Photo: Anonymous
Photo: Reading and Bates RBS-8M
Photo: Anonymous
Photo: Anonymous
Photo: Anonymous
Photo: Schlumberger
Photo: Dexcel / Wikipedia
Photo: Anonymous
Photo: NOAA
Photo: Originalwana / Wikimedia
Photo: Anonymous
Photo: NOAA
The Rig and Deep Water
On April 20, 2010 Deep Water Horizon, a Transocean deep sea drilling rig - working for British Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico on the Macondo Prospect, which is located on the Mississippi Canyon Block 252, 48 miles from the coast of Louisiana - caught fire, burned fiercely for 36 hours and then sank in 5,000' of water. Eleven oil rig workers died and several others were severely injured. The flames from the rig fire were 200-300 feet high and visible from a distance of 35 miles when the fire was its height.
This accident is producing the largest oil slick in American history, perhaps the largest such disaster anywhere in the history of the oil industry. Oil is leaking out at 200,000 gallons per day. The oil slick tripled in size in one day, from a spill the size of Rhode Island to one as big as Puerto Rico, according to images collected from mostly European satellites and analyzed by the University of Miami. The environmental mess could be larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, when an oil tanker spilled 11 million gallons off Alaska's shores. No effective means for containment for the Deepwater Horizon oil slick has been found as of the date of this article.
Deepwater Nautilus - 5th generation deep water, exploratory oil rig
Deepwater Nautilus is very similar in design to Deepwater Horizon. Deepwater Horizon is a fifth generation semi-submersible drilling rig that is designed for harsh environments and effective work to 8,000', upgradeable to 10,000' with maximum drill depth of 30,000' (9144m). It was designed by Reading & Bates Falcon and built in 2001 by Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea. DWH is 396' (121m) long, 256' (78m) breadth, 136' (41m) depth with an operating draft of 76' (23m). Deepwater Horizon has 130 berths and is designed to operate in storm conditions with 29' waves and 60 knot winds. It should withstand 41' waves and winds of 103 knots without incident.
This state-of-the-art, high technology rig set the world's record for deepest well drilled. On September 2, 2009, Deepwater Horizon drilled the Tiber oil field in the Gulf of Mexico to a measured depth of 35,055' (10,685 m) of which 4132' (1259) was water. The rig represents the cutting edge of deep ocean drilling technology as it can work in water up to 10,000' depth. The rig is not moored and does not use anchors. A complete drilling spread with helicopters, support vessels and other services cost US$1,000,000 per day. The rig cost US$350,000,000 to build in 2001 and would likely cost double that to replace.
This and the following two photos of Deepwater Horizon on fire were made available by a friend and colleague who works on oil rig maintenance and safety for a major international oil company, and has often visited British Petroleum installations.
Deepwater Horizon was contracted to the operator British Petroleum, which holds a 65% interest, through 2013. Anadarko holds 25% ownership; and MOEX 2007 holds the remaining 10%. Industrial technology of this complexity is very expensive. British Petroleum has made a very large commitment to deep ocean oil exploration because there may be no large land based resources to be discovered and the demand for oil continues unabated in the USA, indeed is increasing in India and China. This rig costs US$ 500,000 per day to contract.
This rig represents the cutting edge of deep ocean drilling technology as it can work in water up to 10,000' depth. A triple redundant computer system uses satellite data to continually reposition the giant rig using powerful thrusters. This procedure known as Dynamic Repositioning has a very low margin of error and the rig will always be within a few feet of the intended location. Without anchors, the rig is always floating and moving with the winds, currents and waves within small proscribed limits. Until this horrible accident, the safety record of this rig was exceptional.
In their 52-page exploration plan and environmental impact analysis, BP repeatedly suggested it was nearly impossible, for an accident to occur with deep exploration oil rigs that would lead to a giant crude oil spill and serious damage to beaches, fish, mammals and fisheries. 'Unprecedented' is BP's oblique admission that they were caught unprepared as the Denial Box about their shoddy safety procedures seems to have been in full play. Hubris has a way of coming back to batter its author.
Diagram of a Blowout Preventer for an Oil Rig
BOPs, Explosion and Disaster
Blowout Preventers (BOPs) are the pressure control system positioned at the seabed on the uppermost, unmoving point in the well. In a serious emergency, there are multiple Panic Buttons to hit. There are also fail-safe Deadman systems should the system become automatically engaged in the worst of scenarios. As none of these systems were activated, the speed at which the explosion traveled to the surface was extreme. There was no way to deal effectively with the first few minutes of an accident of this type.
Two Oil Rig Blowout Preventers awaiting installation on a Mediterranean oil rig.
Apparently, immediately preceding the well head explosion of April 21, 2010, gas and oil got into the well head and were not detected in time to prevent an explosion. With Dynamic Positioning, the rig floats as it not securely anchored by design, the speed at which the blowout traveled upward to the surface and rig must have very rapid.
Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Fire, April 21, 2010
At the time of the explosion, the rig had just finished cementing steel casing at depths exceeding 18,000' (5,486 meters). The next operation would have been to suspend the well so that it could be moved to its next work location, later to return to this location to bring the well into production.
A story now circulating among industry professionals who work on these giant, high tech oil rigs is that a drill tool became stuck in the hole across the BOP which prevented the rams from operating. But this cannot be the complete story because shear rams are supposed to shear drill pipe and close the hole. Something else that was very important and yet to be identified and/or acknowledged, occurred. My contact is not the first oil industry safety professional to suspect British Petroleum of cutting corners on safety procedures, because their only operational priority in daily practice is oil production. Specifically, he suspects that BP compromised safety on this BOP as regards deck testing procedures before the BOP was sent to the undersea well head. BP has long been accused of covering up mishaps at their North Sea rigs.
Oil spill locations April 25 to May 4, 2010.
Every large floating oil rig has at least one Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), which are tethered miniature submarines with manipulator arms and other equipment that allow them to perform elaborate and detailed work under water. ROVs were used to explore the Titanic. In the Deep Water Horizon situation, the ROVs are deployed from nearby service ships. Using a specialized port on the BOPs and a pumping arrangement on the ROVs, attempts are ongoing to close the well which have yet to prove successful. Specialized control vessels on the surface should now be working to skim oil from the surface. But with high winds and the ever increasing magnitude of the oil leakage, this approach is chasing goals that cannot be reached. The best situation might be to pray for a bridge off down from the hole.
The Mother of All Oil Slicks
Minimum average flow rate from the well head is slightly more than 1 million gallons of oil (26,000 barrels) per day on the sea floor. As of May 2, 2010, a minimum of 12.2 million gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. As high as the oil leakage is now is at 5,000 barrels or 210,000 gallons/day, it is restricted by the presence of the wellhead and kinked piping.
British Petroleum intends to drill a new well that intersects the blowing one. The challenge is to drill a new well three miles deep from a floating rig to an exact location with an acceptable target radius error of a few feet. When the target is intersected – the damaged and leaking well – a heavy fluid is pumped in that exceeds the formation's pressure, thus causing the oil flow to stop. It will take $USD100 million and more than two months to accomplish this feat. Meanwhile, the well continues to pour oil into the ocean at increasing flow rates and an ecological disaster of unimagined proportions is upon us.
Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico, April 30, 2010
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig failed to cap a deep ocean well head on April 20, 2010. An horrific explosion and fire followed which consumed the oil rig in 36 hours. The oil slick had grown considerably when this photo was taken ten days later. The expanding environmental destruction will be worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, when an oil tanker spilled 11 million gallons off Alaska's shores.
While taking full responsibility for the cleanup and environmental repair necessitated by the spill spread from Mississippi Canyon 252, BP in latest interviews implied that responsibility for the accident itself rests with Transocean, the deep ocean drilling experts who operated the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. As of March 2, 2010, US$2.5 billion has been lost by the Louisiana shellfish and fin fish industries, and the tourist industry has taken a US$3 billion hit. President Obama has put a full stop on all offshore drilling until this event is fully understood, and new and better safeguards are implemented in similar deep ocean drilling situations.
Given the scale of the Deepwater Horizon rig blowout and fire, there are few comparisons available. The West Atlas deep sea oil rig operated by PTTEP Australasia blew out and caught on fire, September 2009 in the Timor Sea. It had defied all attempts to plug it as of November, 2009. By that time, 400,000 liters of oil, gas and condensate had leaked into the Timor Sea at a rate of 300 to 1200 barrels per day. The area covered is at least 100 times that of Sydney Harbor (6,000 km2).
No effective means to contain the Deepwater Horizon oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico has yet been found. High winds have blown through this portion of the Gulf of Mexico on many days since the spill. Several foot high waves take apart the barriers built from inflatable booms. Likewise in a high wind environment burning is not an option, nor are skimmers that suck oil from the surface effective. Other chemicals that break up oil before it reaches the surface are being applied at heretofore untested depths. These winds will also drive oil slick into inlets and creeks when it reaches the coastline. If the winds do decrease after May 2, then some of these containment methods will begin to have effect. Nonetheless, the loss of wildlife, endangered species and otherwise, commercial fishing stocks etc, is incalculable and numbers in the millions of individual animals. This is the birthing season for ~5,000 dolphins that frequent this region of the Gulf of Mexico. For dozens of affected species that are rare and officially endangered, this area is one of their last possible breeding habitats.
Last Hours of Deepwater Horizon on April 21, 2010.
By last Friday April 30, a sheen of oil from the edge of the slick washed up at Venice, La and other points in SE Louisiana. Several miles out, the blue-green gulf waters were dotted with pea to quarter size, sticky brown beads of oil condensate with the consistency of tar. This mess could reach three more states on Monday, May 3: Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Louisiana tried an experiment by opening up the Mississippi levees to release a rush of fresh water into the gulf coastline waters. This attempt to drive oil away from the coast failed because of the high winds.
How Bad is Beyond Awful?
1900+ people, 300+ vessels and dozens of airplanes are deployed to fight this giant, monster oil slick. Two USAF C-130 Hercules cargo planes are dropping tens of thousands of gallons of oil dispersing chemicals into the slick. As Monday May 3 dawns in the Gulf of Mexico, winds appear to be breaking up the slick that extended east from Mobile Bay toward Pensacola. Oil remains emulsified but some beaches will not be dealing with tar. However, these same strong winds broke up 80% of the boom that was deployed before Sunday, May 3 and made skimming oil off the ocean surface impossible.
Deepwater Horizon Oil Slick, May 3, 2010
A worst case scenario reads like this. On April 30, 2010, copy was obtained of private – 'not public' Emergency Response document from NOAA. “Two additional release points were found today in the tangled riser. If the riser pipe deteriorates further, the flow could become unchecked resulting in a release volume an order of magnitude higher than previously thought." In everyday language, an order of magnitude increase is 10 times greater than the reference point or currently accepted baseline. Lay in some serious whiskey, or cases of your favorite beer and ale and stand by. This story has barely begun to be written.
Sources -
Many thanks to Anonymous for these compelling photos of the last hours of Deepwater Horizon. Copyright(c) Blumenberg Associates LLC, 2010. This article may be posted and copied elsewhere on blogs and in not-for-profit contexts with the requirement that this copyright notice is clearly visible. For use in for-profit business, please contact the author.
21 comments
merlynne6 says:
May 7th, 2010 at 5am
As the giant oil slick derived from the explosion at Deepwater Horizon evolves, these two links provide excellent daily updates:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/green/
http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=oil%20slick&mod=DNH_S
And for a gallery of powerful photographs visit:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/oil_spill_approaches_louisiana.html
merlynne6 says:
May 8th, 2010 at 4am
Sit down for this:
"James" - who was on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that blew in the Gulf - calls the Mark Levin Show and explains what occurred.
http://www.marklevinshow.com/Article.asp?id=1790422&spid=32364
merlynne6 says:
May 16th, 2010 at 4am
Updates -
http://www.physorg.com/news192784973.html
May 11th, 2010 / BP relaunched deployment of oil dispersants on a massive scale, rarely seen previously. A mile long tube, guided by remote controlled submarines, shot dispersant directly at the gushing oil for 24 hours in a test to evaluate this procedure. These dispersants are toxic to marine life and their use on such a scale bespeaks a pact with the devil. 100,000 barrels of oily water had been skimmed by BP from the surface of the slick as of this date.
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/bp_still_deciding_how_best_to.html
May 12, 2010 / A containment box failed to cap the gushing oil when frozen crystals, called hydrates, blocked the pipe opening where oil would come out after being sucked from the well. The hydrate crystals form in cold temperatures and under high pressure where water combines with gases. BP is now preparing other methods to cap the gushing oil and pipe it to a tanker on the surface. The next containment box is called a 'top hat', but BP might set that aside and attempt to insert a pipe directly into the gash on the riser pipe.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/skytruth/4607546364
May 13, 2010 / Cloud cover and weather conditions have made satellite photography of the oil slick a challenge. On this date COSMO-SkyMed satellite, radar imagery revealed an oil slick at least 4,922 square miles (12,748 km2) in area.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/skytruth/4609446006/
May 14, 2010 / COSMO-SkyMed satellite radar image showed that the oil slick had enlarged to 5,788 square miles (14,992 km2). A second, small oil slick was photographed emanating from a nearby rig that was installed in 1984. Review of older photos found evidence of this slick on April 26 and May 8.
http://www.physorg.com/news193058341.html
May 14, 2010 / The Gulf oil slick that followed upon the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig is now understood to be bigger than first expected. While BP tries to stick to a figure of 5,000 barrels of oil gushing per day, the actual amount may be 70,000 barrels/day according to two independent university estimates. There are 42 gallons of oil per barrel which means that the lower estimate results in 210,000 gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf each day. If these recent upward estimates are accurate, than nearly three million gallons of oil are spewing into the Gulf of Mexico each day. There are at least 50 million barrels of oil in the undersea reservoir.
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/05/latest_gulf_oil_spill_forecast_6.html
May 15, 2010 / Oil slick is now moving towards the Mississippi Delta.
http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/posted/2931/OilCharacteristics.551475.pdf
May 15, 2010 / NOAA released a chemical profile of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig. Mississippi Canyon Block 252 (MS252) oil is a South Louisiana sweet - low sulfur - crude oil that is a complex mixture of thousands of compounds. It is high in alkanes which can be used by micro-organisms as food, thus making MS252 relatively biodegradeable compared to high sulfur, low alkane crude oils. It is also low in highly toxic polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that have long term resident time in the environment and are toxic to fish and marine animal larvae. Like all crude oils, MS252 oil contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene, toluene, and xylene which are acutely toxic but readily evaporate.
"Some of the remaining MS252 oil will become sheen, a very thin layer of floating oil (less than 0.0002 inches or 0.005 mm) that can be transparent, grey, silver, or rainbow-colored. MS252 oil will also mix with water to form a sticky, pudding-like water-in-oil emulsion, or mousse, typically brown, reddish, or orange in color which can smother plants and animals. Typically, crude oil emulsifies on the sea surface as winds and waves mix it with water, but MS252 oil also appears to be incorporating water as it rises to the surface through 5,000 feet of water. Winds and waves tear oil and mousse patches into smaller pieces, eventually producing tarballs. MS252 tarballs typically are in the form of small, hard, black pellets. Tarballs can be very persistent in the marine environment."
See also:
May 4, 2010 / Is Arcadia Lost? / Oil and Wetlands by Darwin Bond-Graham: http://www.counterpunch.org/bond05042010.html
May 11, 2010 / Anatomy of an Oil Disaster by Nikolas Kozloff at http://www.counterpunch.org/kozloff05062010.html
merlynne6 says:
May 16th, 2010 at 5am
Update -
Gulf Oil Slick maps and forecast for Sunday May 16, and Monday May 17, 2010
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/may_16_17_forecast_size_and_de.html
merlynne6 says:
May 20th, 2010 at 4am
This story continues to expand and evolve in ways that are almost macabre . . Update May 20, 2010
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/may_19_20_forecast_size_and_de.html -
Oil slick forecast for Thursday, May 20 2010.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/the-oil-and-the-loop-current/ -
Satellite images reveal a long tongue of oil snaking out into the Gulf of Mexico. This is the first oil slick detected in the Loop Current which can bring oil to the Florida Straights.
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/first_signs_of_thick_oil_found.html
First oil is confirmed in the Plaquemines marshlands, southeast Louisiana, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. BP has been asked to construct a 90 mile long chain of sand barriers extending east and west of the Mississippi delta, with an estimated cost of $350 million.
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/costly_time-consuming_test_of.html
In a very important development, the American Congressional Committee conducting hearings about the explosion of Deepwater Horizon and the huge oil slick, heard from Schlumberger, a testing firm that had a team and equipment on Deepwater Horizon to assess the effectiveness of the well's seal. Their procedure utilizes three tests, the last of which is the cement bond log, a critical test that determines the effectiveness of the well's seal. "It records detailed, 360-degree representations of the well and can show where the cement isn't adhering fully to the casing and where there may be paths for gas or oil to get into the hole." Inexplicably, Slumberger's team was never asked to perform this acoustic test even though they were on standby to do so as of April 18. They were sent back to Louisiana via helicopter at 11 AM, April 20. A few minutes before 10PM that evening, natural gas shot out of the well, up the riser pipe to the rig where it ignited massive explosions that killed 11 crewmen. Oil gushing at the well head generated the massive oil slick that has failed to be controlled.
Halliburton's representative, Tim Probert, told Congress that the cement log test, while not strictly required unless previous tests indicate a possible problem, is nonetheless the gold standard for assessment of the well seal. Probert's documents presented to the Congressional committee contained drawings that revealed a major flaw in the riser pipe. Drill pipes telescope down in sections from the bottom of the wellhead at 5,067' to the bottom of the well at 13,000', section diameters successively decrease. Pipe sections can be as long as 2,000' and where one metal tube fits inside another, there is a space called an annulus where drilling mud circulates and carries drilled-out material up to the surface. Probert's diagram reveals that one of the spaces between different sized pipes was not closed off which is a terrible flaw. A space was completely open to the reservoir of oil just tapped.
Furthermore there is no O-ring depicted in the diagram between annulus 8 and 9, an omission so striking that a consulting scientist at first thought there was an error in the diagram. There was a free and very dangerous path all the way to the top of the oil bore.
A plug was cemented at the bottom of the well. Before it could be capped, pressure controlling drilling mud was removed and replaced with much less effective, lower density sea water. At that point the pressure could not be contained and the well blew sending a column of highly explosive gas to Deepwater Horizon on the surface. What followed is well known.
British Petroleum has refused to comment on this testimony before Congress, and Halliburton has refused comment on Probert's diagram.
merlynne6 says:
May 27th, 2010 at 12am
Updates -
Memo from US Congress - Energy and Commerce Committee
http://energycommerce.house.gov/documents/20100525/Memo.BP.Internal.Investigation.pdf
BP Deepwater Horizon operations were six weeks behind schedule.
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/bp_deepwater_horizon_operation.html
Fighting the oil slick
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8651333.stm
Top Kill Procedure
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10159626.stm
Live Video of Well during Top Kill Procedure from BP's web site
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html
"This is a live stream and may freeze or be unavailable from time to time. Throughout the extended top kill procedure which may take up to two days to complete - very significant changes in the appearance of the flows at the seabed may be expected."
merlynne6 says:
May 29th, 2010 at 3am
Today's Updates -
New giant, sea oil plume seen in Gulf stretches 22 miles from leaking wellhead toward Alabama
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37384717/ns/gulf_oil_spill/
The size of a final tube of metal casing that was added late to the well design emerged Friday as one of the key management decisions that could have contributed to the rig's explosion and the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/deepwater_horizon_hearing_focu.html
Video from British Petroleum explains How Spill Is Being Fought with footage from underwater and a briefing at corporate headquarters. This video has not been released to the press or media at large.
http://wkrg.com/891249
merlynne6 says:
Jun 1st, 2010 at 1pm
Top Kill has failed. Now to 'pipe cutting' ..
First Class update page
http://topics.nola.com/tag/oil-spill-gulf-of-mexico-2010/index.html
See also -
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gIXWYBTpLtSayJtg41LKXpxSxVPAD9G2K5VO0
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-05-31-gulf-oil-spill_N.htm
merlynne6 says:
Jun 3rd, 2010 at 1pm
The BP oil spill disaster has assumed a unique position in the history of oil industry tragedies. Size, estimated lifetime, spread and environmental, political and economic effects continue to enlarge the oil slick's profile.
BP PLC planned to use giant shears to cut a pipe a mile below the sea after a diamond-tipped saw became stuck halfway through the job
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100601/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill
Updates as of June 3, 2010
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100603/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_today
BP ordered to fund protective berms
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-oilspill_03tex.ART.State.Edition2.29a5499.html
Gulf of Oil Spill Maps through Saturday June 5
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/noaa_gulf_of_mexico_oil_spill_10.html
Oil spill heads for Florida
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/03/1661584/florida-panhandle-braces-for-gulf.htm
Thomas Davie says:
Jun 4th, 2010 at 9am
Thanks for these detailed updates Bennett - this problem just isn't going to go away...
merlynne6 says:
Jun 7th, 2010 at 1am
Information and Technical Updates to this crisis will take a break for at least two weeks.
BP can now capture some of the leaking oil, but this situation still has a very long road to travel.
See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/04/bp-shares-rise-oil-spill-cap
merlynne6 says:
Jun 15th, 2010 at 1pm
Updates and more ...
http://gulfblog.uga.edu/
Everything you wanted to know about deep oil plumes.
pdates and more ...
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/noaa_gulf_of_mexico_oil_spill_22.html
NOAA Gulf of Mexico oil spill trajectory forecasts for Tuesday through Friday.
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/bp_cut_corners_in_days_before.html
BP cut corners in days before DeepWater Horizon explosion. From ongoing Congressional Hearings.
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/coast_guard_approves_10_more_v.html
10 more vacuum barges to be used for oil spill cleanup along Louisiana's coast.
http://www.physorg.com/news195106148.html
Effectiveness of oil suck up.
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/06/07/bp-oil-spill-thad-allen-cites-progress-but-long-campaign-lies/
Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen with news both good and bad.
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/html/Skandi_ROV1.html
SKANDI ROV1 live video feed
http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/
Reports, File a Claim, Volunteer, Oiled Wildlife
merlynne6 says:
Jun 27th, 2010 at 2pm
The Deep Water Horizon/BP oil spill continues to expand with alarming implications.
1. Well may never be completely plugged - or perhaps it can?
a) Let's get real about the oil flow, spill will never stop until well runs dry.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6593/648967
b) Or perhaps it can? Many ideas ?good, ?bad amidst long pages and numerous posts at: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6612#more
2. Bigger and Deeper -
a) BP and the Perilous Voyage of Bama the Manatee: http://www.counterpunch.org/kozloff05212010.html.
b) Oil at Mississippi Delta/Gulf Mexico Dead Zone could dramatically enlarge: http://www.physorg.com/news195116291.html
c) Oil heading toward Dry Tortugas: http://www.physorg.com/news195735756.html
d) BP oil spill has increased methane gas 8X in Gulf of Mexico: http://www.csmonitor.com/From-the-news-wires/2010/0618/Gulf-gas-BP-oil-spill-increases-methane-in-Gulf-waters; and http://www.thebatt.com/news/aggies-study-effects-of-spill-1.1494542.
3. Politics, money, corruption and Death Bleed -
a) US Dept Defense is on the record as having no plans to severe relationship with BP. Pentagon cash flow into BP was less than 1% of BP's annual revenue in 2009. According to the Center for Public Integrity, "BP account[ed] for 97 percent of all flagrant violations found in the [oil] refining industry by government safety inspectors over the past three years." Read: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/LF19Dj02.html
b) The Coming Era of Energy Disasters: http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175264/
At least four other deep water drilling programs are now primed for disaster on a scale that could equal or surpass that of BP's debacle in the Gulf of Mexico. One such situation could lead to war between the USA and China.
c) Shaky Foundations: Toxic Sources, Tainted Money and the Decline of Big Green: Rockefeller Family Trust buys environmentalists:
http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair06042010.html.
merlynne6 says:
Jul 13th, 2010 at 8am
Sunday/Monday, July 11./12, 2010
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100711/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_20100616040728
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65O5TA20100712?type=domesticNews
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/tests_of_new_containment_cap_t.html
BP making progress on a new system to capture almost all the oil spewing from its blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico.
It will take up to a week for robots working 1 mile underwater to completely fit a new cap and seal. Oil will flow mostly unchecked until the bigger containment system is installed, further hurting tourism and fishing in all five states along the Gulf Coast.
The relief well had been drilled to about 17,840 feet by Monday morning. .. . crews would drill for another 30 feet before intercepting the well at the end of July. From that point, it could take from days to a few weeks to kill the well.
A backup relief well was at 15,874 feet Monday, but drilling on that well had been suspended so as not to interfere with the primary well.
merlynne6 says:
Jul 23rd, 2010 at 5am
Updates and the larger 'picture'
BP finally stops oil spewing from Gulf gusher
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100716/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill
It Ain't Over Till It's Over
http://www.counterpunch.org/underhill07212010.html
Bhopal, BP and karma
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/LF19Dj01.html
Blowback Crude - Ecuador and Nigeria
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175275/
merlynne6 says:
Aug 7th, 2010 at 10pm
Yes, the well seems to be finally plugged and sealed.
Will the BP Oil Spill Set Off A Tsunami?
http://daviddegraw.org/2010/06/will-the-bp-oil-spill-set-off-a-supersonic-tsunami/
Dead zone as big as Massachusetts along coast of Louisiana and Texas,
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/08/dead_zone_as_big_as_massachuse.html#incart_mce
U.S. press and scientists admit that BP spill is vanishing much faster than expected
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1298932/Was-Tony-Hayward-right-BP-oil-spill-all.html
Mighty oil-eating microbes help clean up the Gulf
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews_excl/ynews_excl_sc3270
'Bottom kill' will be final nail in coffin of plugged-up oil gusher in Gulf
Published: Friday, August 06, 2010, 10:29 PM
Jaquetta White, The Times-Picayune
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/08/bottom_kill_will_be_final_nail.html
BP finally pumped the well with 2300 barrels of mud and 500 barrels of cement pushing oil down into the reservoir and closing the well to production forever. Friday August 6, BP restarts drilling on the relief well which is the ultimate 'final solution' for plugging this blown out oil well. Crews have drilled 15' outside the well and confirmed that equipment is properly positioned to drill 100' further to intercept the well. The relief well is within 4' horizontally and less than 100' vertically from where it will drill into the damaged well, sometime between August 13 and 15.
Responders to Gulf oil spill wrap up defining week
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill
merlynne6 says:
Sep 22nd, 2010 at 6am
The well is sealed, the disaster is Not over ..
Slow Violence and the BP Coverups, an exceptional report.
By ANNE McCLINTOCK
http://www.counterpunch.org/mcclintock08232010.html
BP Still Faces Probes, Fines
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704858304575497690008871132.html
merlynne6 says:
Oct 18th, 2010 at 12am
Researchers Find 40-Fold Increase in Carcinogenic Learn more at: http://coto2.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/researchers-find-40-fold-increase-in-carcinogenic-compounds-in-gulf/
merlynne6 says:
Dec 26th, 2010 at 9am
In the early days of the giant Gulf of Mexico oil spill on April 20, 2010 caused by the explosion of the Deep Horizon rig, BP entangled a compliant Obama administration and then proceeded to downplay the extant of disaster for the next 50 days. In contrast, NOAA scientists had a genuine reality check on the magnitude of daily oil seepage but neither the Obama White House, nor Department of the Interior (read Ken Salazar) would allow NOAA's analysis to achieve any
priority, nor subpoena BP's records. Congressman Ed Markey eventually did get a congressional subpoena for that data on June 30, 2010. BPs 'private', dare we say 'off the books', figures agreed with those of NOAA. Unfortunately, corporate politics had superseded environmental concerns. Sylvia Baca, a former BP executive, who was a power player during the Clinton Administration when oil lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico increased 10X; was now chosen by Ken Salazar to play a key role in the Obama Administration's approach to the BP disaster of spring 2010. "Ken Salazar appointed Baca to serve as assistant administrator for lands and minerals of the scandal-rife Minerals Management Service (MMS). This powerful but shadowy post did not require Senate confirmation." Baca’s BP career raised numerous 'conflict of interest' questions which never entered the public debate, nor were viewed by Congress as serious and warranting investigation. .. Ken Salazar and Sylvia Baca took control of the administration's interactions with British Petroleum.. . . Learn more, read more - "BP's Inside Game", by Jeffrey St. Clair at http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair11242010.html.
merlynne6 says:
Feb 14th, 2011 at 11am
Reorganization of the Minerals Management Service in the Aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill announced on January 10, 2011. See http://web.docuticker.com/go/docubase/63184
merlynne6 says:
Today - May 5, 2010 - BP announced that it has capped the smallest of the three oil leaks. Favorable weather should allow for a controlled burn of surface oil in the next few days.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8662573.stm
On Thursday May 6, BP intends to begin deployment of a 100 ton dome in an attempt to control the gushing oil. This dome will be guided into position by remote control submarines, a difficult procedure that has never been attempted at this depth previously. If all goes well, oil could be moving into a tanker early next week.
Oil is now gushing out at 800,000 litres/day. British Petroleum has told the US Congress that if the situation worsens, oil leakage could rise to 9.2 million litres per day.