Pics of the oil rig/platform that made the news lately

[John Wright]

Check out the pics of the oil rig/platform sent to me from a friend via email......that was quite a vessel, lots of info about it on the first page.

[shmoov69]

Thanks john.
What is the story on the break off valve (or whatever it is called) not working? Anyone know what started it?

[John Wright]

That is a good question. I am suspicious of the timing of this event. With the technology that is used and the engineering that it takes to build one of these platforms, they don't just catch fire. But who knows, the media didn't seem to really focus on the cause or even that people lost their lives, but focused on the enviromental mess that it made. It truley is a mess with all of that washing into shore.

I don't know enough about the fail safes to comment on them other than these things are designed/engineered to not blow up on their own....which makes me suspicious. I realize that things can and do happen, but....I have to wonder if this didn't have some help. <looking out the window for the black helicopters>

[oestek]

I'm wondering the same thing...:dunno:

[montessaj]

I hadn't even heard about the twelve unaccounted for workers until I read this. Thats just sad.

[Off Duty]

That is a good question. I am suspicious of the timing of this event. With the technology that is used and the engineering that it takes to build one of these platforms, they don't just catch fire. But who knows, the media didn't seem to really focus on the cause or even that people lost their lives, but focused on the enviromental mess that it made. It truley is a mess with all of that washing into shore.

I don't know enough about the fail safes to comment on them other than these things are designed/engineered to not blow up on their own....which makes me suspicious. I realize that things can and do happen, but....I have to wonder if this didn't have some help. <looking out the window for the black helicopters>


They suspect that the cause was a pocket.

When it mixed, all hell broke loose:( Pretty common occurrance in drilling.

My concern is all the hi-tech back up systems, including essentially a dead m an switch, that failed to operate properly?

So many redundant systems and failsafes to fail at once?

[novaderrik]

They suspect that the cause was a pocket.

When it mixed, all hell broke loose:( Pretty common occurrance in drilling.

My concern is all the hi-tech back up systems, including essentially a dead m an switch, that failed to operate properly?

So many redundant systems and failsafes to fail at once?

all technology can fail- even the technology that is meant to protect us when the other technology fails.
this whole thing was just the perfect storm of everything going wrong at once.

[John Wright]

LOL.....it looks like I wasn't the only one who was questioning the timing of this event....dangit... Rush beat me to it, along with others who appear to be using this to push their political angles on both sides....uggh.

Read this on AOL news a few minutes ago.

http://www.aolnews.com/the-point/article/gulf-oil-disaster-politicized-by-both-sides/19465736

[Off Duty]

LOL.....it looks like I wasn't the only one who was questioning the timing of this event....dangit... Rush beat me to it, along with others who appear to be using this to push their political angles on both sides....uggh.

Read this on AOL news a few minutes ago.

http://www.aolnews.com/the-point/article/gulf-oil-disaster-politicized-by-both-sides/19465736

The administration can only do what the law allows. The first thing they must prove before BP is held financially accountable for everything, is prove negligence.

Without that, damages are limited by statute.

Rush is....well....Rush:bsjerk:.
He should try blowing some of that hot air seaward to keep the oil slick off shore:)


all technology can fail- even the technology that is meant to protect us when the other technology fails.
this whole thing was just the perfect storm of everything going wrong at once.

Really? I never thought of that:lmao:
Ok, I'm just being a smart ass, sorry:)

"If" it was just everything working in perfect unison, that's amazing!

If not.....but I'm not quite ready to play the terrorist card just yet....:smoke:

[monza]

Pretty horrible situation, what a mess with no one knowing the long lasting effects yet. Still no idea how much oil is really flowing or when it can be turned off!

My understanding that off shore oil rigs in other country's waters need triple blow out perverters (three of them) The US deep sea rigs only need one? This 'one' has failed. That was my take on a earlier news report I heard at the beginning of this disaster.

I'm sure people on here in the oil biz, specifically- off shore drilling would have the facts?

[Damn True]

I hadn't even heard about the twelve unaccounted for workers until I read this. Thats just sad.

That element of this story does not help in the forwarding of an agenda item.

[MrQuick]

That is a good question. I am suspicious of the timing of this event. With the technology that is used and the engineering that it takes to build one of these platforms, they don't just catch fire. But who knows, the media didn't seem to really focus on the cause or even that people lost their lives, but focused on the enviromental mess that it made. It truley is a mess with all of that washing into shore.

I don't know enough about the fail safes to comment on them other than these things are designed/engineered to not blow up on their own....which makes me suspicious. I realize that things can and do happen, but....I have to wonder if this didn't have some help. <looking out the window for the black helicopters>
I know, now today there was a large explosion at a refinery...perhaps ELF is gearing up?
BTW the helo's have gray under bellies now. LOL

BP screwed up. Not the first time. With that well costing 1 million dollars a day to complete it seems they gambled and lost trying to cut corners.


Don't worry, we have a global oil and fuel surplus, prices should drop by the summer if not sooner.

Vince

[Pro Stock]

That is a good question. I am suspicious of the timing of this event. With the technology that is used and the engineering that it takes to build one of these platforms, they don't just catch fire. But who knows, the media didn't seem to really focus on the cause or even that people lost their lives, but focused on the enviromental mess that it made. It truley is a mess with all of that washing into shore.

I don't know enough about the fail safes to comment on them other than these things are designed/engineered to not blow up on their own....which makes me suspicious. I realize that things can and do happen, but....I have to wonder if this didn't have some help. <looking out the window for the black helicopters>
The timing sure seems to fit the agenda of our current administration, there, I said it.

Dale

[John Wright]

http://www.marklevinshow.com/article.asp?id=1790422

Interview with a person who was working on the rig when it exploded.

[John Wright]

^^That was a good interview...clears up some of what I had doubts about. If you get time..listen to both parts of the interview and let me know what you think.

[Off Duty]

Great interview:smoke:

Sounds like some mechanical malfunctions combined with a little human error:(

Such a shame.

[John Wright]

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/crews-lower-oil-containment-box-into-gulf-of-mexico/19468713


Hoping this works to contain the oil.....

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/crews-lower-oil-containment-box-into-gulf-of-mexico/19468713


Hoping this works to contain the oil.....

guest starring..

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/05/1273239184973JPEG-1.jpeg

[John Wright]

LOL...yeah, kinda primitive...huh?

[crustysack]

ap news release is a bubble of methane shop up the shaft
http://ww2.cox.com/myconnection/rhodeisland/today/news/finance/article.cox?moduleType=apNews&articleId=D9FIH0FO1
to start the fire
It's to bad these people died but what I hate is the spin people put on it to further their own agenda

[Off Duty]

Pretty much what was thought at the beginning.

Hope the cover and cross drilling work.

[John Wright]

I though the "gas" that they were referring to was:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_sulfide

[mikedc]

The timing sure seems to fit the agenda of our current administration, there, I said it.


WTF?!?

The president was just pushing a pro-offshore drilling thingy. Then the worst offshore oil spill accident in the last 20 years hits the same week. For the pres, the accident's timing is about as perfectly awful as it gets.


Nobody wants to be the politician who was pushing for more nuclear power the week before Three Mile Island happens. Same principle.

--

[Zee]

WTF?!?

The president was just pushing a pro-offshore drilling thingy. Then the worst offshore oil spill accident in the last 20 years hits the same week. For the pres, the accident's timing is about as perfectly awful as it gets.


Nobody wants to be the politician who was pushing for more nuclear power the week before Three Mile Island happens. Same principle.

--

No, no, no...you don't understand....anything bad happens, its Obama's fault. Anything good happens, it would have happened in spite of Obama. Get with the program!! :secret:

[Z06vet]

I'm past the politics of it... its still leaking & they cant stop it. Picture the toilet in your house overflowing and no one can figure out how to stop it, but you still have to live there. Pretty much how its going to end up here. I have been spending as much time as possible at the beach. I'm not against drilling, but at least have a backup for the backup.... and maybe a backup for that.

[andrewb70]

Here is a perspective on the whole affair you all may not hear about:

Feel sorry for BP? (http://mises.org/daily/4331)

Andrew

[senor_camaro]

not only am i expecting the environment to be inpacted by this mess but also i feel the price of gas rising as a result as well.

[novaderrik]

not only am i expecting the environment to be inpacted by this mess but also i feel the price of gas rising as a result as well.
the price of gas will go up because the summer driving season is coming up. just like it does every other year.
this well wasn't producing yet, and every other rig in the gulf is still pumping out oil. tanker ships full of oil from around the globe are still going in and out of ports. refineries are still operating.
if this was going to drive up gas prices, they would have gone up the day after the spill. i haven't seen gas prices go up yet- around here, it's exactly where it's been for about a month now.
BP is going to be spending a LOT of money to do whatever they can to contain this and put the most positive spin on it as they can- and that means putting a small dent into their quarterly profits to pay for the cleanup and containments and doing whatever they can to make it look like they aren't a bunch of greedy SOB's.
besides, BP and the other oil companies don't set the prices. the people that buy and sell the oil on the open market set prices. so if the price of gas goes up due to this spill, don't blame BP. blame the *****s that don't think twice when it comes to profit on the misfortune of others, and blame yourself if you personally have any crude oil stocks in your 401k portfolio..

[JohnUlaszek]

Here is a perspective on the whole affair you all may not hear about:

Feel sorry for BP? (http://mises.org/daily/4331)

Andrew

From the story you linked to;

"In contrast to those who are weeping, we might ask who is happy about the disaster:


the environmentalists, with their fear mongering and hatred of modern life, and"


Do you think anyone that truly cares about the environment would be happy about this?

[novaderrik]

From the story you linked to;

"In contrast to those who are weeping, we might ask who is happy about the disaster:


the environmentalists, with their fear mongering and hatred of modern life, and"


Do you think anyone that truly cares about the environment would be happy about this?

a couple of years ago, someone in politics said "never let a tragedy go to waste" or something like that.

a small bit of pollution that they can use to help them ram their agenda thru? seems like a no brainer to me.
and, yes, this is small. it might be huge to the people it directly affects, but in the grander scheme of the country and the world, this is nothing.

[JohnUlaszek]

a couple of years ago, someone in politics said "never let a tragedy go to waste" or something like that.

a small bit of pollution that they can use to help them ram their agenda thru? seems like a no brainer to me.
and, yes, this is small. it might be huge to the people it directly affects, but in the grander scheme of the country and the world, this is nothing.

Again, do you think anyone that truly cares about the environment would be happy about this? Yes or no?


in the grander scheme of the country and the world, this is nothing. I am unsure what the grander scheme is. Can you clarify?

[mikedc]

Environmentalists wanting this spill for the long term gain is too much IMHO.

It's like musclecar guys wanting to see 10,000 nice musclecars get crushed in hopes that maybe it will make people will think twice about abusing them in the future.



If I was an environmentalist on the Lousiana gulf coast, I think I might be tempted to just throw up my hands and leave the state after this one. It's gonna be so catastrophic over the next few months. That coastline is probably still gonna be messed up after everyone on this website is dead and buried.


-------

[andrewb70]

From the story you linked to;

"In contrast to those who are weeping, we might ask who is happy about the disaster:


the environmentalists, with their fear mongering and hatred of modern life, and"


Do you think anyone that truly cares about the environment would be happy about this?

I actually do think that environmentalists are happy about this. Accidents like this are perfect for urging further regulation and control of business by the federal government.

Before we get into a big debate, you know where I stand on this issue. If we were to have private ownership of oceans and mining fields, and the federal government was in the business of protecting property rights, this would not be as big an issue as it is now. To put in another way, BP would be 100% responsible for the actual damages to private property. There would not be a cap of $75 million, as it stands now. This is all outlined in the article. As it stands now BP has a huge moral hazard issue. They know that any damage that might result from their drilling efforts has a maximum penalty of $75 million. So its just a matter of number crunching and hedging their bets. They do what is required by law, while being protected by law to the tune of $75 million, max. This is a perfect example of corporatism.

Andrew

[JohnUlaszek]

I actually do think that environmentalists are happy about this.

I care about the environment, appreciate the value of off-shore drilling, and I am not happy about this.

By the Wikipedia def of environmentalist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_movement), I think I could be considered an enviromentalist. Therefore I would suggest you modify your argument to say "Enviromentalists except for John are happy about
this."


By definition via Wikipedia
The environmental movement is represented by a range of organizations, from the large to grassroots. Due to its large membership, varying and strong beliefs, and occasionally speculative nature, the environmental movement is not always united in its goals. At its broadest, the movement includes private citizens, professionals, religious devotees, politicians, and extremists.

[andrewb70]

I care about the environment, see value of off-shore drilling, and I am not happy about this.

By the Wikipedia def of environmentalist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_movement), I think I qualify. Therefore I would suggest you modify your argument to say "Enviromentalists except for John are happy about this."

Count one environmentalist (John U.) that is not happy about this accident. Many others will use it as evidence to further their agenda.

Andrew

[JohnUlaszek]

Count one environmentalist (John U.) that is not happy about this accident. Many others will use it as evidence to further their agenda.

Andrew

I approve of this post.

[andrewb70]

I approve of this post.

:twothumbs:

Andrew

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Theres no easy or right answer to this, but I am an avid fisher and all i have to say is just spend a day in an estuary or a bay on the Gulf Coast, go fishing offshore here, and see how much everything is really interconnected and will be affected-its gunna suck.

...Of coarse everything down here (Cape Coral/Ft. Myers) has already been destroyed by the billions of gallons of Phosphorus rich water dumped (per day in wet season) from Lake Okeechobee, a few barrels of oil drifting down here couldnt do much more damage. Hope they stop that leak soon though.

[John Wright]

a couple of years ago, someone in politics said "never let a tragedy go to waste" or something like that.


That is close...I think it was...."never let a crisis go to waste"
IOW, use the crisis to further your agenda(whatever that may be), or use the crisis to divert attention off of something else that is troubling your political career.

[mikedc]

Before we get into a big debate, you know where I stand on this issue. If we were to have private ownership of oceans and mining fields, and the federal government was in the business of protecting property rights, this would not be as big an issue as it is now. To put in another way, BP would be 100% responsible for the actual damages to private property. There would not be a cap of $75 million, as it stands now. This is all outlined in the article. As it stands now BP has a huge moral hazard issue. They know that any damage that might result from their drilling efforts has a maximum penalty of $75 million. So its just a matter of number crunching and hedging their bets. They do what is required by law, while being protected by law to the tune of $75 million, max. This is a perfect example of corporatism.




I would be pretty shocked if that infamous $75 mil cap stayed in place on this incident. $75 mil is barely enough to cover spilling a portable toilet on Federal land.

I imagine the Fed will want most of a billion out of BP, absolute minimum. Maybe a lot more depending on how bad the spill gets.


------

[novaderrik]

where did this $75 million number come from?
i've heard them talking about $10 billion on tv as being the cap, and BP has said that they will go above and beyond that as necessary to get good PR- umm, i mean do the right thing- by making this right...

[Off Duty]

where did this $75 million number come from?
i've heard them talking about $10 billion on tv as being the cap, and BP has said that they will go above and beyond that as necessary to get good PR- umm, i mean do the right thing- by making this right...

IIRC, that's the cap on damages that they can be held liable for put in place by our own government.

Now....if negligence is proven...as I read it, the cap goes away:smoke:

[WS6]

The 75M cap is a law that was enacted after the valdez accident. It doesn't include punitive damages. So BP is still open to being sued and last I heard there were at least 3 lawsuits in the works from the family of a deceased person and local fisheries and the like.

What you should be careful of and pay a lot of attention to is some people in congress and the administration have already said we need to increase the 75M cap. Nothing wrong with doing that considering 75M 20 years ago is a lot less than 75M now. The scary part and what you need to pay attention to is they say they will figure out a way to make it retroactive so that BP is liable for much more. Ex post facto laws are outlawed in the Constitution from the get go. If they make BP pay more than 75M by law, they've pushed forth an ex post facto law. regardless of the fact that BP should spend more than 75M to clean this up, no law ever should be allowed to stand that clearly breaks the Constitution especially the ex post facto provision.

It was Rahm Emanuel that said never let a good crisis go to waste. Let's watch their agenda with this crisis.

[paul67]

It does not matter how much the fine is BP will not pay ,you will at the pump.The pump price went up after the Exxon Valdez to pay for that.

[FN_FAST]

bp has already payed much much more then 75 million in clean up costs. they payed out 100 million just to get the spill response teams going in lousiana, mississippi, alabama, and florida. They are fronting the bill in hopes they get some of it back once all the lawsuits are settled. You guys can argue all you want about the politics of it, the real point here it was an accident where 11 men lost their lives and their families don't even have bodies to bury. I've been working offshore since i got out of college in 07 and can tell you that bp is one of the most anal about safety companies i have worked with. all the majors are. when the plugs failed the back to back vacuum tests, the decision was made to exchange the mud in the riser with sea water to prepare to set the last plug. I'm not a driller, so i can't comment on the validity of that decision, but thats what happend. They never had the chance to set the last plug before the blow out. Next to fail was the BOP. when they tried to shut it in, it failed to close completely. all this time gas is settling into every nook and cranny of the vessel. all devices on the topsides are required to be intrinsically safe, so either there was another equipment failure or it was something inside the quarters that set off the gas. the rest you can see in the pictures

[MarkM66]

It does not matter how much the fine is BP will not pay ,you will at the pump.The pump price went up after the Exxon Valdez to pay for that.

BP doesn't own every gas station.

But I guess the others could just raise their prices too, heck why not.. just take more of our money. :machine:

[mikedc]

Oil is a private commodity. If you dont wanna pay the market value then don't buy it. Same with wood or steel.

If you want oil to be a utility with a govt-controlled cost, that's a different issue.

[DoABarrelRoll]

I am still trying to figure out why the preplanned responses weren't done.

[John Wright]

Anyone been watching the live feed ROV cams?

Looks like yesterday they were using rotatory saws cutting through the piping...and today that have a large clamp squeezing the end of a pipe with oil(dark colored liquid) coming out of it.

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

[John Wright]

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/images/Containment_Contingency_Option_large.jpg

[Taman]

They used sea water instead of the chemicals used to send down the shaft. It was cheaper. It's amazing BP is still in business. They just had another big spill in Alaska. BP, just like all the oil companies, just care about profit. BP complains it will cost them billions to clean up. How much did they last quarter. BP makes, just in profit, $93.000.000 a day. 93 million a day in profits and they worry about how much it will cost. So they have spent a wopping 10 days of profit.

[John Wright]

Not that I feel sorry for them or anything...but I was reading that the EPA will mostlikely fine them $1,000/barrel of spilled oil. This isn't including what it will cost them to get all of this cleaned up.

Seeing this makes me wonder just how will they go about figuring out how many barrels of oil will have been spilled by the time they get it stopped? I have read estimated from 20 million barrels to upwards of 40 million barrels....that is quite a range when the fine is dependant on the exact number of barrels......I see an opportunity for the government(EPA) to cash in if they really want to. Who is going to argue with the figure that the EPA comes up with? other than BP...

[shmoov69]

I'd heard that there was a "cap" on the cleanup fines from BP....and it was only $75 million.
But that is what I had heard, not sure of. Anyone know?

[MonzaRacer]

WE can sit here and arm chair QB this till the cows come home. Bush was Federalizing the Valdez in like 2 weeks or less, Obama is spanking his monkey.
Funny thing after he (Obama) was interviewed about the attempt to cap it, I heard a radio clip of his saying "From Day one me and my Team Met in the Oval office,,,,(Im thinking for a circle jerk to maker everyone feel good, and an old 60's song came on as stations switched singing about "who wrote the book of love" or some such song singing about love) then went back to interview show, Levine or Hannity. I about lost it laughing.
As for me yes it will take a lot to clean it up but you have to figure there is a fracture out in Pacific spewing crude into a deep valley and has for decades. They figured out it was so far down that the valley (actually thought to be a meteor cavity) that there are no currents to mix it up into the water. I remember back in late 70s they talked about studying the effects of crude on the deep ocean vegetation as it fills. Another thing that keeps it under control is the depth and pressure.
And you know the environment IS very resilient.
Heck up untill turn of the century the distillers were simply pouring white gas (gasoline before additives, lead, other distillates added) into ditches. This was "one" reason for the fires that created the Great Chicago fires, as many little "cracking" companies setup anywhere. Not legal but they did it anyway.
You know it was the Sunday news show that always shows a different place at end of show, they went back several time to show how the environment did right its self even with all the doo gooders trying to "clean" up the spill.
Will it take time, yes, will some business get hurt, yes, but if the people are smart they will adapt and over come. if they are spineless pathetic whiners with hands out for free cash and not working to change their situation, then they may be out of luck.
WE will see who works around the problems and over comes and who lays on their back and takes government/BP cash and wastes it.
Given the limited life of Gulf boating business, the ones on the edge will get some finacial help and move on to a different business. Some will be hard headed and die trying to go back in time. Others will drive through and be a better company in future.
One thought was of a company(for get what they actually did) that instead of sitting on it laurels during Katrina they used insurance and government help and expanded and diversified and are much bigger today.
This spill will show who can adapt and prosper and who had only held on to the same thing till last "dribble" fell.
Big issue here is TOO MUCH REGULATION did this, if they could drill closer to shore and on land easier then deep water drilling wouldn't be worth the money/risk. BUT too many idiots think more and more regulation are needed and instead we need to get some ethical un buyable people into the areas that do regulate the industry.
And yes BP had a small spill up in Alaska, while Sarah Palin was in office and her husband was employed by BP and she made them fix issues, and do clean up, BUT then the Alaskan pipe line IS built to make it easier to shut off it it leaks.
Another thing is sge got them to start upgrading the pipe line faster as the newer oil is more corrosive than before, typical for older wells, so more resilient piping is being installed as they repair/upgrade.
A lot of oil industry technology has been developed in last 50 yrs to make things safer, not perfect.
It may be time to say that man was given dominion OVER the earth and all things on/in it by God, and as long as its man made things on it, they will break as we ,man, are not perfect.
But if we use the intelligence properly we can over come nearly anything and leave the rest up to God.

[fordsbyjay]

I'd heard that there was a "cap" on the cleanup fines from BP....and it was only $75 million.
But that is what I had heard, not sure of. Anyone know?

It was mentioned above that the $75 mill cap was instated after Valdez. BP has said right from the beginning they will pay whatever it costs and does not regard the $75 mill cap. They have already spent almost $1 billion so I would have to say they are doing what they said. The long term will tell though.

[fordsbyjay]

Below is a quote from an email I received this morning. It originated from a Schlumberger employee and had alot of forward address as it traveled around the world from employee to employee. Now obviously the article was written by a reporter so you will have to take a grain of salt when reading it. I have worked in the oilfield for 17 years and I am not sure what "seal" they are referring to. From everything I have heard is the well was flowing when they did the cement job. This in turn made for a bad cement job due to the gas in the cement. Then without tripping in and testing the quality of the cement job they displaced the drilling mud over to sea water. Drilling mud at this depth would probably be in the neighborhood of 18 or 19 ppg (pounds per gallon). One job of the drilling mud is to overbalance any formation pressure to make sure the gas/oil stays in the ground. Sea water is about 8.3 ppg so once they displaced over they were fubar.


Schlumberger, A Contractor On The Exploded Oil Rig, Says BP Refused To Test The Well
By: marinara Thursday May 20, 2010 11:28 pm Tweet Share3

Who is to blame for the Gulf oil spill? A contracting company on the oil rig made a public statement, saying they were not allowed to test the well for a faulty seal. It goes without saying that testing the seal on the well would have prevented the explosion.
Basically, unforeseeable my perky metal ass.
1. There’s the public statement by the contracting company
Source is http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/costly_time-consuming_test_of.html
A spokesman for the testing firm, Schlumberger, said BP had a Schlumberger team and equipment for sending acoustic testing lines down the well "on standby" from April 18 to April 20. But BP never asked the Schlumberger crew to perform the acoustic test and sent its members back to Louisiana on a regularly scheduled helicopter flight at 11 a.m., Schlumberger spokesman Stephen T. Harris said.
2. Rumors flesh out the story that BP worked to subvert the normal testing process.
Source is http://adropofrain.net/2010/05/rumor-schlumberger-exits-deep-horizon-hours-before-blowout/
SLB (Schlumberger)gets out to the Deepwater Horizon to run the CBL, and they find the well still
kicking heavily, which it should not be that late in the operation. SLB orders the
“company man” (BP’s man on the scene that runs the operation) to dump kill fluid down the well and shut-in the well. The company man refuses. SLB in the very next sentence asks for a helo to take all SLB personel back to shore. The company man says there are no more helo’s scheduled for the rest of the week (translation: you’re here to do a job, now do it). SLB gets on the horn to shore, calls SLB’s corporate HQ, and gets a helo flown out there at SLB’s expense and takes all SLB personel to shore
6 hours later, the platform explodes.
.
Read the same story on Huffpost
Thanks for reading FDL people!

[MrQuick]

Lee brings up a great point. Its funny you mention too much regulation. Everyone complains when the Government gets involved in any way but when the people that vowed to run the show safely fail then its a Government failure. I wonder which it really is.

According to the interview I watched on 60 min, there were serveral safety failures that caused the leak in the first place. Safety failures that where specificly put in place to keep such an unpresidented accident to happen. How do we impose more safety steps and higher insurance caps on situations that are totally unpredictable? Thats like your home owners insurance telling you need flood insurance when you live 1500 feet above sea level. Its an unecassary expense until it happens. Hind sight is a bitchh. Being self insured makes it easy to hide issues.

BP is still making billions and will loose less than our southern coastal communities.

I find it funny that BP reported "we are still collecting 100 barrels a day from the well" and that they would lose money daily unless they can find a solution.

Maybe if they concentrated on stopping the leak instead of collecting as much crude as they can it would not be as bad as it is today. Still flowing. That far down its going to be a large task.

Maybe public outcry will get the Military involved or maybe BP will toss out a huge settlement and then become heros.
Vince

[LateNight72]

I want to know why they haven't built a large-scale clamp that can clamp down and crimp the pipe.
Imagine a much larger version of the jaws of life.

[nor_cal_67rs]

Looks like the live feed has a ROV getting sent under right now...

[John Wright]

I want to know why they haven't built a large-scale clamp that can clamp down and crimp the pipe.
Imagine a much larger version of the jaws of life.
One of the them had a clamp/shear (jaws) that they used to pinch the pipe with the other day while i was watching the live feed....

[WS6]

I heard the same thing as you Jason but I didn't hear SLB's name connected to it. I know Halliburton's offshore arm was doing the drilling and I would think the cementing.

Basically, what I am hearing, seeing, and ultimately believe will be the "truth"(because who knows if we will ever truly know) is that BP royally screwed up and is 100% to blame. Yes, contracting companies like SLB and Halliburton did the actual work but they can not do what their employer BP does not want them to do. They can only advise and from these reports it appears SLB made their recommendation and where told no. They sensed a bad situation and got the hell out. Good for them.

[John Wright]

It appears that BP was successful at attaching the LMRC option over the failed BOP....oil and gas is now being delivered to the surface and aboard the drill ship over the well riser.

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

lets just imagine its Chocolate dumping into the sea!... yaaaayyy!

[mikedc]

We just need to get every cent out of BP that we can. A few billion dollars would be a good start.

.

[andrewb70]

We just need to get every cent out of BP that we can. A few billion dollars would be a good start.

.

So I have been reading the various posts quietly, but the above post spurred me into action. Who the FuKK is "we" and why are they entitled to billions from a company that gives you something that you need on a daily basis?

It is so easy to lay blame on this company and that company without realizing the valuable service that they provide. It's not as if BP wanted this to happen. I am 100% sure that they are more eager to make this stop than anyone else, no matter what the main stream media pumps into your head.

Ever think about the technology that it takes to poke a hole in the earth 1 mile under the ocean and pump out some oil, then take it to a plant, refine it, take it to a gas station, and offer it to you for $3 a gallon?

People want to point fingers but we should all pause and give some thought to the fact that we are all partially responsible for all of this. We are the ones driving the demand but we are not willing to take any of the blame for when accidents happen. The hypocrisy is astounding.

Andrew

[John Wright]

Post #54 has a statement or two in there that I'm starting to agree with more and more that I look at this situation....I'm not gonna say that BP doesn't have any egg on their face or isn't partially responsible for taking shortcuts that may have led up to this spill...but the tree huggers have forced oil drilling way out into the ocean where they are working a mile deep over a well...it's a wonder this doesn't happen all of the time. But imagine how much easier it would be to fix this leak if it was sitting right there on top of the ground rather than 5000 feet under water. Drill on land..nope, we can't have the polar bears looking at derricks standing on the horizon, and just off shore in shallower water, nope, people don't want their view of the sun rising over the ocean cluttered up either....so what's left? Oil is needed for most of us to function in this country until another viable solution is discovered. Blame BP if you want, but who told them that they have to drill way out there...obviously if they would have been allowed to drill in shallower waters, you know they would have....who in their right mind would drill and try to recover oil at those depths and have to overcome all of the challenges that go with it...way out there.


Here is a post off of another forum that goes along with this:

"OK..............this has been eating at me for a few days now. We have been drilling ON land for a long time...........got it figured out; good safety records; etc. Enviros piss and moan; the politicians don't lease the best sites..........we move OFF shore. Ok; been doing that for awhile.........doing ok............BUT same problem..........enviros piss and moan; the NIMBYs clamor...........hell now we limit offshore drilling. East coast?? Forget it. West coast?? NIMBY. OK.................go way the hell out where it's not an eyesore........DEEP water drilling.........and **** happens; in water so damn deep it's HELL to work in..........and we cry and moan and the enviros are up in arms. Let's never forget WHY we are going into DEEP water..........it lends perspective to the current mess. Blame to share? You bet. Call or write your congressmen................and let them know you SUPPORT safe, responsible drilling..........on ALL sites; land, shallow water, etc. The enviros are calling theirs; you can bet on that. "

[WS6]

Before you guys go calling for boycotts of BP and the gas stations selling BP gas, relaize you will be hurting the station owner and their employees more than you could ever hope to harm BP. So go right ahead and tell your neighbor that owns a BP station or works there that you really like them but you're going to try and put them out of business or get their job taken away because they simply no longer make money. Then you can go about your life so proud of yourself and obviously completely oblivous to the hypocricy of the situation and the damage you've caused a 100% innocent person in your local community

[John Wright]

It appears that BP was successful at attaching the LMRC option over the failed BOP....oil and gas is now being delivered to the surface and aboard the drill ship over the well riser......but now the seal between is looking like many of the recent stories on here these days from all of these new engine builds...seals leaking, oil is spewing, can't keep gaskets in place....ect.

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/html/Skandi_ROV2.html

[dropped72ss]

I have to respond to andrews post. First "we" are every person alive which these natural resources belongs too!!! Secondly, the amount of oil produced from off shore rigs is a joke to what we use on a everyday basis. So i would say that BP is ultimately to blame! Therefore they should take it up the shorts for ruining "my" environment and pay "me" substantially!!!!!!! Oh btw bp doesn't give u anything ummm....have u looked at their profits bud?

[mikedc]

So I have been reading the various posts quietly, but the above post spurred me into action. Who the FuKK is "we" and why are they entitled to billions from a company that gives you something that you need on a daily basis?

It is so easy to lay blame on this company and that company without realizing the valuable service that they provide. It's not as if BP wanted this to happen. I am 100% sure that they are more eager to make this stop than anyone else, no matter what the main stream media pumps into your head.

Ever think about the technology that it takes to poke a hole in the earth 1 mile under the ocean and pump out some oil, then take it to a plant, refine it, take it to a gas station, and offer it to you for $3 a gallon?

People want to point fingers but we should all pause and give some thought to the fact that we are all partially responsible for all of this. We are the ones driving the demand but we are not willing to take any of the blame for when accidents happen. The hypocrisy is astounding.




What hypocrisy?

I'm not advocating a boycott of BP's product. I don't really care. BP, Shell, other oil giants, it's not much difference in the big picture. They're all basically using the same methods to do the same things. And I have no illusions about getting off oil any time soon. I don't really want to.

I'm advocating that BP cough up as much as possible for the spill they caused. If you think this is not what needs to happen then go visit the coast of Prince William Sound today.




Bottom line - if the CEO and board of directors of BP were personally liable to pay for damages & potential prison time for the spill, it would never have gotten this bad.


I am not literally trying advocate that kind of personal liability for the CEO & board. I know that is totally impractical. I am just trying to make a point. If the compay stood to lose the true cost of the spill then they would have done more to avoid it.

They had never tested their capping methods at the depth they were drilling, they had no pre-built cap/dome for the BOP, and their BOP valve appears to have been screwed up by trying to cut the pipe at a joint. All of that was avoidable stuff. The company takes these risks because the liability is not enough when something goes wrong. The risks that BP took may have just been "industry standard" but that's the whole point - the industry standard was not high enough.


I would rather deal with the problem this way than have the govt try to micro-manage the drilling operations with regulations that may or may not work. I would prefer we just tell the companies "Look, we don't care how you prevent the spills, just PREVENT THEM however you see fit." And in order to make them actually try hard enough, it has to cost them enough when the big spills do happen.

.

[Ash]

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/05/25/27551.htm

Exerts The above article "Federal officials delivered messages similar to Napolitano's, but none wanted to address an incident that occurred last weekend, when BP and the Coast Guard abandoned 44 boats loaded with booms on Louisiana's shores as thick black oil flooded into the marshlands.
BP was nowhere in sight as the oil inundated the fragile marshes. And the oil company has provided little explanation about what made it jump ship rather fight the oil as it hit land.
BP has continued to spray two chemical dispersants into the Gulf despite an order by the Environmental Protection Agency to end the spraying on Sunday night. The chemical dispersants, made by Corexit, are banned in BP's homeland, the United Kingdom, because of their toxicity."......................... "As it became clear Monday that BP had not followed orders to stop using Corexit, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said that BP does not have to stop using it completely, but asked BP to limit its use of the dispersant and to find a less toxic replacement. Richard Dennison, a senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund wrote on the group's website Monday that Corexit 9527 and Corexit 9500, the two forms BP is using, are "among the least effective of the 18 dispersants that EPA has approved under the National Oil and Hazardous Pollution Contingency Plan." Dennison wrote that the dispersants "appear to be among the more toxic based on limited short-term toxicity tests conducted on fish and shrimp."
BP has been using Corexit during the oil spill catastrophe in far greater quantities than ever before in U.S. history.
Jackson said other chemicals the EPA wanted BP to consider appear to be less toxic and more effective than Corexit.
"My concern is they appear to be going out of their way to find problems with these other chemicals," Jackson said.
Propublica reported last week that Corexit was used after the Exxon Valdez disaster and was later linked with health problems, including respiratory, nervous system,

and BP blames workers illness on Food Poisoning :/
http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/06/01/27704.htm

http://www.wdsu.com/health/23615203/detail.html

[Jim Nilsen]

So I have been reading the various posts quietly, but the above post spurred me into action. Who the FuKK is "we" and why are they entitled to billions from a company that gives you something that you need on a daily basis?

It is so easy to lay blame on this company and that company without realizing the valuable service that they provide. It's not as if BP wanted this to happen. I am 100% sure that they are more eager to make this stop than anyone else, no matter what the main stream media pumps into your head.

Ever think about the technology that it takes to poke a hole in the earth 1 mile under the ocean and pump out some oil, then take it to a plant, refine it, take it to a gas station, and offer it to you for $3 a gallon?

People want to point fingers but we should all pause and give some thought to the fact that we are all partially responsible for all of this. We are the ones driving the demand but we are not willing to take any of the blame for when accidents happen. The hypocrisy is astounding.

Andrew

I'm not so sure about them giving it 100% in not letting it happen. With all of the inconsistancies of what was done as to the rules and all of the delays and politics going on it makes me wonder if some of it wasn' planned?

I say this because it seems we have turned into a country that responds to disasters with new laws. In order to change the laws to the way a large corporation would like them to be they need support for it. This situation is making a lot of people saying there should be better safety regulations which in turn will be a new law. BP has a lot more to gain from a new law restricting any smaller company from being a competitor as long as you have to have the funds to back yourself up for a big spill like this one. To get rid of competition is always good for the top companies. I don't think BP really cares to do what is right and I surely wouldn't believe they don't have a clue as to what to do because other spills have been taken care of successfully by other companies and the people available to help are still available. So who keeps dropping the ball and why? It seems in recent years that the Gulf of Mexico has become a pool of disaster economically and politically.

Other administrations couldn't play the game of inexperience like the new one and we know why that is. I just don't see any good experience at all being used to change the situation for the better in a timely fashion. I don't think everyone is on the new law bandwagon and they keep trolling for more support.

I really hope I am wrong on this but as long as we are kept from drilling off of our own shores and other companies can it makes us look stupid, it could be oil for our economy. The rest of the world is pulling the rug right out from under us literally and why do we let that happen?

Before this is all said and done I am expecting a new bunch of laws that will seemingly protect us better and at the same time make a whole bunch of ways to make the bigger oil companies more protected rather than the people of a nation.

Now that corporations have the same voice the people do according to the new supreme court ruling , it would seem that if we are liable personally for what we say and do while working for a corporation it is time to hold the corporations to the same rules and that puts the people like CEO's personally responsible but noone sees it that way yet.

Bottom line is that BP should be paying anyone and everyone they can to help with the cleanup or do it right themselves and use the current laws we already have to make them do that and it just isn't happening. It hasn't been the way as of lately to use existing laws to do anything right in this country and for a long time in many instances. Big Brother isn't blind and he has the power but is acting powerless and unaware as of what has been done in the past.

If you or I made a spill and the epa knew about it do you think you would still be a free person or have any money left?

I also don't see all of the news telling the whole story and that is the usual these days. I hear everyone being torn apart by the news and divided is where we are being led by it. We should be together on a solution yet here we are on one hand hating corporations and on the other saying it is the way of capitolism to flourish. You are right about the hypocracy and it is the fuel for more division on the other side of the truth. Instead of 2 sides to a story these days there are 4 sides and that cause the division to grow even faster.

Together we stand and divided we fall is a good motto but is rarely used these days as we fight with each other on where to stand.

BP made the mess to gain a profit , BP should spend profits to clean it up and if it breaks them so be it. The assets will still be there for another corporation to start all over from the one that's there and that has happened to a lot of industry leaders as manufacturing has been eliminated from the U.S. Maybe just like the car manufactures there is something going on to make the oil industry more controlled and owned by the government? No matter which it is I have no sympathy for BP and its management if the empoyees had to start work next week under a new name and leadership. I have lived through a corporation changing like that and it made the place a lot better. Sometimes it really is the people in charge who make a bad corporation what it is and sometimes what a government lends itself to be.

There is a lot more going on over this mess and the real truth will never be told to us, unless it divides us more. No more Czars and no more new laws, I'm tired of useless misguided, inconsistent, subfunctional dictators owned by others. There once was a time when we actually worked together but it has been a LONG TIME GONE.

We are all to blame for this and that is the biggest truth we have to face and the blame has to stop and accountability taken to move forward. So lets start looking for the accountable ones and make it stick like crude.

[Jim Nilsen]

Before you guys go calling for boycotts of BP and the gas stations selling BP gas, relaize you will be hurting the station owner and their employees more than you could ever hope to harm BP. So go right ahead and tell your neighbor that owns a BP station or works there that you really like them but you're going to try and put them out of business or get their job taken away because they simply no longer make money. Then you can go about your life so proud of yourself and obviously completely oblivous to the hypocricy of the situation and the damage you've caused a 100% innocent person in your local community


This is exactly the kind of division of our country that is going on everywhere and the results from it will destroy us as a nation and I truly believe they do some of this poor disaster planning to instigate it all. Take over the media, destroy the money system and manufacturing base and you now have a country that is vulnerable to defeat within itself by itself.

It riles them to believe that we percieve the web they weave.

[Ash]

I really hope I am wrong on this but as long as we are kept from drilling off of our own shores and other companies can it makes us look stupid, it could be oil for our economy. The rest of the world is pulling the rug right out from under us literally and why do we let that happen?

Not singling you out boss, I promise. But If 10 new oil refineries, on American Soil, were opened today, it wouldn't make any difference in price or dependence on foreign oil. The "Drill baby Drill" people don't realize a key misconception to their whole argument. This little blog post puts it best.

"That the oil that comes from that drilling will not be United States property ..... It will be the property of whichever oil company got the rights to that contract. They can then sell it to whoever they like -- and they will. They will sell it on the world market, so the Chinese will have just as much access to the oil that comes out of the coast of Florida as we will."

http://www.alternet.org/environment/93619/if_we_drill_in_the_u.s.,_we_don%27t_get_the_oil/

So short of Nationalizing it, which a large chunk of America wouldn't allow...it would just go into the global pot. The game is rigged and the cement has pretty much dried. The Global oil market, and it's basic structure are not gonna change. So if we want to continue as a nation, to use Crude Oil as our primary fuel, without nationalizing it, then this is the way it's gonna be.

The only thing that really frustrates me about America, the thing that makes no sense what so ever. Why be so fervent about Crude Oil. If the pro drillers put half of their energy and senator calling into Cellulosic Ethanol, the technology would have got the funding, and we would have our own Fuel source NOW. I'm not talking about the E85 crap, which was a disaster, and should have never been put into motion (making fuel from a food crop?). There is no reason we cant go into Ethanol production using Switchgrass or Miscanthus. It fits every bill, for once. Both sides would be completely happy: It's green-house gas emissions are four fiths less than gasoline to keep the environmentalists happy, completely replace gasoline in this country (no money to foreign oil....period), the crop can grow in damn near any dirt (some species in Clay), can be harvested 10 times a year, be 100% American made, and best of all a little over $1.00 a gallon. We really can have our cake and eat it too. But the media, government policy, and oil corporations have planted the notion that alternate fuel = electric micro-cars, and if you don't want to drive a micro car, than you have to be pro-oil...one or the other. This is not the case at all.

If your Pro-oil, read through the ECONOMICS section of this...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol

[Ash]

"University of Massachusetts at Amherst researchers have developed a streamlined technique which uses "catalytic fast pyrolysis" (heating to 400–600 °C followed by rapid cooling) and zeolite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeolite) as a catalyst to produce cellulosic ethanol in about 60 seconds. They estimate improvements in the process should be able to generate ethanol at the equivalent of $1–$1.70/gal of gasoline. As of April 2008, the process has only been developed to work at laboratory scales"

Makes me think of the delorean's Mr.Fusion.

[shmoov69]

Breaking news:


BP announced that this morning they had talks of installing a wedding ring around the
leaking pipe because that always makes things quit putting out.

[fordsbyjay]

Boudreaux and Thibideaux were hired by BP to help clean the animals and they had 23 Pelicans skinned and cleaned before BP fired them.

[shmoov69]

Lol!

[John Wright]

breaking news:


Bp announced that this morning they had talks of installing a wedding ring around the
leaking pipe because that always makes things quit putting out.
......lmbo....

[madmax]

So I have been reading the various posts quietly, but the above post spurred me into action. Who the FuKK is "we" and why are they entitled to billions from a company that gives you something that you need on a daily basis?

It is so easy to lay blame on this company and that company without realizing the valuable service that they provide. It's not as if BP wanted this to happen. I am 100% sure that they are more eager to make this stop than anyone else, no matter what the main stream media pumps into your head.

Ever think about the technology that it takes to poke a hole in the earth 1 mile under the ocean and pump out some oil, then take it to a plant, refine it, take it to a gas station, and offer it to you for $3 a gallon?

People want to point fingers but we should all pause and give some thought to the fact that we are all partially responsible for all of this. We are the ones driving the demand but we are not willing to take any of the blame for when accidents happen. The hypocrisy is astounding.

Andrew

Who the **** is we? We are all "we". Anyone who lives in this country, works the Gulf, lives on the Gulf, or enjoys the Gulf. We will never get to eat oysters from the Gulf again.

First of all, the company does not "give" us what we need everyday. They sell it to us. For a profit. And it is not "offered" to us at $3 a gallon. It first has to be subsidized by the federal government.

Second, as far as the technology goes - it's called R&D. That's like saying "do you know how much money it costs to CAD design a spindle?! Without it, you wouldn't be driving a car!!". Well, yes, that might be true, but we only wouldn't be driving the car if there wasn't demand for the product and money to be made in the manufacture of the car. Kia or BP or GE don't make things out of the goodness of their hearts.

Why is it easy to lay blame on BP? Because it is their fault. It doesn't matter how many safety features failed (many due to their negligence) or what regulations they did or didn't have to abide by. If you had to have open heart surgery and died on the table due to gross negligence, would you blame the surgeon, the consumer (patient), the hospital regulations, or the maker of the medical instruments? Damn you for having a faulty heart!

BP didn't want this to happen. But as a corporation, their main motivator is the dollar, not what is "right". They lose some of their annual profits. A blip on the radar. As far as "we" - fishing, diving, boating, tourism, real estate value, livelihoods, state revenue, etc, etc. Everything that they are doing, as a company, to fix the leak, are not for "our" benefit, but their benefit, which include using highly toxic/mutagenic dispersants to "hide" the oil underneath the surface to skew leakage estimates to limit damages/judgements, giving clean up crews gag orders to limit PR damage, buying Google slots, slicing and dicing the well so they can recover more oil to sell (even if it leaks more into the Gulf), etc. They couldn't give a damn about some guy who just spent his life savings to retire to the beach, or someone who relies on the Gulf to feed his family. That is "we". What finite number would you place on your life?

Hypocrisy? Some, perhaps. But the bottom line is we are but small players in this game. Like Ash posted, we have the means to reduce our dependence or eliminate it, but we can't even boycott the industry because there is no viable alternative and until there is trillion-dollar-a-year green subsidy in place with billions in infrastructure and billions in lobbying, we're **** out of luck. I realize this plays into your argument about technology, but it is impossible for a family bringing home $30,000 a year to quit the habit without fundamental changes to the system. It's not even like the oil harvested in the gulf is "our" oil (even though it is) anyway. It is BP's.

There is this perception that "we'd be nothing" without BP or other large corporations, but really, they'd be nothing without us. We used to have wealth taxes in place so your boss would only own a few Caddies vs. your Chevrolet, and competition, at the corporate or personal level, was much more even. Now all bets are off and odds stacked against. We're talking private islands vs. Pintos here.


:nopity:


Max

[Ash]

Well said Max. I wanted to add this, but it wasn't in the context of the last post.

"Their eagerness for this to stop" is a luxury the 3rd world countries don't get. If you want to see how much these corporations really care...take a look at Nigeria or Ecuador.

"According to Nigerian federal government figures, there were more than 7,000 spills between 1970 and 2000, and there are 2,000 official major spillages sites, many going back decades, with thousands of smaller ones still waiting to be cleared up. More than 1,000 spill cases have been filed against Shell alone."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell

This Oil Rig isn't a isolated incident, and the industry is far from globally responsible. The only reason we are now being flooded with all these so called "anti Oil/corporation" news stories is it finally happened to us, and thus, America is now VERY interested in the topic. We wouldn't have cared that these spills (not of this magnitude, but still rooted in negligence) were a regular occurrence in other nations, and the reporters certainly wouldn't have started digging deeper for past offenses. "ohh that's so sad" would have been the response, just another disaster in a war-torn ****-hole. But were now feeling the geological and economic impact for ourselves. And to call these coastal AMERICAN communities that depend on that body of water for their livelihoods "crybabies"...say your business burned down due to another businesses negligence. You would expect a expedient resolution ($$$). How long without getting that compensation would it take before you called a lawyer? How long could you last with no income?

[79PonchoUK]

Well said Max. I wanted to add this, but it wasn't in the context of the last post.

"Their eagerness for this to stop" is a luxury the 3rd world countries don't get. If you want to see how much these corporations really care...take a look at Nigeria or Ecuador.

"According to Nigerian federal government figures, there were more than 7,000 spills between 1970 and 2000, and there are 2,000 official major spillages sites, many going back decades, with thousands of smaller ones still waiting to be cleared up. More than 1,000 spill cases have been filed against Shell alone."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell

This Oil Rig isn't a isolated incident, and the industry is far from globally responsible. The only reason we are now being flooded with all these so called "anti Oil/corporation" news stories is it finally happened to us, and thus, America is now VERY interested in the topic. We wouldn't have cared that these spills (not of this magnitude, but still rooted in negligence) were a regular occurrence in other nations, and the reporters certainly wouldn't have started digging deeper for past offenses. "ohh that's so sad" would have been the response, just another disaster in a war-torn ****-hole. But were now feeling the geological and economic impact for ourselves. And to call these coastal AMERICAN communities that depend on that body of water for their livelihoods "crybabies"...say your business burned down due to another businesses negligence. You would expect a expedient resolution ($$$). How long without getting that compensation would it take before you called a lawyer? How long could you last with no income?

That kind of argument crops up a lot though. You need to ask...do you think they give a **** about the spill in the US? No.

They're probably too busy being repressed by a animal government that we'll soon get flack for when we remove them.

Don't get caught up in guilt too much. lol

[Happyfunballs]

I heard an interesting twist as to why the leak hasn't been fixed yet. A friend was telling me the reason why the leak hasn't been stopped is because the EPA will not let BP extract oil from that particular "reservoir" once the well is capped. He was telling me that BP is stalling the effort to give more time for the relief well to be drilled so they can continue to pump from this reservoir once the leaking well is repaired. Conspiracy theory? Probably, but interesting nonetheless.

[wmhjr]

Well said Max. I wanted to add this, but it wasn't in the context of the last post.

"Their eagerness for this to stop" is a luxury the 3rd world countries don't get. If you want to see how much these corporations really care...take a look at Nigeria or Ecuador.

"According to Nigerian federal government figures, there were more than 7,000 spills between 1970 and 2000, and there are 2,000 official major spillages sites, many going back decades, with thousands of smaller ones still waiting to be cleared up. More than 1,000 spill cases have been filed against Shell alone."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell

This Oil Rig isn't a isolated incident, and the industry is far from globally responsible. The only reason we are now being flooded with all these so called "anti Oil/corporation" news stories is it finally happened to us, and thus, America is now VERY interested in the topic. We wouldn't have cared that these spills (not of this magnitude, but still rooted in negligence) were a regular occurrence in other nations, and the reporters certainly wouldn't have started digging deeper for past offenses. "ohh that's so sad" would have been the response, just another disaster in a war-torn ****-hole. But were now feeling the geological and economic impact for ourselves. And to call these coastal AMERICAN communities that depend on that body of water for their livelihoods "crybabies"...say your business burned down due to another businesses negligence. You would expect a expedient resolution ($$$). How long without getting that compensation would it take before you called a lawyer? How long could you last with no income?

You need to be very careful in what information you trust. The Guardian isn't exactly what I would call unbiased to begin with, and Vidal is so biased to the left that he needs a crutches to walk straight.

The truth is most certainly not what Vidal claims - nor is it the utopia that the oil companies claim. It's in between. Frankly, having been in some of the areas where the spills are in the attached article and being familiar with their political organization, I'm extremely confident that deliberate vandalism, theft, and anti-corporate/government "terrorism" is at least to a measurable extent responsible. What is also responsible is the thirst for energy that we all have.

Bottom line is that it's easy to point fingers at BP or whoever else is out there and try to come up with all kinds of statistics. Personally, I'm not willing to demonize an entire industry without which our entire way of life would not exist. There is plenty of blame to go around - including in the faces that we see in our mirrors.

BTW, I would place absolutely zero trust in ANYTHING that the Nigerian government published.

[westoz]

I heard an interesting twist as to why the leak hasn't been fixed yet. A friend was telling me the reason why the leak hasn't been stopped is because the EPA will not let BP extract oil from that particular "reservoir" once the well is capped. He was telling me that BP is stalling the effort to give more time for the relief well to be drilled so they can continue to pump from this reservoir once the leaking well is repaired. Conspiracy theory? Probably, but interesting nonetheless.

That is an interesting take on the situation, but I'm not sure I agree.

BP’s shares have more than halved since this disaster occurred. So I find it very unlikely that they would stall drilling progress on the two relief wells in an attempt to produce and recover more oil from the blown out well – the longer they stall the more the shares will fall ( no pun intended ). In addition to the plummeting share price BP have set up a GoM Wildlife fund that all net profits from the recovered and refined oil will go to.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not defending BP in anyway, this is a disaster of undescribable proportions. However, I do work in the industry and what’s in BP’s and everyone else’s best interest is to intersect the Marconda well (MC252) and kill that baby, the sooner the better.

Below is a Public Press release made from BP which makes for interesting reading

Release date: 28 June 2010
BP today provided an update on developments in the response to the MC252 oil well incident in the Gulf of Mexico.
Subsea Source Control and Containment

Two systems continue to collect oil and gas flowing from the Deepwater Horizon’s failed blow-out preventer (BOP) and transport them to vessels on the surface.

The lower marine riser package (LMRP) containment cap, installed on June 3, takes oil and gas to the Discoverer Enterprise where oil is collected and gas is flared. The second system, which began operations on June 16, takes oil and gas to the Q4000 vessel on the surface where both oil and gas are flared.

On June 26, a total of approximately 22,750 barrels of oil were collected or flared by the two systems and 52.9 million cubic feet of gas were flared. Specifically, the LMRP containment system connected to the Discoverer Enterprise collected 14,730 barrels of oil, and the Q4000 flared an additional 8,020 barrels of oil. To date, the total volume of oil recovered or flared by containment systems is approximately 435,600 barrels. Information on the volumes of oil and gas that are collected or flared is updated twice daily on BP’s website, www.bp.com (http://www.bp.com/).

Preparations continue for the next step in containment operations. Work on the first floating riser containment system, which will be connected to the Helix Producer vessel, remains on schedule. It is currently anticipated that this system will be available to begin first operations at the end of June or in early July. The system is intended to provide additional oil containment capacity of approximately 20,000-25,000 barrels a day. Together with the LMRP cap and Q4000 systems, the addition of this new system should increase total oil containment capacity to 40,000-50,000 barrels a day. The floating riser system is designed to allow more rapid disconnection and reconnection of the system, reducing the time that collection may be impacted in the case of, for example, inclement weather.
Plans also are being developed for potential additional containment capacity and flexibility, including a second floating riser system and additional capacity through a new cap on the BOP. These projects are currently anticipated to be available to begin operations around mid-July

The LMRP containment cap system, the Q4000 system, and the planned additional containment systems never before have been deployed at these depths or under these conditions, and their efficiency and ability to contain or flare the oil and gas cannot be assured.

The first relief well, which started drilling May 2, has reached a measured depth of 16,546 feet and has successfully completed a second ”ranging” run using specialist equipment inserted into the well to help more precisely locate the MC252 well. Drilling and ranging operations will continue over the next few weeks as the well progresses towards the target intercept depth of approximately 18,000 feet. Once intercept has occurred, operations are expected to begin to kill the flow of oil and gas from the reservoir by pumping specialised heavy fluids down the relief well.The second relief well, which started May 16, is at a measured depth of 12,038 feet. Both wells are still estimated to take approximately three months to complete from commencement of drilling.
Surface Spill Response and Containment

Work continues to collect and disperse oil that has reached the surface of the sea, to protect the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico, and to collect and clean up any oil that has reached shore.

Over 39,000 personnel, almost 5,000 vessels and some 110 aircraft are now engaged in the response effort.

Operations to skim oil from the surface of the water now have recovered, in total, approximately 652,000 barrels (27 million gallons) of oily liquid. In addition, a total of 275 controlled burns have been carried out to date, removing an estimated 238,000 barrels of oil from the sea’s surface.

The total length of containment boom deployed as part of efforts to prevent oil from reaching the coast is now over 2.9 million feet (over 550 miles), and over 4.7 million feet (almost 900 miles) of sorbent boom also has been deployed.
Additional information

To date, more than 80,000 claims have been submitted and almost 41,000 payments have been made, totaling more than $128 million.

The cost of the response to date amounts to approximately $2.65 billion, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs. On June 16, BP announced an agreed package of measures, including the creation of a $20 billion fund to satisfy certain obligations arising from the oil and gas spill. It is too early to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated with the incident.

[Happyfunballs]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

[wmhjr]

Just to be clear, I'm not giving BP a pass on the Deepwater Horizon disaster at all. They are responsible. So are some other parties.

The Mineral Management Agency is frankly IMHO the most at fault - for various reasons. Some of them include:

The 1994 (uh, please don't try to blame Bush for this one...) the "In Situ Burn Plan" was adopted, calling for the immediate purchase of a significant quantity of boom material. Where exactly are those booms? Uh, some were finally purchased after this accident. The Feds bought not a single boom between 1994 and 2010.

The fact that MMS was to my knowledge directly involved with the actual location, and that the federal govermnet continues to deny shallow (500ft) drilling, forcing the "ultra deep" rigs. Yes, I realize that there are apparently more reserves in deep water than shallow at this point. I also realize that there is more cost and risk in extracting the oil from these locations. Mr Obama should personally take a hard look in the mirror when it comes to risk being forced as a result of certain drilling locations. As should all the tree hugging envirowackos that in their short sighted demands actually increase damage and destruction to our planet.