Gulf coast oil spill

[classicman]

Some 750 boats drafted in to scoop up oil from the Gulf of Mexico are having "trouble" finding any crude in the sea, a top US official said Wednesday, almost a week after a busted well was capped.

"We are starting to have trouble finding oil," US pointman Admiral Thad Allen, who is in charge of handling the government's response, told reporters.

The boats, which have been drafted in to skim oil off the surface of the Gulf, are "really having to search for the oil in some cases" around the area of the capped well, he added.

Link

Now they are looking for that soda can in a stadium.

[Happy Monkey]

"around the area of the capped well"? With the cap, there's not much new oil, and it's not going to hang around. Hopefully they're looking around somewhere else, as well.

[classicman]

They have been pumping the mud in and it appears as though the well is plugged. They need to finalize it with concrete and have been given the OK by the administration as long as it doesn't affect the relief well timetable.....

[Lamplighter]

NY Times article 8/6/10


BP Done Pumping Cement Into Well

Because no significant amount of oil has leaked since the well was tightly capped on July 15, the start of the cementing was almost anticlimactic.

Although the static kill is likely to seal the volatile well permanently, final victory will not be declared until a relief well is completed and it intercepts the well in the middle to later part of August, according to both Admiral Allen and senior BP executives.

Admiral Allen said the mystery would be solved conclusively only by the relief well, and by a final pumping of mud and cement into any areas not reached by the static kill.
But Greg McCormack, program director of the Petroleum Extension Service at the University of Texas Austin, said, that the fact that the cementing was finished so quickly “means they had a good cement job, which means that they probably cemented all the way down to the bottom in the production casing and reached the reservoir.”
He added, “If there aren’t any leaks anywhere else, that means this well is done.”

[classicman]

Now we are being told that the vast majority of the rest of the oil spilled is evaporating and getting eaten by microbes.
Perhaps I should have resurrected the perverting science thread for this post.


Where are the images of all the oil covered and dead animals on the TV night, after night, after night... like there were with the Valdez spill?

I also noticed that since Anderson Cooper left the area there really hasn't been much "real" coverage on things.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by classicman

Where are the images of all the oil covered and dead animals on the TV night, after night, after night... like there were with the Valdez spill?

The Valdez spilled heavy crude, in freezing temperatures. Also, it didn't happen a mile beneath the ocean.

[Happy Monkey]

Plus, this spill lasted three months, and the press gets bored quicker, so the dead pelicans only got a few days. Also, BP used dispersants to turn visibly-bird-coating oil into undersea poison. Most dead animals will be out of the way at the bottom of the ocean. Gulf seafood will be returning it to us slowly for the forseeable future.

But I never liked seafood, so I'm good! If any Gulf seafood gets to me, it will have to be indirectly, through several levels of processing.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Plus, this spill lasted three months, and the press gets bored quicker, so the dead pelicans only got a few days. Also, BP used dispersants to turn visibly-bird-coating oil into undersea poison. Most dead animals will be out of the way at the bottom of the ocean. Gulf seafood will be returning it to us slowly for the forseeable future.

But I never liked seafood, so I'm good! If any Gulf seafood gets to me, it will have to be indirectly, through several levels of processing.

The oil just makes the oysters more slippery so they go down easier.

[Undertoad]

Much of the slick did not make landfall because, amongst other reasons, it had the flow of the 4th largest river in the world working against it.

[Happy Monkey]

Ha ha! FU Carribean!

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Flint

The Valdez spilled heavy crude, in freezing temperatures. Also, it didn't happen a mile beneath the ocean.

Do you honestly believe that there were no pictures to be had in the marshes as the oil made landfall? Where are the nightly images of the oil covered shorelines? Why were there never any rebuttals to those who are there bringing up the issues that were not being addressed?

Please. . . If you look, you can find them, just not on the major networks.

[casimendocina]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

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

I'd held off from reading/participating in this thread for all the usual reasons. Now after finally gathering the courage to have a look, I see that there was no need to.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by casimendocina

I'd held off from reading/participating in this thread for all the usual reasons. Now after finally gathering the courage to have a look, I see that there was no need to.

[HungLikeJesus]

I just had some shrimp for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant and wondered if they came from the Gulf.

[Clodfobble]

Oh, did they tell you that was mole sauce? Yeah, ah, about that...