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Oil Spill: Belgians Shouldn't Feel Too Bad, The U.S. Wouldn't Go Dutch Either
By Dian L. Chu, Economic Forecasts & Opinions
There has been some new information since June 8, when I quoted a Belgian newspaper--De Standarrd--that the Jones Act may have caused a delay in the oil spill rescue by forbidding foreign vessels and personnel to work in the U.S. Gulf.
As it has turned out, the Belgian companies shouldn't feel too bad, the U.S. government also turned down an official offer by the Dutch government as well.
According to Houston Chronicle--quoting Geert Visser, consul general for the Netherlands in Houston--three days after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, the Dutch government offered to help by providing ships outfitted with oil-skimming booms, and proposed a plan for building sand barriers.
The [Dutch] embassy got a nice letter from the administration that said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,'” Visser said
However, almost seven weeks later, our government has reconsidered. As Houston Chronicle reports, "U.S. ships" were being outfitted earlier this month with four pairs of skimming booms airlifted from the Netherlands and should be deployed "within days."
Each pair of booms supposedly can process 5 million gallons of water a day, removing 20,000 tons of oil and sludge. (Math Q of The Day: Multiply these numbers by 50 days.)
The sand barrier proposal by the Dutch was initially rebuffed as well, but later accepted by the U.S. government. BP has begun paying about $360 million to cover the costs.
Now, Christian Science Monitor says today that
The Coast Guard Friday "redoubled" efforts...by calling in more skimming boats and equipment from the Netherlands, Norway, France, and Spain after previously telling one Dutch official "Thanks, but no thanks," to an offer of help. That revelation comes as Florida lawmakers beg for more skimmers....Meanwhile, US marine interests complain that up to 1,500 US-flagged skimmers sit idle, and should be used first.
There are conflicting statements from Adm. Allen saying, "To date, nobody has come for a Jones Act waiver," and Coast Guard Captain Roger Laferriere, the second-in-command, that both Allen and President Obama had worked to waive the Jones Act to allow more foreign vessels to attack the spill.
Furthermore, there are reportedly requests and legislative filing from Florida Attorney General and Sen., Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R) of Texas to waive the Jones Act, to hasten oil spill efforts, and to welcome more high-tech foreign clean-up boats.
So, it seems confusion has steadily built around the exact US skmmer strategy and the Jones Act with politics clearly in the midst of all. And unfortunately so far, nothing seems to suggest clarity any time soon.
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Reminds me of when that Russian submarine went down a full crew aboard. They waited days in vain for help.
The US had rescue equipment designed for that purpose, and crews trained to use it, but Russian pride overruled.
Not the Russian people of course, but their rulers who would be embarassed to ask for help. Same situation here.
i guess obama has hired katrina emergency management wunderkind george bush to manage the oil leak clean-up....or maybe obama IS george bush...or was obama censoring the the extent of the devastation of the spill? he's a liar - he would know how to do it....
RARE GULF FISH:
http://williambanzai7.blogspot.com/2010/06/tropical-fish-spotted.html
EURO buying support i've mentioned over the past few weeks has resulted in a bullish basing pattern on the daily chart. The important weekly chart remains bearish though.
http://stockmarket618.wordpress.com/about
I can think of another reason BP is 'rolling over like a simpering dog', Eric Holder. He is why Joe Barton wasn't far from the mark in calling Obama's demand for a $20 billion fund extortion.
When the president of the US sends his AG down to La. with instructions to seek criminal charges against BP officials and then 'invites' those same BP officials to contribute to a fund he has already announced he is basically offering BP brass a choice between their money or their freedom.
Well the story only gets worse from here on out.
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The Well from Hell
By Christian A. DeHaemer | Friday, June 18th, 2010
The Dwarves dug too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dum... shadow and flame.
— Saruman, The Lord of the Rings
There is something primordial about BP's quest for oil in the Gulf of Mexico . It's an Icarus-like story of super-ambition; of reaching too far, delving too deep.
I don't know if you've stopped to contemplate what BP was trying to do...
The well itself started 5,000 feet below the surface. That's the depth of the Grand Canyon from the rim.
And then the company attempted to drill more than 30,000 feet below that — Mt. Everest would give 972 feet to spare.
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Furthermore, the company sought oil in a dangerous area of the seabed.
It was unstable and many think BP sought it out because seismic data showed huge pools of methane gas — the very gas that blew the top off Deepwater Horizon and killed 11 people.
More than a year ago, geologists criticized Transocean for putting their exploratory rig directly over a massive underground reservoir of methane.
According to the New York Times, BP's internal "documents show that in March, after several weeks of problems on the rig, BP was struggling with a loss of 'well control.' And as far back as 11 months ago, it was concerned about the well casing and the blowout preventer.”
The problem is that this methane, located deep in the bowels of the earth, is under tremendous pressure...
Some speculate as much as 100,000 psi — far too much for current technology to contain. The shutoff vales and safety measures were built for only 1,000 psi.
It was an accident waiting to happen... And there are many that say it could get worse — much worse.
Geologists are pointing to other fissures and cracks that are appearing on the ocean floor around the damaged wellhead.
According to CNN:
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.
And there have been other plumes discovered by submersibles...
Some geologists say that BP's arrogance has set off a series of events that may be irreversible. There are some that think that BP has drilled into an deep-core oil volcano that cannot be stopped, regardless of the horizontal drills the company claims will stop the oil plume in August.
Need the mudlogs
Geologist, Chris Landau, for instance, has called for a showing of the mudlogs. A mudlog is a schematic cross sectional drawing of the lithology (rock type) of the well that has been bored.
So far, no one has seen them... BP keeps them hidden.
Mr. Landau claims:
It is a dangerous game drilling into high pressure oil and gas zones because you risk having a blowout if your mud weight is not heavy enough. If you weight up your mud with barium sulfate to a very high level, you risk BLOWING OUT THE FORMATION.
What does that mean? It means you crack the rock deep underground; as the mudweight is now denser than the rock, it escapes into the rock in the pore spaces and the fractures. The well empties of mud. If you have not hit high pressure oil or gas at this stage, you are lucky.
But if you have, the oil and gas come flying up the well and you have a blowout, because you have no mud in the well to suppress the oil and gas. You shut down the well with the blowout preventer. If you do not have a blowout preventer, you are in trouble as we have all seen and you can only hope that the oil and gas pressure will naturally fall off with time, otherwise you have to try and put a new blowout preventer in place with oil and gas coming out as you work.
Obviously, the oil and gas pressure hasn't fallen off
In fact... it's increased.
The problem is that BP may not only have hit the mother of high-pressure wells, but there is also a vast amount of methane down there that could come exploding out like an underwater volcano.
I recently heard a recording of Richard Hoagland who was interviewed on Coast to Coast AM.
Mr. Hoagland has suggested that there are cracks in the ocean floor, and that pressure at the base of the wellhead is approximately 100,000 psi.
Furthermore, geologists believe there are another 4-5 cracks or fissions in the well. Upon using a GPS and Depth finder system, experts have discovered a large gas bubble, 15-20 miles across and tens of feet high, under the ocean floor.
These bubbles are common. Many believe they have caused the sinking of ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle.
That said, a bubble this large — if able to escape from under the ocean floor through a crack — would cause a gas explosion that Mr. Hoagland likens to Mt. St. Helens ... only under water.
The BP well is 50 miles from Louisiana . Its release would send a toxic cloud over populated areas. The explosion would also sink any ships and oil structures in the vicinity and create a tsunami which would head toward Florida at 600 mph.
Now, many people have called Hoagland a fringe thinker and a conspiracy theorist. And they may be right... But that doesn't mean he isn't on to something.
EPA finds high concentrations of gases in the area
The escape of other poison gases associated with an underground methane bubble (such as hydrogen sulfide, benzene, and methylene chloride) have been found.
Last Thursday, the EPA measured hydrogen sulfide at 1,000 parts per billion — well above the normal 5 to 10 ppb. Some benzene levels were measured near the Gulf of Mexico in the range of 3,000 – 4,000 ppb — up from the normal 0-4 ppb.
More speculation of doom
The Oil Drum, an industry sheet, recently ran an article about the sequence of events that tried to stop the oil spill.
The upshot of industry insiders was that after trying a number of ways to close off the leak, the well was compromised, creating other leaks due to the high pressure. BP then cut the well open and tried to capture the oil.
In other words: BP shifted from stopping the gusher to opening it up and catching what oil it could.
The only reason sane oil men would do this is if they wanted to relieve pressure at the leak hidden down below the seabed... And that sort of leak — known as a “down hole” leak — is one of the most dangerous kind.
No stopping it
It means that BP can't stop if from above; it can only relieve the pressure.
So, more oil is leaking out while BP hopes it can drill new wells before the current one completely erodes.
BP is in a race against time... It just won't admit this fact.
According to the Oil Drum:
There are abrasives still present, a swirling flow will create hot spots of wear and this erosion is relentless and will always be present until eventually it wears away enough material to break it's way out. It will slowly eat the bop away especially at the now pinched off riser head and it will flow more and more. Perhaps BP can outrun or keep up with that out flow with various suckage methods for a period of time, but eventually the well will win that race, just how long that race will be?
... No one really knows...
Which leads us back to Mr. Landau's point about the mudlogs and why BP won't release them.
I don't know... Maybe I'm wearing my tinfoil hat too tight this morning... But this stuff seems possible — if it's only a worst case scenario.
What strikes me as odd is the way the leadership of BP and the Obama administration is acting.
BP is running around apologizing to everyone they can find. Obama says give us $20 billion in escrow and $100 million for the people Obama put out of work on the oil rigs due to his six month ban — and BP says, "Sure thing mate, no problem."
And all of this in a 20-minute meeting?
I've been dealing with oil companies for a long time and it just doesn't add up...
Contrast it, for instance, with the Exxon situation in Alaska or the Union Carbide disaster in India .
Exxon fought tooth and nail for its shareholders; it appealed court rulings for 19 years. Union Carbide wasn't settled for 25 years.
BP is rolling over like a simpering dog. Why?
The only reason I can think of is that the company knows — better if not as well as the Obama administration does — that it will get worse.
Much worse.
Like I shared in a previous comment:
"As Obama's perverted mindset rolls along politicizing this unfortunate, and tragic circumstance the United Southern States may indeed recognize this as a potential catalyst for secession. There seems to be a slow build of intense anxiety festering within Southern States. Obama's idea to use southern coastlines as impetus to further promote his odious green energy policies may find himself completely enthralled by his ability to divide the country, which will ultimately lead to his demise. Southern folk can only tolerate so much, and woe to those that get in their way."
Obama is not working for the good of the country, but is working for the good of the Obama Image!
Once again we try to make sense of what isn't sensible. It's called crazy making. Obama, and his administration are masters at it.
The spill is a real problem. Damages will be unknown for some time, certainly beyond the end of the flow. However, Obama would never attempt to create a political crisis from it, would he?
Obama is political crisis. His underlings have been trained to see crisis as opportunity to further his Image. An Image that is contrary to the hearts of most Americans.
November should be a very good test of that.
This excellent Rolling Stone article brought to my attention by another ZH poster tells you all one needs to know about the source of the administration's confusion as so well noted above:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965?RS_show_page=1
Dutch engineering plans and drawings to stop BP oil spil within weeks:
www.noort-innovations.nl/
Asia Blues... sorry to interupt here but you are a smart guy so please help me out if you can!
I have a relatively complete plan now posted in forums that should be able to 'overthrow' the US government democratically by use of an obscure procedural motion.'
I need someone to find a real reason why this will NOT work and yes I am fucking serious!
http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/how-peacefully-overthrow-oligarchic-klept...
Please share your thoughts! Please!
So why hasn't Ron Paul used a Discharge Petition and how would you use it without a seat in the legislature?
"... how would you use it without a seat in the legislature?"
You would know if you went to his site and read what he wrote.
Easy, we vote him in. Zerohead for something or the other. The first ZH candidate!
Thanks msjimmied... but please don't even joke about it. I am not to be trusted with power unless it's under the hood of my brand new Ferrari BP Edition! (I'd sell my soul for a new Ferrari... and Cats simply cannot be trusted! You need a loyal Dog!)