This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
We Must Remove BP from the Crime Scene and Let an International Team of Experts Fix This on BP's Dime
Blog
BP was criminally negligent in drilling the well which blew out. See this,
this,
this,
this,
this,
this,
this,
this,
this,
this, this,
this,
this,
this,
this
and this.
It has bungled everything it has done since. Indeed - as discussed
below - it has made things worse.
And BP has tried to cover up its blunders by lowballing the spill
estimates, keeping
reporters out of areas hardest hit by the oil (and see this,
this
and this)
and threatening
to arrest them if they try to take pictures, hiding dead birds and
other sealife, telling cleanup workers they'll be fired if
they use respirators, and using dispersants to hide the amount of
spilled oil (the dispersants are only worsening
the damage caused by the spill).
Given the enormous stakes (don't forget that we are starting a
potentially "extremely
active" hurricane season), why are we letting BP continue to be in
charge of the containment operations?
Remember, there is probably damage
beneath the sea floor. A
misstep by BP could make
things much worse.
Drilling relief wells is extremely
difficult.
As I wrote
on June 5th:
Many technical experts have said
that the first attempts to complete the relief well in August could miss entirely on the first try,
as it is difficult to intersect the blown-out well at the precise
location and angle needed.As PBS notes:
Several
experts have compared [intersecting the leaking well with the relief
well] to hitting a target the size of a dinner plate two miles
underground.***
The ... challenge is to exactly intercept the original well
bore, which is only about a foot across. If they miss on the first
attempt, they'll need to back up slightly, plug the hole they just
made, and try again. Each attempt could take several days. [David
Rensink, the incoming president of the American Association of
Petroleum Geologists] says that the chances that they'll hit the well
bore correctly on the first try are "virtually nil."
"If
they're within 20 feet of it, that would be pretty good," he says.
However, each attempt will reduce the uncertainty and get them closer,
and Rensink says that he's "very certain" that the relief well will work
eventually.
"The reason is that they're going to keep at it
until they make it work," he says.If the current
relief wells fail, it could be until December
or early next year until a correctly-positioned relief well can be
completed.
Indeed, ABC News implies that even after the
relief well is completed, the Gulf oil may keep on flowing for months.
Specifically, ABC points
out:Past experience in the Gulf of Mexico has
been sobering. In 1979, a Mexican-owned rig called Ixtoc-1 suffered a
blowout and collapsed, and 140 million gallons of oil escaped into the
water. Pemex, the Mexican oil company, drilled two relief wells --
and even then oil kept escaping for
three months after the first one was finished.Similarly,
MSNBC writes:
If the [Ixtoc] disaster serves as a precedent, the BP
spill could continue even after the two relief wells are expected to be
finished in August.
And
Spiegel reports
today that there are many dangers with completing the relief wells:
Independent
experts warn that relief wells, like any well, are not without risk. "More oil could leak than before, because
the field is being drilled into again," says Fred Aminzadeh, a
geophysicist at the University of Southern California. Ira Leifer, a
geochemist at the University of California in Santa Barbara, voices
similar concerns: "In the worst case, we would suddenly be dealing with
two spills, and we'd have twice the problem."
***
Leifer
is a member of a team of experts deployed by US President Barack Obama
to estimate the volume of oil currently flowing in the Gulf of Mexico.
***
BP's most recent efforts to stop the flow of oil have only
made the situation worse, says Leifer. The engineers' attempt to seal
off the well from above, using a method known as "top kill," failed and
only enlarged the borehole, according to Leifer. Now, he adds, there
is almost nothing stopping the oil from flowing out of the well.
***
As straightforward as it sounds, this approach [i.e. killing a spill
by drilling relief wells] has not always been easy to implement in the
past. The disaster in the Timor Sea, for example, ended in a debacle.
It took engineer five tries to even find the borehole under the sea
floor. Shortly before the end, the West Atlas oilrig went up in
flames, after all.
Repeat of History?
Another
case is also a warning sign for BP. In June 1979, engineers with the
Mexican oil company Pemex lost control of the Ixtox I, an
exploratory well in the Gulf of Mexico. Just as BP is now attempting to
do, engineers at the time drilled two relief wells.
***
Is
history repeating itself? The spill in the Macondo oil field could
also continue to gush uncontrollably well beyond BP's August deadline.
Pemex Director Carlos Morales, currently providing BP with technical
advice, expects the spill to continue for another "four to five months."
Leifer also believes that the disaster on the sea floor could drag on
"until late fall."
Although the BP engineers have already
completed two-thirds of the first relief well, it is extremely
difficult to find the out-of-control well in the middle of the bedrock,
says David Rensink, incoming president of the American Association of
Petroleum Geologists.
"You're trying to intersect the well bore,
which is about a foot wide, with another well bore, which is about a
foot wide," Rensink said recently. Hitting it with the first attempt,
he adds, "would truly be like winning the lottery."
Instead, the
engineers will presumably have to repeatedly pull back the drill head
to adjust the direction, Rensink predicts. "If they get it on the first
three or four shots, they'd be very lucky."
More Caution
Rensink is
particularly concerned that BP, in
drilling the relief wells, will penetrate into precisely those rock
formations in which extreme pressure and temperature conditions
facilitated the April blowout in the first place. Gas bubbles and
gushing oil from the depths are real possibilities. "Any relief or kill
well needs to be drilled with more caution than the first well," Donal
Van Nieuwenhuise, a geologist at the University of Houston, told the
New Orleans daily Times-Picayune. "You don't want a repeat performance."
***
Indeed, the engineers aren't only facing a formidable technical
challenge. Weather will also play a significant role. Forecasters have
already predicted that this hurricane season, which began this month,
could be one of the most active on record. Drilling would have to be
ceased for the duration of each strong storm.
Government
spokesmen have said that BP's technical knowledge and equipment are
superior to the government's. But that is misleading.
The U.S. government might not have expertise, but many private companies
do. For example, Norway's Statoil is the largest
offshore operator in the world, with enormous experience in
deepwater drilling. Chevron, Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell and other
companies also have substantial experience in such operations.
These companies are not without their own - although smaller - history
of spills. But BP's safety record is the worst. See this,
this, this
and this.
And because other companies don't have a huge, direct
legal
and financial interest in trying to underplay this
spill (BP could be fined between $1,100
and $4,300 per barrel of oil released, and oil industry expert Matt
Simmons believes
that BP will be driven into bankruptcy), they will likely be somewhat
more motivated to protect the Gulf and less motivated to try to cover
their backs by hiding the evidence and pretending everything is fine.
Moreover, group-think will likely be less if a diverse team drawn from
different companies is involved, instead of a bunch of guys within the
same company - BP.
Numerous countries have also offered to help. See this, this,
this
and this,
but BP and the U.S. government have rejected their offers.
And the offers from many private citizens - many with
relevant expertise - to help clean up the oil pollution have been
rejected by BP as well.
Indeed, it is no longer just the U.S.
threatened by this catastrophe, but also Mexico,
Cuba,
and possibly many other
countries as well.
The government shouldn't let the knuckleheads who caused the blowout and
have made everything worse drill the relief wells and control the
mitigation and cleanup efforts.
The
White House should, instead, remove BP from the scene of the crime and
appoint an international team of experts to drill relief wells, kill
the spill, and clean up this mess on BP's dime.
- advertisements -
Sue the shareholders. American environmental law has precedent on this point and the majority shareholders (namely, GS, the Royal families of Britain and the Netherlands as well as a collection of assorted Bilderberg vipers, are all extremely well heeled (Can you say trillions?)) and are the primary suspects to benefit from the green/clean energy carbon tax hoax that will further enslave the North American continent from this increasingly probable false flag event.
Great! More hand wringing.
Meanwhile, and ominously timed, get a load of this, the Internet Kill Switch, brought to us by Joeeeeeeeeee Lieberman!
http://www.zdnet.com.au/internet-kill-switch-proposed-for-us-339303838.htm
People who believe this free and feisty exchange of real ideas has much longer to go... dreaming.
Also, I'd posted a call to action yesterday. Very interesting set of responses.
La Z Boy, LA Z Girl.
We really ought to be able to do more. But the sum total of our expressions has been channeled to keyboards and Monitors (monitor, such a strange, chilling name eh? Very 1984, prophetic.... Only those people who have an always on web-cam will heretofore be allowed access to the Free World of the Internet!!!).
Meanwhile, real, vital life, like the Oil, is slipping away, slipping out, just slipping.
Ummmhhhhh...... comfy comfy!
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com
This comes after the observations on how the Mullahs retained power in Iran.
Hmmmmm....trying to make the connect and failing.
Care to clarify Augustus?
Shut down internet access and text messages to keep the opposition from communicating and coordinating.
BTW, I've been fairly critical of all of the nonsense end of the world, the GOM will cave in postings that are collected nonsense on the internet. However, the only way to counter the nonsense is to post the correct information and let the original scare theories discredit themselves. Much better than banning or shutting it down.
Got the connect.
Re. info, we are on opposite sides of the fence, being that "correct" has become a rather discredited word.
Correct is so flexible, like a yoga master. Bend it to meet the message.
And .gov+correct is Oxymoron # 1 on my list. I've been in it, so I know.
Loud and clear :THE GOVERMNET DOES NOT CARE ABOUT "COMMON" PEOPLE!!!
Now of course, common people don't care about common people either.
They just post angrily on Internet forums.
Problem is the Bit's can't bite.
Unless you are wikileaks.
All this is thus chatter built upon no real foundation, but it helps people think they are doing something.
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com
Requiring that someone recognize that 2 + 2 does equal 4 and not 8 is not subject to flexibility.
That is disingenuous Aug.
The 2 has proven to more like a 4 with every passing week and might be a 10 before you know it.
In a world of facts, I agree with you. In the realm of speculation and fraud, I don't.
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com
Some people have been lead to accept that a 2 has actually become a four. Orwell wrote a book about it. Speculation is simply speculation. If you find it attractive to speculate that a 2 will actually become a 4, have at it.
What the BP Chairman said about the people of the Gulf was reprehensible and politically incorrect. The proper term is "stature-challenged" people.
What happened to the 'Coalition of the Willing'... HAHA!
When you make a deal with the devil, don't expect fair play.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-gary-null-show-wnye/
.
6/16/2010 show ...robert reich then deep water commentary.
.
http://maxkeiser.com/watch/the-keiser-report/keiser-report-51-15-june-20...
.
Keiser Report 51: 15 June 2010 – Mike Rupert
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6593#comment-648967
Just to reiterate the earlier post. 2.2 - 2.5 billion barrels (75 billion gallons) of oil are probably a more realistic endgame estimate. And this is not counting the natural gas. Hopefully the Limbaugh set will remove their collective heads from their asses and realize what the fuck is really going on here. And no, I don't think the government will do any better. They can't. All they can do is try and collect some money and distribute it to the folks most directly affected by this.
I don't know why everyone has their panties in a wad about all this; after all, BP cares about us "small people."
[end of tape]
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp=37736716�
[said twice]
"Because we care about the small people."
There, feel better?
The only thing worse than American aristocratic ass holes are European aristocratic ass holes. This was at best a Freudian slip and at worst, exactly what he meant to say. Of course, he wasn't being derogatory, he was being honest. They consider themselves an entirely different class and species.
"Because we care about the small peoples."
Of course, what he meant to say was "Because we care about the little peoples." There, that's better.
Ah!!!! You caught the Swede.....
small peoples
correction: peasants
Careless Whisper
"small peoples
correction: peasants"
Fuck dude he is European. He meant Fairies and Brownies. Elves tend to be taller, and don't get me started on Dwarves.
"small peoples"
"correction: peasants"
...... correction: little pieces of annoying gnat shit, who think that an entire shrimp and fish industry has more clout with their government than a foreign oil company who is destroying the entire Gulf of Mexico and all adjacent land masses.
Before this is over, the Administration will bring us on national TV, kiss our asses, and tell you what a great job we have done. And to stop complaining about the benzene rain from the hurricane, because it's not a primary impact incident.
We'll pay for 5 years, you little pieces of oil soaked shit, and your oil soaked children will be paying for the rest of your lives.
Oil is forever, once it touches something solid. The fact that you think it can be "cleaned up" shows just how ignorant you sheep droppings are.
By the way, all sarcasm and sanctimony aside, I think George Washington is right - it's well past time for some adult supervision of this situation.
In the immortal worlds of Walter Sopchak: BP has proven themselves to be "a bunch of fucking amateurs, Dude"
At least let's bring in a fresh set of experts, who we can criticize and denigrate anew in a few weeks.
I consider myself an expert at drinking beer, and one time I was attending a conference in Ireland, and stopped for a beverage at a local pub.
A colleague I hadn't seen in a long time approached me and asked, "Hey, aren't you Dr. Carpet Pisser?"
"Indeed I am," I replied.
And now, on my resume, I describe myself as an "internationally-recognized expert"
Surely this qualifies me to be included on the proposed "International Team of Experts To Fix This on BP's Dime?"
I'll be waiting with baited breath for the phone to ring (just dial 1-800-DOC-PISS, or visit me online at DRCARPET PISSER.COM).
Meanwhile, I think I'll contemplate the wisdom of believing that someone, somewhere is going to arrive on the scene to save us from ourselves.
Eric Odom, the PR flak who launched the Tea Party in February 2009, is the same Eric Odom who in August 2008 organized Republican Twitter-mobs who crashed Capitol Hill chanting “Drill here! Drill now!” to force Congress to open up American coastlines to unrestricted offshore oil drilling. Odom used the same Twitter front group, “DontGo Movement,” in both campaigns: Twittering the pro-offshore drilling mobs in 2008 and Twittering the first anti-Obama teabaggers in early 2009. Odom was listed as the “New Media Coordinator” for the Sam Adams Alliance until a few days before the very Tea Party Protest in 2009.
The Tea Cuppers are the best at drilling.
Here is the shit boys and girls.
Rover recorded oil seeping from the seafloor
some scary SHIT !!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2RxIQP0IBU&feature=player_embedded
Hope they solve this mess
What is scary is that someone would believe and distribute that nonsense. It is the "prop wash" from the ROV. Glad to have helped you with the solution.
Augustus
Are you one of Barky's paid posters, or is BP paying for damage control?
Hale-Bop has left. You missed your ride.
The idea that the video shows oil leaking is just incorrect. It is showing a piece of burned debree from the drill ship with silt material being blown from the scaled paint.
I don't know Barky, but would piss on your leg if you are getting inflamed.
It would be refreshing, Augustus, if you could perhaps support your arguments with
a) logic
b) factual references
c) or at least SOME kind of corroboration other than your disdain
Try this:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=abB4SRejx7Po
The bloomberg writer was evidently not familiar with oil field terms. Fissure implies something entirely different from what occurs in the drilling process. I would have to dig into the drilling reports posted online to find the depth for where they were in the hole at that time. However, I believe that they were several thousand feet high from the bottom. They set and cemented in an intermediate casing string to take care of the problem. It is nothing unusual for any GOM well and is why the do use the intermediate strings of pipe. When going down the hole they control the formation pressures and wall with drilling mud. Some formations are porus enough that they will "take" the drilling mud. Several methods are used to get past those zones and move on down the hole. If they don't work they have to set casing and cement it to shut it off. It is simply standard practice and I expect the mention of it is normal in the well reports to detail why the casing was run. Consider that the next bit must be smaller than the last casing string. If they have to keep running new strings they run out of hole size. That can happen and is referred to as getting "tight holed", end of project.
The problem is the pay zone at the bottom of the well. It appears that the loss of drilling mud and loss of cement into that zone caused the cement job to fail. They had had several problems while drilling in this section. there is a massive data dump with the information available at the house Energy committee web site. All you'd ever want to know about a well with diagrams, schematics, pressures, temperatures, pipe specs, cement volumes run on the different jobs, mud weights used in different sections, and pore pressures. It is not secret information.
If BP were more forthcoming, and stories like this were addressed in detail -
BP Official Admits to Damage BENEATH THE SEA FLOOR- people wouldn't be forced to watch video and speculate.
If BP has told you that there is probably a casing leak down there, are they keeping you in the dark? Would you know about it from some other source than BP?
They do not know the exact extent of it or the location of the depth. They pump the top kill mud and can figure that there must be a leak somewhere. It certainly was leaking from the BOP and the riser during that operation. The volume of mud actually going down the well is not very well known. the only way to determine the depth is to try to figure out how long it takes to come back out. That is mixed with the oil. It is impossible to know.
It is amazing to find that so many oil well engineers have give that up and become bloggers. Lack of knowledge and experience does not restrain their fiction writing abilities. Who knows, there might really be a Jurassic Park too.
Well that would probably be the fastest way to bankrupt the company.
Once that's done I have a hard time imagining that the International Team of experts will continue to work for free...
Beach goon squad keeping the press away from the cleanup.
http://www.wdsu.com/video/23919536/index.html
http://www.wdsu.com/video/23919536/index.html
I think a couple of bouncers that work at places in the French Quarter could take care of these little sand fly sized security "guards"
Next time you are overcome by the Vapors and are compelled to ccollect internet scare stories about the never ending blowout, Try to include something from this source that explains that the "assistance of the galactics" is the only way out:
http://sbeckow.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/new-note-from-matthew-wardon-what-the-galactics-are-doing-about-the-oil-spill/
OK, let’s review some of what he said. He said that disclosure the way the term is meant cannot happen at this time. Cooperation between galactics and terrestrials however can – to a limited extent.
Some technology already exists on Earth to ameliorate the situation. This does not include a negative use of HAARP or other scalar technology. I’m not sure whether it includes a positive use of scalar energy.
Matthew does not say that President Obama is part of the media blackout and I don’t think he is – except to the extent that a certain amount of working behind the scenes is important to the success of the operation. Even the galactics maintain secrecy so as not to tip their hand to the cabal.
He explains the manner in which galactics are working with non-Illuminati terrestrials to address the rupture. He says that efforts to cap the well are counterproductive from the galactics’ point of view, and that efforts to capture the transient oil would be more effective.
He says that these efforts would contribute to removing the fumes that are endangering people.
And he encourages us to continue visualizing a clean gulf, validating the type of visualization that Niara Isley is promoting, as she outlined in the post prior to this one.
Thank God someone sane is working on this catastrophe.
Yea I was beginning to get worried until I read that post. Now I can concentrate on the World Cup.
I don't see what good any of your recommendations will do. In fact, putting government in charge of managing the containment and cleanup is a surefire guarantee for failure. At least with them uninvolved there's a chance. Remember, this is the same government that gave the deepwater horizon a safety award not long ago.
Not to mention the Jones act is a union-friendly law, and obama et. al. are union bought and paid for. What do you think the outcome will be? Sorry, I wouldn't dream of putting the authors of the jones act in charge of cleaning up a mess that would be made easier to clean if the jones act had never been born. I also wouldn't put the authors of the myriad laws that have made it harder to drill in safer quarters in charge of plugging a hole that might have never been drilled if they had minded their own damn business.
Obama just appointed yet another oil slick czar. All he and his cabinet can do is appoint people, undercut each other, and bore us all to death by appointing professional meeting attenders to meet, in between golf games of course. The organizer in chief isn't even good at organizing. Obama + Alvin Greene - dream team 2012! "No past, no present, your future!" (TM)
However, the good thing to come out of your idea would be that with obama and co, he won't have to worry about hiding any of the damage - the press will circle their wagons around him and the gulf will be miraculously healed. All they have to do is what they do best: refuse to report anything at all. Well, maybe not anymore, because he's lost that lovin' feeling.
EDIT: Yet another reason why the government being involved is idiotic: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6611#comment-652114
Still waiting for coroboration on this, but it "fits" the model of brain-deadness in US leadership.
"The government shouldn't be letting the knuckleheads who caused the blowout and have made everything worse drill the relief wells."
Oh Pleeeease. With this clown? The analogous statement is that the Bush wrecking crew and the banksters should not have been left to "fix" the banking system. We already know where the President stands on these issues. The guy is a chump that gets punked by any monied interest around. The banksters set the pattern followed by health-care "reform" and now oil. This guy will do NOTHING effective. So for your planning purposes plan on that.
It's my understanding that they are drilling two relief wells. Is one for a conventional attempt at stopping it via mud and concrete and could the second one be for the Russian method.
No...because the process of relief wells is to hit a certain spot before the damaged area. If the first once misses, then they try again. And if that one misses, they drill another one. Some have taken up to 5 attempts.
If the casing is damaged, and everything points to this, then this is going to be a very difficult endeavor and BP needs to get out of the way and let the rest of the world help. I guess we need a Jones Act waiver.
I've been wanting to crack a joke for the last 2 weeks since I've been reading how the relief well needs to hit a very specific spot in order to be effective. I figure now is as good a time as any since I'm with the boys rolling in the oil and the mud, swigging beers and telling dirty jokes.
My wife keeps talking about some mysterious and extremely hard to find G-Spot. Does this have anything to do with the relief well? :>)
The odds are the relief wells will succeed with two to ten drilling attempts. The odds are it will take 50 to 100 drilling attempts to find the G-spot, let alone bring relief.
Cognitive Dissonance
So, uhh, your wifes, umm, girly parts are like a well? Umm, you best not let her read that.
19 more junks to get this comment off here.
Edit:
Now only 16 more Junks!
CD, there are a lot of good follow-up jokes ... If we were at a bar, I could crack some funny ones.
Nice to have you back GW. I hope you can find the correct mix between your family and your activism. It has always been difficult for me so all I'll say is this.
Thank You for your service!
U wanna read the horrible truth? I got a link for u [from NC – Yves] http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6593#comment-648967
.
call me when it's all over, i'm going back to sleep...
Thanks for the daily dose of fear mongering...