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Prominent Oil Industry Insider: "There's Another Leak, Much Bigger, 5 to 6 Miles Away"
Matt Simmons was an energy adviser to George W. Bush, is an adviser
to the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, and is a member of the National
Petroleum Council and the Council on Foreign Relations. Simmon is
chairman and CEO of Simmons & Company International, an investment
bank catering to oil companies.
Simmons told Dylan Ratigan that "there's another leak, much bigger, 5 to 6 miles away"
from the leaking riser and blowout preventer shown on the underwater
cameras:
I
have no idea whether or not Simmons is right. The government should
immediately either debunk or admit his claim.
If accurate, the
bigger leak could have been caused by the destruction of the well casing
when the oil rig exploded. That is Simmons' theory.
Or it could
be caused by a natural oil seep, although the odds of a seep of that
size occurring right around the time of the Deep Horizon disaster is
nearly zero.
There is another possibility.
It is well-known that there were previous accidents at the Deepwater
Horizon rig. For example, as AP notes:
From
2000 to 2010, the Coast Guard issued six enforcement warnings and
handed down one civil penalty and a notice of violation to Deepwater
Horizon, agency records show.
On 18 different occasions during that
period the Coast Guard cited the vessel for an "acknowledged pollution
source."
And as 60 Minutes reports:
[Mike Williams, the chief electronics technician
on the Deepwater
Horizon, and one of the last workers to leave the doomed rig] said
they were told it would take 21 days; according to him,
it actually took six weeks.
With the schedule slipping, Williams says a BP manager ordered a
faster pace.
"And he requested to the driller, 'Hey, let's bump it up. Let's bump
it up.' And what he was talking about there is he's bumping up the rate
of penetration. How fast the drill bit is going down," Williams said.
Williams says going faster caused
the bottom of the well to split
open, swallowing tools and that drilling fluid called "mud."
"We actually got stuck. And we got stuck
so bad we had to send tools
down into the drill pipe and sever the pipe," Williams explained.
That well was abandoned and
Deepwater Horizon had to drill a new
route to the oil. It cost BP more than two weeks and millions of
dollars.
"We were informed of this during one of the safety meetings, that
somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 million was lost in bottom hole
assembly and 'mud.' And you always kind of knew that in the back of your
mind when they start throwing these big numbers around that there was
gonna be a push coming, you know? A push to pick up production and pick
up the pace," Williams said.
Asked if there was pressure on the crew after this happened, Williams
told Pelley, "There's always pressure, but yes, the pressure was
increased."
But the trouble was just beginning: when drilling resumed, Williams
says there was an accident on the rig that has not been reported before.
He says, four weeks before the explosion, the rig's most vital piece of
safety equipment was damaged.
It is therefore possible that there has been another ongoing leak
which BP has tried to cover up.
»
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I read that book too. Very technical but persuasive. I worked in the oilfields for 2 years after studying Geology in college.
I do have a friend who consults now but used to an Exploration Geologist at one of the BIG oil cos. He tells me there is plenty of oil.
This BP disaster is a reminder (as well as Brazil's 2 new huge oilfield discoveries way out deep) that there MAY indeed be plenty of oil.
My problem with this revelation is that the government PROBABLY DOES know and the Navy is probably there for such a reason. "Economic containment" being the reason for delaying the reality exposure.
Here's the info from the 60 minutes report.
Williams said they were told it would take 21 days; according to him, it actually took six weeks.
With the schedule slipping, Williams says a BP manager ordered a faster pace.
"And he requested to the driller, 'Hey, let's bump it up. Let's bump it up.' And what he was talking about there is he's bumping up the rate of penetration. How fast the drill bit is going down," Williams said.
Williams says going faster caused the bottom of the well to split open, swallowing tools and that drilling fluid called "mud."
"We actually got stuck. And we got stuck so bad we had to send tools down into the drill pipe and sever the pipe," Williams explained.
That well was abandoned and Deepwater Horizon had to drill a new route to the oil. It cost BP more than two weeks and millions of dollars.
"We were informed of this during one of the safety meetings, that somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 million was lost in bottom hole assembly and 'mud.' And you always kind of knew that in the back of your mind when they start throwing these big numbers around that there was gonna be a push coming, you know? A push to pick up production and pick up the pace," Williams said.
Asked if there was pressure on the crew after this happened, Williams told Pelley, "There's always pressure, but yes, the pressure was increased."
But the trouble was just beginning: when drilling resumed, Williams says there was an accident on the rig that has not been reported before. He says, four weeks before the explosion, the rig's most vital piece of safety equipment was damaged.
continued at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/16/60minutes/main6490197.shtml
Thanks, Clycntct!
I added to main post.
The "Top Kill" failed. BP stopped pumping mud at 11:00PM last night. They didn't bother telling the world until 5:00PM today.
They didn't want to rain on Barry's "we have everything under control" TV appearance nor today's orchestrated market melt-up.
This is America folks, only the privileged get to know.
I've been trying to follow most of the events and I didn't pay much attention to a blurb on ? some surfing I was doing but it had a mention of them running out of the mud and having to wait to get resupplied? That was sometime mid day to day so I got to go see if I can hunt that info up or if it was just BS.
I couldn't find it so maybe just BS
I think I caught something about them abandoning it on the oildrum and posted it as a comment to the rico article about 2pm today. On my blackberry so I can't repost
I can not believe that they are even talking about using a bomb to seal the bore hole, IMO, this is akin to the "fracking" technique to release even more oil from hard to get deposits.
Explosive fracturingWhen explosives are used to fracture a formation. at the moment of detonation, the explosion furnishes a source of high-pressure gas to force fluid into the formation. the rubble prevent fracture healing, making the use of proppants unnecessary. compare hydraulic fracturing....
http://oilgasglossary.com/hydraulic-fracturing.html
Fracking is done IN the formation where the oil is.
Full disclosure: I'm still for nuking it, personally. Very cheap and effective.
to be or not to be has not been an unanswered question. We are , some more than others. Some just think they are.
If you want to nuke it , fine as long as you and i have OUR hands on it when it goes off.
Wheres the LOVE? Thousands of creatures all share the life we have and take for granted.
The very incredibly perfect conditions that have allowed us to live , we are ruining because we are no longer connected to the earth.
Nor are we connected to our higher self.
It begins with us and our views and expectations. Our thoughts and focus of attention.
It begins by fashioning a higher desire for a greater good. It unfolds when we think of the effects of our thought and actions and act accordingly. It is nurtured when we act rather than react and it is strenghtened when we forego the many taped desires of the mind
ah yes, you're correct...we should open up a hole in the cap rock formation, that'll fix it.
The caverns left by nuke detonations underground don't measure 20,000 feet in diameter, not by a long shot. And here we are talking about a tiny little bastard, smaller than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.
ah yes, you're correct, a cavern, I don't know, say, 20ft ?...50ft ?...200ft ..that should do it.
The transformation of the surrounding loosely consolidated sediments into glass above the well could stop the leak to be sure... the Ruskies are 4/5 with sealing natural gas leaks with nukes.
The question is what will the massive shockwaves and steam pressures do to the same structures 500 meters to several kilometers out?
Risky business guys!
P.S. No caverns... but big surface craters... just like the underground tests!
http://www.sindark.com/uploaded_images/Nuke1-721270.jpg
http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2008/04/Castle_bravo_crater.jpg
80 percent chance of success? Let's do this.
There may come a point when we have nothing left to lose (seriously)... but we ain't there yet!
(P.S. I'll bet you had your adreneline junky ass glued to couch watching CNN during the bombing of Iraq... Call it a hunch! How'd I do? :)
I was thinking the same thing... nuke the oil plume and the leak.... so that's two nukes!
Are you Harvard or Yale?
+1000!
Got me 8 course credits in the Harvard undergrad program. International Relations and Social and Cultural Anthropology, which do abstractly touch on petroleum exploitation and nuclear weapons. That ought to cover this subject well enough.
Then I must kindly defer to your expertise!
BoMBS aWAY!
Harvard Princeton Yale. Bullets bombs and banks.
I like Celente a lot. But I understand that saying less than most of his sayings.
And guess what? Though a 2nd oil plume has just been discovered aprx. 22 miles from the original leak and heading inland-- the msm/google appears to be devoid of any stories of an alleged 2nd leak on the ocean floor, 6 miles from the 1st (per the Ratigan interview).
I also note that the Ratigan piece is datestamped 5/26-- yesterday-- so this information has been out there, but evidently ignored or kept under wraps by the corporatist msm. No questions on it at the press conference either.
Those who are interested only in making money will lie cheat and steal the rest of us to death if permitted. The oil pigs, like their bankster and other kleptocrat brethren are the army of avarice who have done nothing short of BRIBED their way into power-- and nothing will change until that ugly reality is more fully understood and faced. Lobbyists should henceforth be aka bribe dispensers.
http://calltoaccount.wordpress.com/
If you want to understand the history of evil at the Ivy League, I'd recommend the Bible-length tome "The Chosen" by Jerome Karabel.
Here's a (bad) review: http://www.slate.com/id/2128377
I recommend reading the whole thing if you want to learn about the origins of the enemy and the university system as a whole.
The whole thing - I'm not even joking - has been designed from the beginning to elevate the well-connected, jocks, and politicos over anyone who actually knows shit about anything. The US faux elite in a nutshell.
This is why I routinely pooh-pooh conventional conspiracy theories. The truth is actually more brazen and humiliating to the ruling class.
this is the biggest conspiracy going, and it is right out in the open. instead people fall for tall tales of yore and look for the invisible boogey man.
I taught at one of the schools mentioned above. (6 years.) Yes, it's about sending jocks to Wall St. and DC.
The cause & effect of rule through a "gentelman's C".
Holy shit, I love your posts.
5 to 6 miles away??? The riser was only a mile long to the mile deep well head. How would there be a leak that far away from the well head without that much pipe around??
Agree. Think this distance does not make sense, unless pressure caused the first, abandoned bore to collape, leak or something along those lines.
the leak doesn't have to be coming from the riser pipe, it could be emerging from the seabed.
if you look at this satellite image, right about 5 miles north west of the rig site there is a plume of oil, it appears to be being drawn south, into the current. certainly doesn't seem like it could have originated at the bop.
http://imgur.com/cdlJQ.jpg
OK that's really out there. Either the oil suddenly decided to gush through 20,000 feet of solid rock, or there is another well over there that we don't know about yet that suddenly failed. I'm going with my initial take for now, that 5-6 miles away there won't be any oil gushing from the seabed or any riser pipe or the like.
Its not "solid rock' its likely a salt canopy.Thats why top fill was the last solution they tried here not
the first...top filling in a salt canopy you run a good risk the pressure contained or forced
back in the blowout blows a hole in the seabed nearby where there is no drill pipe at all.
Thats why drilling in salt is a "new frontier" not only difficult but risky when things go wrong.
The whole notion of a cover up follows from their hope they plug the leak and circumvent admitting
the whole premise for drilling deep in the gulf through salt canopies is clearly misguided and just plain
insane.
Google Sigsbee Salt Canopy.
Imagine if the salt canopy springs a leak the leak will grow as the fluid wears away the sides of the hole
enlarging it. Why BP didn't top fill first but instead went dome...and likely this is the info being covered
up and deflected from as long as possible government included. BECAUSE evolving in this direction the
problem becomes UNMANAGEABLE.
The true threat to national security is not lack of oil. The true threat is foreign corporations and our own
deep drilling in the gulf. Our government now it appears are just stooges for multinationals and
consequently are also a huge threat to our national security if the not the greatest threat. They used
to call them traitors and shoot them.
nostromo17 you have stated my fears well. Unexoected surprises can occur. Google "mud volcano ' and you will find another episode where an oilrig going to deep caused a city to be overrun by several feet of hot mud. I too fear we may have puntured the ballon once too often.
BTW i posted this question elsewhere, perhaps a fellow zerohedge reader will answer me.
Q: AS oil and gas comes out, what goes in? If seawater gets in we are screwed. Boiling water causes trouble. Salt can crumble and wash away.
Land with water weight on it will settle, making this worse again.
The little punk who runs BP walks funny did someone kick his ass?
Its not "solid rock' its likely a salt canopy. Thats why top fill was the last solution they tried here
not the first...top filling in a salt canopy you run a good risk the pressure contained or forced
back in the blowout blows a hole in the seabed nearby where there is no drill pipe at all. Thats
why drilling in salt is a "new frontier" not only difficult but risky when things go wrong. The
whole notion of a cover up follows from their hope they plug the leak and circumvent
admitting the whole premise for drilling deep in the gulf through salt canopies is clearly
misguided and just plain insane.
Google Sigsbee Salt Canopy.
Imagine if the salt canopy springs a leak the leak will grow as the fluid wears away the sides of
the hole enlarging it. Why BP didn't top fill first but instead went dome...and likely this is the
info being coveredm up and deflected from as long as possible government included. BECAUSE
evolving in this direction the problem IS UNMANAGEABLE in any useful timeframe (how
many side drills would it take and how long would it take to get them in place pulling oil
for how long) so this scenario the catastophe turns MEGA CA
Should never have been done or allowed. Seeking oil under the premise of
national security leads us to the revelation that BP and other oil drillers and
out government itself (Thanks Presidente) are the most serious National
security threat we face. Government dishonesty unaccountability and basically
being stooges of Oil corporations (not even our own country's company)
should end any confusion where the greatest threat to our county is. The whole
congress and government should fall and be prosecuted with their stooge
corporate masters. The game is over. Failure to serve us, failures in life,
criminals and basically traitors...thats what I see.
From my earlier reading there was a failed hole that they had to abandon at this site and this one was the second drilling.
I'll have to go back and see if I can find that info but I remember that the drilling was bing pushed to make time and they stuck the drill works and lost that hole.
It may have to do with other site leak and I saw the above video this am. It also may explain why the flow rate was hard to imagine being so high by the site video that never looked like 70,000 barrels a day.
Yep. Second hole, as per the 60 Minutes interview, IIRC.
"70,000 barrels a day."
That was the number given by theoildrum.com right after 4.20.10. so I believe it is accurate, and if you are correct on the above, 70,000 is explained! Cheers Clycntct!
I would be VERY grateful if you could find that link!
Need some signs for our ruined gulf coast:
Obama Beach
It is already too late.
A massive area vital to an ecosystem that supports a major world fishery has been damaged beyond repair.
Of course they will lie and finger point to try to save face (and make bonus).
Hope you like farm raised Talapia?
He is from Hawaii, he likes black beaches.
+1
beyond repair is really wrong. The Gulf will repair itself. It will be years and years and a lot of hardworking folks will lose their way of life for a generation or two. This was preventable and foreseeable and a human caused disaster. Could have been mitigated and still could be, but much more damage and harm is being inflicted than need be and that sucks. Bigtime! The 11 oilmen who lost their lives on the rig paid the highest price. Their loss is kinda glossed over, but that's the real sad story here. They died for nothing but BP cutting corners. What is happening to the gulf sucks... but no one is likely to die from this point forward. Let's keep it in perspective and truly be upset that 11 folks were killed because of this..... and then be pissed about the oil in the gulf and fouling of the environment. I mean, another comet comes along and hits the yucatan and then what? lots of environmental damage for sure.
Just because they didn't burn in a gas explosion doesn't mean more won't die. People die or are criminalized because they're poor all the time.
yippie, "no one is likely to die from this point forward" is wrong assumption. Certainly premature. The dying in the ocean of sealife will cause further stress on other food sources.
Hopefully BP official will commit hari cari. Many clean up workers will sicken and some die due to this. Crime rates in other areas will rise due to influx of coast refugees as they increase in numbers due to the smell and lack of jobs.
Annual income and other monetary losses are said to near 1/4 trillion annually. Husbands and wifes often come to blows, some death due to financial stresses.
More will die because of this. Its written in the wind. I am so sorry for our lot.
We have no idea yet how much oil is going to come out of that geiser so to state that the Gulf will repair itself seems Panglossian at best. But I sure as shit hope you're right my friend.
If it were just oil, then regardless of volume, the oil loving bacteria would multiply and devour it. The problem is the dispersant. In places where dispersants were heavily used, the ecosystem is not bouncing back, even 30 years later.
Given the million gallons of toxic dispersant that is *not* consumed by anything, I fear the Gulf may take lifetimes to recover.