Oil Rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico

[Bking]

I’m sure most of you know what happend. If there is already a thread about this then just merge it.

I thought this was a good article on the subject. It’s told more like a first hand story of someone on the rig and thought I would share it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100509/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_reconstruct_3

[Anonymous]

Estimates are far higher than BP initially let on, probably around 56,000-84,000 barrels being spilled a day. Methane is also being released.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126809525&ps=cprs

[avolkiteshvara]

Wonder if Bobby Jindal is still chanting Drill Baby Drill.

[mchampagne]

Wonder if Bobby Jindal is still chanting Drill Baby Drill.

We'll be paying for this for the next 20 years, trying to clean up this crap and revive the Gulf economy... The Exxon Valdez spilled over twenty years ago and we are STILL paying for it. They say BP's totally liable, but the government's going to have to pick up much of the tab once all the lawyers are finished.

To think...we were about to allow this off the coasts of all of our beaches just a few weeks ago.

[stuck]

"The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume," Hayward said. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126827880&ps=rs)

FUCK YOU

look at that asshole
http://media.npr.org/assets/news/2010/05/14/bp.jpg?t=1273853192&s=2

[edge walker]

Pictures from up close:
Disaster unfolds slowly in the Gulf of Mexico -- The Big Picture (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html)

It's heart- and stomach-wrenching.

[dunno]

Here's what I appreciate about the oil spill: It's making for such sensationalistic news the environmentalism is spurs will far out way the negative environmental impact. I just hope the fervor gets translated into long-term solutions like funding for alternative energies research.

[Randwulf]

As soon as the public starts to withdraw its eyes from the spill, BP will start to withdraw their resources from cleaning it up. The government may want them to be "completely liable" for the disaster, but BP is a company, and a foreign one at that. They're always looking to cut costs, and they'll do so in the gulf as soon as it's safe to.

[Neville]

Apparently, there exists a better solution (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/gulf-oil-spill-supertankers-051310). You know, one that kinda works.

[edge walker]

Reality check on the news reports about the leak:
A volcano of oil erupting (http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8199-Breakthrough-Energy-Examiner~y2010m5d13-A-volcano-of-oil-erupting)

Too many quotable bits to excerpt any of it -- just read it all.

Ugh.

[Resonance]

Reality check on the news reports about the leak:
A volcano of oil erupting (http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8199-Breakthrough-Energy-Examiner~y2010m5d13-A-volcano-of-oil-erupting)

Too many quotable bits to excerpt any of it -- just read it all.

Ugh.

gg Earth

you were a nice home

[MountainHiker]

Here's what was posted on The Oil Drum (http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6464#comment-623420) website. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but if it's true, the lawsuits and future regulations could get interesting.


BP contracted Schlumberger (SLB) to run the Cement Bond Log (CBL) test that was the final test on the plug that was skipped. The people testifying have been very coy about mentioning this, and you'll see why.

SLB is an extremely highly regarded (and incredibly expensive) service company. They place a high standard on safety and train their workers to shut down unsafe operations.

SLB gets out to the Deepwater Horizon to run the CBL, and they find the well still kicking heavily, which it should not be that late in the operation. SLB orders the
"company man" (BP's man on the scene that runs the operation) to dump kill fluid down the well and shut-in the well. The company man refuses. SLB in the very next sentence asks for a helo to take all SLB personel back to shore. The company man says there are no more helo's scheduled for the rest of the week (translation: you're here to do a job, now do it). SLB gets on the horn to shore, calls SLB's corporate HQ, and gets a helo flown out there at SLB's expense and takes all SLB personel to shore.

6 hours later, the platform explodes.

Pick your jaw up off the floor now. No CBL was run after the pressure tests because the
contractor high-tailed it out of there. If this story is true, the company man (who
survived) should go to jail for 11 counts of negligent homicide.

[NoahFence]

My only question is fairly simple:

Why the FUCK are you surprised? Wake up, folks. That's all.

[gr8ness97]

We certainly are feeling the affects of the oil spill 200 miles away :(

[avolkiteshvara]

I don't know if it is apples for apples with Valdez but in that case:

Oiled mussel beds and other tidal shoreline habitats will take an estimated 30 years to recover.

http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec03/peters121803.html


I'd be pretty pissed if I worked in the seafood industry. They basically put you out of business.

[NoahFence]

I'd be pretty pissed if I worked in the seafood industry. They basically put you out of business.

For a handful of percentage points, at that.

[stuck]

Here's what was posted on The Oil Drum (http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6464#comment-623420) website. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but if it's true, the lawsuits and future regulations could get interesting.

as great of a story as that is, it's an unsubstantiated rumor floating around new orleans.

[kendoiwan]

I'm amused that they could fuck up like this, have no plan in place, throw shit at the wall to see what sticks and nobody is going to prison or getting fired. I'd love to live in that world where peoples opinions were the worst consequence I could face for fucking up on such a massive scale... Oh the mischief I'd get into...

[vSv]

I begin to see the reason behind bottled water... in a not so distant future.

[Rhu]

Anyone want to place bets on whether or not BP resurrects the "Amoco" brand once the news quiets down?

[MountainHiker]

as great of a story as that is, it's an unsubstantiated rumor floating around new orleans.

That's why I phrased my statement as I did.

Not that I am defending the story/rumor, but do we ever really hear the truth about anything of this nature anymore? What with PR departments, Marketing departments, government/corporate connections, and corporate owned media, we usually only hear the truth about anything 10 years after the fact when someone writes a book about it. And, the people involved are near death and want a clear conscience.

Hell, even the guys who sat on the 911 commission have said they know the "official" version they gave us was bullshit. In the fascist gov-corp world we live in, truth is often determined by the highest bidder. It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out.

Regardless, everything that lives in the wake of the oil spill has to deal with it.

[edge walker]

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/44000/44006/gulf_tmo_2010137_lrg.jpg

[kuranes]

BP sent guys who were supposed to test the cement seals back, just before blast.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100520/ts_ynews/ynews_ts2164

[kendoiwan]

Still throwing shit against the wall, anyone else get the impression this wasn't well thought out?

[AllAboutSoul]

Well, Top Kill was a bust. Damn.

[Neville]

LOL...QQ

[stuck]

A couple interesting articles

http://counterpunch.org/moses05282010.html

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/05/exxon_bp.html

[jyng1]

I'm not sure if this has been posted yet. But sounds like a the explosion caused a lack of hydraulic pressure which meant the pinchers wouldn't work. But sounds like root causes similar to a lot of industrial accidents. Risk drift where the organisation drifts towards riskier behaviour under the influence of production pressure... Sounds like the 'company man' will either have gone down with or will be wishing he went down with the burning rig.


“We’re going to bring every resource necessary to put a stop to this thing,” he said.

Meanwhile, dozens of witness statements obtained by The Associated Press show a combination of equipment failure and a deference to the chain of command impeded the system that should have stopped the gusher before it became an environmental disaster.

In a handwritten statement to the Coast Guard obtained by the AP, Transocean rig worker Truitt Crawford said: “I overheard upper management talking saying that BP was taking shortcuts by displacing the well with saltwater instead of mud without sealing the well with cement plugs, this is why it blew out.”

At a Coast Guard hearing in New Orleans, Doug Brown, chief rig mechanic aboard the platform, testified that the trouble began at a meeting hours before the blowout, with a “skirmish” between a BP official and rig workers who did not want to replace heavy drilling fluid in the well with saltwater.

The switch presumably would have allowed the company to remove the fluid and use it for another project, but the seawater would have provided less weight to counteract the surging pressure from the ocean depths.

Brown said the BP official, whom he identified only as the “company man,” overruled the drillers, declaring, “This is how it’s going to be.” Brown said the top Transocean official on the rig grumbled, “Well, I guess that’s what we have those pinchers for,” which he took to be a reference to devices on the blowout preventer, the five-story piece of equipment that can slam a well shut in an emergency.

[Ferrus]

I'm amused that they could fuck up like this, have no plan in place, throw shit at the wall to see what sticks and nobody is going to prison or getting fired. I'd love to live in that world where peoples opinions were the worst consequence I could face for fucking up on such a massive scale... Oh the mischief I'd get into...
Well, think, if the libertarians gets their way, this will be everyone's birthright!

http://mywebtimes.com/archives/ottawa/display.php?id=405377

[kuranes]

I wonder how safe this solution would be ? It seems the "bug" is related to the bug that causes cystic fibrosis.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917877,00.html

[NoahFence]

I wonder how safe this solution would be ?

Safe for whom? I'm certain the BP execs are not in any danger, but thank you for your concern.

[Ferrus]

Their last CEO is currently in charge of a parliamentary commission outlining a proposal for a future model of our higher education. And it will likely give the corporations such as his a good deal of influence if he has is way. Isn't our slowly growing corporate neo-feudalism grand, eh? You'd better like it, as things get worse their power will only get stronger and governments of the world will look to them for social stability.

[avolkiteshvara]

If you are like me and didn't understand the mechanics of what was happening, this is a good animation half way down the page. I'd say it sums up the situation pretty "well".

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100604/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_gulf_oil_spill

[stuck]

british pensioners getting shit end of stick: british gov sez "hey obama, go easy on bp"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100610/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_bp_shares

[SensEye]

british pensioners getting shit end of stick: british gov sez "hey obama, go easy on bp"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100610/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_bp_shares

I hate this kind of thing. There are risks when you invest in the stock market, such as your company fouling up and loosing a lot of money. If you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen. Stop whining to the government every time life moves against you. These sentiments apply to corporate welfare beggars as well.

[NoahFence]

I hate this kind of thing. There are risks when you invest in the stock market, such as your company fouling up and loosing a lot of money. If you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen. Stop whining to the government every time life moves against you. These sentiments apply to corporate welfare beggars as well.

I tend to agree, but it gets more complicated when the government has been sponsored by the Letter B, the Letter P, and the number Eleventy Billion.

If government officials are shown to be complicit in allowing safety violations and unchecked profiteering, are they not responsible for damages?

[Resonance]

I tend to agree, but it gets more complicated when the government has been sponsored by the Letter B, the Letter P, and the number Eleventy Billion.

If government officials are shown to be complicit in allowing safety violations and unchecked profiteering, are they not responsible for damages?

Aren't we all responsible in some way or another?


P.S. whoever tagged this 'white people problems'...lol.

[SensEye]

If government officials are shown to be complicit in allowing safety violations and unchecked profiteering, are they not responsible for damages?A somewhat different issue and a bit of a grey area.

It's like saying if the government (representing the citizens) has failed to protect the citizens it represents, should those citizens should be held accountable.

Said citizens should hold their elected officials responsible to the extent they can, criminal prosecution if possible, at the very least don't re-elect them or their party.

This is not to say compensation is not warranted to those directly affected by government corruption/incompetence.

But that is not what I am referring to with the British pensioner stock issue. Those people have been affected by corporate negligence, and that's the risk you run when investing. Governments should stay miles away from that.

[Kuro]

It's a big tragedy, but it somehow made me think of the death of Marcus Licinius Crassus.
USA are ready to wage wars over oil, so here's all the black gold you can drink.

[gregkdc]

The oil is up to 2.5 million gallons of oil/day being released. The word on the street is that it is actually around 4-5 million gallons/day. Any wagers on how much they will eventually admit?

[stuck]

Byebye tony, good show. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_bs2709)

.

.

And now we get this asshole:

.

[kuranes]

Kevin Costnar to the rescue ! ;)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts2851

[gr8ness97]

I want to go to the beach to see this oil in person, but I'm terrified to see it....

[kuranes]

I want to go to the beach to see this oil in person, but I'm terrified to see it....I've seen some pix of people raking up stuff strewn on the beach that looked like rubbery pieces of carpet. I thought it would be runnier than that. But maybe that's oil that was affected by some of the chemicals they've thrown at it to make it easier to clean up. What we need is some chemicals that will turn it into big blobby gummi bears that kids can wrestle with, or Michelin men figures....giant wobbly silicone creations.......:gm:

[edge walker]

Vuvuzelas for BP (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/quirk/vuvuzelas-for-bp)

BP is not feeling the pain they are causing in the Gulf. BP is spending millions on PR. In order to put a bit of public pressure on them, we plan to buy 100 vuvuzelas and hire 100 vuvuzela players off Craigslist to play in front of BP's International Headquarters in London for a one-day flash mob.

[edge walker]

BP remains key Pentagon supplier (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jG8jK4gBYUEQ4wDEI3XXokLkv4-w)

(AFP) WASHINGTON --- Despite its role in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, energy giant BP remains a key supplier of fuel to the Pentagon, The Washington Post reported. [...] In fiscal 2009, BP was the Pentagon's largest single supplier of fuel, providing 11.7 percent of the total purchased, and in 2010, its contracts amount to roughly the same percentage, the report said. The paper quoted BP spokesman Robert Wine as saying he was aware of at least one "big contract" signed by the US military after the oil rig explosion on April 20 that led to the largest environmental disaster in US history. [...] So far, members of Congress have discussed barring BP from any new oil and gas drilling leases, not from fuel sales to the government, The Post said.

[MacGuffin]

It only took 85 days (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100715/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill)...

Now we'll see if it holds.

[Neville]

*eagerly awaits the sea floor fracturing from a pressure build up*

[C.J.Woolf]

Either way, the cap is only a temporary fix until a relief well can be drilled into the bedrock and cement and mud can be pumped into the broken well deep underground, creating a seal that will hold more securely. BP expects to complete a relief well by mid-August, and perhaps as early as the end of this month.
A similar leak in 1979 was stopped only by a relief well. But if the cap holds for any time at all, that's an improvement.

[Neville]

They should have called the Planeteers on day one.

[gr8ness97]

Vuvuzelas for BP (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/quirk/vuvuzelas-for-bp)

Did this ever happen?

[edge walker]

Yes.
Final update: Videos, photos, thanks (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/quirk/vuvuzelas-for-bp/posts/21212)

Hi everyone,

This Tuesday, a horde of vuvuzela players in bright yellow BP Blows t-shirts took to the street in front of BP headquarters in London. For almost 15 minutes (until the cops showed up), they blew the most annoying sound into the air directly at BP headquarters. You made that happen.

All told, you raised $6,846 for the Gulf Disaster Fund, kept public attention focused on BP even while basketball players were traded and Justin Bieber rumors swirled, and exacted a bit of public punishment on some of the most egregious destroyers of the planet.

Backers: Thanks for all your help, both financially and through spreading the word.
Volunteers: Thanks for subjecting yourselves to that volume of irritating noise for a good cause.
Babelgum: Thanks for being my eyes and ears on the ground in London, helping me organize this from across the sea, and covering the event like pros.

Here is a links to Babelgum's coverage, with video of the event, interviews, and photos
http://www.babelgum.com/vuvuzelasforbp

[stuck]

http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_shaw_the_oil_spill_s_toxic_trade_off.html

AWESOME

[garak]

This shit has been going on for decades elsewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_in_the_Niger_Delta

If you care, then stop driving so much.

[stuck]

This shit has been going on for decades elsewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_in_the_Niger_Delta

If you care, then stop driving so much.

The key difference between those and this is that this event has an extremely high 1st world visibility, for better or worse. It's a perfect opportunity to keep it in the limelight.

And yes, everyone should not only stop driving, but they should begin eating local and push for public transportation and energy initiatives to be given priority. I do care.

[MacGuffin]

DRILL BABY DRILL!

Rescue efforts under way after oil rig explosion in Gulf (http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/02/rescue-efforts-underway-after-oil-rig-accident-in-gulf/?hpt=T1&iref=BN1)

Time to lift the moratorium. What are the odds it could happen a third time?

[firch]

This should take some of the heat off of BP which I've bought into only yesterday. *Rubs hands like a filthy capitalist*

[stuck]

Transocean: wording on 2010 safety may have been insensitive (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110405/us_nm/us_transocean_safety_2)


Transocean Ltd acknowledged that its description of 2010 as its "best year in safety" despite a blowout that sank one of its rigs, killing 11 workers and causing a huge oil spill, might be insensitive.

[starjots]

I'd hate to see their worst year.

[Chunes]

Now that it's been almost a year, I wonder how that oil spill business is doing. Do we have a better picture of the long-term repercussions now?

[Resonance]

Now that it's been almost a year, I wonder how that oil spill business is doing. Do we have a better picture of the long-term repercussions now?
What oil spill? Didn't you hear about the earthquake in Japan? WHAT HAS SCIENCE DONE THIS TIME?!?