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In Trying To Cover It's Own Behind, BP Has Lowballed the Amount of Oil ... Which Has Made Everything Worse
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The head of the government's flow study group - Ira Leifer - told
Dan Froomkin:
The lack of accurate information
has taken its toll, he said. If BP had properly understood what was
going on 5,000 feet below the surface, it never would have attempted to
stop it with a "top hat". And had they realized the pressure from the
oil reserves was beyond the threshold for "top kill" they wouldn't have
wasted time on that, either. [While BP and the government originally
estimated the leak at 1,000
barrels a day, Leifer said
that it may be spilling as much as 100,000
barrels a day.]
"We could have effective containment
systems available now, if we'd had the measurements," he said.
This
is unfortunate. Not only did top hat and top kill waste months of time in which BP could have
taken effective steps to contain the oil, but top kill probably
made the oil spill worse:
BP's most recent efforts to stop the flow of oil
have only made the situation worse, says Leifer. The engineers' attempt
to seal off the well from above, using a method known as "top kill,"
failed and only enlarged the borehole, according to Leifer. Now, he
adds, there is almost nothing stopping the oil from flowing out of the
well.
Moreover, Leifer previously told
the Associated Press that the lack of certainty as to the flow rate
will make it more difficult to successfully drill relief wells:
Many unknowns about the flow rate and
pressure and quantity of oil coming from the well make it difficult to "design and engineer
safe oil recovery systems, such as the 'cap,' nor design and engineer
ultimate solutions safely such as the relief
wells."
This is important, as the stakes
are high:
Independent experts warn that relief wells, like any
well, are not without risk. "More oil could leak than before,
because the field is being drilled into again," says Fred Aminzadeh, a
geophysicist at the University of Southern California. Ira Leifer, a
geochemist at the University of California in Santa Barbara, voices
similar concerns: "In the worst case, we would suddenly be dealing with
two spills, and we'd have twice the problem."
While
BP is pretending that it is difficult to determine the amount and
pressure of oil flowing out of the gusher, this
is not true. Indeed, BP is actively blocking
Leifer and other scientists from making the measurements.
Similarly, telling cleanup workers they'll
be fired if they use respirators is increasing the toll on human
health, and using dispersants to hide the amount of spilled oil is only
worsening
the long-term damage to marine life.
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To my knowledge, BP does not operate the pipeline, Alyeska Pipeline does. If you work at Pump 1 or south, your paycheck has the name "Alyeska" printed on it and not BP.
Read this (from 2006 apparently) and tell me if something stinks. http://www.alaskareport.com/news10052.htm
Another thing, I was ALL OVER Kodiak, Cook Inlet, and SE Alaska on fishing boats and barges ('91 and '95-'98).... there was not oil still on the beaches. In fact, I was surprised to find that there wasn't, as when I left in '89 the black sludge was thick and deep below the surface level beach sand and gravel. Nevertheless, I looked hard to find oil on the beaches and I could find none.
I guess you believe in form over substance? Maybe you believe the magician really does saw the girl in half on stage?I know this will sound cruel, but you lost a lot of credibility with me on this statement. BP owns over 45% of TAPS. Majority rules in a JOA. BP calls the shots. Are you suggesting that BP, as well as other TAPS owners, don't "loan" their employees to Alyeska? It's a common practice, Jim. Alyeska is staffed with BP employees.
You're right. Alyeska doesn't exist. I made it up. BP runs the entire pipeline operations from end to end. Did magicians make all the oil go away on the beaches up in Alaska or did they just turn it invisible? Palast is AWESOME. To think that he anticipated this catastrophe and wrote most of his article 4 years ago. He must be a friggin time traveler! I must go now and prepare for evacuation. Red oil is escaping from the Earth's mantle. Be afraid, be very afraid. Gee I sure hope I have restored my credibility with you.
Speaking of paychecks...it ain't gonna do a whole lotta good for the people...except the shorts (and...well anyway's) if BP goes tango uniform over this.
http://www.wdsu.com/news/24178322/detail.html
Probably just a hitch in Feinberg's giddy up...but worth noting.
Yup. The reality keeps turning out to be worse that the alleged "conspiracy theories".
leifer and this indonesian administration are criminally irresponsibe - they are fundamentally liars. problems are not solved with lies.
this administration approved this rube goldberg project and it has blown up all over the american, mexican, and carribean peoples' faces....
jail time for gross negligence....and who the fuck is anyone to tell cleanup workers that they cannot wear masks??....fuck you obama and bp....you stenches are blights on humanity....
www.obamacrimes.com
please, so was W admin failings in regard to regulating deepwater drilling are due to the fact he was Texan or because he was a WASP that went to snooty east coast prep schools and ivy league college? perhaps his failings and Obama's failings come from the same source and its not their freaking ethnicity or culture....what is with the stupid racist personal crap?...
Do you really think our government was solely run by well-intentioned, clean people prior to Obama and only his arrival has sold us out?
Indonesia is not running our govt; elite, corrupt, big business parasites are running it and sadly, this corruption is as American as apple pie.
Those corrupting from within would love to have us always look at some different outsider as the threat...communists influenced by Russians, moles planted by Indonesians (those Indonesians are smart, pick a man with African father and foreign name to get elected in America...how forward thinking of them).
To me it seems a whole lot easier to do what I see the wealthy and powerful and big businesses of this country do everyday: support guys that support you or at least don't rail at you, bring along various candidates that are favorable to you, and who ever gets elected, corrupt them before or after. Simple, and it works
As several posts above note, govt and corny big business/elites (such as central banksters) are one in the same, in terms of whose interest they are working for (and it not regular folks/not the commonwealth). While some might argue Obama admin is the most corrupt of all (hard title to win at this point) do not fool yourself that corruption only showed up with the black man and do not think the solution is just getting rid of him, or the Dems, or the Repubs....
Who would of thunk that anyone would ever under represent any type of damage.
They have been wrong about everyhting so far yet they will be correct with the relief wells, what if it makes it worse? Their track record stinks.
I guess all those other relief wells that stopped all those other blowouts were just flukes? You people really need to understand that the relief wells are the only method that actually works. Everything else is just a waste of time.How many have been successfully dug and stopped leaks at this depth? I'm not trying to pin you. I'd really like to know without spending time on Google. It seems to me not many have been tried or any have been tried and worked at this depth but that's just from a hazy memory.
My understanding is that this was the deepest well in the world, so there probably haven't been too many relief wells at this depth. The Ixtoc spill was in a well just 50m deep and it took nine months to stop.
That said, a relief well is likely the only hope (though faint), since I've read that everything (casing debris) within 1000 feet or so of the seabed is broken up so badly that nothing more can be done there.
Question to Augustus and Gasmiinder:
BP's Doug Suttles said that he WISHES he could say what is really going on. (It might be in this video:
But I'm at work right now, so can't re-watch to confirm it's the right video.)
I take this as Suttles hinting that the government has ordered BP not to disclose what's really going on.
If anyone from BP wants to leak anything about government interference ... lemme know!
I'm against government stupidity as much as the stupidity of the too big to fails like Goldman, BP, etc. In fact, the parallels are stunning:
See this and this.
Conservatives tend to blame government, liberals tend to blame big business ... but they are BOTH at fault.
One day we'll wake up with all the horror that the Animal Farm residents felt when the pigs turned human, and find that the government and the TBTFs have become the same thing.
In the first few minutes Suttles speaks of the frustration of the manhy hard working BP employees as they hae to listen to the BS about BP having a culture of lying and coverup and of operating with a culture of no attention to safety. The employees evidently believe otherwise. He then states something along the lines that when the event is over and the stuff is cleaned up, he hope the real truth about the high quality of BP operations will come out. that is somewhat a paraphrase, but the "truth" he speaks about is the high quality of BP operations, not facts about this well.
GOVERNMENT = BIG BUSINESS. end of story
Here's some info on the nasty stuff in the crude, no wonder they call it "crude":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-peCp4217A&feature=player_embedded
I believe that is the correct video. I didn't take him to be saying the government is ordering anything. I hear a guy who sees heroic efforts on the part of his employees being ignored and knows they are deeply upset by the constant barrage of criticism - BP lies, BP doesn't care, BP should be taken over etc.
In my opinion BP was criminally negligent and there are people in the mangement chain who should be fired and I could even agree charged with manslaughter. However there are thousands of employees deeply involved and committed to the effort to find a solution. There are many many people working far above & beyond TRYING to solve the problem because they do feel responsible. The lack of that story being told is what I hear from Mr. Suttles.
I'd also tell you I have no "inside" links to BP although I do have friends who work there. You'll find most of my vehement comments are related to what I believe are statements/comments that are technically impossible and that I believe ought not to go unanswered.
I agree that there are good people working for BP. As one example, I assume that the folks drilling the relief wells right now under B&C's direction are sincerely working as hard and fast as they can to cap this thing.
I know some other oil folks at different oil companies, who are good people.
Of course, I agree on criminal negligence maybe even manslaughter.
Thanks for your comment on Suttles.
More BS.
The solution was always going to be the relief wells folks. Top kill was just "it can't hurt to try" and the containment systems have never been tried at these depths there fore required trial and error.
None of these slowed the relief wells at all. That was always going to be the solution and was always going to take at least this long.
If you want to look for FU's and why look to the refusal of major league skimmers by the gov't in spite of BP's request. That refusal meant the only option to minimize coastal impact was to use these vast quantities of dispersant.
What exactly will the relief wells block?
Methane Hydrates
Raw Oil
Salt Deformations
-------
http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/oil-gas/futuresupply/methanehydrate...
http://theinfounderground.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11772&start=15
"The solution was always going to be the relief wells folks."
Right so you admit this has all been tap dance that Sammy Davis Jr. would be proud of then?
This is all a sick process of buying time on the next fix that we do not have technological abilities to deal with. This damages the public trust as well as place countless millions in danger of life ending illnesses that have already begun.
"A Half Truth is often a Big Lie" Benjamin Franklin
Truer words have never been spoken. The other methods tried were done with a very low chance of success while waiting for the ONLY TRIED AND TRUE METHOD OF DRILLING A RELIEF WELL.
Jesus, It's not a conspiracy...
You guys are going to freak if they miss the well on the first try "Oh noes, BP failed again!"
Fact of the matter is it's very difficult to hit another wellbore. Every survey you take underground has a level of uncertainty and the deeper youg et the greater the uncertainty of where the well actually is. It's not like they can see where they are going.
You have this right. There is a substantial difference between the solution and mitigation. Relief wells are the solution. The other activities are simply mitigation.
"the refusal of major league skimmers by the gov't in spite of BP's request."
Link, please ...
Third time
http://www.financialpost.com/Avertible+catastrophe/3203808/story.html#ix...:
from Canadian press of course not ours.............
"if it ain't Dutch, it ain't much
I read it and it was lacking.......
So let me get this right, BP controls the US Coast Guard as documented in film and print for the record. With the most damning footage has the Coast Guard telling the jounalist they cant film or report as it was BP orders and that they control the area.
Thank you. I agree: Obama has let the Jones Act get in the way ...
But the Jones act is routinely waved in disasters and they continue to claim it has had no impact in this case. It is truly disturbing to ask yourself how this decision was made and why.
I agree. I haven't had time to read rebuttals from liberal news sources, but my understanding is that the Obama admin has used the Jones Act as an excuse not to allow foreign help for months.
If I'm wrong, anyone, please point me to a link.
coast guard and some local union is claiming Jones act only is applied within some short distance of shore/at ports, and that no waiver has been needed or asked for given the offshore distance of well and spill...union guy from had some quote about how he was mad people would say they a trying to stop any spill clean up effort...they discussed in on one of the MSNBC shows but I have not had time to figure research it more....don't know who lying, someone is either repubs trying to make Obama unions look bad or admin/unions trying to cover their tracks...
What is the deal with that? loss of prestige or what? why can't we accept some help skimming up the oil? it makes no sense. unless of course for some reason they want the gulf to be destroyed as much as possible.
Perhaps those countries would use it as leverage in their favor afterwords. That's about the only reason I've come up with so far.
It is evident that THEY have our best interests at heart...Err, uhhh. I mean...
@#$%
GW - Looking to your next scathing article based on gasminder's supplied link... of course, red oil escaping from the earth's mantle will get you far more praise and accolades from your fawning audience.
Jim, I've already written several:
Here's one.
And as I previously pointed out:
Funny you had already written several when you wrote this just a few short hours ago:
Jim, the links are above. But here they are again: this, this, this and this.
GW,
You might glean some interesting information from this video of an off-camera interview with a BP clean-up worker. Black flags, red flags, time limits on cleaning, more.
http://video.godlikeproductions.com/video/Oil_Spill_in_the_Florida_GulfC...
Hey Jim...Your hair is messed up. No -- no one noticed but me. Here, here's a comb.