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No, the Gulf Oil “Sheen” Is Not Oil Coming from the BP Wreckage
Now that the new oil “sheen” has been confirmed by the government as coming from BP’s crippled Macondo well, BP’s fallback position is that the new sheen is just oil leaking from the wreckage of the drilling rig lying on the bottom of the ocean.
As Bloomberg reports:
“The exact source of the sheen is uncertain at this time, but could be residual oil associated with wreckage and/or debris left on the seabed from the Deepwater Horizon incident,” according to the statement.
***
“The most likely source is the bent riser pipe that once connected the rig to the well head, where a mix of oil, drilling mud and seawater were trapped after the top kill operation,” Brett Clanton, a spokesman for London-based BP, said in an e- mailed statement today.
Similarly, the Press-Register reported last year, in connection with a separate 10-mile oil slick linked to BP’s stricken well:
Scientific analysis has confirmed that oil bubbling up above BP’s sealed Deepwater Horizon well in recent days is a chemical match for the hundreds of millions of gallons of oil that spewed into the Gulf last summer.
The Press-Register collected samples of the oil about a mile from the well site on Tuesday and provided them to Ed Overton and Scott Miles, chemists with Louisiana State University.
The pair did much of the chemical work used by federal officials to fingerprint the BP oil, known as MC252.
“After examining the data, I think it’s a dead ringer for the MC252 oil, as good a match as I’ve seen,” Overton wrote in an email to the newspaper. “My guess is that it is probably coming from the broken riser pipe or sunken platform. … However, it should be confirmed, just to make sure there is no leak from the plugged well.”
But there is not that much oil in the riser. As the Washington Post ?reported Wednesday:
Marcia McNutt, director of the U.S. Geological Survey, said a rough calculation showed that the riser, if full of oil, could hold about 1,000 barrels of oil. Because it’s open on two ends it is unlikely to have that much oil, she said.
Indeed, Dr. Ian MacDonald - an expert in deep-ocean extreme communities including natural hydrocarbon seeps, gas hydrates, and mud volcano systems, a former long-time NOAA scientist, and a professor of Biological Oceanography at Florida State University- told us today:
The key statement in the BP discussion was the fact that oil recovered on the ocean surface was not biodegraded. This is not consistent with a pool of oil supposedly trapped in the wreckage of the riser, which would have been exposed to ambient bacterial activity for over two years.
We asked Dr. MacDonald whether the "drilling mud" which BP pumped into the riser might have inhibited bacterial degradation of the oil.
He responded:
It's not uncommon to observe mounds of drilling mud near well bores. They are often colonized by the chemosynthetic bacteria Beggiatoa, which implies intense degradation of the mud by heterotrophicbacteria.
In other words, the drilling mud likely would not have slowed down degradation of the oil, and the fact that fresh oil is appearing at the surface in the Gulf implies ongoing leaks.
Where's the Oil Coming From?
So where is the oil coming from?
We’re not sure yet. But top oil spill experts – such as UC Berkeley professor and government consultant Robert Bea and LSU professor Ed Overton – have told us that oil blowouts such as the one in the Gulf can create new pathways to the seafloor and enlarge natural oil seeps … so that leaks can continue for years.
And as we noted in March:
In June of 2010, BP officials admitted to damage beneath the seafloor under BP’s Gulf Macondo well.
Numerous scientists have speculated that the blowout and subsequent clumsy attempts by BP to plug the well could have created new seeps, and made pre-existing natural seeps bigger.
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Fill 'er up!
as coming from? First sentence?
Fixed ... thanks
Thanks for caring. This type of content needs the credibility provided by good editing (esp in the first sent).
Why not let Chevron take over the site a redrill it to relive pressure and empty the pocket? I will buy the oil.
Leaking oil puts off flamable/explosive vapors, who would take on the liability for such a task?
Why not let Chevron take over the site a red rill it to relive preassure and empty the pocket? I will buy the oil.
Came for the Martin and Charlie jokes, leaving disappointed.
and do understand that oil goes to cushing and is mixed and sold to refineries. so boycotting bp serves nothing unless you think 10000 30 gallon tanks might affect their operations from their refineries...drop in a drum.
bp is a wicked and foul organization made up of evil liars.....i have not purchased bp products in years and refuse to do so in the future.....that company should be boycotted out of existence....
The seafood is still okay, right? Hopefully someone will save room on a lamp post for ole Tony.
State Officials In Alabama Close Gulf Shrimping After Scientists Find Severe Deformities
The gulf is done, with the hep of Fukishima also.
Yes, if your Okay getting a 3 shrimp cocktail and can't have seafood for 1 month afterwards.
James Cameron or some other rich, environmentally conscious do-gooder should send a fucking ROV down there. I would be surprised if BP really did fix it properly back in '10. Another salt dome failure in the making?
Making the world safe from Communism required a lot of busy work.
When Americans kill you, you go right to heaven unlike when you get killed by godless Communists.
Arrest the Queen of England.
Fantastic blog, GW.
And for my end-of-the-week rant:
“Staggeringly Ignorant”
That was the description a BBC commentator recently used to describe most Americans’ nonexistent knowledge of their country’s modern history and politics.
How very true.
Per their usual routine every presidential election, NPR interviews Republican voters who spew their nauseating ignorance bespeaking an utter lack of ethics and morality in their personal world views.
A review for the jackholes among us.
During the Eisenhower Administration, democratically-elected governments in Guatemala, Iran and elsewhere, were overthrown with the aid and help of the USA, causing much pain and bloodshed on those populations. (The World Bank, headed by John J. McCloy, also a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation, refused loans to Guatemala because that government planned for equitable land reform and wages for its citizenry.)
During the Johnson Administration, American military aid and munitions helped overthrow the democratically-elected government of Brazil, leading to decades of brutal violence, both physical and economic, in that country. The Johnson Administration also ordered the US military occupation of the Dominican Republic.
During the short-lived Kennedy Administration there were only 16,792 advisors in Vietnam, originally sent during the Eisenhower Administration. President Kennedy fought against the advice of his military Joint Chiefs of Staff, and refused to increase the military presence in Southeast Asia, in fact, Kennedy had set in motion, with memos to the State Department and the Pentagon, plans for the full withdrawal of all advisors prior to Kennedy’s reelection campaign, with the first withdrawal planned for the end of November 1963, the month he was assassinated.
President Johnson would completely flip this, dramatically increasing the military presence in Vietnam to half a million troops, along with increasing the US military presence in neighboring countries.
Nixon and his administration continued the march of death in Vietnam, Chile, etc.
Later, the muddle-headed electorate of America would vote in Ronald Reagan, who began an unprecedented era of bloodshed and violence throughout South America, fully utilizing the military’s special operations forces --- not for counterinsurgency activities in pursuit of democracy, the purpose originally envisioned by John F. Kennedy and his administration which was responsible for resuscitating the Army Special Forces (Green Berets) and the creation of the Navy SEALs --- but to spread fear and violence through those lands on behalf of multinational corporations and the local oligarchs.
[This was around the time Romney’s Bain Capital sought financing from the benefactors of El Salvadoran death squads and Monsanto executives.]
Blowback happens, as Bill Clinton learned when China attempted to flood the gangs of California with cheap munitions and firearms during his administration.
Today, America has devolved, through years of militant ignorance, to the point where we are presented with the choice of rightwinger Barack Obama as opposed to the extremely radical rightwinger and criminal deviant, Romney.
Regardless of the outcome of the presidential election, imperialism will again be the winner.
(FYI on that US Supreme Court motivation: Kagan has recused herself so many times, she is consistently ineffective in the most important cases (not surprising, given that as the dean of Harvard’s law school, Kagan only appointed academics who belonged to the most neocon of outfits, the Federalist Society); while Sotomayor’s voting has been dismal.)
Sources:
Battling Wall Street: The Kennedy presidency, by Donald Gibson
Thy Will Be Done, by Gerard Colby with Charlotte Dennett
Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, by David Talbot
The Eagle and the Lion, by James A. Bill
The Yankee and Cowboy War, by Carl Oglesby
Wall Street Capitalism: The Theory of the Bondholding Class, by E. Ray Canterbery
John Kenneth Galbraith, by Richard Parker
You rock, Sarge. Your mentions of SA have moved me. This one's for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1LhlVtbW_U
Hope you enjoy it. Hey, while we're at it, you deserve this one, too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BD7x2JC4UU
As he says, "This is the only thing I can do." Well, at least he's doing this, and at least you're doing what you're doing. And that's something, eh?
Rock on!
For the last 100 years - actually since the Mexican-American War.......... the US military has served expansioninst and business interests. 'War is a racket' - from Smedley Butler BEFOPRE WWII. Post WWII it only accelerated.
So, what were those paens of Democracy, the Ruski's doing all that time we was overthrowin' all those governments? Based on right wing facist history, the USA should own the world and the stars (you left out we invaded the MOON).
Silly question ... the Sovs (the moniker we in the business gave what you plebs called the Ruskies) had their own "client states" to service.
So, you're giving me the "silly" "business". However I don't deny my plebness but you fergot the other monikers you kool aide drinkers put on me and mine. I'm also a redneck, twofisted, beerdrinkin, ignorant, racist, clinger to guns and faith, pickupdrivin resident of flyoverland, American, volunteer Veteran ex-oilfield laborer. I'm happy though, proud of the USA and know that people like you, in the business, are not one of us. Change is coming. AND, the Ruskies can eat feces and die.
Well seeing as Halliburton were the ones "doing the drilling" maybe it's time for you Americans to "man up" and blame yourselves, not BP (which I note is 40% US owned anyway).
America - quick to blame everyone else for its problems, very slow to concede credit for others' discoveries
Halliburton moved its headquarters to Dubai in 2007 and is no longer an "american" company. Besides Halliburton was brought on to cement, not drill. Transocean owned the rig and drill crew and leased it BP who called the shots. Transocean could have done the right thing on their own, BP could have done the right thing, Halliburton did a shitty cement job and BP/Transocean screwed the rest. But even with shitty cement the kick could have been contorlled if the crew paid attention.
It is well documented that BP will run over their own grandmother for one more hour of production....
And i mean fucking WELL documented.
Try again.
And the wake of BP's "leadership", participant US companies didn't, in a manner of speaking, skip over our own grandmother Earth's fresh corpse gleefully chasing ....... capital efficiency?
If anyone thinks there is any difference between the British or the Americans in terms of levels of greed, you ar eseverely misguided. There is no difference and the greed on both sides of the Pond is rapacious and unstoppable.
The Limeys got the yanks beat by a furlong. Selling dope to the Chinese, mowing down thousands of Indian men, women and childen. Hell did not the Limeys invent, nay at least perfect, the offshore banking tax havens? When american banks want commit real fraud they use Limey banks in Limey land.
So true.
Down vote there. What you relate as "beat by a furlong" is merely that they started racing earlier. Simply move the boom of technological and financial capability forward in time and you have the same quality of mammals running the show and the same quality of mammals tagging along because life's better for them, for them, for them, for them, ......
The US is a corrupt monster and is culpable at all levels and in all places. And we Are our responsibility to clean it up.
BS. I'm gonna nullify yer vote for Obummer, including yer 9 dead relatives and yer 6 rest home grannies. Change is coming.
You sure they are mammals?
I will take this up with the Queen Mother the very next time I have a visitation with her at the palace. I do believe she will be interested as she carries around a tidy sum of BP shares in her pocket book. Prince Charles should also be notified lest he has other matters of interest at the pool
Didn't she die in 2002? If not, I'd also tell her to get the hell out before the country goes full communist and elects a Kenyan queen.
Well, seeing as how you don't know your arse from a driller, you might want to note that Transocean was the driller and Halliburton was doing the cementing on the well. Just saying. More to the point, the Company Man on site, that would be a BP person, is in charge/responsible for all work pertaining to the well and makes the decision on when to cement the well and approves the cement mixture and the drilling mud, both of which are weighted to suppress the pressure of the oil/gas zone. That was the case on the 300 or so drilling rigs I was on.
yeah, waht he said.
No, the Gulf Oil “Sheen” Is Not Oil Coming from the BP Wreckage..
Of course... but it is coming from the substrate you cracked, potato, pototo. WTF's the difference? Oh.. about 60 Bill.
Might the difference be, if it is coming from the original spill it is part of the ongoing trials and if it is from new leaks, it could start fresh litigation?
However, studies conducted estimate that natural seeps in the floor of the Gulf of Mexico leak the equivalent of 1,000,000 barrels of oil each year. Whether BP activity caused new leaks to form or if they were already there may be impossible to prove, considering the entire gulf is a waste land of seeping oil.
", considering the entire gulf is a waste land of seeping oil."
Would that be before or after white men appeared on the scene?
If the government had any will to find out, they could start here.
R.I.P. Matthew Simmons. You were right.
Fascinating. Thanks for the tip, WCL.
Here's a link I'm finding as I research your claim.
http://www.thehalsreport.com/2010/08/what-matt-simmons-said-about-the-gu...
Sadly, some of those video links are gone. I will have to keep looking. Here is a rebuttal, though, claiming he was off base:
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6789
i still do not understand what Simmons means when he says the casing and BOP were blown out of the hole. You could see then and see now the casing still in place. The BOP was taken off and raised to the ship. The BOP is 50 feet high its a little hard to miss. Plus there are videos taken from inside the BOP when the rams were opened as part of the investigation (the BOP is in storage on land). Simmons was not making any sense.
there are several sizes of casing in all wells. they start with, say a 24in down to 50ft, 18in to 500ft and usually get progressively smaller to the pay zone, each size is cemented before the next size is drilled. so, the bottom size could blow out during the cement job and leave the previous sizes intact. the bop, which is nutted up to the first pipe, should have closed on the drill pipe that is in the casing for the cement job, but the bop failed.
mmmmmm....yes, but the drill string was still in the hole when they lost control, so if casing blew out in would have had to travel upward around the dp into the riser and crash down with the riser. The dp was sheared in the bop and a peice was still inside when they opened it on shore. I did not hear or read anything about casing being found on the ocean bottom, in the riser (they had to cut it), nor any discussion in the accidnet report. Simmons made it sound like hte casing with the bop attached blew out the hole, but you could see the thing on the ocena floor.
I recall the mecando well that blew out was the seond hole the company man f'd up. Two in a row. The first well a few miles awas had to be abandoned, the blow out was their second attempt. You would think the Transocean crew would have learned from the first time time BP f'd up and realized the company man was retarded.
thank you so much for that.... i liked that guy for many many years and long before bp and well he died rather oddly in that pool he became strangely extreme at the end hmmmmmm very .... mind you he may have taken the occasional drink . but he was menacingly dangerous to TPTB, too honest.
that guys truth made me some hugely grateful returns long long ago and common sense argues that the gulf sea floor is fractured and fucked and if the formation recharges as it appears to be doing well some of us will remember that guy whose role in life, and a dangerous one was telling the truth about oil and gas writ large .
a hero, all but forgotten but not by all of us ...you have ten up votes so far .... you fuck with big oil at your abject peril.
Godamn right he was! he nailed it, then they nailed him fuckin NDAA style. He said that right out the gate that the GOM floor was broken.
We listened, but there isn't a whole lot we could do about it after his death but to report and warn people.
RIP Matt.
goddamned right with ya bud an american hero who died most oddly... you fuck with TPTB at your peril they do not fuck around for stakes like that.