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New BP Insertion Tube Isn't Working
BP's new insertion tube inside the leaking oil pipe - unfortunately -
isn't doing very much.
Specifically, the Miami Herald points
out that - according to the Coast Guard - the spill is getting worse in spite of the insertion
tube:
The
massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill is growing despite British Petroleum's
effort to siphon some of the spewing crude from its ruptured deepwater
well, the U.S. Coast Guard official leading the cleanup warned Tuesday.
BP
doubled its estimate of the amount of crude being captured by a
mile-long recovery tube to 2,000 barrels per day - but what percentage
of the spill that is remains uncertain. BP has said it thinks that 5,000
barrels of crude a day are leaking from the well, but a video made
public Tuesday after the tube was placed inside the broken pipe showed
clouds of crude oil still billowing into the sea.
Another video
provided the first public view of a second leak much nearer the runaway
well's failed blowout preventer spewing oil, too. A BP robot took that
video on Saturday and Sunday.
The Coast Guard commandant, Adm.
Thad Allen, said that despite the siphoning, the spilled oil is
spreading and now stretches from western Louisiana to Florida's Key
West. The extent of the spill was straining even the substantial
resources deployed for one of the worst ecological disasters in recent
history, he said.
Kevin Grandia explains:
Two new videos
have surface showing footage of the BP oil leak at the source 5,000 feet
down at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
These new video are
important because they show footage (if the time stamp on the video of
May 17th is correct) taken after the oil company responsible for
stopping the leak - British Petroleum (BP) - had
inserted a tube into the leaking pipe in an attempt to
siphon off some of the oil and pump it up to an awaiting ship on the
surface.
Looking at this video there remains serious question
about the exact
amount of oil that is actually flowing from the burst pipe as well
as how much is being captured by the inserted siphon:
***
Another video has also been released showing the leak from the
riser that is described on US
Senator Bill Nelson's website as video footage of the plume "after
the intervention" - you can clearly see in the video a large kink in the
riser that is spewing oil. The first half of this video is marked May
15th - the day before the insertion tube was placed in the leaking pipe.
The video then switches (at about the 2 min. 30 sec. mark) to a
close of shot of the leak time stamped the next day, May 16th after the
insertion tube was put in place:
Compare
this to similar footage posted last week:
Indeed, BP either doesn't know or
won't tell how much oil is leaking. As the Miami Herald notes:
Under
sharp questioning from Nelson and other lawmakers, Lamar McKay, the
head of BP America, said the company was focused on sealing off the
spill but couldn't offer estimates of how much oil was flowing into the
ocean.
And see this.
BP has refused to let independent scientists inspect the site so that
they could estimate the rate of the oil leak.
BP's next plan is to try to seal the leak
using heavy
drilling fluids and then cement:
BP likely
will try to shut down the well completely late this week using a
technique called “top kill,” BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles
said at a news conference Monday. The process involves
pumping heavy drilling fluids through two 3-inch lines into the blowout
preventer that sits on top of the Macondo wellhead a mile underwater.
This would first restrict the flow of oil from the well, which then
could be sealed permanently with cement.
»
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I'm pretty sure that's what he's saying.
matt simmons said so:
We don't have any idea how to stop this," Simmons said of the Gulf leak. Some of the proposed strategies—such as temporarily plugging the leaking pipe with a jet of golf balls and other material—are a "joke," he added.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100513-science-environme...
this wont pass the smell test, not for a long , long time.
If i lived along the coast i would find out where the greenhouses are, so i could get a breath of fresh air. But i would arrange to leave before the smell gets there. The smell is evidence of harmful air. Check what happened to Alaska workers.
Is anyone warning fellow air breathers?
Ahhh..But think of the jobs we can create George. We can have:
Rock polishers, oil catcher, tar ball catchers, tar ball souvenirs on EBay, seagull scrubbers, , a platoon of eager jobless can stand knee deep in water with nets diligently awaiting oil slicks, fishermen can be converted into Corexit dispersant professionals, oil slick tours, oil slick 2010 hats, dead marine life beach combers, Helicopter tours of the oil slick, pictures taken with the oil slick, frozen oil blob submarine tours, sweet crude tainted seafood speciality cuisine shops and just think if it gets large enough we can create jobs all along the panhandle and up the Atlantic coast...tarball census takers an everything. Then we can begin innovation of methane centric technology with automobiles and aircraft powered by such highly advanced propulsion like chipmunk farts.
Ah Yes sky is the limit.
Anyway realistically many scientists are stating they believe the leak to be north of 20,000 barrels per day and possibly 100k+. So inevitably this will destroy jobs in the Gulf, Florida and eventually the Eastern seaboard. This disaster and the response and suppression of information really drives home how full of Shiat this administration has been from the beginning. Nothing but a bunch of cowards.
Also the most telling quote from this entire event which should frighten everyone is this:
Under sharp questioning from Nelson and other lawmakers, Lamar McKay, the head of BP America, said the company was focused on sealing off the spill but couldn't offer estimates of how much oil was flowing into the ocean
So you are telling me that one the largest and most tenured oil companies on earth along with Transocean HAS NO IDEA HOW MUCH OIL IS LEAKING FROM THESE TWO WELLS?
That means it is considerably more than they are saying and the figure would send them into bankrupcty.
Yea! GDP will be up, all will be well!
There are no words to describe how bad this disaster is. BP should be forever banned. The US navy/coast gaurd needs to take over from these bunglers right now and put a stop to the idiocy shown by Bungling Petulance (BP).
BP makes Exxon look like geniuses, at least Exxon's only fault was letting an incompetent drunk command a vessel, BP has a history of fuckups, stalling and lying to the public, the chemical plant explosion in Texas, letting the Alaska pipeline deteriorate to the point of a several week shutdown (http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/07/news/international/oil_alaska/index.htm), a massive oil spill on the north slope of Alaska, also noted in the article.
Basically their plan B was to stall and hope the whole thing would go away and now when that's not working they continue to say the leak isn't more than an aboveground swimming pool everyday, when it's really obvious when you see the pictures that this thing is leaking like a 50 meter olympic pool 8 feet deep every day.
The fact that they continue to try to rangle out of this thing by going to court and trying to combine all actions against themselves into one case is amazing for its gall. The finger pointing to RIG and HAL is just as stupid. People need to land in jail and BP needs to be sent packing.
+100
BP must die.
I've said this on here before but it bears repeating. When the smell of the oil spill wafts over New Orleans, I get headaches and nausea. If I'm feeling these symptoms up here, 20 miles or so from the Gulf, the guys working on the spill must be having much more intense effects. There is no way I can believe that these workers don't need good safety equipment. This thing is turning into a huge debacle.
RichardENixon,
Not my business, but I have actually thought about you as this thing has unfolded. Have you considered that you need to go. You realize if it is that bad now, you are only at the beginning of this thing. This thing is not going to blow over and get better soon. At minimum, I'd have a bag or two packed and on hand to haul ass.
Just my 2 cents you did not ask for.
MsCreant, I am divorced with 2 kids. Their mother has custody. She's not going to agree to leave or let me take them, at least not now. If things get really bad she won't have much choice, but that time hasn't arrived yet. The kids are my big worry. Katrina cost them their house, their school, all their possessions, and every friend they had left and never came back. Their mother decided to continue to try to make a go of it after Katrina, against my better judgement, but since the kids were staying here I stayed too. I'm really hoping they don't have to be uprooted now, after they survived all that and are just starting to get back to "normal." Thank you for your concern, it is much appreciated. Maybe things won't get that bad and I'm just suffering catastrophe fatigue!
I am divorced/remarried, 1 son, joint custody. The dad was so broke I had to pay him child support, until recently. We both have decent jobs here and won't relocate for fear that one or the other could take our son. I think I relate to your trap, some (not the loss and devastation part).
The poster above spoke of having some kind of plan in place. Even with some prep and a destination in mind you could be ahead of the game. Driving routes off the beaten path chosen while you are calm, stuff like that. As people leave in a hurry, they don't plan well and often have crises that compound their situations. I don't have to tell you this, you can tell me about Katrina. No one is there to help you. You are all that ex of yours and those kids have.
Things are going to get bad. I heard the news this morning, "coating the water thick as latex paint." Holy shit brother man. Holy shit.
I will bother you no more. You should report to us from on the ground every now and again, if you have time. :-)
Peace.
you can still prepare, because (hopefully) it's not going to be too much longer before your ex wife realizes that it is time to get out of dodge.
loop closure (no gas) or no clean drinking water after the first hurricane will serve to wake many up.
yes indeed, you just experienced mother nature and her revenge.
water is so insideous.
I don't know how much hate I can just sit on and eat. It is unbearable.
You said it. Remind me what article in the Constitution stipulates lying on every issue and shoveling propaganda, bullshit, lies and deceit down the American peoples throat is beneficial for a moralistic society?
I do not know which is more frightening.
1) They either have such contempt and disdain for the average citizen that they truly believe we are the walking mentally handicapped and can be told anything as they continue to walk between the raindrops immune from reprisal.
2) That they are just completely incompetent on a historical level and had myopic lazer surgery.
They have set up a parallel universe that they still have the majority subscribing to. We are literally letting them kill us.
This bears repeating: We are literally letting them kill us.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3505348655137118430#
I love the incorporation of Jackson Browne's Lives In The Balance.
Make's one want to spit!
someone will have to bailout BP
You mean us.
Edit: I need to clarify. We will need bailing out and that will mean we will bail out BP (Bore-ing Parasites).
This is a great post GW. Many thanks. Can't get this kind of stuff culled together in the MSM. Thanks again. Pitiful performance by everyone involved, especially the Prez.
This should have been sealed shut and made a no-drill zone on the first day of the disaster.
But that would have cost BP money and we couldn't have that now, could we?
And how else would Obama have paid for his commercials right?
I think his next commercials for his second run will even top the previous!
The first one : YES WE CAN!
The second : YES I CAN! AND FUCK YOU!
Obama got his handout, and now he's scratching BP's back like a cheap 5$ hooker...
And to imagine that so many people put their hopes up for this man. The man of "yes we could but we didn't".
Sad and sick...
Merkel would do better than Obama...she would strip the BP execs naked then ban them....
Yeah, you have that one spot-on.
Four goddamn weeks now since this thing started and no one from the administration owns it in any way. The fucking Coast Guard is taking orders from BP and threatening news camera crews with arrest, and the administration is 'looking into it?'
Obama's Katrina, pure and simple. Needs to get way out in front of this thing, like yesterday.
Well, you know... we're ah, we're busing fighting terrorism!
If this isn't a threat to national security, then what the fuck is?
It's all about money... And, if the US went after BP then US corporations would then come under attack. That, my friends, is what this is all about: the rich fuckers looking to keep their game going, even if it threatens all of humanity.
Hope and change turn to anger and frustration in 0.25 election cycle.
Anyone who uses oil based energy to drive a car, heat a home, travel in an airplane, or surf the internet is also culpable in this oil spill.
If George Washington is so concerned about this spill that he has to spam ZH every day with a snarky, holier than thou post, then he should just disconnect from the internet and start subsistence living wherever he is in order to stop his oil foot print from spoiling the planet.
Yeah, that was me alright....
I lobbied the government to give me an expedited permit. When I saw the permit was annotated “Exercise caution while drilling due to indications of shallow gas and possible water flow’’, I thought, 'What's the worst that can happen?'
When the rig electrician came to me with those pieces of rubber gasket upchucking in the drilling fluid, I told him to fuck off and drill, drill, drill.
I injected nitrogen into that fucking cement plug, then made sure it wasn't given enough time to cure. Then, I blew off the results of the second pressure test because, you know, WTF is the worst that could happen?
I designed a BoP that wasn't capable of cutting through a riser where it's threaded, about 10% of its length.
Yeah, I really fucked this whole show up. My bad.
You apologists make me sick.
It wasn't my fault; it was BP's fault, you freak.
You're an idiot.
Yeah GW! Nobody wants to see the consequences of their actions!
Here you go, this makes it all alright: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eovei355l4o
Oh so tell me Captain Hypocrisy is this how you arrived at work this morning?
http://www.nme.com/images/0923_180109_MikeDeadKids.JPG
Don't be a tool confederate.
your pretty sarcastic for a young person†
I don't follow your (ConfederateH's) logic. This is not like CO2 where the resulting externality is a necessary by-product of oil consumption. This was the product of cost-cutting by BP and political corruption in the MMS. I would have opted to pay the incremental cost at the pump for a properly-engineered and -permitted deep drilling operation, or of forgoing the incremental oil from the operation if it was more than our current technology could handle, which is what appears to be the case.
Thank you George for making this more visible.
Disappointing that even now there is not a viable alternative to petroleum fueled cars. The Honda Civic NG vehicle is a wonderful idea, but impossible to buy one. One wonders why they do not make it more widely available. Nissan leaf looks potentially promising as a commuter car, but I worry about buying the first year of such a new technology. So, here we sit, with no good options.
This is the best book I ever read on the subject: http://www.internalcombustionbook.com/
Provides complete evidence that Ford's mass produced electric car model, as well as many others, was successfully conspired against. Amazing how much historical reference is in the book. His research team located 50,000 historical documents, just an absolute wealth of knowledge on the subject.
Might I suggest, as an exercise, pricing out the coversion of your current vehicle to bi-fuel (gas or CNG - you get a switch and flip between the two tanks).
What is evident, from my research, is that an after market option which is several thousand dollars to have a CHOICE in fuels where one fuel is significantly cheaper seems to make dollar sense.
While many will argue that CNG stations are few and far between, I would point out a few more thousand will probably get you your own CNG compressor should you be blessed enough to have NatGas at your residence. And bi-fuel means you can run gas til you can get to a CNG station.
Cooter
Growing up, we all had our pickups converted to run on LPG with large tank in pickup bed. LPG was dirt cheap, and engine would last forever burning LPG. The pickups had a switch, allowing operation on either gasoline, or the LPG. Conversion was very cheap, with main expense being the high pressure tank. This worked like a charm, but when they went to fuel injection, computer controlled engines, their was no longer a simple conversion, and conversion shops went out of business. I have been unable to find a similar NG conversion for a modern car. I have considered buying a '79 Chevy and run on LPG, as it is still plentiful, clean burning, readily available, and cheap.
Carburetters were awesome and awesomely efficient too. ANd they allowed these multi-fuel uses as you describe.
Ever wonder why Nascar still uses Carbs?
But, Fuel Injection was the car industry's way of hiding in-efficiency (tons of un-spent fuel gets burnt off in the Cat convertor), while driving up the complexity of the engine and fuel control systems enormously. That (Fuel Injection) pretty much put paid to home mechanics, unless you had a ton of fancy equipment, analyzers and the like.
I drive a Carburettered Peugeot and it rocks!
Car Industry and Oil Industry are the horror couple in our global village. In bed (yup, it's an oil-bed).
Carburettors were either good or bad. Skipping my gas-guzzling criminal days (hotrods), I was exposed to Volvos, one with US carbs and another with Strombergs; I could tune the one with the SUs so that it sounded like a sewing machine, the Strombergs on the other hand were a pile of shit!
That Tesla car rocks!
http://www.teslamotors.com/
The government should say: IF YOU BUY ONE OF THESE: NO TAXES ON IT!
Tesla rocks indeed, but is for rich tech junkies. The country needs a practical and affordable NG or all electric. Civic NG is practical AND affordable, but not AVAILABLE. I have been trying to buy one for a long time.
And if WE are thinking that these are expensive, then just ask yourself how they look to these people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu3nTcbcfX4&feature=related
I've been to Manila, and while it's an motoring anarchist's dream (traffic signs/laws are moot- if people followed them everything would come to a grinding halt), I'm still taken back by the huge need for people to transport themselves all over the place (and this view should be taken/asked about for everywhere- it's the transportation paradigm that allows the ruling elite to maintain their power over all).
Our ability to make a dent in reducing the global energy suck is pretty small: only collapse will bring about meaningful reduction.
your right, there is a Tesla showroom right down the street from me.
pretentious a,,holes. they have the engine block cut in half, that was pretty interesting to see, though.
i am a car freak, all my life. had to wean myself from adoring metal and fossil fuel eating objects. still really like formula1, bad bad girl†
+1000. The reason we are not driving NG cars = greed. very simple....
The same reason we will all be riding bicycles one day.