobody is asking the obvious question; perhaps it's the most unwelcome question in Irish 'churnalism' given that the media here almost to a wo/man have been giving it socks for Shell for nearly half a decade now. Is there even a peep on the letters pages?

I would have expected some reply to this question of mine by now. Do we really not care about what we might be letting ourselves in for in the years to come if the govt. and the political system keep obliging Big Oil like they have done since the salad days of Ray Burke?

[Lifeisagame]

There is no doubt that something in the initial process went wrong. But while we all, rightly, get upset by it. WE want the oil, let us not forget that.
Our little pimple on a donkeys arse, of a country is doing more damage than that **** up by a long shot. People in glasshouses etc etc etc

[Kid Ryder]

There is no doubt that something in the initial process went wrong. But while we all, rightly, get upset by it. WE want the oil, let us not forget that.
Our little pimple on a donkeys arse, of a country is doing more damage than that **** up by a long shot. People in glasshouses etc etc etc

You're wrong there, Lifey. If the upper end of the DCENR's claims about the potential of what's out there are true, then our political class and certain senior civil/public servants have set us up for a multi-trillion-euro rip-off of our oil and gas in offshore territory. The bank bailout pales even in comparison to the lower bound DCENR estimate - €420,000,000,000. That's without considering the potential clean-up costs of the Hibernian Deepwater Horizons or Ixtoc Is we might face in future - those ultra-ruthless externalisers of costs in Big Oil will most likely find a way to stiff us plebs with the bill, especially now that they actually 'own' the political system and mass media here.

[Lifeisagame]

You're wrong there, Lifey. If the upper end of the DCENR's claims about the potential of what's out there are true, then our political class and certain senior civil/public servants have set us up for a multi-trillion-euro rip-off of our oil and gas in offshore territory. The bank bailout pales even in comparison to the lower bound DCENR estimate - €420,000,000,000. That's without considering the potential clean-up costs of the Hibernian Deepwater Horizons or Ixtoc Is we might face in future - those ultra-ruthless externalisers of costs in Big Oil will most likely find a way to stiff us plebs with the bill, especially now that they actually 'own' the political system and mass media here.
Hey Kid Ryder
You are probably correct.
But how many more Oil Rigs are out there ready to cause the same havoc.
I watched a Debate where the so called finger pointing was being done in the US.
One guy, name unknown to me, made a very valid statement. He said they had a disaster but he then asked the question. If we stop then we become dependent on countries who do not give a toss about the environment and will hold us to ransom everytime they want something. There has to be a balance.

[People Korps]

The plugging has failed again http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10191622.stm

[moss]

They tried to plug it with mud followed by old golf balls and tyres according to the BBC news last night :confused:
The mind boggles.


The "top kill" operation involves pumping shredded golf balls and tyres, as well as thick mud, into the well in an attempt to plug it. It has been going on since Wednesday at a depth of 5,000ft (1.5km).

[Summerday Sands]

Slightly off topic but the right wing in America seem to be really enjoying Obama's handling of the crisis. Obama certainly can be criticized but this some pretty low nasty stuff.

I know this guy Beck is a joke but cretins like him & Limbaugh have a huge following, it's troubling.
YouTube- Glenn Beck Busted For Attacking Obama's Daughter

[PaddyJoe]

The much trumpeted 'top kill' hasn't worked. So what's next?

“After three full days of attempting top kill, we now believe it is time to move on to the next of our options,” Mr. Suttles said.

The decision to abandon the top kill technique, the most ambitious effort yet to plug the well, comes as the latest in a series of failures. First, BP failed in efforts to repair the blowout preventer with submarine robots. Then its initial efforts to cap the well with a containment dome failed when it became clogged with a frothy mix of frigid water and gas. Efforts to use a hose to gather escaping oil have managed to catch only a fraction of the total spill.



The latest failure will undoubtedly put more pressure — both politically and from the public — on the Obama administration to take some sort of action, perhaps taking control of the repair effort completely from BP — and increase the public outcry.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/us/30spill.html?hp

[moss]

They seem resigned to the fact that drilling other wells to ease the pressure is the only option left.

This could take up to another 8 weeks :eek:

[Lifeisagame]

They seem resigned to the fact that drilling other wells to ease the pressure is the only option left.

This could take up to another 8 weeks :eek:
This is quite scary stuff. The Oil Drilling Experts of the world are not able to stop this flow and if it continues at the same rate per day it is going to travel.

http://blog.balder.org/billeder-blog/Cartoon-Wilders-Finger-In-Dike.jpg

Thought this encapsulated this issue with all our other problems:o

[moss]

I see no relevence whatsoever Life. This isn't the EDL thread.

[electionlit]

The 'other Spill BP will be keeping quiet (http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/91000)

[PaddyJoe]

Criminal inquiry to be launched into the spill:

Administration officials said they were reviewing violations of the Clean Water Act, which carries criminal and civil penalties and fines; the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which can be used to hold parties responsible for cleanup costs; the Migratory Bird Tree Act and the Endangered Species Act, which provide penalties for injury and death of wildlife.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/us/02spill.html?hp

[C. Flower]

The 'other Spill BP will be keeping quiet (http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/91000)

Extraordinary stuff electionlit -





With the Gulf Coast dying of oil poisoning, there's no space in the press for British Petroleum's most recent spill.
Just last week over 100,000 gallons were lost at its Alaska pipeline operation. A hundred thousand used to be a lot. It still is.
Last Tuesday, Pump Station 9, at Delta Junction on the 800-mile pipeline, busted. Thousands of barrels began spewing an explosive cocktail of hydrocarbons after "procedures weren't properly implemented" by BP operators, say state inspectors.
"Procedures weren't properly implemented" is, it seems, BP's company motto.
Few in the US know that BP owns the controlling stake in the transalaska pipeline. Unlike with the Deepwater Horizon rig, BP keeps its name off the big pipe.
There's another reason for the company to keep its name off the pipe - its management of it stinks. The pipe is corroded, undermanned and "basic maintenance" is a term BP has never heard of.
How does BP get away with it? The same way the Godfather got away with it, bad things happen to folks who blow the whistle. BP has a habit of hunting down and destroying the careers of those who warn of pipeline problems.
In one case, BP's CEO of Alaskan operations hired a former CIA expert to break into the home of whistleblower Chuck Hamel, who had complained of conditions at the pipe's tanker facility.
BP tapped his phone calls with a US congressman and ran a surveillance and smear campaign against him. When caught, a US federal judge said BP's acts were "reminiscent of nazi Germany."
This was not an isolated case. Captain James Woodle, once in charge of the pipe's Valdez terminus, was blackmailed into resigning from the post when he complained of disastrous conditions there. The weapon used on Woodle was a file of faked evidence of marital infidelity. Nice guys, eh?


The Petroleum business is very dirty. Very political too and at times influential in "regime change". According to last night's news, BP is in dire financial straights over this, and British Pension Funds are heavily reliant on BP share dividends.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

If you recall a few years back there was an explosion at a Texas oil refinery operated by BP in which 14 men died.

At the time BP in London were demanding cuts in overheads so they could make the nut for the oil industry analysts and show improved profits year on year. BP were demanding a percentage cut from every division even though they were making billions in profits and it was Lord Browne's regime in the boardroom that refused to listen to warnings from the site about cutting periodic inspections to the bone.

Bang. Refinery goes up, the regulators and lawyers in Washington made noises about prosecuting Lord Browne and criminal charges against the company but then it all went quiet as the oil industry lobbyists got Brown off the hook.

Lord Browne is now a non-executive director at a number of high paying companies and has never been held to account.

Looking at the Alaska incident and the news that the casing on the Gulf well was the minimum strength required I'd have to say that the top level of that company were gambling with lives in order to trigger the right percentages for their bonuses.

Race to the bottom in terms of costs and safety so some overpaid and overlunched executives could buy that holiday home.

I hope the Americans do extradite BP board members for jail sentences- but it'll be interesting to see the manoeuvering to try to get them off the hook.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Sorry I realised I should have provided a link to the Texas refinery explosion coverage- here's a CBS article http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/26/60minutes/main2126509.shtml

I don't know whether anyone else has anything on this but I've seen one decent article claiming that both BP and the Feds have been downplaying the Gulf spill.

They were saying 5,000 barrels a day was being blown by the well whereas there seems to be some claim around that the real figure is somewhere above 50,000 barrels a day.

Hurricane season started on Tuesday and the thoughts of an oil slick in a shallow gulf being picked up by storms and distributed across land doesn't even bear thinking about.

[C. Flower]

Another attempted part-capping operation being tested, but BP are basically saying that the oil will keep flowing at least until the tap a new well in August.

Awful pictures beginning to come out of Florida -

http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/oil_06_03/o01_23681845.jpg



http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/caught_in_the_oil.html




http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/oil_06_03/o05_23681817.jpg

[Kid Ryder]

BP are claiming 'success' in their partial capping 'Top Hat' operation on the spilling wellhead. Why am I inclined not to believe them? Anyway, from the Guardian website:

Q&A: How BP capped the Deepwater Horizon oil well (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/04/bp-capped-deepwater-horizon-oil-well)


BP has succeeded in attaching a cap to the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico but concedes that the Top Hat will only be a partial success at best

The Guardian also reports that BP's shares have made gains on the stock markets on the back of this 'fix':

BP shares top risers as engineers assess latest oil spill operation (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/04/bp-shares-rise-oil-spill-cap)

Meanwhile, BP will still make a US$10bn. dividend payout to its shareholders this year:

Gulf oil spill: BP to go ahead with $10bn shareholder payout (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/03/gulf-oil-spill-bp-dividend)


Tony Hayward, BP's embattled chief executive, will risk incurring further wrath in the US over the Gulf oil spill tomorrow by defying calls from politicians to halt more than $10bn (£6.8bn) worth of payouts due to shareholders this year.


BP declined to comment on its strategy tonight but it is understood that Hayward will say he is confident the company can pay for liabilities resulting from the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion – now estimated by analysts at $20bn to $60bn – as well as rewarding investors.

The Oireland Inc. media are nowhere to be seen on this story. It could be happening on another planet for all they care, and that attitude certainly predates the awful atrocity perpetrated by Israel on Monday morning this week. I wonder why????

[C. Flower]

Continued silence on the Gulf of Mexico in the Irish media.

A page of Financial Times updates here on the political, financial and environmental costs of a deep water oil well disaster. BP share price still under pressure and Obama still managing to "privatise" the issue even though its plain that BP isn't coping with the attempted clean up.

http://www.ft.com/cms/4068ae36-5447-11df-b75d-00144feab49a.htm?ftcamp=Late_headline2/NL/CEMay2010/Vanilla_BPspil/0/

[Ah Well]

Continued silence on the Gulf of Mexico in the Irish media.

Hard to fathom it being a non event here. Then again is it any wonder when eg the homepage of rte.ie has much more important stuff like "Paltrow ends friendship with Madonna" :rolleyes:

[Ah Well]

These two boys seem to have their own solution to cleaning the oil spill - hay

YouTube- CWRoberts Presentation 2.wmv

[Murra]

If you recall a few years back there was an explosion at a Texas oil refinery operated by BP in which 14 men died.

At the time BP in London were demanding cuts in overheads so they could make the nut for the oil industry analysts and show improved profits year on year. BP were demanding a percentage cut from every division even though they were making billions in profits and it was Lord Browne's regime in the boardroom that refused to listen to warnings from the site about cutting periodic inspections to the bone.

Bang. Refinery goes up, the regulators and lawyers in Washington made noises about prosecuting Lord Browne and criminal charges against the company but then it all went quiet as the oil industry lobbyists got Brown off the hook.

Lord Browne is now a non-executive director at a number of high paying companies and has never been held to account.

Looking at the Alaska incident and the news that the casing on the Gulf well was the minimum strength required I'd have to say that the top level of that company were gambling with lives in order to trigger the right percentages for their bonuses.

Race to the bottom in terms of costs and safety so some overpaid and overlunched executives could buy that holiday home.

I hope the Americans do extradite BP board members for jail sentences- but it'll be interesting to see the manoeuvering to try to get them off the hook.

At this stage, I don't even care what happens to the BP board members, or any individuals involved - I just want to see the damn thing STOPPED.

Time also that we all started quitting our oil dependency - look at the photos CF posted - if that doesn't convince you, nothing will.

[eskerman]

I located this link that will put it into perspective on this little island nation..

http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/

Scary stuff and a most serious impact on our world environment.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

At this stage, I don't even care what happens to the BP board members, or any individuals involved - I just want to see the damn thing STOPPED.

Time also that we all started quitting our oil dependency - look at the photos CF posted - if that doesn't convince you, nothing will.

I was convinced a long time back. For very good technical reasons. I would however like to see Boardroom criminals stuck in jail and I am sick to death of watching overpaid chancers walking away from the direct consequences of their actions.

I'm no defender of big oil.

[eskerman]

I was convinced a long time back. For very good technical reasons. I would however like to see Boardroom criminals stuck in jail and I am sick to death of watching overpaid chancers walking away from the direct consequences of their actions.

I'm no defender of big oil.

Fully concur with this...I am so amazed that as a democracy we allow all this to happen, I didn't vote for this..and I am dam sure there are many others that didn't tick the box for this..

Makes the mafia look like Saints..

God help us all..sad times :mad:

[C. Flower]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/14/oil-spill-media-access-bp_n_611121.html

BP is in control of the "clean up" and won't let the press onto beaches to report what's going on.

Obama's comparison of the disaster with 9/11, and his continued pressure on BP for billions of compensation, has driven the price of BP shares down by 10%. He's talking about "clean energy" - the future of oil if more difficult to extract resources are not to be exploited is getting shorter all the time.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/world-news/president-likens-the-impact-of-oil-spill-to-that-of-9-11-1.1034876

There are fears that the Gulf Stream will deliver some of this oil to our west coast next year.

How BP chose cost cutting over safety over and over again -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/14/bp-engineer-called-deepwa_n_611739.html

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Interesting that this has turned into another pressure point on the 'special relationship'.

BP has six American directors on its board and 40% of the shareholders are US based.

And Lord Browne who should really be in jail as the buck stopped at his desk the last time BP killed oilworkers in Texas is now advising the coalition government on educational affairs I believe.

No extradition there.

[C. Flower]

Interesting that this has turned into another pressure point on the 'special relationship'.

BP has six American directors on its board and 40% of the shareholders are US based.

And Lord Browne who should really be in jail as the buck stopped at his desk the last time BP killed oilworkers in Texas is now advising the coalition government on educational affairs I believe.

No extradition there.

Yes, but Obama is pushing it for all its worth. He wants to put some clear blue water, if only some could be found, between himself and the oil. So first he makes it all the responsibility of BP and then BP is the English enemy.

Obama really does seem to have a personalised loathing for the English. Didn't they reputedly torture his grandfather in Kenya ?

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

I think he's severely pissed off because they've discovered BP were playing down the spill for a long time and claiming something like 5,000 barrels a day was being spilt. Try multiplying that by ten and you are closer to the truth.

[C. Flower]

I think he's severely pissed off because they've discovered BP were playing down the spill for a long time and claiming something like 5,000 barrels a day was being spilt. Try multiplying that by ten and you are closer to the truth.

It was very clear from the beginning that BP was underestimating and placating the outcry with a series of fairly hopeless gestures.

Obama's playing politics. He was roasted over the last week for not being pissed off enough.

[DCon]

The BP boss is being questioned by the U.S. Senate at the moment. It is live on CNBC.

[DCon]

This website puts things in perspective

http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/

[DCon]

From a local blogger


A two-inch layer of submerged oil is coating portions of the Gulf seafloor off the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge: a week after a smothering layer of floating crude washed ashore there. This scenario is being played out all along the Gulf shoreline.

Collecting in pockets and troughs in waist-deep water, the underwater oil is looser and stickier than the tarballs that cover the beach. The consistency is more like a thick liquid, albeit one made up of thousands of small globs. Unlike tarballs, which can often be picked up out of the water without staining the fingers, the submerged oil stains everything that it touches. If you passed your hand through the material it would emerge covered in oily smears.


There are numerous reports that suggest that oil is moving beneath the surface in Alabama waters. State officials conducting shrimp trawls in the Mississippi Sound two weeks ago found oil on their nets when they pulled them. More recently, BP contractors working around Dauphin Island reported oil coming up on their anchors.
Meanwhile BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg told reporters in Washington: "I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don't care, but that is not the case with BP. We care about the small people." He later said he was very sorry for speaking "clumsily."
"...the small people"? That's odd - I was unaware of the fact that the Gulf region was populated by Lilliputians.

http://www.alexkearns.com/2010/06/today-in-gulf.html

[Kid Ryder]

I'm not being flippant about the catastrophe BP has unleashed upon the Gulf of Mexico, but this video on YouTube should bring a sardonic laugh even to those 'little people' that Carl-Henric Svanberg affects to care about:

BP Coffee Spill

[C. Flower]

From a local blogger





http://www.alexkearns.com/2010/06/today-in-gulf.html


It seems that the dispersants used to break the oil up (gesture stuff, to make it seem as though BP was "doing something") may have created a whole new problem as the "dispersed" oil is acting in a different set of damaging ways. At least when its on the surface it can be seen and ultimately will wash up. On the sea bed, presumably it will create dead zones for marine life.

[DCon]

It has now been made public that the leak was known about.


An oil worker who survived the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion has claimed that the oil rig's safety equipment was leaking several weeks before it exploded, triggering the huge spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tyrone Benton says that he spotted a leak on the rig's Blowout Preventer (BOP), the device that is meant to shut the well down if there is an accident. He told the BBC's Panorama programme that both BP and Transocean, who owned the rig, were informed of the leak, and the faulty part – a control pod – was switched off rather than being repaired.

"We saw a leak on the pod [and] we informed the company," Benton told the programme, which will be broadcast at 8.30pm tonight. "They have a control room where they could turn off that pod and turn on the other one, so that they don't have to stop production."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/21/bp-oil-spill-deepwater-horizon-leak

I wonder how long it will take the media to report the fact that both Goldman and Hayward sold BP shares in between the leak being spotted and the eventual crisis.

This is discussed on YoungDan's site here: http://realirishpolitics.org/home/20-foreign-affairs/1225-how-did-goldman-sachs-know-to-short-bp

[C. Flower]

It has now been made public that the leak was known about.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/21/bp-oil-spill-deepwater-horizon-leak

I wonder how long it will take the media to report the fact that both Goldman and Hayward sold BP shares in between the leak being spotted and the eventual crisis.

This is discussed on YoungDan's site here: http://realirishpolitics.org/home/20-foreign-affairs/1225-how-did-goldman-sachs-know-to-short-bp


While not keeping a very close ear on it, there seems to be a background noise of desperate stories of safety failures of the most basic kind.

[DCon]

There's a tropical storm brewing.


It was only a matter of time before "inclement weather" tested the BP falling knifers. Provisionally titled Tropical Storm Alex (currently disturbance 93L), the first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, is now expected to enter the GoM area as soon as next week, causing unpredictable and possibly irreparable harm to BP's clean up efforts. And this is just the beginning: as Bloomberg reminds: "Forecasters are predicting this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, may be among the most active on record...Three storms, two of them hurricane-level, may pass through the oil spill area, while three more may come close enough to affect cleanup operations and other rig activity, AccuWeather Inc. chief hurricane forecaster Joe Bastardi said."

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bps-first-nightmare-now-named-alex-tropical-storm-heading-gulf-mexico-ground-zero

[DCon]

The leak is getting leakier.


Oil gushed unchecked Wednesday from the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico after BP's containment system was removed for repairs when a robotic submarine crashed into it, US officials said.

"We had an incident earlier today, they noticed that there was some kind of a gas rising," said Admiral Thad Allen, the US official coordinating the response to the disaster.


That would leave crude gushing into the ocean at a rate of between 30,000 to 60,000 barrels a day, according to the latest US government estimates. The containment system had been capturing roughly 25,000 barrels every 24 hours.

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0623/bp-yanks-containment-cap-problem-oil-flows-unimpeded-gulf/

In other news


Two people working on the oil-spill response effort died, but none of the deaths were work-related, Adm. Allen said. One of the deceased was working on a vessel of opportunity in the Gulf Shores, Ala., area, Adm. Allen said. The other was a swimming-related accident. Adm. Allen didn't say where the swimming death occurred.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704629804575324831520948188.html

[C. Flower]

More about the problems with the sub-crash and the worst case scenario. Hard to contemplate.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/23/the-oil-spill-s-worst-case-scenario.html

[C. Flower]

Pretty tragic.

http://www.newser.com/story/93628/gulf-cleanup-captain-commits-suicide.html



A charter boat captain hired to help with the Gulf cleanup effort killed himself on board his vessel yesterday. Allen "Rookie" Kruse had been running fishing tours from an Alabama port for more than 20 years. Friends and family say the 55-year-old had become despondent over the spill's impact on his livelihood. He took a job working for BP's cleanup crew 2 weeks ago and other captains say he, like them, found the work frustrating and plagued by bureaucracy.

"We're helping cover up the lie. We're burying ourselves," a deckhand who worked for Kruse told the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/23/AR2010062305361.html?sid=ST2010062303779). "We're helping them cover up the s*** that's putting us out of work." Social workers in the Gulf region say they're seeing a steep rise in mental health problems as the spill's effects hit communities used to hard work and independence. Kruse told him working for the "hopeless" cleanup effort was "just like prison," a fellow captain says. "And he didn't make it another week."

[Kid Ryder]

More about the problems with the sub-crash and the worst case scenario. Hard to contemplate.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/23/the-oil-spill-s-worst-case-scenario.html

Read through the links following on from your original. Potentially really scary stuff. Just the sort of thing we need happening now, or off our west coast in 10 years time, courtesy of Oireland Inc. It's amazing what brown envelopes to the right people in the right places can do!

[Cassandra Syndrome]

Now is the time for us all to keep our heads cool, keep calm and not to speak hyperbolically or hysterically


Revelation 8
The Seventh Seal
8And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. 3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer [1] it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. 5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into [2] the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

The Trumpets
6 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. 8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; 9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. 10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; 11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. 12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. 13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

[C. Flower]

We seem to be quite capable of doing that without any help from the supernatural, Cass Syndrome.

[DCon]

Crude Oil - Very Bad

Methane Gas - Very Very bad

1 million times the normal level of methane gas - very very very very very bad


As much as 1 million times the normal level of methane gas has been found in some regions near the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, enough to potentially deplete oxygen and create a dead zone, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday.


Texas A&M University oceanography professor John Kessler, just back from a 10-day research expedition near the BP Plc oil spill in the gulf, says methane gas levels in some areas are "astonishingly high."

Kessler's crew took measurements of both surface and deep water within a 5-mile (8 kilometer) radius of BP's broken wellhead.

"There is an incredible amount of methane in there," Kessler told reporters in a telephone briefing.

In some areas, the crew of 12 scientists found concentrations that were 100,000 times higher than normal.

"We saw them approach a million times above background concentrations" in some areas, Kessler said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65L6IA20100622

[C. Flower]

Crude Oil - Very Bad

Methane Gas - Very Very bad

1 million times the normal level of methane gas - very very very very very bad


http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65L6IA20100622

Implications for global warming ?

[Béal na Bláth]

BBC 1 Panorama starting now "BP - In deep water"

[Sam Lord]

Hydrogen sulfide, highly toxic volatile organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, as well as semi-volatile organic compounds are being blown ashore.

I wouldn't like to be breathing this **** in every day.

[Cassandra Syndrome]

Hydrogen sulfide, highly toxic volatile organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, as well as semi-volatile organic compounds are being blown ashore.

I wouldn't like to be breathing this **** in every day.

Yeah, particular Hydrogen Sulphide. Its lethal. Methane is blasted through as well which is very toxic for the ocean wildlife. There is much death from this we can't even see.

And if a hurricane hits this, we couldn't even imagine the horror. There has been toxic rain falling in Louisanna.

[Béal na Bláth]

The leak is the size of Scotland and 600 feet deep at present. This tragedy will undoubtedly leave a devastating legacy to us all. The sheer scale of it is frightening.

Ultimately, greed is responsible for this disaster also. I sincerely hope there aren't any Irish pension funds dependent too heavily on a buoyant BP share price.

[Sam Lord]

The relief well could take weeks longer than planned:

"The engineers will tell you that they have a 95 percent chance of success" in killing a runaway gusher with a relief well, said Bruce Bullock, the director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "But that depends on how you define success. It's quite unlikely they'll hit it on the first stab."

"They're aiming at a salad plate thousands of feet down," Bullock said: a 7-inch pipe buried in concrete, 12,000 feet below the seafloor.

Every time a relief well misses, its crew must back up the drill bit and try again. Last year, a relief well aimed at capping a blowout in the Timor Sea off Australia missed its target four times before connecting. Each new effort took an average of another week of drilling, for a total delay of 27 days after the drillers began closing on their target.

......... The blowout off Australia last August is a poor guide. The well was in 250 feet of water, not the 5,067 feet where the Deepwater Horizon was drilling, and the oil reservoir is less than half as deep as the Deepwater Horizon's Moncado field in the Gulf. Moncado is 13,670 feet below the seafloor.

At those depths, adjusting the drill bit to make a second, third or fourth approach to the well is likely to take more time. "The operations at the well itself are so complicated," SMU's Bullock said. "The mechanics take a while to do."

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/24/2042295/relief-may-not-come-soon-for-bps.html#ixzz0rovaw7aa

[Sam Lord]

Implications for global warming ?

Sure. And you can add it to the methane mess already unfolding. Global warming is already compromising the sub sea permafrost in certain areas, posing the danger of absolutely massive methane leaks.

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0304-hance_methane.html

[Sam Lord]

It turns out that the federal judge, Martin L.C. Feldman, who issued an injunction halting the Obama administration's six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling in the gulf owned shares in at least 17 oil and gas companies last year, including Transocean Ltd., the owner of the rig that exploded in the April 20 accident.

[Sam Lord]

http://www.goes.noaa.gov/HURRLOOPS/gulfir.html

Little tropical storm just south of the Yucutan is chugging its way up to the Gulf.

[Fermoy]

It turns out that the federal judge, Martin L.C. Feldman, who issued an injunction halting the Obama administration's six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling in the gulf owned shares in at least 17 oil and gas companies last year, including Transocean Ltd., the owner of the rig that exploded in the April 20 accident.

His 101 law school book must have had a page missing in the glossary .

[eskerman]

It seems that the dispersants used to break the oil up (gesture stuff, to make it seem as though BP was "doing something") may have created a whole new problem as the "dispersed" oil is acting in a different set of damaging ways. At least when its on the surface it can be seen and ultimately will wash up. On the sea bed, presumably it will create dead zones for marine life.

Some extracts (Inc Wikipedia) about the chemicals that are alleged to be used to disperse the oil:

The toxic oil and gas are being added to by the lethal 'dispersant' being used by BP to (theoretically, for public consumption only) 'disperse the oil'. They are using Corexit 9500 which is so toxic it has been banned in Europe, although Europe is likely to get it anyway via the Gulf Stream.

Corexit is manufactured by a corporation called Nalco, once part of Exxon Mobil, and the current leadership includes executives from Exxon and BP. The European Union Times said of Corexit:

'A dire report prepared for President Medvedev by Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources is warning today that the British Petroleum (BP) oil and gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico is about to become the worst environmental catastrophe in all of human history threatening the entire eastern half of the North American continent with "total destruction" ...

... Russian scientists are basing their apocalyptic destruction assessment due to BP's use of millions of gallons of the chemical dispersal agent known as Corexit 9500 which is being pumped directly into the leak of this wellhead over a mile under the Gulf of Mexico waters and designed, this report says, to keep hidden from the American public the full, and tragic, extent of this leak that is now estimated to be over 2.9 million gallons a day.'

BP has told the US government that 400,000 gallons of this environmental destroyer has been sprayed into the sea with another 805,000 gallons already ordered.

You might think at first hearing that it is blatantly crazy to use Corexit when there are some 12 other less toxic and more effective dispersants approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Two of those on the EPA list 'were found to be 100 percent effective on Gulf of Mexico crude, while the two Corexit products rated 56 percent and 63 percent effective'.

Effectiveness

The oil film will be dispersed in small droplets which intermix with the seawater. The oil is then not only distributed in two dimensions but is dispersed in three.
Corexit EC9500A (formerly called Corexit 9500) was 54.7% effective in handling Louisiana crude, while Corexit EC9527A was 63.4% effective in handling the same oil.[16][17]
[edit]Toxicity

The relative toxicity of Corexit and other dispersants are difficult to determine due to a scarcity of scientific data.[2] The manufacturer's safety data sheet states "No toxicity studies have been conducted on this product," and later concludes "The potential human hazard is: Low."[18] According to the manufacturer's website, workers applying Corexit should wear breathing protection and work in a ventilated area.[19]
Corexit 9527, considered by the EPA to be an acute health hazard, is stated by its manufacturer to be potentially harmful to red blood cells, the kidneys and the liver, and may irritate eyes and skin.[20][4] The chemical 2-butoxyethanol, found in Corexit 9527, was identified as having caused lasting health problems in workers involved in the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.[21] According to the Alaska Community Action on Toxics, the use of Corexit during the Exxon Valdez oil spill caused people "respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney and blood disorders".[12] Like 9527, 9500 can cause hemolysis (rupture of blood cells) and may also cause internal bleeding.[3]
According to the EPA, Corexit is more toxic than dispersants made by several competitors and less effective in handling southern Louisiana crude.[22] On May 20, 2010, the EPA ordered BP to look for less toxic alternatives to Corexit, and later ordered BP to stop spraying dispersants, but BP responded that it thought that Corexit was the best alternative and continued to spray it.[2]
Reportedly Corexit may be toxic to marine life and helps keep spilled oil submerged. There is concern that the quantities used in the Gulf will create 'unprecedented underwater damage to organisms.'[23] Nalco spokesman Charlie Pajor said that oil mixed with Corexit is "more toxic to marine life, but less toxic to life along the shore and animals at the surface" because the dispersant allows the oil to stay submerged below the surface of the water.[24] Corexit 9500 causes oil to form into small droplets in the water; fish may be harmed when they eat these droplets.[3] According to its Material safety data sheet, Corexit may also bioaccumulate, remaining in the flesh and building up over time.[25] Thus predators who eat smaller fish with the toxin in their systems may end up with much higher levels in their flesh.[3]
[edit]

Seems this is going to get a lot worse, we pay a very high price for this fuel source...:mad:

[C. Flower]

In contrast to that, there's a straw matting system that picks up oil in a form that allows it to be reused that BP won't use. Commercial rivalry?

Some companies must be making a fortune out of selling these dispersants.

Last week our own Government chose to push on with license sales and signed a contract for deep sea exploration.

[DCon]

NY Times has a good article covering the disaster.

Scary prospect for Ireland highlighted:


scientists using computer models at the National Center for Atmospheric Research have suggested that the oil reaching the loop current in the Gulf of Mexico could come around Florida’s southern tip within weeks

After that, the modeling indicates, it would travel up the Atlantic Seaboard to North Carolina’s Outer Banks, before joining the Gulf Stream and heading east across the Atlantic toward Europe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/us/26primerWEB.html

[eskerman]

In contrast to that, there's a straw matting system that picks up oil in a form that allows it to be reused that BP won't use. Commercial rivalry?

Some companies must be making a fortune out of selling these dispersants.

Last week our own Government chose to push on with license sales and signed a contract for deep sea exploration.

Vested interest groups world wide drive all this, they are the puppet masters, and the likes of Clown and Co just dangle on the ends of the strings.

We need a new republic and I really cant see that happen in my lifetime, the damage is gone beyond repair.

Dictatorship rules in Ireland....

I didn't vote for all this nasty stuff.:eek:

[DCon]

http://www.goes.noaa.gov/HURRLOOPS/gulfir.html

Little tropical storm just south of the Yucutan is chugging its way up to the Gulf.

While a hurricane would stop all current cleanup efforts, could it also accelerate the oil flow to the gulf stream, and onto our Western seaboard?


Tropical Storm Alex has become a more defined storm as it crosses over Belize and has at least a moderate chance of becoming a major hurricane as it moves over the Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said on Sunday.

http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFN2710092620100627

[Andrew49]

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c135/theknitter/bp-logo-gas.jpg

Link (http://www.thisblogrules.com/2010/06/contest-opened-to-give-bp-logo-a-new-deserved-look.html)

[C. Flower]

[/URL]

The judge who overturned Obama's moratorium has stocks in a number of different oil stocks.

[URL]http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0622/judge-holding-drilling-firm-stocks-overturns-drilling-moratorium/ (http://digg.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4cdc9f772c8c4dd12c45c5611&id=5b428c9574&e=e558a38c31)

There are now calls to sequester all of BPs assets to deal with the impacts of Deepwater.

[electionlit]

More awful stuff from the disaster in The Guardian

Scientists are confronting growing evidence that BP's ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico is creating oxygen-depleted "dead zones" where fish and other marine life cannot survive.......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/30/biologists-find-oil-spill-deadzones

[DCon]

Nuke it!!


His face wracked by age and his voice rasping after decades of chain-smoking coarse tobacco, the former long-time Russian Minister of nuclear energy and veteran Soviet physicist Viktor Mikhailov knows just how to fix BP's oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

"A nuclear explosion over the leak," he says nonchalantly puffing a cigarette as he sits in a conference room at the Institute of Strategic Stability, where he is a director. "I don't know what BP is waiting for, they are wasting their time. Only about 10 kilotons of nuclear explosion capacity and the problem is solved."

A nuclear fix to the leaking well has been touted online and in the occasional newspaper op-ed for weeks now. Washington has repeatedly dismissed the idea and BP execs say they are not considering an explosion -- nuclear or otherwise. But as a series of efforts to plug the 60,000 barrels of oil a day gushing from the sea floor have failed, talk of an extreme solution refuses to die.

For some, blasting the problem seems the most logical answer in the world. Mikhailov has had a distinguished career in the nuclear field, helping to close a Soviet Union program that used nuclear explosions to seal gas leaks. Ordinarily he's an opponent of nuclear blasts, but he says an underwater explosion in the Gulf of Mexico would not be harmful and could cost no more than $10 million. That compares with the $2.35 billion BP has paid out in cleanup and compensation costs so far. "This option is worth the money," he says.


The problem, he goes on, is that "Americans just don't know enough about nuclear explosions to solve this problem ... But they should ask us -- we have institutes, we have professionals who can help them solve this. Otherwise BP are just torturing the people and themselves."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6611RF20100702

[DCon]

worrying projections here, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)



* The coastlines with the highest probability (81%–100%) for impact—from the Mississippi River Delta to the panhandle of Florida—are already receiving oil.
* Along U.S. Gulf of Mexico shorelines, the oil is more likely to move east than west, with the south coast of Texas showing a relatively low probability (less than 1%) for impact.
* Much of the west coast of Florida has a low probability (1%–20%) for impact, but the Florida Keys, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale areas have a greater probability (61%–80%) due to the potential influence of the Loop Current [leaves OR&R site].
* A projected threat to the shoreline does not necessarily mean that oil will come ashore. It means that oil or streamers or tar balls are likely to be in the general vicinity (within 20 miles of the coast). Winds and currents will have to move the oil or tar balls onto the shore. Booms and other countermeasures would be used to mitigate the potential coastal contact once oil is in the area.
* The longer it takes oil to travel, the more it will degrade, disperse, lose toxicity, and break into streamers and tar balls. For example, any oil that enters the Loop Current will take at least 8-12 days to reach the Florida Straits, but could take much longer. Over that time, the oil will degrade and disperse, and any shoreline impacts to Keys, southeast Florida or beyond would be in the form of scattered tar balls, not a large surface slick of oil.
* As the Gulf Stream moves northeast and angles away from the continental US, there is an increasingly lower probability of shoreline impacts from eastern central Florida up the eastern seaboard. If oil does reach these areas, it will be in the form of tar balls or highly weathered streamers after traveling a thousand miles or more through the ocean.
* Implications. The findings cover potential impacts based on a scenario that assumes a significant continuing spill. Some of these impacts may be weeks or months away or may not materialize. In light of these uncertainties and extended timeframes, NOAA will continue to work with the U.S. Coast Guard and other members of the response team to track the movement of oil, including monitoring the Loop Current, producing 72-hour projections of oil movement and updating these longer-term models, to inform states, communities, businesses, consumers, and others.

Some positive observations for Ireland


The model assumes that the “weathering” of the oil—the process by which oil naturally breaks down and changes in the environment—occurs in a way that is typical of oils similar to the Deepwater Horizon oil. The longer it takes oil to travel, the more it will degrade, disperse, lose toxicity, and break into streamers and tar balls. Again, the model does not account for the use of dispersants.



http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/dwh.php?entry_id=815

[Murra]

Nuke it!!





http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6611RF20100702

What's the 'least worst' option? What would be the environmental effects of nuking it?

[DCon]

This is quite worrying, and might delay/impede process in cleaning up the mess


More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one — not industry, not government — is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The oldest of these wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising the prospect that many deteriorating sealing jobs are already failing.

The AP investigation uncovered particular concern with 3,500 of the neglected wells — those characterized in federal government records as "temporarily abandoned."

Regulations for temporarily abandoned wells require oil companies to present plans to reuse or permanently plug such wells within a year, but the AP found that the rule is routinely circumvented, and that more than 1,000 wells have lingered in that unfinished condition for more than a decade. About three-quarters of temporarily abandoned wells have been left in that status for more than a year, and many since the 1950s and 1960s — eveb though sealing procedures for temporary abandonment are not as stringent as those for permanent closures.

As a forceful reminder of the potential harm, the well beneath BP's Deepwater Horizon rig was being sealed with cement for temporary abandonment when it blew April 20, leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation's history. BP alone has abandoned about 600 wells in the Gulf, according to government data.

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0707/ap-impact-gulf-awash-27000-abandoned-wells/

[DCon]

Turns out BP re being as honest as a room full of FFers


The head of the government's flow study group - Ira Leifer - told Dan Froomkin:

The lack of accurate information has taken its toll, he said. If BP had properly understood what was going on 5,000 feet below the surface, it never would have attempted to stop it with a "top hat". And had they realized the pressure from the oil reserves was beyond the threshold for "top kill" they wouldn't have wasted time on that, either. [While BP and the government originally estimated the leak at 1,000 barrels a day, Leifer said that it may be spilling as much as 100,000 barrels a day.]

"We could have effective containment systems available now, if we'd had the measurements," he said.

This is unfortunate. Not only did top hat and top kill waste months of time in which BP could have taken effective steps to contain the oil, but top kill probably made the oil spill worse:

BP's most recent efforts to stop the flow of oil have only made the situation worse, says Leifer. The engineers' attempt to seal off the well from above, using a method known as "top kill," failed and only enlarged the borehole, according to Leifer. Now, he adds, there is almost nothing stopping the oil from flowing out of the well.


While BP is pretending that it is difficult to determine the amount and pressure of oil flowing out of the gusher, this is not true. Indeed, BP is actively blocking Leifer and other scientists from making the measurements.

Similarly, telling cleanup workers they'll be fired if they use respirators is increasing the toll on human health, and using dispersants to hide the amount of spilled oil is only worsening the long-term damage to marine life

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/06/gulf-oil-spill-scientists_n_636981.html

[C. Flower]

Turns out BP re being as honest as a room full of FFers

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/06/gulf-oil-spill-scientists_n_636981.html

What a nightmare.

It always looked to me as though these "attempts" were not credible and just doing something to be seen to be doing something.

[DCon]

I am glad I swm in Florida last year..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq65E7rmO_k&feature=related

[BrendanGalway]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0710/breaking7.html

It seems BP are ready to install a cap that could catch 80k of the suspected 100k Barrels of Oil flowing out of the leak each day. At the moment, present measures are only catching 25k Barrels.

However the timetable suggests that it will be into Mid-August before the leak is sealed completely, pending the completion of two relief wells.

[Kid Ryder]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0710/breaking7.html

It seems BP are ready to install a cap that could catch 80k of the suspected 100k Barrels of Oil flowing out of the leak each day. At the moment, present measures are only catching 25k Barrels.

However the timetable suggests that it will be into Mid-August before the leak is sealed completely, pending the completion of two relief wells.

100,000 bpd you say?! This makes it the worst single oil spill in human history, bigger even than the deliberate destruction wrought by the Iraqi army retreating from Kuwait in 1991. This will make the Gulf of Mexico the toxic twin of the Gulf of Guinea, and leave the Mississippi Delta as pervasively poisoned as the Niger Delta. I wonder will the noxious brew of nasty Big Oil and complicit governments inflict the same atrocities and gross human rights abuses on Americans as were/are inflicted on Nigerians in the pursuit of profit on one hand and pork barrels on the other?

This is what we can look forward to here at home, at the hands of Shell et al. and Paedo Fáil. We are going to be the Bogoni in the future.

[BrendanGalway]

I wonder will the noxious brew of nasty Big Oil and complicit governments inflict the same atrocities and gross human rights abuses on Americans as were/are inflicted on Nigerians in the pursuit of profit on one hand and pork barrels on the other?


To some extent this is already happening. By dragging it heels (no doubt as yet another cost cutting exercise), BP has condemned many Americans to unemployment as Fishing and Tourism faces wipe-out in that region. They have also co-opted Government into denying Beach and Coast access to the Public and media in a bid to hide the Devastation.

I would go further to say its highly unlikely that BP will be held Accountable in any meaningful fashion for the Long-term Health risks and unemployment as a result of their Criminal Negligence. Lets not forget 11 people are dead from an accident that was flagged well in advance, I dont expect anyone in Jail over that either. BP and Transaocean have even asked for the many lawsuits stacking up against them to be heard in Houston and its seen as the courts are perceived as Oil Friendly (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/16/AR2010051603254_2.html?sub=AR&sid=ST2010051603491)



This is what we can look forward to here at home, at the hands of Shell et al. and Paedo Fáil.

As you have already highlighted on another thread Kid, Transocean will be carrying out yet more drilling off the Mayo coast. Their disregard for Marine Ecology and Human life has not put our Government off granting them licenses.

We can couple that with the Bias the Media have demonstrated against the People of Erris and our Government dedicating a sizable fraction of our Police to protect Shells interests. The Oil industry is amazing in the way it can bend Governments to its will.

[C. Flower]

Fox is reporting that the breech is capped - is this with the Irish valves ?

Video here -

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4280413/cap-appears-to-be-in-place-over-gulf-oil-leak?playlist_id=86856

[Murra]

Shocking live streaming of fractured sea floor here:


http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-461896

[C. Flower]

Shocking live streaming of fractured sea floor here:


http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-461896


Has this report been verified ? Most comments seem to think its a hoax.

It's a month old. If its true, why isn't it being talked about ?

[DCon]

One big tax write-off for BP. Might explain why they are more worried about capturing oil than polluting the GoM.


OIL SPILL 'COULD CUT BP TAX PAYMENTS' - The Financial Times says BP is forecast to pay about $10 billion (£6.7 billion) less tax over the next four years as it meets the costs of its huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, hitting the revenues of Britain and the US that receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the company each year.

The paper says the shortfall, representing a drop of more than a quarter in BP's tax payments, is a particular concern for the British government attempting to cut the country's budget deficit.

The FT says money spent plugging the well, cleaning up the oil, and compensating people who have lost out because of the spill, can be written off against tax, the company believes, reducing the net cost to BP.

http://www.rte.ie/business/2010/0713/presswatch.html

No doubt all exploration off Ireland has a similar tax rule. Can't have the oil companies pay for their mistakes.

[Murra]

Has this report been verified ? Most comments seem to think its a hoax.

It's a month old. If its true, why isn't it being talked about ?

I hope it is a hoax.

[Newsy]

BP says oil has stopped leaking into the Gulf for the first time since April.
The company has been slowly dialing down the flow as part of a test on a new cap. Engineers are now monitoring the pressure to see if the busted well holds.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/15/national/main6681825.shtml?tag=nl.e879

Hopefully this holds. Hold your breath time!!!!!

[Fermoy]

Yep and lets hope they are telling the truth

[Newsy]

Yep and lets hope they are telling the truth

Exactly.

[BrendanGalway]

Astonishing. For Four Months, that stuff just poured into the into the Sea. A perfect Illustration of completely unable and unwilling Large Corporations are to clean up their mess. A mess that came about through near-criminal Negligence on their part.

How telling that, at the moment, the worst thing facing BPs management is rumours of Exxon taking advantage of BPs low share price by mounting a take-over bid.

Incidentally, the other crew involved in this Horror show, Transocean, will be working for Shell off Mayo. Sleep tight.

[DCon]

Has this report been verified ? Most comments seem to think its a hoax.

It's a month old. If its true, why isn't it being talked about ?

Obama just said that the extensive tests on the new cap are necessary to prevent further leaks opening on the ocean floor.

Could they be rewriting history?

[Fermoy]

U.S. concerned over seep detected near BP well

HOUSTON, July 18 (Reuters)

Engineers monitoring BP Plc's damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico (http://www.reuters.com/subjects/gulf-oil-spill) detected seepage on the ocean floor that could mean problems with the cap that has stopped oil from gushing into the water, the U.S. government's top oil spill official said on Sunday.
Earlier on Sunday, BP officials had expressed hope that the test of the cap which began Thursday could continue until a relief well can permanently seal the leak next month. Oil gushed from the deepsea Macondo well for nearly three months until the new cap was put in place last week.
But late on Sunday, the U.S. government released a letter to BP Chief Managing Director Bob Dudley from retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen that referred to an unspecified type of seepage near the mile-deep (1.6 km-deep) well along with "undetermined anomalies at the well head."
"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 wrote.
BP did not respond to requests for comment on Allen's letter.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idAFN1813113320100719


And so it goes on

[C. Flower]

"oil spill" - "hydrocarbon seepage" - hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil, gushing into the Gulf, uncontrollably, certainly warrants careful language-management, seeing as the oil disaster management has failed.

[Ecoprincess]

The not surprising but still frightening aspect is that BP has and is constantly deceiving the world about the environmental catastrophe that it has caused. In a recent illegal fly over by Sea Shepherd, they filmed the oil spill, so vast it can not be imagined and the 4 boats trying to clean it up. Its as if an oil spill the size of Ireland was been cleaned up by a couple of lads in canoes. BP have killed thousands of animal with their burnings, polluted the air and sea with chemicals that will have a long term effect on that area and the wider oceans for generations to come.

the media spin is sickening, and I suppose they will run an environmentally aware campaign for marketing purposes, maybe throw some money at a few projects and they will walk away scott free.

Is there ever going to come a time when the ordinary person in the street stops paying for all of this, stops letting the large wealthy companies away with murder and starts to take responsibility for how our tax € $ £ are spend?

[C. Flower]

One of China's largest ports has been closed due to an explosion and there seems to be a lot of oil contamination.

http://news.ie.msn.com/world/article.aspx?cp-documentid=154160926

Safety concerns about Rossport shouldn't be dismissed lightly. The petrol and gas industry has a record of terrible accidents. The whole point of the stuff is that it's volatile and highly flammable.

[Sam Lord]

The US government has allowed them to keep the well capped for the time being. It is being asserted by BP that the seep could be a natural phenomenon and nothing to do with the well ... despite pressures being much lower than expected.

We better hope that the seep has nothing to do with the well or what we have seen to date could be just the tip of the iceberg.

[The Field Marshal]

Much ado about nothing.
The whole world getting its knickers in a knot over a little oil spill and a few tarry beaches.
You ,d think somebody had died.

[Newsy]

Much ado about nothing.
The whole world getting its knickers in a knot over a little oil spill and a few tarry beaches.
You ,d think somebody had died.

I guess you don't care about the environmental impact that this 'little oil spill' has had.....nevermind the awful impact it has had on livelihoods in that area.

[The Field Marshal]

I guess you don't care about the environmental impact that this 'little oil spill' has had.....nevermind the awful impact it has had on livelihoods in that area.

Of course I care but not that much .

[1] The envirnomental impacts ar all exaggerated to ensure max compo claims

[2] Those whose livlyhoods were affected will be well compensated on the BP bandwagon gravy train steered by driver Evilobama

[3] There are much more serious and pressing issues to concern oneself about.:p

[The Field Marshal]

The not surprising but still frightening aspect is that BP has and is constantly deceiving the world about the environmental catastrophe that it has caused. In a recent illegal fly over by Sea Shepherd, they filmed the oil spill, so vast it can not be imagined and the 4 boats trying to clean it up. Its as if an oil spill the size of Ireland was been cleaned up by a couple of lads in canoes. BP have killed thousands of animal with their burnings, polluted the air and sea with chemicals that will have a long term effect on that area and the wider oceans for generations to come.

the media spin is sickening, and I suppose they will run an environmentally aware campaign for marketing purposes, maybe throw some money at a few projects and they will walk away scott free.

Is there ever going to come a time when the ordinary person in the street stops paying for all of this, stops letting the large wealthy companies away with murder and starts to take responsibility for how our tax € $ £ are spend?

BP are a wonderful company responsible for much of the worlds economic growth.
This unfortunate little oil leak has caused some damage but not half as much as people are led to believe by the environmental claims conscious lobby who greedily see an opportunity to bilk a rich company.

The leader of this rat pack is named Evilobama on a mision to change the world:rolleyes::rolleyes:.

Watch out for this dangerous maniac as he fuels further economic recession in an already troubled world economy

[Sam Lord]

I guess you don't care about the environmental impact that this 'little oil spill' has had.....nevermind the awful impact it has had on livelihoods in that area.

He is a *****.


And not a very good one at that.

That word is apparently barred ... so let me say it starts with T and ends with L. and has an Ro and another L.

[The Field Marshal]

He is a *****.


And not a very good one at that.

That word is apparently barred ... so let me say it starts with T and ends with L. and has an Ro and another L.

Sam Lord is a mindless predjudiced PC poster of the worst sort who fails time and time again to read posts.
He constantly criticizes in the most careless fashion.

Had SL bothered to read my post instead of parrot like repeating other posters mindless criticism he would would see that I have stated that I do care about the pollution etc but not as much as others and that there are more serious issues to get concerned about.
I express my support for a fine multinational company like BP who are doing their best in a difficult situation

In Sam Lords narrow and deeply predjudiced view this is Tro..ing.

Growup and get a life.


Unfortunately far too many posters are media influneced into a manichean worldview on environmental matters where the big bad oil companies are out to destroy everbody and the environment.

Idiots like Evilobama and his minions [the Green party morons]are taken up with this daft outlook and end up bringing in measures that only end up in increased costs to the consumers

[Sam Lord]

Much ado about nothing.
The whole world getting its knickers in a knot over a little oil spill and a few tarry beaches.
You ,d think somebody had died.

This is a blatant Tro..lling post.

[The Field Marshal]

This is a blatant Tro..lling post.

The comment about somebody having died was not intended to refer to the unfortunate workers who lost their lives trying to ensure the continuation of reasonably priced oil.

We dont hear too much sympathy for them from the environmental big business hating lobby.

[Sam Lord]

The comment about somebody having died was not intended to refer to the unfortunate workers who lost their lives trying to ensure the continuation of reasonably priced oil.

We dont hear too much sympathy for them from the environmental big business hating lobby.

Two simple things for you to take on board:

1. Don't say that no one warned you.

2. There is a thread here called "The way out" which I would not be surprised to find you featuring in before long.

[The Field Marshal]

Two simple things for you to take on board:

1. Don't say that no one warned you.

2. There is a thread here called "The way out" which I would not be surprised to find you featuring in before long.



To other posters

Threats are now Sam Lords idea of mature debate.

[So much for the quality of a thread].

[Fermoy]

To other posters

Threats are now Sam Lords idea of mature debate.

[So much for the quality of a thread].

Are you a field marshal in the teerol army ?


PS. have you been taught the difference between 1941 and 1951 yet ?

[Ecoprincess]

BP are a wonderful company responsible for much of the worlds economic growth.
This unfortunate little oil leak has caused some damage but not half as much as people are led to believe by the environmental claims conscious lobby who greedily see an opportunity to bilk a rich company.

The leader of this rat pack is named Evilobama on a mision to change the world:rolleyes::rolleyes:.

Watch out for this dangerous maniac as he fuels further economic recession in an already troubled world economy


Thankfully I see you're attempt at humor, but really you should refine (ugh) it before putting on posts as some people may take you seriously.

[C. Flower]

From this evening's news, the situation isn't looking good. There is leaking, possibly from under the bedrock, and they need to take the cap off asap to reduce pressure on it.

[Sam Lord]

From this evening's news, the situation isn't looking good. There is leaking, possibly from under the bedrock, and they need to take the cap off asap to reduce pressure on it.

This could also have implications for the relief wells they are drilling I am thinking. I really do not know much about this but if the pipe is ruptured further down how will they know if their relief attempt is hitting the pipe above or below the rupture?

Time to call in the Ruskies and nuke the fecking thing.

[BrendanGalway]

You ,d think somebody had died.

Confirmed Deaths :

1. Eleven workers on the Deepwater Horizon.

2. Over 2600 Birds and Sea-creatures.

3. Your Credibility.

[Sam Lord]

Could someone who knows a bit more about these things explain it to me for I am really confused about a couple of things.

1. When they first tried to seal the well with mud and whatever from the top the attempt was quickly aborted. My recollection of the explanation at the time time was that the stuff they were pumping in was being forced through a breech in the casing and back up the well. Now they have capped the thing so why is the oil not being forced through this breech? There is clearly no oil coming up below the cap now whereas when they tried to top seal it you could clearly see the mud coming back up below where they were pumping it in.

2. I have a clear memory of seeing an interview with the Chief Operations Officer of BP about a month ago in which he clearly said that it would not be a good idea to cap the well as this could damage the casing. Now they have capped it.

[The Field Marshal]

This could also have implications for the relief wells they are drilling I am thinking. I really do not know much about this but if the pipe is ruptured further down how will they know if their relief attempt is hitting the pipe above or below the rupture?

Time to call in the Ruskies and nuke the fecking thing.

**************?

Sam Lord does not care about the loss of human life and coastal damage resulting from the inevitable tsunami such an irresponsible action would cause.

[Sam Lord]

**********?

Sam Lord does not care about the loss of human life and coastal damage resulting from the inevitable tsunami such an irresponsible action would cause.

It was tongue in cheek ... ....................

As if the US government would be calling in the Russians for anything ... never mind conducting nuclear explosions.

You are getting increasingly wearisome. I

[The Field Marshal]

It was tongue in cheek ... **************.

As if the US government would be calling in the Russians for anything ... never mind conducting nuclear explosions.

You are getting increasingly wearisome. I

More abuse.tut tut.

"Much ado about nothing.
The whole world getting its knickers in a knot over a little oil spill and a few tarry beaches.
You ,d think somebody had died."

That was also tongue in cheek but bully boys like you ignore that when it suits you.

[Sam Lord]

More abuse.tut tut.

"Much ado about nothing.
The whole world getting its knickers in a knot over a little oil spill and a few tarry beaches.
You ,d think somebody had died."

That was also tongue in cheek but bully boys like you ignore that when it suits you.

No it wasn't. You were on a fishing expedition. You know that, I know that, and the the whole site knows that .... so don't go all deceitful on us.

[C. Flower]

Could someone who knows a bit more about these things explain it to me for I am really confused about a couple of things.

1. When they first tried to seal the well with mud and whatever from the top the attempt was quickly aborted. My recollection of the explanation at the time time was that the stuff they were pumping in was being forced through a breech in the casing and back up the well. Now they have capped the thing so why is the oil not being forced through this breech? There is clearly no oil coming up below the cap now whereas when they tried to top seal it you could clearly see the mud coming back up below where they were pumping it in.

2. I have a clear memory of seeing an interview with the Chief Operations Officer of BP about a month ago in which he clearly said that it would not be a good idea to cap the well as this could damage the casing. Now they have capped it.

I haven't been reading anything technical on this. Is the big fear seems to be that there is damage deep below the cap, where it can't be repaired?

[Sam Lord]

I haven't been reading anything technical on this. Is the big fear seems to be that there is damage deep below the cap, where it can't be repaired?


I'm just trying to understand the contradictory statements from the people who are supposed to be solving this problem.

But yes, the major concern would be that the well casing is ruptured below the surface. This would mean that as the well is now capped then the oil is being forced at pressure into the bedrock (?) and will ultimately find its way up through the ocean floor. There would be a danger of another blowout if you like ... but one that could not be capped or sealed. (well possibly with a nuclear explosion ....I don't know ...)

This would be very serious as I believe only something like 2% of the oil in this reservoir has been tapped or escaped. So multiply the environmental damage to date by 50.

[The Field Marshal]

Confirmed Deaths :

1. Eleven workers on the Deepwater Horizon.

2. Over 2600 Birds and Sea-creatures.

3. Your Credibility.

Had you even bothered to follow the thread instead of lazily throwing out mud you would have seen that I already expressed regret for the loss of human life and my tongue in cheek comment was never intended to diminish that tragedy.

On the matter of animal deaths environmental damage etc I dont propose to go into any deep mourning as nature recovers quickly and I truly believe the event is being spun & exaggerated by the environmental lobby for financial gain.

[DCon]

I'm just trying to understand the contradictory statements from the people who are supposed to be solving this problem.

But yes, the major concern would be that the well casing is ruptured below the surface. This would mean that as the well is now capped then the oil is being forced at pressure into the bedrock (?) and will ultimately find its way up through the ocean floor. There would be a danger of another blowout if you like ... but one that could not be capped or sealed. (well possibly with a nuclear explosion ....I don't know ...)

This would be very serious as I believe only something like 2% of the oil in this reservoir has been tapped or escaped. So multiply the environmental damage to date by 50.

I wonder if BP close their hole, will another leak opening not be their problem?

[C. Flower]

Rumours around that Tony Hayward is to resign. Head on platter time.

No such tradition in this country.

[electionlit]

Rumours around that Tony Hayward is to resign. Head on platter time.

No such tradition in this country.

He took his time. Should have been gone earlier.

[The Field Marshal]

Thankfully I see you're attempt at humor, but really you should refine (ugh) it before putting on posts as some people may take you seriously.

Ecoprincess ,as requested please see refined message below
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



BP are a wonderful company responsible for much of the worlds economic growth.
This unfortunate oil leak has caused some damage but not half as much as people are led to believe by the environmental claims conscious lobby who greedily see an opportunity to bilk a rich company.

The leader of this rat pack is named Evilobama on a mision to change the world:rolleyes::rolleyes:.

Watch out for this dangerous maniac as he fuels further economic recession in an already troubled world economy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well Ecoprincess I have refined my message and removed the word "little" from the description of the oil leak.

I realise many many disagree on the volumetric magnitude of the leak so until it is actually verified by anybody
Im sure you,ll agree its best to just say "the oil leak".

Are you happy now.?

Btw my post is deadly serious and is not any attempt at humour.

I stand over every word in it.


---------------------------------------

[Sam Lord]

Facebook page for plugging the gulf oil leak with the works of Ayn Rand.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Plugging-the-Gulf-oil-leak-with-the-works-of-Ayn-Rand/125031037519289

Finally, an opportunity to put these turgid tomes to some use.

[Sam Lord]

As a matter of interest here is some old soviet footage of them putting out a gas fire with a nuclear explosion.

YouTube- An Atomic Bomb will stop the Gulf Oil Leak, LOOK!

[C. Flower]

As a matter of interest here is some old soviet footage of them putting out a gas fire with a nuclear explosion.

YouTube- An Atomic Bomb will stop the Gulf Oil Leak, LOOK! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpPNQoTlacU)

And I thought that the chemical dispersants were a bad "solution"...

[Fermoy]

And I thought that the chemical dispersants were a bad "solution"...
No problem , the A bomb deals to them :D

This oil fiasco is getting to rival the old woman who swallowed the fly huh.

[Ecoprincess]

Ecoprincess ,as requested please see refined message below
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well Ecoprincess I have refined my message and removed the word "little" from the description of the oil leak.

I realise many many disagree on the volumetric magnitude of the leak so until it is actually verified by anybody
Im sure you,ll agree its best to just say "the oil leak".

Are you happy now.?

Btw my post is deadly serious and is not any attempt at humour.

I stand over every word in it.


---------------------------------------

Yep, I'd like to have a pint with you, I like a good dry sense of humor. The volumes are verified just a little research and you will get you there.

[The Field Marshal]

Yep, I'd like to have a pint with you, I like a good dry sense of humor. The volumes are verified just a little research and you will get you there.

The volumes can never be verified they can only be estimated.

So its a big oil leak then?
Fine.
Accidents will happen you know.

As the hyenas and vultures circle BP are you not concerned that many false claims for compensation will arise?

Or is ok to beat up on a company because it is oil based ,rich and global.?

Evilobama thinks so.

[Ecoprincess]

False claims for compensation LOL; no don't loose a wink of sleep over that.


On a serious note for other posters,

If the casing is damaged further down and was leaking previous to capping then if its leaking less, the cap should stay until a relief well is dug, this is all that BP has the knowledge capacity to do, dig wells.

They will have to dig out that damaged casing - yes, a new invention may be necessary but not impossible. Necessity is the mother of invention and we do have some brilliant minds on the planet, just don't think that they have been asked yet - have they? its time to get away from the small knowledge base that is BP and to bring in the real brains and solve the problem without BP considering the financial implications of the remedy for themselves.

[Sam Lord]

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT03/refresh/AL0310_PROB34_F120_sm2+gif/145913.gif

Yikes.

I hope they screwed the cap on tight.

[antiestablishmentarian]

Seems our old buddies at BP have actually been caught doctoring photos of their response to the spill...lovely bunch of fellas

http://www.independent.ie/business/european/bp-photoshopped-images-in-new-cut-and-paste-row-2268765.html

[The Field Marshal]

Seems our old buddies at BP have actually been caught doctoring photos of their response to the spill...lovely bunch of fellas

http://www.independent.ie/business/european/bp-photoshopped-images-in-new-cut-and-paste-row-2268765.html

So to put the best gloss on your difficulties is now called "doctoring".:rolleyes:

Amazing how the professional spinners in the environmental vultures compo camp can influence journalists.
[Then again maybe not since I have yet to meet a journalist that was not brain dead on these matters]

[Fermoy]

[Then again maybe not since I have yet to meet a journalist that was not brain dead on these matters]
Brain dead huh .
So they don't know the difference between 1942 and 1953 either eh

[Hapax]

Emerging effects of BP's dispersants in the gulf:


"I have documentation and images showing lesions in my brain. Lesions that are the same as lesions on the brains of marine life from the Exxon Valdez spill from marine necropsies. This is a life and death situation and a race against time."

http://j.mp/hdyDru

[DCon]

New/continuing BP Oil Spill reported in the Gulf of mexico

10 * 100 mile slick estimated

http://oilspillaction.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/GrandIsleSlick.3.19.11.jpg1_-300x200.jpg

http://oilspillaction.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/GrandIsleSlick3.19.11.jpg2_-300x200.jpg


The U.S. Coast Guard said late Saturday that it is investigating reports of a miles-long oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Coast Guard said in a news release that it received a report of a three-mile-long rainbow sheen off the Louisiana coast at around 9:30 a.m. local time on Saturday. Two subsequent sightings were relayed to the Coast Guard, the last of which reported a sheen that extended from about 6 miles south of Grand Isle, La. to 100 miles offshore.

Though the Coast Guard was able to confirm that there is a substance on the water's surface, it has not yet been able to determine if it is oil. Petty Officer Casey Ranel said that officers who observed the substance from a helicopter said they saw no sheen associated with it. That flight was diverted from the scene on a separate search and rescue mission, however, and could not continue their investigation, the Coast Guard said in the news release.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/possible-new-oil-spill-100-10-miles-reported-gulf-mexico

[C. Flower]

Finally there has been a finding on what caused the original blow out. A fairly simple engineering fault, but nothing is simple at that depth of water.

http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/world-news/safety-valve-at-heart-of-gulf-spill-2592180.html

[C. Flower]

Manslaughter charges may be brought against BP execs. over the 11 deaths.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/29/us-bp-shares-idUSTRE72S1M220110329?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews&WT.tsrc=Social%20Media&WT.z_smid=twtr-reuters_biz&WT.z_smid_dest=Twitter

[Count Bobulescu]

New book just out, (haven’t got it yet), on the BP Gulf Oil Spill by Joel Achhenbach of WaPo. Others on this board have referenced his writing on the Yellowstone Caldera. Link below is to his blogpost, but click the embed to NYT. New WaPo software allows you to browse all his stuff back to 2005. He writes on “whatever strikes his fancy”. His passions in no particular order are science, environment, photography, gardening, satire. You can find his blog under the “Opiions” button on WaPo.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/achenblog/post/best-oil-spill-book-of-all-time/2011/03/29/AFvXn7wB_blog.html

Here’s a WaPo review. When I first saw the review, I thought it was Joel, reviewing his own book, which he probably will do eventually.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/joel-achenbachs-a-hole-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea-on-bp-oil-spill/2011/03/08/AFkzCkHC_story.html

[C. Flower]

New book just out, (haven’t got it yet), on the BP Gulf Oil Spill by Joel Achhenbach of WaPo. Others on this board have referenced his writing on the Yellowstone Caldera. Link below is to his blogpost, but click the embed to NYT. New WaPo software allows you to browse all his stuff back to 2005. He writes on “whatever strikes his fancy”. His passions in no particular order are science, environment, photography, gardening, satire. You can find his blog under the “Opiions” button on WaPo.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/achenblog/post/best-oil-spill-book-of-all-time/2011/03/29/AFvXn7wB_blog.html

Here’s a WaPo review. When I first saw the review, I thought it was Joel, reviewing his own book, which he probably will do eventually.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/joel-achenbachs-a-hole-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea-on-bp-oil-spill/2011/03/08/AFkzCkHC_story.html



Nice blog, but I don't agree with his point.


Technology is mainly simple. With Deepwater, it turned out it was caused by a leaky valve.

[Hapax]

The owner of the Gulf of Mexico oil rig that exploded last year, killing 11 workers and leading to what has been called the worst oil spill ever, said Monday that calling 2010 its "best year" in safety "may have been insensitive."

Transocean Ltd., in a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said hefty bonuses and raises to top executives were based in part on the company's "performance under safety" last year.

http://j.mp/goVjsE

[Count Bobulescu]

Here’s an excerpt from Joel Achenbach’s book on the BP Gulf Oil Spill, Hole at the Bottom of the Sea.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/an-excerpt-from-joel-achenbachs-a-hole-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea/2011/03/30/AFNy6bXC_story.html

Here’s Achenbach taking Nobel Laureate Obama to task, for comments he made last week about Energy Secretary and Nobel Laureate Steven Chu, with respect to the Gulf Oil Spill. As often with Achenbach, it’s kinda tongue-in-cheek.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/achenblog/post/obamas-favorite-superhero-steve-chu/2011/04/06/AFne0NqC_blog.html

[Count Bobulescu]

Nice blog, but I don't agree with his point.


Technology is mainly simple. With Deepwater, it turned out it was caused by a leaky valve.

Not sure what you disagree with, and you just said three or four upthread, that " nothing is simple at that depth" 24-03-2011-9.38am

[Count Bobulescu]

Different time clocks. Post #217

[Count Bobulescu]

Meant to ref post #214.

[Chuck Mc]

Is there are a possibility of sabotage?

Ha! You folks have finally landed on a subject I know about!

No, there was no sabotage! This is what happened. They had just cemented the casing in the hole a couple of days earlier. The next step was to "temporarily abandon" the well by placing a 2,000' cement cap at the top of the well. When the cement set, they would pull the BOP and riser off the well head and cap the well. Typically, after drilling is completed for several wells, the drill ship leaves, and a production platform, much cheaper to operate takes it's place, and they re-attach to the well head, drill out the cement cap and produce the well.

In this case, because the well is 18,000' deep, the cement was "retarded", preventing it from setting before it's placed. The drilling mud weighed in at 18 lbs/gal, (weight equals pressure)and the cement weighed 15.6 lbs/gal at the most. This left a formation pressure underbalance in the 7"/open hole annulus. That's why they initially blamed Halliburton for the blowout. Under this circumstance, it's advisable to run an intermediate string and have it cemented in place before drilling into your high pressure zones. However, the blowout didn't occur in the 7" annulus.

When they laid their top plug, they still had 18 lb/gal mud that kept the well balanced, and pumped 2,000' of 15.6 lb/gal cement, which under-balanced the well by several hundred psi inside the casing. This allowed gas from the formation to migrate into the well bore until a balanced condition was met. That bubble migrated to surface at 500' per hour, turning the hole over, thinning and displacing their retarded cement and settling under the BOP on the ocean floor, which would have been indicated on the pressure gauges on their kill and choke lines. If you don't let the gas expand, it will stay the same pressure it was when it entered the well bore, then you have to add the pressure created by the drilling mud exerting pressure from underneath now, and that gives you 31,000 psi surface pressure (at the platform, not the wellhead, there's 5,000' of sea water on top of the wellhead) When the crew opened the BOP to disconnect (without looking at the gauge), it blew all that sea water out of the riser in a matter of seconds, and replaced it with gas at 31,000 psi. When they closed the BOP on the drill ship, it exceeded the rated capacity and it blew it apart. They could have accomplished a "soft" shut in where the flow is diverted to tanks and torches until the pressure is brought under control. There is a dead man switch that automatically closes the BOP on the ocean floor when hydraulic pressure is lost from the drill ship which most certainly happened. There is also a sonic switch located on the escape pods and at various remote control panels throughout the drill ship, although it's entirely likely that anyone who knew what to do was dead at this point. However, the ROV's later showed the BOP and it was in a closed position. They were trying to close a closed BOP, probably because that's what everyone who didn't know better was telling them to do.

Then, as if they haven't done enough, the supply boats surrounded the platform, turned on their water cannons and sank the drill ship with sea water. The BOP was not leaking prior to the sinking of the ship as evidenced by the total lack of an oil slick. You have a 20"x 5,000' container with 31,000 psi of gas. It's going to take a while to blow down. They weren't going to put the fire out with water at this point, they could have just let it burn out.

So the ship sank, attached to the riser, pulling it over sideways, attached to the BOP, which caused it to start leaking internally in a closed position. 31,000 psi will cut through steel quite effectively.

They still could have gained control of the well by cutting the riser off the wellhead, installing another BOP on top of the damaged one, then closing it. This would have allowed them the opportunity to run pipe fill the riser with mud, open the BOP's, run pipe to the bottom of the well, and kill the well without spilling more oil. They didn't do that. They let it blow until they could drill another well into the well bore to kill it, and tried several things they knew wouldn't work. Now they have another well to take it's place.

In their defense, if there is one, once the well was out of control, the Materials Management Service along with a dozen government agencies were calling the shots, and none of them knew anything about killing a well. There was even talk about sending in the Army. Maybe they thought they could shoot at it or something.

The estimate of the flow rate was revised as I recall to 12,000 bbl/day.

That's what happened. And what a horrible tragedy for the families of the dead, and for the environment.

By the way, Transocean executives all got big safety bonuses lately. De ja vu if you ask me! While the well was getting completely out of control, they were all in a safety meeting congratulating each other on a job well done.

[Chuck Mc]

Nice blog, but I don't agree with his point.


Technology is mainly simple. With Deepwater, it turned out it was caused by a leaky valve.

At the end of the day, there was certainly a leak, but that's not what caused the blow out.

Blow out preventers are the last chance at well control, after all else failed. The first chance at well control is to keep the pressures downhole with weighted fluids. If that's done effectively, the BOP is nothing more than peace of mind.

[Chuck Mc]

I also heard that the shear rams didn't shear because the drill pipe upset was in the rams. My question is why didn't they close the pipe rams then? Why didn't they see any pressure until they opened the blind rams, in which case, if the blind rams were closed, how did drill pipe get into the shear rams in the first place? Sorry, I'm wouldn't buy that explanation for a million dollars. Not even your million dollars.

[C. Flower]

I've read that with fascination Chuck Mc. Without doubting you, is there any way you can post some references to the reports it's based on ?

Essentially, was the whole thing human error, exacerbated by human error, like the Chernobyl incident ?

Was the depth of what was going on, and the difficulties of monitoring and inspection, anything to do with the mismanagement you describe ?

[Chuck Mc]

I've read that with fascination Chuck Mc. Without doubting you, is there any way you can post some references to the reports it's based on ?

Essentially, was the whole thing human error, exacerbated by human error, like the Chernobyl incident ?

Was the depth of what was going on, and the difficulties of monitoring and inspection, anything to do with the mismanagement you describe ?

This disaster was obviously the product of one stupid human error after another on the part of everyone having anything to do with that well!

I've had gas wells try that on me several times recently. My crews are trained to recognize the signs, however, and are repeatedly trained and empowered from the supervisors all the way down to the new hire guys to speak up when something's not right, and they do! You don't have a blow out on a well 18,000' deep without warning signs it's coming! A small flow, an increase in pressure, your displacements aren't right, your mud weight changes... When you have migrating gas like this, an observant crew would have picked up on it long before it became an emergency. The gas bubble would have been allowed to expand before it reached surface and the well would have been killed without spilling a single drop. Obviously that didn't happen.

The BOP stack is monitored and function tested once a week at least by law, and more often if the supervisor thinks it's necessary. They undergo regular pressure tests up to their maximum working pressure. The depth really plays no part in that except that the whole process is slower.

I can't speak specifically about this blow out because I wasn't there personally, but I did watch the news reports with interest. I saw the BOP up close from the camera on the ROV, like everyone else in the world, heard their explanations, saw the water being pumped into the drill ship, listened to how they planned to cap the well. Noticed that there was no oil slick forming after 3 days.

It's been my experience that Halliburton is rarely ever wrong on their cementing plan. But sometimes they are. The plans should have been drawn up independently by the WSM and compared to Halliburton's with an eye open for possible well control issues. Only when everyone agreed to the plan should it have been pumped. I don't think that happened here.

What bothered me the most, however, was the obvious lack of knowledge and leadership as the blow out unfolded. Why wasn't this well readied for a soft shut in, and the crew drilled on it? Why wasn't someone put in charge of monitoring the well bore pressure after the cement was pumped? Standard operating procedures were ignored completely. I suspect there were other dynamics at play here that nullified any attempt to monitor.

[Chuck Mc]

And furthermore!!!!

There's an organization called the International Association of Drilling Contractors here who set the standards for well control training. You are tested for competency after a course of study. All of the major oil companies, BP included, require that you hold the certificate before they use you. Some well control schools are more comprehensive than others.

It hasn't escaped my attention that oftentimes employees of the major oil companies are given the answers to the tests. Then when they actually come across a well control issue they are clueless.

I think there should be a required license issued by a government body independent of oil company cronyism.

[Chuck Mc]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-07/bp-gulf-well-leader-worried-he-would-be-fired-before-oil-spill.html

This guy was responsible for the bad decisions they say.

[Chuck Mc]

That isn't looking good. This was a couple of days ago. As usual, there was a lot of blandly optimistic talk. They tried to use a deep sea robot to cap it on the sea bed, but without success it seems.

http://www.minnpost.com/client_files/alternate_images/12391/mp_main_wide_DeepwaterHorizon452.jpg

So I ask you, where's the oil slick? I see flames and boats sinking the drill ship, but no slick. The BOP must be closed.

[Count Bobulescu]

Economist, this week, has a review of the various books that have been written on the Deepwater Horizion Oil Spill. And guess what, my guy, Joel Achenbach, of WaPo comes out close to the top of the pile. You can see a short interview with him here. Gloating………

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/jan-june11/oilspillbook_04-21.html


http://www.economist.com/node/18584064?story_id=18584064

[Sam Lord]

The story may not be over yet.

There may be a seep. :eek:

http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n611/boavista1/20119121830841734_20.jpg

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/09/2011912175412109550.html

[Count Bobulescu]

Gummint says it was human error, failure to adhere to best practices etc. Blame all round.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/bps-cost-cuts-contributed-to-oil-spill-disaster-federal-probe-finds/2011/09/14/gIQA0x24RK_story.html?hpid=z2

[Count Bobulescu]

Trial set to begin Monday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/bp-trial-in-gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill-set-to-begin/2012/02/24/gIQAhyHeaR_story.html?hpid=z2

With settlement talks grinding on, the trial of BP over its culpability for the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/gulf-coast-oil-spill/index.html) looks set to begin Monday in a New Orleans courtroom — and two nearby overflow rooms — packed with lawyers, public relations specialists, reporters and other observers.
District Court Judge Carl Barbier, a former plaintiffs’ lawyer in maritime accident cases, has allotted a total of 6 hours 40 minutes for 11 opening statements from private plaintiffs, the Justice Department, Gulf Coast states and corporate defendants. More than 300 depositions and 72 million pages of documents have been produced, according to one lawyer involved in the case. Legal fees alone will eventually run well into the billions of dollars.

[Kid Ryder]

This report from Al Jazeera News tells of the health impact on U.S. Gulf Coast residents and Deepwater Horizon emergency workers/volunteers - thousands are suffering chronic sicknesses that they attribute to the oil spill. BP and the U.S. govt. are leaving these people 'twisting in the wind', to quote a lawyer working on some cases taken by people affected by the spill. Many class action suits against BP are being joined, mostly taken by people who chose not to settle with BP in the aftermath of the incident, and the outcome of these over the next year or two will show how little 'corporate social responsibility' is regarded by Big Oil.

Ocean Springs, Mississippi - Not long after BP's oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico began on April 20, 2010, Lorrie Williams knew something was very wrong with her health.

She began getting frequent headaches, was experiencing shortness of breath, her eyes were burning, and she was having nightmares.

Williams, her husband Bud Waltman, and their ten-year-old son, Noah, have all tested positive for having chemicals in their blood that are also present in BP's oil. Her 25-year-old son has been to the emergency room twice for haemorrhaging blood from his nose, and several of their neighbours also have experienced ongoing respiratory problems.


Lorrie Williams and Bud Waltman have both tested positive for having chemicals present in BP's oil in their bloodstreams
[Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]

Her two-year-old granddaughter has been sick constantly.

Williams and Waltman, both crab fishers, live less than a kilometre from the Mississippi coast, and blame the illnesses in their family on exposure to chemicals from BP's oil and the dispersants used to sink it.

"I'm really sick, and I fear that I'm not gonna be here in a year," Williams told Al Jazeera. "There are days that I can't get up, and I can't eat. And I can't do the things that I used to do, with Bubba, and my grandbaby. And Noah. And then I worry about my mom. And I have nothing to leave them but a crab boat and some crab pots."

Williams stated that she and her family are not alone.

"There are now dozens, if not hundreds, of other Gulf Coast residents and former oil clean up workers that have also tested positive for having BP's chemicals in their blood," she added. "And for many of us, the problem seems to be getting worse with time."
BP blamed for ongoing health problems - Al Jazeera News (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/04/2012420725163795.html)

[Count Bobulescu]

Don't delete your texts.

NPR BREAKING NEWS:

Government Files First Criminal Charges In BP Oil Spill

Former BP engineer Kurt Mix has been charged with obstruction of justice for deleting text messages after the Gulf of Mexico spill in 2010, NPR has learned.

More at NPR.org:
http://n.npr.org/NPRI/jN304544076_1289903_1289902_Z.htm

[Kid Ryder]

There's a continuing legacy of the Deepwater Horizon blowout disaster - tar balls and other hydrocarbon debris being washed up on Gulf Coast beaches in the wake of tropical storms and hurricanes. This report deals with the beaches fouled in the wake of Isaac, the latest tropical storm/hurricane to hit the southern coast of the United States. Will BP ever pay enough for their screw-up? Maybe not, but there are communities and wildlife still paying for BP's mistakes...

BP Oil Spill, Tar Balls Churned up by Isaac - Common Dreams (http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/07-5)

[Count Bobulescu]

Europe Alert
from The Wall Street Journal


BP is close to a deal to sell some of its Gulf of Mexico offshore oil fields for around $7 billion to Plains Exploration & Production, as BP continues to divest itself of assets to pay for the 2010 oil spill in the region.


A deal could be announced as early as this week, although negotiations are continuing and talks could still fall apart.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443779404577641982277126296.html?m od=djemalertEuropenews

[DCon]

BP pleading guilty to crimes


BP BP.LN -0.08% PLC has agreed to plead guilty to felony charges and pay $4.5 billion in penalties, including $1.26 billion in criminal fines, stemming from the Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers in 2010 and unleashed the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

The energy company said Thursday it will plead guilty to 11 felony counts of "misconduct or neglect of ships officers" relating to the deaths aboard the drilling rig, and to one felony count of obstruction of Congress stemming from information it gave about the rate that oil was leaking from the well.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324556304578120140555122104.html

[Count Bobulescu]

BP, company officials charged with manslaughter (http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/LI37JS/6VH7NN/67IP9T/XPG0U9/EWHUK0/FW/h?a=http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/bp-to-pay-billions-in-gulf-oil-spill-settlement/2012/11/15/ba0b783a-2f2e-11e2-9f50-0308e1e75445_story.html)

Attorney General Eric Holder announced indictments against BP and the two highest-ranking supervisors on the Deepwater Horizon rig. The pair were charged with 23 counts of criminal wrongdoing, including manslaughter, connected to the deaths of the 11 people killed in the 2010 explosion.

Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/bp-to-pay-billions-in-gulf-oil-spill-settlement/2012/11/15/ba0b783a-2f2e-11e2-9f50-0308e1e75445_story.html (http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/LI37JS/6VH7NN/67IP9T/XPG0U9/YHYWGR/FW/h?a=http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/bp-to-pay-billions-in-gulf-oil-spill-settlement/2012/11/15/ba0b783a-2f2e-11e2-9f50-0308e1e75445_story.html)

[Count Bobulescu]

Absent a settlement over the weekend, trial to begin Monday.


One of the biggest legal circuses on earth — the trial of BP over the extent of its responsibility for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill — is scheduled to open in New Orleans on Monday, featuring 34 leading lawyers in the jam-packed federal court and hundreds of others listening to video feeds in rooms nearby.

There will be 400 minutes of opening arguments from 11 parties, including the Justice Department. The list of exhibits runs nearly a thousand pages, and lawyers so far have filed 126 depositions and the names of about 80 potential witnesses. The plaintiffs’ team has essentially built an entire new firm, with 300 lawyers, paralegals and support staff dedicated to the case. BP has a similar battery of attorneys from four of the nation’s most prestigious firms.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/in-gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill-trial-bp-halliburton-transocean-plaintiffs-lawyers-prepare-to-face-off/2013/02/23/84aea08c-7d2a-11e2-82e8-61a46c2cde3d_story.html?hpid=z1

[random new yorker]

Absent a settlement over the weekend, trial to begin Monday.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/in-gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill-trial-bp-halliburton-transocean-plaintiffs-lawyers-prepare-to-face-off/2013/02/23/84aea08c-7d2a-11e2-82e8-61a46c2cde3d_story.html?hpid=z1



Welcome Back!!:)

[random new yorker]

When you say Halliburton the first face that comes to mind is Dick Cheney....

The number one recipient was VP Cheney company Halliburton....listen to the video, great piece, one 7 minutes!

VIDEO LINK

KBR - provides 65,000 contractors to help out w the wars around the globe etc etc

Anyway this may belong in another thread...