Disaster unfolds slowly in the Gulf of Mexico

[_Hotsauce_]

I believe they are drilling relief well(s) at the moment, going to be leaking until they are complete in August

[sunny_j]

New oil plume evidence uncovered

As if the pictures of birds, fish and animals killed by floating oil in the Gulf of Mexico are not disturbing enough, scientists now say they have found evidence of another danger lurking underwater.

The University of South Florida recently discovered a second oil plume in the northeastern Gulf. The first plume was found by Mississippi universities in early May.

USF has concluded microscopic oil droplets are forming deep water oil plumes. After a weeklong analysis of water samples, USF scientists found more oil in deeper water.

"These hydrocarbons are from depth and not associated with sinking degraded oil but associated with the source of the Deep Horizon well head," said USF Chemical Oceanographer David Hollander.

Through isotopic or microscopic fingerprinting, Hollander and his USF crew were able to show the oil in the plume came from BP's blown-out oil well. The surface oil's so-called fingerprint matched the tiny underwater droplet's fingerprint.

"We've taken molecular isotopic approaches which is like a fingerprint on a smoking gun," Hollander said.

continued
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/07/gul...ex.html?hpt=T1

[orange7]

gg

[Greenstoner]

does anyone know the amount of oil has leaked is good for how many month or years of consuming ?

[Ducdesmo]

Goldman Sachs sold 44% of its BP Stock, Three weeks before the Oil Rig disaster.
Made $276million. Makes you wonder..

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/136466

http://moneycentral.msn.com/ownershi...ship&Symbol=BP

[quasi]

Originally Posted by Greenstoner

does anyone know the amount of oil has leaked is good for how many month or years of consuming ?

The world consumes about 85 million barrels per day. Canada consumes about 2.3 million barrels and the USA 20.6 million barrels p/day.

They are estimating 22 million barrels have leaked to date but who really knows how reliable that number is. If the estimates are correct the amount that's leaked to date is just over the amount the USA consumes in 1 day.

Oil Consumption Link
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/en...il-consumption

Estimated amount leaked Link
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/...of-mexico.html

[Mugen EvOlutioN]

^

that is a lot of oil to destroy our ocean

[_Hotsauce_]

Originally Posted by itsallaboutgz

Goldman Sachs sold 44% of its BP Stock, Three weeks before the Oil Rig disaster.
Made $276million. Makes you wonder..

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/136466

http://moneycentral.msn.com/ownershi...ship&Symbol=BP

You think BP sabotaged their own oil rig?

[q0192837465]

Originally Posted by _Hotsauce_

You think BP sabotaged their own oil rig?

More like there are hints of the inherent problems with the rig or the entire BP operations. Things we average joes will never get to know.

[Ducdesmo]

Originally Posted by _Hotsauce_

You think BP sabotaged their own oil rig?

I don't know, but considering GS is under investigation for fraud and JP Morgan chase are known for market manipulation, I wouldn't doubt that GS has something to do with the event.
Posted via RS Mobile

[trip]

interesting

http://www.blogster.com/joannemor/bo...gulf-of-mexico

[LiquidTurbo]

Originally Posted by itsallaboutgz

Goldman Sachs sold 44% of its BP Stock, Three weeks before the Oil Rig disaster.
Made $276million. Makes you wonder..

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/136466

http://moneycentral.msn.com/ownershi...ship&Symbol=BP

Originally Posted by _Hotsauce_

You think BP sabotaged their own oil rig?

[Gumby]

From http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/world...14307966.html:

BP shares fall 5% on Obama 'kick ass' comment
By KRISTEN HAYS, REUTERS

HOUSTON - Energy giant BP Plc said Tuesday it had sharply increased the amount of oil it was capturing from its blown-out Gulf of Mexico well, but U.S. officials want to know exactly how much oil is still gushing out.

The London-based company’s share price fell about 5 percent in London trading after U.S. President Barack Obama said he wanted to know “whose ass to kick” over the massive spill.

He told NBC News’ “Today” show that if BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward worked for him, he would have fired him by now over his response to the 50-day-old spill, the worst environmental disaster in U.S history.

BP already faces a criminal investigation and lawsuits over the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers and triggered the massive spill. Some 120 miles of U.S. coastline have been soiled in the disaster that threatens the Gulf Coast’s lucrative fishing industry.

The company said Tuesday it had collected 14,800 barrels of oil on Monday, 33 percent higher than the amount collected on Sunday and the highest capture rate since it installed a new system to contain the oil spill last week.

It infuriates me that BP seems way more concerned about collecting the oil. Their attempts to stop the leak itself seem half-assed - just to appease the general public I guess.

[orange7]

Originally Posted by Gumby

From http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/world...14307966.html:


It infuriates me that BP seems way more concerned about collecting the oil. Their attempts to stop the leak itself seem half-assed - just to appease the general public I guess.

+1

Instead of focusing some of its work force on drilling two relief wells, BP should've used its full work force on on plugging the leaks. After the leaks are completely plugged, then it should drill relief wells to collect oil again.

[Gumby]

Originally Posted by orange7

+1

Instead of focusing some of its work force on drilling two relief wells, BP should've used its full work force on on plugging the leaks. After the leaks are completely plugged, then it should drill relief wells to collect oil again.

Well, in their defense, the relief wells are proven solutions to the oil leaking from their main well. If the first one doesn't work for some reason, they'll have the second one. In fact, I think Obama instructed them to start drilling a 3rd one just in case.

The only problem with these relief wells is that they take time - weeks, if not months - to build. Plugging the leak itself would probably only take days - if they had come up with a working solution...

Edit: Here's an article (from BP, haha) that explains how the relief wells work:

http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?...tentId=7061734

[Great68]

Originally Posted by orange7

+1

Instead of focusing some of its work force on drilling two relief wells, BP should've used its full work force on on plugging the leaks. After the leaks are completely plugged, then it should drill relief wells to collect oil again.

No. Starting the Relief wells ASAP was the right thing to do. It may be almost impossible to PLUG the leak, and right now the only "Full work force" they have available to plug the leak is 12 ROV's.

[G]

It's hard to say BP should just "plug the leak", I'm pretty sure a lot of engineers and specialists are trying to figure out a way to do it, but building something that will "plug" it will take years considering how deep it is and they can't do a half ass job on the "plug" either.

It's the right thing to find ways around the leak to try to gather as much of the spill as they can but as of now. What they SHOULD be focusing on is how to contain the spill so it doesn't spread even more. That's the only thing they can do as of right now.

But from what I see it, it's not going to end soon... sigh..

[46_valentinor]

i think they should stop using the oil dispersing chemical!! it's going to be impossible to clean up the oil once it dilutes with the ocean water!! As long as the oil is still floating on top, they can still burn it off...

[Ferra]

Originally Posted by orange7

+1

Instead of focusing some of its work force on drilling two relief wells, BP should've used its full work force on on plugging the leaks. After the leaks are completely plugged, then it should drill relief wells to collect oil again.

They already tried everything to plug the leak, but none of the methods worked (capping it, top kills..etc). That was the first thing they did after the accident.

The relief drill is more like a "last resort" after they've exhausted all options.

[7seven]

(CNN) -- The morning the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, a BP executive and a Transocean official argued over how to proceed with the drilling, rig survivors told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview.

The survivors' account paints perhaps the most detailed picture yet of what happened on the deepwater rig -- and the possible causes of the April 20 explosion.

The BP official wanted workers to replace heavy mud, used to keep the well's pressure down, with lighter seawater to help speed a process that was costing an estimated $750,000 a day and was already running five weeks late, rig survivors told CNN.

BP won the argument, said Doug Brown, the rig's chief mechanic. "He basically said, 'Well, this is how it's gonna be.' "

"That's what the big argument was about," added Daniel Barron III.

Shortly after the exchange, chief driller Dewey Revette expressed concern and opposition too, the workers said, and on the drilling floor, they chatted among themselves.

"I don't ever remember doing this," they said, according to Barron.

"I think that's why Dewey was so reluctant to try to do it," Barron said, "because he didn't feel it was the right way to have things done."

Revette was among the 11 workers killed when the rig exploded that night.

In the CNN interviews, the workers described a corporate culture of cutting staff and ignoring warning signs ahead of the blast. They said BP routinely cut corners and pushed ahead despite concerns about safety.

The rig survivors also said it was always understood that you could get fired if you raised safety concerns that might delay drilling. Some co-workers had been fired for speaking out, they said.

It can cost up to $1 million a day to operate a deepwater rig, according to industry experts.

Safety was "almost used as a crutch by the company," Barron said. He said he was once scolded for standing on a bucket on the rig, yet the next day, Transocean ordered a crane to continue operating amid high winds, against its own policies. "It's like they used it against us -- the safety policies -- you know, to their advantage.

"I don't think there was ever a plan set in place, because no one ever thought this was gonna ever happen," he added.

BP spokesman Robert Wine would not comment on specific allegations, saying the company has to "wait for the investigations to be completed. We can't prejudge them."

"BP's priority is always safety," he said.

Transocean, the world's largest offshore drilling contractor, said its top priority is safety.

"There is no scenario or circumstance under which it will be compromised," the company said in a written statement. "So critical is safety at Transocean that every crew member has stop-work authority, a real-time method by which all work is halted should any employee suspect an unsafe situation or operation."

The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into the massive oil spill that has spewed as much as 798,000 gallons (19,000 barrels) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico every day.

The rig workers have filed a negligence suit against BP, Transocean, oil field services contractor Halliburton and other companies involved with the deepwater rig.

"I've seen gross negligence, and this conduct is criminal," said Steve Gordon, the lawyer representing the men. "There's a crime scene sitting 5,000 feet below the water."

Brown, the rig's mechanic, had traveled with the rig from South Korea, where it was made nearly a decade ago. He had seen the mechanical crew get downsized over the years. Yet as the rig aged, the engines began having more problems.

"It became overwhelming," he said. "We couldn't keep up with the flow of it. ... We constantly over the years kept telling them, 'Hey, we need more help back here.'

"They pretty much just said, 'Well, we'll look into it.' "

About nine months ago, Brown said, he got an additional first engineer, yet the crew was still overloaded with work.

Even more alarming, the rig survivors said, was the amount of resistance the well was giving them. "We had problems with it from the day we got on," Matthew Jacobs said.
There was always like an ominous feeling. This well did not want to be drilled.

Nearly every day, Jacobs said, "we had problems with that well."

Barron said it was like an eerie cloud hung over the well being dug 5,000 feet into the sea.

"There was always like an ominous feeling," he said. "This well did not want to be drilled. ... It just seemed like we were messing with Mother Nature."

At times, the drill got stuck. Many times, it "kicked," meaning gas was shooting back through the mud at an alarming rate.

"I've seen a lot of gas coming up from muds on different wells, and the highest I've ever seen in my 11 years was 1,500 units. And this well gave us 3,000," Brown said. "I've never been on a well with that high of gas coming out of the mud. That was kind of letting me know this well was something to be reckoned with."

It all came to a head at 9:56 p.m., when the first of three explosions rocked Deepwater Horizon, 52 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, with 126 people aboard. Tiles fell from the ceiling, walls collapsed, and people ran for their lives. It reminded Matt Jacobs of the movie "Titanic."

"It looked like you was looking at the face of death," he said. "You could hear it, see it, smell it."

He scrambled to the lifeboat deck. Jacobs had been trained to fight fires aboard the rig. But when he looked at the flames shooting 150 feet into the air, he knew there was nothing they could do. "There is no way we can put that fire out," he thought.

Jacobs hopped in a lifeboat. He screamed for co-workers to jump aboard. A second explosion rocked the rig. The lifeboat, still suspended in the air, went into a free fall of about 3 feet.

"Here I am on a lifeboat that's supposed to help me get off this rig," Jacobs thought. "And I'm gonna wind up dying."

He bowed his head and prayed.

Now, 50 days later, the survivors are telling their stories. It's become part of their everyday lives. They can't shake what happened that day, even when they close their eyes at night.

"It's like being in a neverending nightmare," Brown said. "You dream about it. You see it in your sleep. Then, we wake up in the morning, and we realize it's not a dream. It's real. ... It doesn't end for us."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/08/oil...gns/index.html

[Gumby]

^
Hate to be a dick, but this is starting to sound like an action movie. When Michael Bay's done with Transformers, would he be interested in working with Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck again?

[woob]

LONDON—As the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico entered its eighth week Wednesday, fears continued to grow that the massive flow of bullshit still gushing from the headquarters of oil giant BP could prove catastrophic if nothing is done to contain it.

The toxic bullshit, which began to spew from the mouths of BP executives shortly after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April, has completely devastated the Gulf region, delaying cleanup efforts, affecting thousands of jobs, and endangering the lives of all nearby wildlife.

"Everything we can see at the moment suggests that the overall environmental impact of this will be very, very modest," said BP CEO Tony Hayward, letting loose a colossal stream of undiluted bullshit. "The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean, and the volume of oil we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total volume of water."


Hayward's comments fueled fears that the spouting of overwhelmingly thick and slimy bullshit may never subside.

According to sources, the sheer quantity of bullshit pouring out of Hayward is unprecedented, and it has thoroughly drenched the coastlines of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, with no end in sight.

Though no one knows exactly how much of the dangerous bullshit is currently gushing from BP headquarters, estimates put the number at somewhere between 25,000 and 70,000 words a day.

"We're looking at a truly staggering load of shit here," said Rebecca Palmer, an environmental scientist at the University of Georgia, who claimed that only BP has the ability to stem the flow of bullshit and plug it at its source. "And this is just the beginning—we're only seeing the surface-level bullshit. It could be years before we sift through it all and figure out just how deep this bullshit goes."

Congressional hearings aimed at stopping the bullshit have thus far failed to do so, with officials from BP and its contractors Halliburton and Transocean only adding to the powerful torrents of bullshit by blaming one another for the accident.

Along with the region's wildlife and fragile ecosystem, countless livelihoods have been jeopardized by BP's unchecked flow of corporate shit. Those who depend on fishing or tourism for their income are already feeling the noxious effects of the bullshit firsthand, as out-of-control platitudes begin to reach land and seep ashore.


Dense streams of shit are expected to continue spreading throughout the region and the entire United States.

"This bullshit, it's everywhere," said Louisiana fisherman Doug LaRoux, who lost his house to a tide of government bullshit following Hurricane Katrina. "It reeks. Big buckets of disgusting shit are oozing everywhere you look and I don't know if it's ever going to stop. I feel helpless"

Added LaRoux, "I never thought I'd be the victim of so much bullshit."

Observers have noted that after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, corporate bullshit gushed up like a geyser for two decades and didn't wane until the oil company had bullshit its way through an exhaustive process of court appeals that ultimately reduced payouts to victims by 90 percent.

Despite Hayward's denials that BP is at fault for the environmental disaster and his concern that it will result in "illegitimate" American lawsuits, the embattled CEO has still managed to trickle out a few last drips of bullshit sympathy for Gulf Coast residents.

"I'm as devastated as you are by this," Hayward said after a meeting with cleanup crews on Louisiana's Fourchon Beach. "We will clean every last drop up and we will remediate all of the environmental damage."

"There's no one that wants this thing over with more than I do," he added a week later, just absolutely defying belief with the thickest, most dangerous bullshit yet. "I'd like my life back."

Millions of Americans reported feeling ill and disoriented upon contact with that particularly vile plume of bullshit.

Many environmentalists, including Palmer, have called for a boycott of BP until the bullshit stops or is at least under control, but they emphasize that in the long term, Americans will have to change their habits if they wish to avoid future catastrophes.

"We must all work together if we're going to cure our nation of this addiction," Palmer said. "The sad fact is, the United States has been running on bullshit for decades."

http://www.theonion.com/articles/mas...from-bp,17564/

onion

[97ITR]

Originally Posted by Gumby

From http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/world...14307966.html:


It infuriates me that BP seems way more concerned about collecting the oil. Their attempts to stop the leak itself seem half-assed - just to appease the general public I guess.

Why do you think it seems like they're more concerned about collecting the oil? You do realize the oil they collect they're burning right? Furthermore, BP has seen about a 100 billion dollars of market cap wiped out because of this mess, do you really think they're not concentrating all their efforts to solve this mess?

[sunny_j]

Originally Posted by 97ITR

Why do you think it seems like they're more concerned about collecting the oil? You do realize the oil they collect they're burning right? Furthermore, BP has seen about a 100 billion dollars of market cap wiped out because of this mess, do you really think they're not concentrating all their efforts to solve this mess?

where did you get that from?

[sunny_j]

Second (Small) Gulf Oil Spill Confirmed

As if the oil spill in the gulf weren’t already sticky and complicated enough, news started emerging late Tuesday of a second oil well in the region leaking crude, producing an oil slick that was visible from the air.

The news was spotty and a little vague, but the Department of Interior did confirm Tuesday that “small amounts of oil – on average of less than one-third of a barrel per day – have been leaking” from wells operated by a company called Taylor Energy.

CNBC was reporting that this new leak originated from a production platform that was destroyed by an underwater mudslide in 2004, when Hurricane Ivan slammed the area. The site has been leaking ever since, as Taylor has sought to contain and close the well.

Taylor Energy, meanwhile, issued a statement Tuesday, saying that the photos of a second oil slick were taken while the company was actively working at the site, deploying a containment system: “Unidentified aircraft took photos this weekend that incorrectly reported an oil leak coming from the drilling rig Ocean Saratoga. At the time of these photos, Taylor Energy was actually conducting marine operations on site with a 180 foot dynamically positioned workboat for a regularly scheduled subsea containment system drainage,” the company said.

So it’s a small leak that Taylor is actively trying to contain.

But what’s a little less clear is how long this leak, which is still producing around 14 gallons a day – roughly a car tank’s worth – has been belching oil into the open ocean. Yes, Taylor is working to contain it, but how many days out of the last six years has oil been flowing freely? Assuming the leakage rate was always 14 daily gallons, that’s more than 30,600 gallons since 2004.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/06/09/...ill-confirmed/

http://cnmnewsnetwork.com/119227/2nd...toga-oil-leak/