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BP Suspends "Top Kill" For Second Time After Trying Two Junk Shots. Less Than 10% of Injection Fluids are Staying Inside the Leaking Pipes
As I reported
yesterday, the "Top Kill" attempt to stop the oil flow using mud had
failed, and BP would now try to use a "junk shot" to close the leaks in
the pipe using various debris.
The New York Times is now reporting
that the junk shot approach is not going well:
The
company [again] suspended pumping operations at 2:30 a.m. Friday after
two “junk shot” attempts, said the technician, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly
about the efforts."The suspension of the effort was not announced, and appeared to again
contradict statements by company and government officials that suggested
the top kill procedure was progressing Friday."
***
The technician working on the
effort said that despite the injections at various pressure levels,
engineers had been able to keep less than 10 percent of the injection
fluids inside the stack of pipes above the well. He said that was
barely an improvement on Wednesday’s results when the operation
began....
“I won’t say progress was zero, but I don’t know if we
can round up enough mud to make it work,” said the technician.
“Everyone is disappointed at this time.”
Update: It appears that BP is starting preparations for its next fix-it scheme.
As
FT's oil spill blog reports:
The
ROVs are definitely up to something:
Update: LMRP 3.28pm
BST (10.28am EDT; 9.28am CDT)A couple of TOD commenters believe
some of the recent footage shows the Lower Marine Riser Package, which
BP says it is preparing in parallel with the top kill efforts. One
points out that the camera in the screen shot below seems to say LMRP
(see text at the centre).
As BP explains
today:
In
parallel with the ongoing top kill operation, preparations have been
made for the possible deployment of the lower marine riser package
(LMRP) cap containment system.Deployment would first involve
removing the damaged riser from the top of the failed BOP to leave a
cleanly-cut pipe at the top of the BOP's LMRP. The cap, a containment
device with a sealing grommet, will be connected to a riser from the
Discoverer Enterprise drillship, 5,000 feet above on the surface, and
placed over the LMRP with the intention of capturing most of the oil
and gas flowing from the well.The LMRP cap is already deployed
alongside the BOP in readiness for potential deployment. If it is
decided to deploy this option, this would be expected to take some
three to four days.In addition to these steps, planning is
being advanced for deploying, if necessary, a second BOP on top of the
original failed BOP.
More updates:
Third
Giant Underwater Oil Plume Discovered
Rumor:
Secretary of the Navy Wants to Sink a Battleship On Top of the Oil
Spill
»
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monkeyfaction
Russians who have dealt with this before. Norwegians.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/05/gulf-oil-spill-bp-countr...
17 Countries Offer Gulf Assistance, BP Accepts Only 2 Offers
He said the U.S. has received offers to assist from 17 countries and four international organizations. The countries are : Canada, Mexico, Korea, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and Vietnam. The organizations are : the European Union, including the European Maritime Safety Agency, the environmental unit of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the United Nations Environment Program and the International Maritime Organization.
Though the State Department receives the offers, it is BP and the Unified Area Command, led by the Coast Guard, that are the entities that decide which offers to accept. So far, the UAC has accepted skimmers and booms offered by Mexico and Norway. He deferred questions as to why only those offers had been accepted so far to the UAC in Louisiana.
Crowley did not have much information on what each country was specifically offering besides saying, “technical things, skimmers, booms, you know in some cases expertise.”
Germany has the technology.
They put out the fires in the desert, that Saddam thought would burn 1000 years.
Putting a lid on oil wells is what they do.
I wouldn't be surprised to see German innovation and engineering come to the rescue - again.
Ok, fire away.
This german is wondering when the next shoe will drop. Every action has a reaction and nature abhors a vacuum. Keeping this in mind how is all that oil and gas pressure removed now from far beneath our gulf going to display itself and when? Has anyone seen the geologic structure beneath the gulf?
I assume with over a thousand wells in service in the gulf removing the oil, that they would replace the oil taken, with something else.
If not , we are asking for serious earthquake troubles. I wish i had more info, someone should since there is a potential danger .
The reason BP is in charge is so Obama can have a strawman to blame and attack.
Besides, Obama has already apologized to the oil god.
Two Texas oilmen ran the country for the last eight years, ripping down enviromental and safety oversight everywhere they saw it. And it's OBAMA's fault that he doesn't have a magic wand to wave, and fix their screwup? Gimme a break.
Note the deafening silence from Dick Cheney on this, ex-CEO of Halliburton, the world's largest oilfield services company, and the company directly responsible for sealing this well.
Mr. Cheney, you've not been slow to correct the current Presidency on other matters. This issue is directly in your field of expertise - care to enlighten us on how to proceed? Mr. Cheney? Mr. Cheney???
The US should nuke this issue to oblivion.
Always ready to nuke their way out, nuke the Indians, nuke middle East muslims, turn the whole into glass.
I wonder if a thermonuclear explosion could provide a glass lid to stop the spill.
Considering the unbelievable pressures with which one is dealing AND the toxic substances in raw oil AND the toxic gasses, if The Nuclear Option accomplished nothing more than blowing the hole wide open, you can add global radiation to that mix.
I am sure that "the experts" have had numerous changes of underwear with many more to come.
collapsing the hole, 3 miles plus, tapered from 22'' diameter
to maybe 10'', could be the solution to stop the leak, but not
to capture the energy/oil "stored"/existing below. the collapse
should be throughout the length of the 'tapered string', ie. the hole,
well, 3 miles plus down from the gulf floor/mud. i think of it, the well,
as 3 miles plus of missing mud, with some layers of "rock"/ ...
but mud is good. the key ingredient to the problem is the accurate
description of the problem, secret, shssss. no one is supposed to know except
them that have the authority or financial interest to know. the two groups
that have their own problems and overriding agendas. at odds with the science
and the facts and the concerns of the many and the environment? we are
seeing / will see.
blindman-
It seems that ZH had a glitch or whatever and took down GeorgeWashington's contributor post from last night on mysterious goings on in the Gulf oil spill (it's also gone from his site) - but the cache is still available
original
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/either-bp-oil-gusher-has-just-blown-out...
cache
http://bit.ly/bvzkln
thanks for the clarification. i miss that particular thread, it
had "promise". ? thanks again.
.
i have been there at the oil drum. some good threads but
the a coherent description of what is going on down there,
narrative, continues to escape, like oil from the depths beneath
the depths. seeming important questions remain unanswered.
how many holes were drilled and at what locations? how many
sources of leaking are there? was the casing of the well completed
before the thing blew up and burned. what is the accepted value
of the pressure of the well at the head? is this location the major
source of the oil? ...
as always looking for foundational facts, not assumptions or representations,
to base a narrative or line of consideration. but the simple facts are always
shrouded in layers of opacity, secrecy, and speculation now a days. access denied again.
connection lost, transmission incompatible, etc..
. and then we have incident command and all the implied control and
management issues, and all on a holiday weekend. sheesh. the system
definitely selects for the distracted, disinterested and resigned; defeated.
in conformity we are served our inhumanity and then eliminated by the
blundering ignorance become pervasive, ubiquitous and institutional.
can kicking stuff. nobodies fault in particular, just the way of the world
in general. i guess a personal battle that every individual must wage
with the universe, or a relationship that must be "navigated". ....
apologies for the tangent to the function. ....
ps
i still like the idea of manufacturing a 243 ft. long cylindrical 24 carrot
gold plug, tapered to a diameter of 21 or 23 inches and lowering it into
the well head. assuming there is a single source and it has a casing, probably
not the case; poetic and ironic justice it would be, very beautiful and
a spiritual act, almost? if other wells could be drilled in the vicinity
to relieve/extract the energy, then the gold plug could be recovered.
and perhaps likewise reinvested!
suggest you spend time over at oildrum - it's on going commentary on the goings on at the wellhead - lot's of action at the bottom of the Gulf
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6524
This is Kabuki theater. They should be increasing the # of relief wells being drilled, not fucking around with half-measures.
access denied? explain please, and have a cupcake! what fix is working?
what blew out, the casing? does anyone have the slightest idea what is
really going on? access denied! ... good one.
i thought ... i thought... there might be the capacity for thought. ?
shizzle happens.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31510813/#37343028
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9uB64ghcq8
.
and don't see this too.
Fix is working.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/either-bp-oil-gusher-has-just-blown-out-or-bp-implementing-lmrp-right-now
BP bitches!
Can't we train a dolphin to force a few divers to swim in the pipe and plug it up. Maybe with laser beams on thier heads.
If you missed the junk shot, here it is:
http://celebitchy.com/photopages/crotchshots2006/crotchshots2006/lohanva...
Anybody have any links or articles on what the Gulf is going to look like in 3 months, assuming they can not fix the leaks?
Black!
pour a gallon of oil and gas in toilet, take a big crap .. stir with plunger ,, add a roll of tissue paper . flush . what is all over the floor will be a forecast of things to come in the gulf
well, if you can provide us with the exact magnitudes and paths of any hurricanes starting up, we can give you what the gulf will look like. my favourite of these: hurricane Godzilla sprays the entire gulf coast with oil and then throws a few lightning bolts thereby igniting a quarter of the US coast.
what is more worrying, for the world, is what happens to the kelp and algae and other "bottom-of-the-food-chain" aka "autotroph" organisms that will be obliterated by this. These organisms exist at the very top layers of the ocean where light penetrates (in order that photosynthesis may occur). All other life depends on this.
Guess what floats on top of water? Hint, starts with "O" and and ends in "bama fuck you". ha, jk. sorry, its actually "oil".
If anyone can tell me how much oxygen the oceans produce for us, i d love to get an actual number - me thinks its kind of a lot.
what happens if this shit reaches the gulf stream? Atlantic fisheries implode kapput, but so does all of the autotrophs in the atlantic.
so, big question is: what odds do we have that this triggers a Malthusian event in the world?
A Malthusian event in the world? Malthus wrote his works when people all around the world were grossly on par in terms of consumption.
If there is population reduction through this event, the big consuming societies will go through it untouched. Leaving the source of overpopulation intact.
So this event might remove people who are already out of the consumption process or on the fringes. Nothing like Malthus depicted. Malthus did not refer to nobles sacrifying their serfs after a bad round at a card table.
Now if you mean that the US citizens are going to shift the consequences of this event on weaker populations, you have a point. No needs to refer to Malthus though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTcRfgnRQdI
so proud a history, replete with sanctity, orbs in their harmony, they
sing their code to me, have you ever heard yourself the orbit that you
are in? the terse, oppressive blanket that's instilled here by our
spin, it's misery and famine, it's a force we cannot see, misery and
famine, it compels us naturally, misery and famine, great ellipse, we
bend to thee, misery and famine, just accept your vagrancy, others who
bear no name, who feel that life's a game, my verse they will defame,
we suffer all the same, they pay no regard to their position or their
speed, but the firmament still covers them with its malevolent seed,
it's misery and famine..., "you look for meaning in things no one
comprehends, you feel no affinity to the rabble we're in", sources of
inquiry have nothing to portend, they will perplex us all until the
coming end, a feeling of despair, hungry and full of care, we resent
everywhere the fortune that we share, "this earth could be a better
place" is a concept i condone, given our pathetic course our destiny
is known, it's misery and famine!
Lets just hope it's possible to use this device at this depth and at the pressures that are with the oil/methane and the water.
It blows my mind. How can they NOT have a plan for this? Nothing? Science has allowed humans to clone living creatures, but no one can come up with a way to stop this?
What happens if they "stop up" the remainder of the riser pipe? Is it useless at that point? would they have to tap the well another way?
Unreal.
Nothing that takes up this much media coverage is unplanned..watch the legislation Obama shoves through in response...TAX,
oil, you want it, we got it!! Come on down to the gulf and bring a bucket.
Please hold your breath until you have left the area.
Are gulf properties becoming firetraps?
Free Benzine- you pick!
They are actually running out of time to stop messing about. The riser is nearly impossible to operate on at this depth. It's James Cameron stuff. Mega pressure and crappy robot manipulators. Poking at it with a lego toy is not going to work. It is NOT going to work.
Options:
Stick a massive 40" sleeve over the riser allowing lower pressure flow, using a pipe-laying barge and collect the oil at a permanently stationed tanker while a longer term plan is put in place for sealing the well.
Meanwhile, drill multiple kill wells from the side, simultaneously (3-6 month task).
Inject material at enormous pressure from all kill wells simultaneously.
Alternatively, drill a parallel well to moderate depth, sink a nuke, or some other big charge, and compress it from the side.
Or... keep poking at it with lego toys, mud and crap, because it makes good TV.
Good ones all.
Look at your sure cure and start there, then implement the lessor chance cures after.
We know the finish line at that point in a worst case scenario.
I like the big sleeve. Deal with the leak of a free cut to let it flow and remove the BOP Then overlay the sleeve and say if it was saw tooth to drill a depth to help seal and would be good to go.
Engineering to produce 40" flex coupling to the surface pipe of 5000'
self drilling rotating impact casing drill head.
Pretty big job. That should take care of the employment problem.(j)
Once upon a time, before the bank-oil cartel became all powerful, actual companies acted like real businesses and always had contingency plans for a variety of emergencies.
That was back in the day, a long, long time ago....
Since that time free enterprise was long ago killed by big business.
Mother Nature bats last. Need anything more be said? This was inevitable. ALL systems eventually fail. Pure hubris, pure hubris...
"mother nature..." i heard that before somewhere!
and she can hit anything, high and in or low and away,
incredible reflexes.
peas.
She line-drived me right in the nuts one time. I had such a pretty knuckleball, too...
It took them over a month just to attempt suppression. How could anyone expect different from these clowns? They were sure to fail. Now we are sure to need more fucking boom.
Bozo Petrol
just watched the American network news opening segments
NBC - like watching an Obama infomercial - makes you want to puke - Chuck Toad their political reporter and some poor mayor singing Obama's praises
ABC - focused on the spill and failing Top Kill (they didn't lead with Obama)
CBS - the most agressive with hidden video of BP workers that were bused in for the Presidents speech to clean the beach wearing white hazmat suits and as soon as he was gone they left the area.
None of them mentioned that the Pres was off for a long holiday weekend and well deserved vacation
This is still my favorite, and I am surprised it hasn't gotten more play.
In July 2009, at a lecture to the Stanford Business School, the CEO of British Petroleum Tony Haywardexplained to attendees that BP was going in the wrong direction before he took over as CEO because, "we had too many people that were working to save the world."
And apparently not enough people working on well control...
But 'it's all good'. BP is taking a leaf right out of the Fin services playbook.
(Reuters) - The chief executive of Europe's largest oil company by production, BP Plc, enjoyed a 41 percent rise in total pay in 2009, even though profits dropped 45 percent.
Tony Hayward took home 4.01 million pounds ($6.03 million) in salary, cash bonus and share awards last year, up from 2.85 million pounds in 2008.
He should be required to take a nice swim in the Gulf, get up close and personal with the disaster his company has created.
is this like a parable on the economy? once the oceans of liquidity wash ashore, can disaster be far off.
I'm beginning to wonder if the Mayans had BP in mind when they said the world would end in 2012.
Actually, they are talking. There are plenty of Mayans left today in C America, alive and well, and speaking the language. More specifically, much to the chagrin of the conquistadors and Spanish conquerors, the classic Mayans written works still persist to this day as well. (See Popul Vuh, the four codices, the tzolkin of course, and many many writings etched into their buildings still being translated)
All that aside, they did have a fellow by the name of Pacal Votan, who definitely was speaking to us, and perhaps about BP in a round about way....
"If Humanity Wishes To Save Itself From Biospheric Destruction It Must Return To Living in Natural Time." - 7th century Mayan prophet Pacal Votan
Rhymes nicely with the Biblical changing of times and dates, no?
Fascinating, really.
depends on your definition of the words "end" and "world".
They aren't talking, and neither is BP!
"Secretary of the Navy Wants to Sink a Battleship On Top of the Oil Spill".
Obama agrees, but only on condition that he stays in the ship.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated matter, Congressman Joe Sestak receives an urgent call with an immediate job opening down in the GOM.
Joe S had/has a job as a congressman in the House, they offered him an unpaid position on a Presidential advisory board, something many congressman do without any special favors given...sort of like regular person being given position on board of a charity...some people like the prestige, but mostly it's work for no compensation
with all the corruption in US, on both sides of aisle, this is what gets covered in MSM someone offered Joe a volunteering opportunity he could have likely gotten on his own just be offering to do the work...man is the media playing us and distracting us, Try reading Catherine Fitts accounts if corruption, read the crazy things BP has done, like hiring former CIA folks to spy in whistleblowers, silencing people with fake smears like faked infidelity...how about the corruption at MMS. Bothnapries are horrible corrupt.
Why doesn't the govt sent the "vampire squid" down there to wrap its slimy greedy tenatacles aroung the pipe and suck the life out of it in much the same way they do to the American taxpayer and their clients.
+10000000!!!
The VS and it's cadre of 'financial engineers' could certainly fix this problem!
They need to write up some 'BOP default swaps' and 'collateralized spill obligations' to deploy to the wellhead!
They can work in concert with the central banking cartel to stop the leak. Get Submarine Shalom on the scene with his infinite fiatsco printing press to stuff freshly minted FRN's into the leak!
That is the silliest thing I have every heard of...
We will need to load the battleship to the hilt with congress critters, lobbyists and S&P 500 executives first.
That is a good 'junk shot'.
+1000 (I'm in a giving mood :-) )