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Oil Skimming Efforts In Gulf Halted Due To Hurricane, Subsurface Collection Still Operational
Just announced that BP has now officially halted oil skimming operations due to Storm/Hurricane Alex. The firm is still continuing the actual LMRP capture. It would be sadly ironic if in its attempt to do too little too late and capture a few thousand barrels they end up completely busting what's left of the riser, and making the oil spill unfixable.
From APP:
BP and the Coast Guard sent oil-scooping skimming ships in the Gulf of Mexico back to shore Tuesday because nasty weather from Tropical Storm Alex churned up rough seas and powerful winds.
U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Dave French said all efforts had been halted for now off the Louisiana coast. Efforts also had been halted off the coasts of Florida, Alabama and Louisiana.
French said workers were using the time off the water to replenish supplies and perform maintenance work on equipment.
We're ready to go as soon as conditions allow us to get those people back out and fighting this oil spill," French said.
The loss of skimming work combined with 25 mph gusts driving water into the coast has left beaches especially vulnerable. In Alabama, the normally white beaches were streaked with long lines of oil, and tar balls collected on the sand. One swath of beach 40 feet wide was stained brown and mottled with globs of oil matted together.
Although Tropical Storm Alex was projected to stay well away from the spill zone before possibly making landfall as a hurricane over Mexico, its outer edges were causing problems out in the Gulf.
Wayne Hebert, who helps manage skimming operations for BP, said all nearshore skimmers were idled off the coasts of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.
"Everyone is in because of weather, whether it's thunderstorms or (high) seas," Hebert said.
Waves were as high as 12 feet Tuesday in some parts of the Gulf.
The surging waves and nasty weather make skimming work unsafe and ineffective, and also can mangle oil-soaking boom.
The Coast Guard had to evacuate workers and equipment from coastal areas in Terrebonne Parish because of tidal surges that could cause flooding, French said.
The only vessels left in the water are being used to capture or burn oil and gas leaking from the well and to drill relief wells that officials say are the best hope for stopping the leak for good.
Ten boats that had been removing oil from the coast of Alabama sought shelter in the protected waters of Mobile Bay or Perdido Bay, and a flotilla of vessels that had been trying to prevent oil from entering the pass into Perdido Bay were gone. In Mississippi, four skimmers were riding out the storm beside Petit Bois Island, Hebert said.
Cleanup crews fought the winds and showers with empty bags blowing across the sand occasionally and the tops of canvas shelters flapping in the breeze.
Hebert said it was impossible to say when the work might resume.
"I don't control the weather," he said.
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ironic? it would be incompetent at its best, intentional at its worst
Wow, they suspended all 20 of the 2000 oil skimmers available? I don't think anybody is going to notice.
It feels as if nobody is paying any attention at all to The Spill. Funny how humans can get used to crap hey?
Spill?............this is a Geyser, not a SPILL..that's easy clean up.
But, your correct, the Media has all but dropped off the radar.And "O" acts like he could care less.Almost Cavalier, the attitude/vibes I get.
I actually gained a TAD(mite), of respect for Clinton, he said Nuke it..........
If the relief wells do not plug the flow..I see no other option.......
I do not see how it (nuke) could make it worse..........it's not like they haven't done undersea testing for a LONG time.
Surely you're the only one who has ever felt this way. ;)
Yeah, easier for humans to get used to when the POTUS is a Lib and the Lib dominated media/propaganda arm don't want to hang a well-deserved Katrina around his neck, because, well, he's their boy!
My bad, since the Skimmer Watch was posted they went from 20 boats on June 22 to 89 on June 28. Too bad we are on day 71.
"..they end up completely busting what's left of the riser, and making the oil spill unfixable."
This was never "fixable", at least from the top. This was a meme offered by both BP and the government in order to manage political and emotional backlash. Notice how we are always told that there is another way forward, allowing us to grasp another finger hold as the last one breaks free and we dangle from the cliff face.
I've got to give BP and the WH an AA+ for managing public expectations during this 60 plus days of growing insanity. In fact, it indicates how desperate we are to be told what we want to be told, that this ecological disaster isn't as bad as it sounds, looks or seems. It's not hard to lie to a public that wishes to be lied to. Notice how the oil "spill" is off the front pages everywhere. It's now old news. We've been lulled into thinking it's all part of the background noise now.
"The only vessels left in the water are being used to capture or burn oil and gas leaking from the well and to drill relief wells that officials say are the best hope for stopping the leak for good."
Is this some back peddling by officials or simply a reporters effort to write a story without direct quotes or interviews?
Speaking of managing expectations and only gradually introducing additional negative news into the mix: "BP and government officials are now talking about a long-term containment plan to pump the oil to an existing platform should the relief well effort fail." http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/us/29wells.html?src=mv
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-28/bp-will-send-crude-to-platforms-if-relief-wells-fail-update1-.html
I was curious (though not surprised) to see that this got little traction beyond the initial NYT article...
Perhaps oil raining on people's homes and perhaps even Michelle Obama's vegetable garden might get it some "traction". One can only hope...
They'll pretty-up that garden for the photographers...Just like they done before!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-ZIVP6bPlc
Clinton mentioned nuking the wells... Can you say 'trial balloon'? First gov't official to float the idea. You think that was on accident?
No, he mentioned "controlled blast" not n u k e.
Raymond,
I read his comment on another site, and the word Nuke was used.(maybe some license taken?).
+10
BP has more an asbestos problem than a Vioxx problem. Asbestos was everywhere, and the problem took any company associated with it down. This oil will also be everywhere, and so has the potential to take BP down with it. So will this relief well work?
John Wright, whom is a renowned expert world, is in charge of the drilling effort and has been successful in all 40 of his previous efforts to intercept leaking wells. (http://www.examiner.com/x-36925-Clay-County-Environmental-News-Examiner~...) But "what have you done for me lately?"
There are questions about the damaged well’s condition, particularly near the point where the interception would take place, and whether it could affect the kill procedure.“No human being alive can know the answers,” said the technician, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the work. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/us/29wells.html?src=mv). We've seen several zero hedge pieces on this issue. And Simmons below thinks there's no way the casings remained intact given the pressure of the blowout.
My favorite comment is this: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution special operations director David Gallo warned that the chances of failure remained high. "Not that many relief wells have been dug underwater - and none at this depth," he said. "It's like hitting a thread with the tip of a needle, and if you don't get it right that relief well will blow out. We think the pressure may be too high for anything to work." (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/bp-relief-well-nearing-target...)
And say what you like about Simmons, he's been right every time, put his money where his mouth is, and said the casing's blown out and there's no way the relief well will work. (http://www.businessinsider.com/matthew-simmons-on-oil-hurricane-2010-6)
On the other side we had MHFT and BP:
"While such a failure is considered highly unlikely, the contingency plan is the latest sign that with this most vexing of engineering challenges — snuffing a gusher 5,000 feet down in the gulf — nothing is a sure thing. Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president in charge of subsea containment and capping efforts, said Monday that the first relief well was “progressing very well” and on target to intercept the runaway well more than three miles below the surface of the gulf." (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/us/29wells.html?src=mv)
So ALEX won't hit, and the stock bounces because of it... but was that just another shorting opportunity missed.
Disclosure: I'm Short, and very late to the short game, but still very short.
Trades,
I read they were going in 900' under the head, and pumping heavy mud,I can't envison the casing (what do I know), being blown out all the way to the resevoir..........
If it is, then melting it shut, is the only option / chance I see left to stop it.
So the skimmers are beached and the booms are stored. Not that these were much defense. Then any serious wind-driven tidal surge is likely to drive oil inland a ways, certainly deeping into the delta, perhaps into some coastal communites.
Probably not the end of the world (any more than it already ended for those people) but sure to create a much larger cleanup operation. Or maybe less of one; what if BP says "we're skimming and booming and that's it, clean your own house" and walks? The beaches might look really great right after this storm ... the story is mostly off the papers ... could be a huge PR opportunity for BP in about 48 hours.
I think your response is a clue as to how well the aggressively
media-managed natural disaster story is being controlled.
The scale is so large and information so scarce that people are lead to conclusions like yours. A few more months of bad news trickling out every few weeks ensures that consumers just don't care and don't realize the epic scale of the horror.
I wonder if the oil 'spill will affect the decision made by NBA free-agents [just saying it, so we could make a mockery outta wade /lebron if they were to sign anywhere near the gulf and southern atlantic coasts]
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-accepts-international-apf-4104246595.html?x=0&.v=2
Make sure they reward competence by stabbing it in the heart properly.
Fucking morons. omg...I am really starting to understand the idea of building a nuke in the middle east for good measure to remove the human race. Arrrrggg. Fucking ass bandits.
Here, I'm going to throw this out there. Who wants to build a new republic without these fuckers. Builders (husbands and wives, even ex's that are well met). Like Ayn (as in mine) mentioned, fuck em, let the world beg for food and die. As the work horse we just leave the rest behind?
I have 2000 acres, a brew bin, 14 store houses and roughly 58 pieces of farm machinery.
I need people that have an excellent shooting range cert, no cops, soldiers welcome and it won't really matter if you live in the US or Canada. Pinning an asshole on a bike driving away is all that matters. There are Amish in the area which we, the business, work with. However as a BBS asshole, the time has come the idea of a mesh network is available even though Google will not.
It's a world like a FIDO network.
Time to understand "i" pads and "i"phones aren't going to work soon
The yankees are RE-starting the cold war with a society with NO money. Who cares. The cash isn't reason isn't lacking, the lack of will power to build it is.
Time for war.
Cops aren't welcome. It's just the inn is full of people thqat perform it well. In the city you give tickets. In the country, everyone has a gun. You kill some asswipe, because they are an asswipe. it's forgiven. Sometimes congratulated. If done properly, most of you eat that person as a cob of corn or in a "wet" bag.
Soylent green is people. And in Canadian corn fields, some corn grows higher than others.
Certainly a lot of details like that to take into consideration. Thanks windows vps | cheap vps | cheap hosting | forex vps