Gulf coast oil spill
 

Well, crap. That's gonna make a mess.

Yup.

Total. Mess.

I'm only in here to let Zen know I have decided to engage in the post count competition once again. You have been warned.... :)

I'm not far behind?

Let's take a moment to thank our Supreme Court, which whittled down a 5 billion dollar judgement in the Exxon Valdex incident that had already been reduced by an appeals court to 2.5 billion to 500 million.

Wow, I'll bet an angel earned his wings on that one.:right:

The flaw in that is that Alaska was not made whole. Exxon was unable to clean up the entire spill, so those compensatory damages did not accurately reflect all of the damage.

If I remember correctly, Exxon had record profits that year.

With this kind of precedent on the books, LA and the surrounding states are completely screwed.

BTW, I doubt a pre-GWB court would have reached this decision.

GWB, the gift that keeps on giving.

This could Totaly Screw up our Fla Vacation this year !!!!
Oh well thats what trip insurance is for .

I'm more interested in discovering what sort of technology they'll have to use to shut off an artesian petroleum spurt a mile underwater. That depth takes tough little submersibles, manned or remote. They're going to have to, you know.

Apparently they are using dispersants to keep oil from surfacing. No mention of stopping the flow. The impact will be terrible. How does this location compare to the Obama administration's new rules?

NOLA, we hardly knew ye.


This is depressing on so many levels.

Keep in persective BP's reputation. For example, their maintenance of the Alaska pipeline is well known by all whose news is from news sources - not gossip or politically tainted sources. BP apparetly has some of the most unsafe refineries in the industry based upon the number of explosions and deaths.

This well head was about to be capped since drilling was almost complete. Well heads have a valve structure with both automatic and manually operated valves. Five days later, BP sort of requested help from everyone. Apparently did not say why. None of those many valves are working. The entire well was draining into the Gulf. BP simply underplayed the extent of an impending disaster (apparently for the same reasons why they also forgot to mention why the Alaska pipeline was at such serious risk).

About one week ago, this open well had the potetial of being larger than that largest oil spiil. No, that was not Exxon Valdez. An oil spile three times larger was earlier in Brooklyn by Mobil oil. Mobil also did not pay for the cleanup.

This spill has one additional problem. It will be picked up by the Gulf stream. It can spread aroung the FL coast and up the American Atlantic coast. A major spill was not carried by a major current. So we learn.

BP said that drilling rig was not at risk of sinking. One day later, it capsized. Why are those valves not working? Too few facts are forecoming from BP. Expect this oil spill to be much worse because BP is contantly suppressing facts. It is BP's history from many refinery fires and why the Alaska pipeline was not being properly cleaned.

I watched a bit of this on the Sunday morning show this am. I guess plenty of fishermen want to help clean up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/us/01marsh.html

We had a similar offshore oil leak here a few months back, luckily for the company it was way off the uninhabited north west coast, so there was little angry reaction, but it took weeks for them to plug the leak. In this case, they had to drill another hole, intersecting with the first, and fill both with concrete, or something like that.

All those fishing communities, waterfront places, mangroves, wetlands, etc, might as well bend over and try to relax, cause they're about to get screwed.

It's a horrible and far-reaching situation. :(

Drill, baby, drill!

I want to know how those 40' tall silo-thingys they're making to contain the oil are going to be placed in 5,000 ft of water. WTF?! And what do they need 3 of them for?

I'm pissed as hell about my beautiful Clearwater beaches being ruined. Not to mention the wildlife :mad2::sniff:.

I had a bunch of summer fun planned that involved the coast and coastal islands. Bet all that is fubar'd now.

I read that the high-tech shut off valve would have cost $500k, so BP declined to install it. Now the cleanup is estimated to cost into the billions. :eek:

Blame Classicman and merc.

I'll have to take your word for it. Got no idea which company is safer than another.

I would certainly hope that this would influence their decision. WTH?

gas is up to 2.89 - was 2.67 pre-spill. sheesh.

I think that was more due to the seasonal increase.
I don't believe the rate hikes from this spill have started yet.

Why would this spill cause rate hikes? Maybe down the road if it results in greater safety regulations that cost more. But the oil lost is relatively small compared to the entire oil supply out there. It's huge in terms of an oil spill, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to what we use.

BP is going to lose a lot of money, and they may raise prices a little, but if they raise them too much, people will just shop elsewhere.

Everything that happens in the free world, and the not-so-free world, is an excuse for rising gas prices. Oil as god has its shiny hand in everything!

Stormieweather seems to have cofferdams in mind. Exerpt:

raise hikes? I imagine corporate suites dropping hankies on the floor with price increments of,2, 5,10 and 20 cent markups or downs written on them. Someone yells go and the first hankie picked up is the new price increase or decrease for the day. yay!

Who's responsible for this disaster? The Wall Street Journal says, it looks like Haliburton.:eyebrow:

Halliburton also was the cementer on a well that suffered a big blowout last August in the Timor Sea, off Australia. The rig there caught fire and a well leaked tens of thousands of barrels of oil over 10 weeks before it was shut down. The investigation is continuing; Halliburton declined to comment on it.

oopsie

aside- Part of the natural gas cluster foxtrot in Dimock, PA was related to improper cementing.

I need to get out to Fort Desoto and St. Pete Beach before this makes mess makes it way south. Have a drink or three with my feet in sand while its still quartz-white. :(

"Gasoline prices are rising nationwide as the summer driving season nears, and oil futures appear poised for a breakout on encouraging economic news and fears about the seriousness of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Over the last week, pump prices saw their biggest jump in more than a month, according to the Energy Department's weekly survey of U.S. filling stations.

Nationwide, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline rose 4.9 cents to $2.898. In California it rose 3 cents to $3.118."

Haliburton? This does not inspire confidence.

Reminds me of the bad days at home of Amoco Cadiz, Erika, Torrey Canyon that went to shore with full shipments of oil...

At the end of 1999, I went to help collecting oil from the Erika on the differents beaches at home...

Can you spell Sisyphus ?

I know :thepain:. I was going to have my daughter's 5th birthday celebration at Fort Desoto. She's never been. And now, it may never be the same again /sob.

Once again, it takes a catastrophe to convince people.

Yeah, a carefully orchestrated catastrophe. :tinfoil:

Why do you want to suck my cock?

This is not correct. The initial dome/cofferdam would not be placed over the wellhead. They would be placed over the end of the severed riser which is some distance from the well head. The majority of the oil is pouring from this location. Others may be placed over smaller leaks in the riser line as well. There is no plan to place one over the wellhead itself. They need to keep that as clear as possible for additional repairs on the failed BOP unit.

This rig was not yet in production, so this spill does not impact what's available on the market unless other Gulf rigs are shut down due to oil slick.

As for BP's losses, yes they will be responsible for cleanup costs, however their liability for non-cleanup related costs are capped at $75MM. This cap was put in place by Congress after the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.

The oil is not leaking from the well head. The majority is leaking from the end of the severed riser (pipe that ran between the wellhead and surface rig) There are also two lesser leaks from cracks which formed in the riser due to bending/flexing stress that it was not designed to withstand.

Here's a pic of the units that are going to be laced over the severed end and leaking cracks in the riser

http://www.chron.com/photos/2010/05/.../260xStory.jpg

There will be a pipe that attaches to the tops of these units to allow the oil to be brought to the surface vessels

Hope it works

Cofferdams and pumps ? May be

But how long will they be pumping ?
Will they continue theirs attemps at closing that damned thing ?

My assumption is that these are temporary solutions to be in place until they can drill an intercepting well, seal off the one leaking which will then cut off the oil flow to the leaking riser. At that point the cofferdams would no longer be needed.

Let us hope it'll work.

We must be a week behind you Bri. Our gas just shot up more than $.10 to over $2.90 around here ... just in the last couple days.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/op...#ixzz0n6Epi66e

Hmmmm

Criminy - I saw regular unleaded for $3.09 on my way home today WTF?

Something doesn't sound right about that Ixtoc number. That spill ran for 9 months....

OK Flickster, fess up... are you in the oil business? :haha:

Not directly - provide services to engineering firms, some of which do oil & gas related projects

Yeah, you seemed to be up on the subject. Thanks for the information.
BP is responsible, but I think it's Haliburton's fault, from what I've read.

... which means three months and not during periods of extreme weather. Let's see. When does hurricane season start?

Well, BP who originally put the spill at 1000 gallons per day now estimates the number may be ten times higher than their latest numbers - 200,000 gallons per day.

Oh. And Haliburton refuses to testify before Congress. Blackwater was a division of Haliburton.

The well completion process, including the cementing, performed in this case by Haliburton, is way beyond my realm of associated knowledge. I too have read that theory, but at this point it's only a theory. Another is that the pressure buildup was not detected, or went unnoticed, by the operator.

My hope is that when this as all said and done, they are able to determine exactly what went wrong and use that information to prevent this from ever happening again.

To my knowledge there has not been a Congressional investigation regarding this spill. At this point I think there are still far too many questions as to what happened.

An investigation of what happened after the explosion could advance, but Haliburton was not included in those activities.

As for hurricane season....your point is? Not sure how surface conditions affect conditions 5,000 feet below. As for any surface activity, rigs ride out storms all the time. They do evacuate during severe storms, but the rig remains in place.

I should have said Federal investigation - not Congressional.

Cementing is a process where the cement must be carefully measured, mixed, and inserted. If cement remains, then a serious and dangerous problem exists. Not known is what Haliburton is supposed to do next.

Apparently the explosion happened two hours after Haliburton applied their cement. Since Haliburton is not talking, almost nothing about the cement process is known.

Alarms should sound if a blowout is detected. None did. Question as to whether those alarms were disabled or if Haliburton did something to subvert alarms and the Blow Out Protector are unknown.

Rig only does something if connected to a ship. No ship means oils flows uncollected. Storms such as last week means a ship may not be able to remain connected.

There are many different types of rigs and surface processing vessels. From what I'm reading on the spill containment/capture, this will go directly to a surface processing vessel, where the oil & water will be separated. My guess would be an FPSO or the like.

Latest report I'm seeing from the AP, the blame is being placed on a bubble of methane, which could also point to some issues with the cementing process.

This problem occurred (apparently) due to heating of that cement - the curing process.

Ironically, nine BP executives were on the rig when the explosion ripped into the party room. They were celebrating the rig's extraordinary safety record.

Too many things failed simultaneously. The process should have been monitored by those doing the cementing. Alarms should have gone off. They didn't. Chains of safety systems - altogether called a blow out preventer - did not work. Robots could not turn off valves manually. And BP quietly admitted that the leak may be 10 times larger than 5000 barrels per day. That means nothing even partially cut off the flow.

Well, the dome has failed. Hydrates are freezing - clogging the pipe. At that depth, even methane is at near freezing points. A complicated thermodynamic problem.

No, no, no.... blame it on Bush.

So rally up the tea partiers and burn down the country. Extremists will find enemies hiding everywhere.

Clearly it was bin Laden. But since Bush protected bin Laden, we must blame someone else. I hear Nessy left the Loch now that Conservatives were taking over the government. Clearly we should blame it on a foreigner – even if it is not human.

Lies, lies, and more lies. And finally we are hearing what investigators have been confronting.

How much oil was flowing into the Gulf? From video, BP would have known this all along. That 18 inch diameter pipe was always flowing full open. Just from the video, BP knew oil flow was easily 200,000 gallons per day - probably more. BP hid this fact even when the White House demanded to know the numbers. BP made early statements such as 1000 gallons hoping that (for example) robot submarines would cut off the oil before we knew how extreme it was. Public image - to even deny to the White House the impending disaster - was more important.

The White House even demanded those videos. BP openly refused. BP would have known oil flow was maximum by simply measuring how quickly that massive oil cap 'filled'. And still BP would not admit the severity of that failure. Instead, only quietly admitting to the White House that the flow was probably worse than they had said - when BP already knew the numbers were worse.

BP told federal authorities that BP had plans for such 'accidents'. As the cap demonstrated, BP had no plans - no contingencies. BP built the cap from scratch without every having even tested this solution. Therefore BP did not even know about thermodynamic problems that would cause that cap to fail. BP did no plannnig for such leaks - another lie to federal authorities.

We now know that BP knew the blowout preventer had failed hours before an explosion occurred. Previous tests (including a negative pressure test) failed.

Worse, is the state of that blowout preventer. At least one critical hydraulic line was not tightened. Apparently one nut was many turns too loose. So hydraulic fluids, essential to prevent a blowout, could not flow.

Also in this safety device are two controllers for dead man operation. If nothing else worked, these electronics devices would initiate a safety cut off on their own. One controller was removed. Its battery was dead. That is typical when (due to problems directly traceable in management) basic maintenance is not performed. Why management is responsible for creating check lists and other procedures so that humans do not make mistakes.

Another system in the BOP would crush the pipe. Apparently the BOP did not have sufficient strength to crush that type of pipe. These kind of mistakes are not even close to being called an accident.

BP's knowledge for addressing this problem was so minimal that even Exxon had to teach BP that disperants should be applied directly into the well. Until informed by Exxon, BP did not even know this. So much for those existing plans that BP claimed to have.

Unknown is why this blow out occurred. However testimony from a support ship (asked to remain on scene due to unknown problems) observed a massive mud flow long before any explosion. So much mud as to pour from the rig's deck. Crews obviously knew long in advance that a problem existed. More than sufficient time to activate the blowout preventer. Eventually, mud was followed by a massive gas bubble (probably methane) that eventually filled rooms where the gas found ignition sources - exploded.

Unknown how long the blowout was ongoing before the entire rig eventually exploded. But this we do know. Crews knew for a serious problem existed with plenty of time to avert the disaster - if the so many safety systems worked. The ship that was asked to standby rescued all survivors - 115 of the 126 that were on that rig.

Every critical safety system on that BOP apparently was defective. BP knew long ago that they had bad wiring, a pressure problem, and that the BOP that had already failed a negative pressure test. All facts that BP would not admit to until Congress forced them to give up the documents.

We do not even know who asked that ship to standby - or why.

Meanwhile, we also know oil booms to contain oil are mostly for show. Those booms do nothing except in the most calm waters. Over three weeks later, we only only beginning to learn how much they knew - and did not want us to know.

Like Three Mile Island, the Challenger, and the Columbia - all failures directly traceable to multiple failures in top management. Lies, lies, and more lies from BP make this failure that much more suspicious.

Who technically failed to do their jobs? Halliburton? The BOP manufacturer? We do not yet know. What we do know is that BP has been lying repeatedly. That casts major suspicions on BP's topmost executives - whose actions would also explain the massive refinerary explosion in Texas and the Alaska pipeline failure directly traceable to maintenance that BP was paid to perform - and did not perform.

BP that called itself 'Beyond Petroleum' in an advertising campaign to promote itself as a 'green' company is also a boldface lying company - according to facts that were finally released.

Maybe because there was some BP big shots on the rig for a party? They escaped, but at least one was injured in the explosion.

That seems likely. Didn't the blowout valve fail a pressure test that morning? I wonder if they didn't put on the show the big hats wanted despite the potential problem.

BP: Big Fines, Good News
Brian Wingfield 10.25.07
Link

A link with some of BP's history and its fines/penalties.

BP had just come off probation in 2008.

**Note the date of this article...(top of the page)

And it looks like drumroll

But the date says 11/05/2010????