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Presenting A Dutch Proposal To Stop GoM Oil Spill "Within Days"
The Netherlands has experience with controlling water: 2,000 miles of dykes preventing the sea from flooding the country's nether regions have taught the Dutch a thing or two about hydroisolation and spillover control. Unfortunately, as the last 40 days or so demonstrate so amply, neither the US nor the UK have the faintest clue how to stop the GoM oil spill which is now entering into the realm of the surreal. Which is why it may be time to learn from those who do know something about the matter. Zero Hedge has received the following proposal from Van Den Noort Innovations BV, which asserts it can get the GoM oil spill under control within days, and it doesn't even involve nuking the continental shelf.
From Johann H.R. van den Noort:
Please, be informed that we from our Dutch background water related inventions have found a most effective solution to stop the oil spill in the Mexican Gulf within a few days!
Just yesterday we have publicized this news on the front page of our website, see www.noort-innovations.nl
For the sake of all people concerned, we would appreciate that you could bring out this news on your website at your earliest convenience as so much time has already been lost. We have tried to reach president Obama but did not succeed on Memorial Day.
We are the first to admit we know nothing about the feasibility or practicality of the attached proposal, which is why we post it here and hopefully those who are experts on the topic can voice in. As the situation is indeed hopeless and getting worse, it may be time to consider every proposal, no matter how far-fetched it sounds.
Stop the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico:
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I think it is akin to using a SABOT round from an Abrhams battle tank to kill a mosquito personally.
It obviously works, but I bet they were much deeper below the surface than 1000'. It is all geological dependent.
The relief wells WILL work. I have been in drilling & wells for 10 years and have never heard of a relief well NOT working, directionally drilling technology is simply astounding, it just takes time.
Using a nuke seems somewhat practical. I am sure the US military has a small nuclear weapon that is small enough to fit inside the well. If the relief wells don't work, I bet this option is already on the table.
Let's not forget, this well could fall in and bridge off tonight and it would all be over with.
>directionally drilling technology is simply astounding
Halliburton was doing a bang up job for the Kuwaiti's in the early 90's, IIRC.
everybody thinks the relief wells will work they have tried twice already to drill this fucker and have failed both times - the second time was catastrophic - are we supposed to believe that this 3rd try will work somehow ?
here you go....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W88 small enough to do this job
The casing is already damaged, so yeah, don't want to cap this thing. There are multiple vents coming out of the seafloor near the BOP and probably another one miles away. The top kill and junk shots are all pointless^2 in this case. The MSM has said nothing about the subsurface blowout or the fact that the top kill and/or junk shots never would have worked anyway.
What we really need right now is a good celebrity freakshow. Zombie Michael Jackson, anyone?
The rig landed a good deal away from the wellhead.
Thats because once its machines failed, it started to drift (was dynamically positioned before) until the riser stopped it. Yes, that's right: The only thing holding it in place for two days was the riser! So the riser was already bent slightly (and probably already leaking) directly at the BOP while the rig was still swimming. The sinking of the rig just finished that job.
It speaks volumes for the solidity of the wellhead and the casing that a 52.000 ton rig pulling sideways for two days didn't break it. It might be bent though, and the casing may have developed weak spots, so no one wants to really seal the BOP to find out.
Primus-
Good post right here.
found on another site a model to scale of the activity depicted in your adn.com link
http://i46.tinypic.com/swqq11.jpg
Here is all the pretty drawings from the 'horses mouth'.
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9033657&contentId=7062373
I wonder if August is 'worst case' under promise, over deliver?
According to BP, the relief well has already cemented 18" casing @ 9945' and drilled ahead to 12090'.
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/downloads_pdfs/releif_well2_large.pdf
I heard that there are roughly 9 casing strings in these wells, and it is obviously much more difficult to stay on target directionally the further down you get, but I would think they could intersect this well well before August.
Dude, where is that can-do American male optimism here? I say we try everything we can spend money on. The more money spent the higher the GDP. This could be the productive stimulus we've been waiting for.
Dude, like - this ones gotta work dude. Totally dude, I sure of it this time Dude. Dude, is the greatest or what, Dude!
Not to berate you, but from working in the industry, and seeing people maimed and killed over the years doing the incident reviews, that is generally the sort of mentality that is on display right before the refinery blows up or the rig burns down.
'Nah, dude, we don't need to do a draw down test. Just displace the mud out of the riser. No worries, that cement is solid, besides, if it does leak, we'll just close the BOP's!"
Okay, here is the solution:
- A few more choice public words from Obama;
- Another photo-op for Obama, complete with a staged $12-an-hour clean-up crew on beach, holding a few shovels & garbage bags;
- More basketball!
Problem solved.
Okay, here is the solution:
- A few more choice public words from Obama;
- Another photo-op for Obama, complete with a staged $12-an-hour clean-up crew on beach, holding a few shovels & garbage bags;
- More basketball!
Problem solved.
So, David Axelrod's a member too.
I'm sorry, you're wrong, TH. The Bush administration was much more on top of these "energy issues" than the Bamster. Their solution, based on their deep experience in the industry, is simple. Lower taxes, and make permanent the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The result will be that oil that has already risen to the seafloor will "trickle down".
I think this would work a lot better:
...and much less costly.
Where is Al Gore when you need him?
Fill the leaking riser with hope and change.
It seems to have done miracles for America.
hahaha
Or, why don't you just try praying.
The experts (no, i'm not ironic or sarcastic here) at The Oil Drum said many times that dropping a big fucking thing doesn't work, primarily because the sea floor is very soft (they described it as pudding-like). This means that dropping something heavy can not only crush the well, but oil and NG will simply flow from below the containment box.
IMHO they should talk to the Tylenol people and drill more than 2 relief wells... hopefully one will intersect the leaking well.
BP is doing a good job ( of destroying the Obama presidency). Why interfere?
WSJ reports that MMS approved 3 drilling permit modifications for BP in the WEEK before the explosion.
>WSJ reports that MMS approved
That would be the MMS that was filled up with political operatives and good Christians by the previous deciderer?
"Cut off the hose and seal it off..." That's the point BP throws this into the garbage.
To stop the oil spill:
1. The Government sends lawyers to the Gulf to sue BP. Lawyers and lawsuits clearly are the solution for any bad result, accident, or unfortunate occurence.
2. The Goverernment badmouths BP, because talking badly about BP will obviously stop the oil from shooting out of the floor of the Gulf.
3. Hold Congressional hearings.
4. Appoint a commission.
5. Have the Evening News broadcast live from the Gulf, and show oil turning the Gulf into a tarpit.
6. Have the New York Times run really mean articles about BP and oil drilling.
7. Have the Huffington Post run really mean articles on BP and oil drilling.
8. Steps 1-7 are always sufficient to destroy Republicans, or cram through unpopular policies like Health Care Reform. However, they do not influence the physics or the geology of oil and natural gas blasting out of the floor of the Gulf through a broken blow out preventor 5 stories high under 5000 feet of water.
9. Dropping an upside down boat on top of the volcano of oil and gas won't work because the blow out preventor itself is 50 feet high, and, the upside down boat would be blown away by the jet of oil and gas long before it ever settled on top of the area.
10. I've been kicking around the idea of some sort of very powerful magnets to attach/patch the leaking pipes (they are metallic, no?), or, maybe some deep sea welding to seal the leaks?
This seems to be the exact game-plan the administration is taking.
came across an interesting site with different live streaming video and news feeds of the Gulf oil spill
The video feeds need a soundtrack. Let's put together a song list. I'll start with "The End" by the Doors and when ever they are trying some sort of goofy attempt to stop the flow "Three Blind Mice" various artists.
Careful With That Axe Eugene, Pink Floyd
When the drill rig sank, where did it settle, in relation to the BOP?
I think it was about 1/2 mile away, maybe less, It might have been 1500' away.
I have a basic question. Why does there need to be a dome structure and valve for siphoning oil. Why can't it just be something real big that will seal the hole shut...period, end of story. Why is it so hard to just drop something big and heavy that will do this.
I get the feeling the complete commercial loss of the hole is inhibiting other solutions.
http://williambanzai7.blogspot.com/2010/05/hurricane-bp-political-storm-...
Have you ever tried to cover a garden hose to stop the flow with something other than you thumb?
That might be 40 psi, depending on your water pressure.
What about a hotsy or a pressure washer at the car wash.
That might be 2500 psi.
This well is likely flowing at somewhere around double that.
"Dropping something heavy" just won't work. How are you going to lower something that big and heavy over the hole? I would bet that the concrete containment dome stretched the mechanical limitations of such a venture. Then, assuming you could scuttle a aircraft carrier, flip it upside down and figure out how to lower 5000' to the sea floor, just like the thumb over the garden hose, if the seal isn't completely perfect, eventually the contained pressure from the leak path will flow cut the barrier and you'll be back to square one.
Also, the BOP's and sub-surface equipment, if it isn't already seriously compromised, cannot withstand infinite weight placed on top of it. Like I said before, if they do 'cap' this well, they have to be prepared for a subsea blowout from the casing.
My guess as to why they can't simply stop the flow by dropping something heavy on it is that
a) stuff in water is less heavy than in air
b) the seafloor there is soft muck
c) the emerging oil is under such intense pressure, the stream would find a new path through the soft muck, like if you stuck your thumb over a garden hose nozzle
You CAN seal it - but you need more "stuff" than even Annie Leonard thinks about. Read my post, please.
Come ON, guys, let's at LEAST understand the mechanics:
IF the well can push oil up a pipe to the location of the former drill platform, then the EXCESS pressure is at least as much as:
Weight of 5000' oil column = 1,780 PSI (according to post above) x 0.79 (it can be as high as 0.915) = 1406.2 PSI, so there is at least that much pressure at bottom pushing it towards surface.
OK - why hydrates problem ? Problem is that released hydrated gas displaces oil. Less oil and more hydrate in column makes oil column much lighter, and easier to push to surface - that is what happened to create fire. So how to SEPARATE methane (coming from hydrate) from oil (much heavier) ??
What is pressure of column of GAS 5000' to surface - Oh, gee, right, its = 5.0 PSI (approximately)
So, easy to see that leaves 1401.2 PSI to unload on you at the surface ! Right ON !!!
Any you guys live on a rural patch with your own water well and water tanks ??
You got the idea - Highest release hole in inverted ship is for Methane gas.
Put big ass (6-10' diameter) float below it to shut hole when oil level gets to it. But use SECOND hole at, say, 1/2 height of Methane hole to port out Oil seperated from Methane for Dutch boys' tanker to haul away. (Imagine logistics of filling 2 tankers each day - can they do it ?) What about gas - OK compress and store and sell, or make really big lantern, gratis, for SETI.
No Big F'ing deal. I can do it.
Why, even YOU can do it !
(But if you hire me, you'll do it even better.)
Problem with "solutions to date is that nothing is dense enough to weight down an acre of 1500 PSI !
IF you use Tungsten, about density of Au (20) then you need 5000/20 = 250' thick slab of it right on top of hole. Not sure you can find that much. For lead, about 500' (i'm being sloppy with numbers) and for steel, try 800' thickness, or an even 300m, for good measure. I get out of breath running that far ! Dutch guy distances too short - or he's in better shape than me.
BP WILL NOT do it because not even a problem to them. News-flash: They REALLY don't care !
DC CAN NOT do it because they do not understand real world we live in. None of them !
Want to verify this about Govs., just look at Israel this weekend !!!!
OK, I'll calm down, but take a look:
There's a cluster of related patents BP never stirred to look at. (Surprise, they are assigned to Shell)
(don't worry - those BP shares are going to pop right back when the stuff gets a little more scarce !)
IF you have ANY interest (or want me to file appropriately specific patent) leave real corporate or Gov. email, Name and Address in reply to this comment and I might reply.
Cheers, and happy fishing in the Gulf !
Best Oysters I ever had were from there !
(but what the hell - there's still N. of France !)
I'm following the guy looking for honest man outta here !
So if you are BP mgmt., your goal is maximize shareholder wealth, which presumably means sell a shitload of gas at retail. If BP continues to fcuk this up and show they don't care, no one in US is going to buy their gas.... Right?
Come ON, guys, let's at LEAST understand the mechanics:
IF the well can push oil up a pipe to the location of the former drill platform, then the EXCESS pressure is at least as much as:
Weight of 5000' oil column = 1,780 PSI (according to post above) x 0.79 (it can be as high as 0.915) = 1406.2 PSI, so there is at least that much pressure at bottom pushing it towards surface.
OK - why hydrates problem ? Problem is that released hydrated gas displaces oil. Less oil and more hydrate in column makes oil column much lighter, and easier to push to surface - that is what happened to create fire. So how to SEPARATE methane (coming from hydrate) from oil (much heavier) ??
What is pressure of column of GAS 5000' to surface - Oh, gee, right, its = 5.0 PSI (approximately)
So, easy to see that leaves 1401.2 PSI to unload on you at the surface ! Right ON !!!
Any you guys live on a rural patch with your own water well and water tanks ??
You got the idea - Highest release hole in inverted ship is for Methane gas.
Put big ass (6-10' diameter) float below it to shut hole when oil level gets to it. But use SECOND hole at, say, 1/2 height of Methane hole to port out Oil seperated from Methane for Dutch boys' tanker to haul away. (Imagine logistics of filling 2 tankers each day - can they do it ?) What about gas - OK compress and store and sell, or make really big lantern, gratis, for SETI.
No Big F'ing deal. I can do it.
Why, even YOU can do it !
(But if you hire me, you'll do it even better.)
Problem with "solutions to date is that nothing is dense enough to weight down an acre of 1500 PSI !
IF you use Tungsten, about density of Au (20) then you need 5000/20 = 250' thick slab of it right on top of hole. Not sure you can find that much. For lead, about 500' (i'm being sloppy with numbers) and for steel, try 800' thickness, or an even 300m, for good measure. I get out of breath running that far ! Dutch guy distances too short - or he's in better shape than me.
BP WILL NOT do it because not even a problem to them. News-flash: They REALLY don't care !
DC CAN NOT do it because they do not understand real world we live in. None of them !
Want to verify this about Govs., just look at Israel this weekend !!!!
OK, I'll calm down, but take a look:
There's a cluster of related patents BP never stirred to look at. (Surprise, they are assigned to Shell)
(don't worry - those BP shares are going to pop right back when the stuff gets a little more scarce !)
IF you have ANY interest (or want me to file appropriately specific patent) leave real corporate or Gov. email, Name and Address in reply to this comment and I might reply.
Cheers, and happy fishing in the Gulf !
Best Oysters I ever had were from there !
(but what the hell - there's still N. of France !)
I'm following the guy looking for honest man outta here !
For the necessary amount of tungsten look no further than Fort Knox ;-)
Wink, Wink !
I'm wondering why they can't either clamp or crimp or at least put a kink in the leaking pipe. I read somewhere that one concern about the current plan to cut the pipe is that it might increase flow on account of the fact that the cut would remove a kink further down the pipe, which kink they think may at present be inhibiting the flow to some extent. If it is true that kink is presently partially inhibiting flow, then why not kink it more or crimp it?
I haven't been able to find good live feed of the riser in a couple days. I think it's been pulled or at least the subsea bot handling the cam has been pulled to the surface.
As I understand it the BOP shear was unable to sever the drill pipe probably due to the positioning of a drill pipe coupler exactly where the shear was to cut, or at least that's what's being put forward.
I don't see how they'll be able to lower the LMRP onto the existing BOP with the existing pressure, nor do I see how they'll be able to attach a new BOP should the LMRP install fail. If they are able to get a new BOP coupled to the old one I would think that the probability for another blow off would be pretty high, afterall you have a lot of volume that you're trying to stop and you can't shut it down like a faucet.
You can watch the procedure in realtime here: http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/ho...
Where is good old fashioned American Ingenuity? Red Adair would have capped it by now.
American ingeniuity endangered by Barack Obama's NannyState. Come on, Uncle Sam, get off your ass and do something.... Yeah, that's the ticket.
Here's to those who mistake action for progress.
Obama's EPA chief, a gal named Browner, says the Gulf spill is the biggest US enviro disaster ever.... http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9G19KC80&show_article=1
Like Dubya said in New Orleans: "Heckuva job Brownie"
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
Maybe we can pump morons into the well until it clogs.
Maybe Obama really does want to destroy the United States.
Much cheaper, more realistic, but too far out of th ebox to be considered.
I had posted this on the Oil Drum:
Actually there is a simple solution. Or better yet, a simple system that can solve the issue here. Trouble is, we imagine we are looking at the problem while the reality might be altogether different. BP, of course, is not telling us anything, forget the truth, the whole truth etc.
Here is one way to look at it:
You start far away from the leaks.... say between 100-200 meter dia, a large heavy ring that takes in ballast water as it goes down, finally sucking in mud+water, whatever it takes to keep it down. Bouy like hook lines float above it.
lay a heavy wire mesh along the length, loosely anchoring it to the slush better. now bring in a second ring, 20 meters less dia, with flotation in ballast tanks keeping it approx 15-30 meters above ring one. Attach first ring hooks to second ring (enough to make a strong connect.
The interior of rig two and above have guide vanes on the inside (trim-tab size) that would give any passing flow a "swirl".
Hang strong mesh from ring two to randomly enmesh with initial mesh laid on ring one.
The idea would be to get a multi-directional hold.
With each succesively smaller ring up, ballast the bottom ring further, so it keeps a relatively stable base. It has 20-30 meters to sink into goo. No trouble.
Each added ring, with it's internal vanes, collects a more "inward" focussed flow due to the swirl effect of inner vanes. I understand the pressures are hig, which is why small vanes will do just fine.
Keep linking up with controlled ballast, smaller and smaller rings till you have a structure around the Oilcano that looks like a nuclear plants cooling tower, hugging the stream (flow) while successively "churning" it into a tighter and tighter spiral flow. Of course, the oil, being dense will go to the heart of the flow.
See
http://www.google.co.in/images?q=Nuclear+Plant+cooling+tower&btnG=Search...
To get an idea of what it would look like.
As required according to the depth and pressure conditions, the outside of the ring+mesh can be wrapped with some heavy rubber/derivative material (steel impregnated, whatever works) to finally create a flexible funnel along the length of the flow.
You can take this as high as is necessary, starting with the appropriate bottom ring dia, to bring the now swirled flow to a depth where multiple suction pipes can pull in the oil+water mix onto mini-tankers for further processing.
Given that spiraling flow, you can leave appropriate and controllable apertures along the length of the tower to control/direct the mix as desired.
There is more to the idea (as in more detail), but I can see it working. It is an out of the box solution.
Stop the leak into the waters, allow the relief wells to do their job, then simply detach down and do the block.
My history is 12 years naval officer (Electrical and Marine engg)(large ships), Technology planning for super-complex fortune 50 conglomarate and now radical industrial designer.
This thing needs to be teased in, not rammed shut.
Like I said, more detail there, but not good to vent in one shot, eh?
Appreciate any and all feedback.
Please visualize deeply what I have described before "junk-shotting" me.
So you are trying to build a giant venturi tube around the well?
The BOP stack is already 50' high off the seabed. You would need to get significantly higher above the leak to get the desired separation and 'swirl'. By the time you build an underwater nuclear cooling tower, you could drill a couple of relief wells and you still wouldn't have the well kill, just the spill contained.
Primus, if you re-read, I'm suggesting a sectional and flexible Venturi tower. Not a fixed one. The picture was to give a visual sense only.
What I'm suggesting is a series of rings, appropriately ballasted and reducing in diameter as you go up (and yes, I'm takling way up), with wire/steel mesh "skirts" and an outer skin of wire or even epoxy impregnated rubber.
Very cheap and very easy to design and unlike building up, this is like setting atop, layer by layer, till you come up to a depth where is it easy to suction up.
And yes, this is a primary containment solution first.
I agree that this has been tried with the box that they lowered onto the wellhead. This proposal does not address the hydrate issue. The weight of this will not hold the shut-in pressure of the well. Lowering this onto the wellhead would also be risky since it could break off the wellhead.
This is NOT like the old story of the engineers who design an airplane too big for the hanger and it takes a janitor to tell them all that must be done is to let some air out of the tires.
Diogenes Dog has got a handle on this. But there is another problem. I think Matt Simmons is right. There is another leak. The blow-out damaged an area beyond where the cameras are running. I also think the blow out made the Gulf sea bottom unstable.
The bigger problem is the public is trying to solve a problem where we don't know all the variables.
Obama and BP are not being up-front with us. For whatever reasons, the full extent of the problem is non-public. (I'm not holding out on my fellow ZH readers. I don't know what's not being made public, I'm just good at understanding when someone is bullshitting me and this stinks like gobs of oil stewing in the salt water and sunlight.)
Like some of the readers above, I have some experience in oil and gas. I worked for the Louisiana Congressional delegation for years. The center of the OCS industry is not in Houston, its not even in New Orleans, its in Lafayette, Louisiana and if we are not hearing these experts talking about a solution, there isn't one.
Every time there's one of these top hat solutions, Obama and BP are careful to tell all "its a longshot."
We're screwed as the only real solution seems to be drilling the relief wells to lower the pressure, which means another month of oil. Considering that tomorrow, is the beginning of hurricane season the one thing that could really change this dynamic is a bit of weather.
Lastly, I agree with the posters above who referenced the fact that Team Obama is clueless. With all the talk about putting this on Bush, the reality is the woman just fired from MMS, was an Obama political appointee, not a Bush loyalist. In case readers here have forgotten Obama has been in office for more than a year.
Ken Salazar's hands are not clean either. Obama just made a speech about opening up more of the OCS to drilling. Does anyone here believe that Salazar and Birnbaum did not extensively brief the White House on this issue?
George Will said it best today on the ABC Sunday show. Obama believes if he gets a bunch of smart federal bureaucrats in a room there is no problem he can't solve. This tragedy is as much an indictment against big government, (and its ability to regulate many industries,) as it is the failure of BP.
We're in for a hell of a summer and this spill is going to be worse than Katrina as it has the potential to spread oil along the entire Gulf coast as well as the East coast.
Maybe Simmons is right and the only answer is the nuke the sea-bed. That's one hell of a call for any bureaucrat to make.
The Gubmint can't plug this pipe. But don't you worry, they'll get it together and efficiently and effectively handle nationalized healthcare for the tens of millions of us....
I would like to see credible evidence before I jump on the X-files bandwagon and stand up shouting 'they are hiding something and it is all a coverup!'.
The gigantic underwater plumes can easily be explained by the paraffin, heavy ends, and produced water suspended below the surface as the material seperates out natually.
I have yet to see anything that convinces me that there is a second blowout 5 miles away. It isn't impossible, but that is a LONG way for oil to travel 'all of the sudden', through numorous geological formations that have contained that oil and pressure for millions of years.
I don't believe the numbers that they are calling on the spill at all. BP filed for there permit to drill and stated that this formation could maybe flow unrestricted at somewhere around 60k bbls per day. They should have done a flow test before they cemented it, and it is very odd that this information hasn't been leaked. Given the BOP's are choking back some of the flow, it is impossible to know exactly how much is coming out.
Simmons, and others, have calculated the size of the pipe and come to the conclusion that the numbers for total gallons released don't make sense. This is why the calculations have been changed several times. The sats are seeing something not consistent with the what the underwater cameras are depicting. This is not me saying this. As Tyler said in his post, Simmons is a well connected guy.
In his last statement, Obama finally admitted that BP had not been candid in its communications with his Admin. Al Hunt just interviewed Pelosi who actually is floating a story that Birnbaum was fired because she didn't "clean-up" MMS fast enough. I worked on Capitol Hill and know MMS. NP is full of shit. Her statement makes no sense.
If the Obama Admin. knew that MMS had what Salazar described as "a few bad apples," why would they allow Obama to make an important policy speech just days before these few bad apples blew-up the Gulf? Obviously they had no clue what was going on at MMS till the shit hit the fan. If Birnbaum actually knew what she was doing, she would have stayed.
Its not X files is a cover-up of incompetence. At this point in the election cycle Obama does not need the inevitable press that will come from this tragedy. Specifically, that his Admin. doesn't know what its doing. What happens when people conclude the Federal bureaucracy is too big to govern?
>With all the talk about putting this on Bush, the reality is the woman just fired from MMS, was an Obama political
>appointee, not a Bush loyalist. In case readers here have forgotten Obama has been in office for more than a year.
But if you recall, Bush political appointees in DoJ were caught asking non-Political appointees (career appointments) their political/spiritual leanings, ensuring that bushies were appointed.
The incoming Prez can sack political appointees but it's a lot harder (takes more than a year!) to clean out all the religious nuts and corporate implants in "career" positions.
If they did it in the DoJ, I suspect it was also done at MMS.
There is NO COMPARISON between DOJ and MMS. Any Admin. immediately puts in key attorneys at DOJ. You can't take a chance when it comes to serious legal issues. MMS is the backwater. Its not even DOI. MMS only attracts people who want to go to work for XOM or COP. The problem with the revolving door is very real at places like MMS...as it is with SEC.
The Dems are very worried the oil will keep leaking and the Reps will make this Obama's Katrina. Pelosi has the most to lose as her majority is on the line. (I don't think the Senate will go Republican, but the House is in danger and Pelosi knows it.) The last think the Obama Admin. wants is Rep. Issa with subpoena power.
I hear the Dems have a secret videotape of every Republican in America chanting "drill, drill" or something like that-maybe they could release that,
Obama should get Larry Summers on this problem right away.
Everybody thinks the relief wells will work they have tried twice already to drill this fucker and have failed both times - the second time was catastrophic - are we supposed to believe that this 3rd try will work somehow and wait til August to find out?
Is there a way to use the oil mix itself in a looped heating system to insulate the pipe? ....like a flower, with the main pipe surrounded by oil-insulating petals that at some point either loop back down for heat exchange or become porous releasing cooled crystals....?
Here's an even better idea. Build a giant dike around the spill area, something on the order of encircling 50sqm. Then pump out the water and let the oil pool. Burn off the methane and collect the oil. Fill in the hole with sand and soil and build a prison to house the collective officers of the Vampire Squid and BP along with some of their Congressional Cronies on the resulting island.
Please....anything. I'll try anything.
Sorry , Too many unions to deal with
"Now is the time for a sschhmoke n a pancake!!"
I was wondering if expandable foam would work. That stuff is unbelievable. Maybe you could mix it with instant cement
I also did not understand why they did not put a huge rubbr gasket or collar around the pipe they inserted into the hole. you would think that would have worked like a stopper.
Bloomberg have a good video on the current ways BP are trying to get on top of this, in the short, medium and long term :: http://tinyurl.com/28f63vn
This is human folly on the scale of too-big-to-fail banks. We need a solar panel on every sunny-climate roof, a wind farm in every wind corridor, and the grid infrastructure to move that power to where it's needed.
I have looked at this, and I think they are half way to a good solution. The hydrate issue remains. I think that instead of a hose on the top of the barge, they need a giant valve on few yards of wide stem and no hose. The valve has to be big enough to not get clogged with hydrates. Sink the barge with the valve wide open. Then do all the dirt covering. Then once you think you have it nailed down, close the valve. I don't know enough about hydrates clogging, but if you are not trying to fit them in a hose, it seems like a lot of the hydrate issue will be solved. Plus, if the hydrates clog everything up and you still manage to keep that barge nailed down, even better.
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