It's a long good explanation and it boils down to the simple fact that they can not seal the top of the BOP, right? It's just incredible to me. How is it possible?
Storm surge and sea spray. That's not rain, as you probably already knew by your use of quotes around "rain" in the first place .
I respect that you have more technical knowledge about the oil industry than I do and appreciate your updates and explanations but at the sametime I think you are painting way too rosy of a picture. On ABC news today they just reported that another large plume of subsurface oil has been found. At the same time these dispersants are known to be toxic and it is not clear what the affect of such a large amount being used in a deep sea environment will be. In regard to the bacteria eating the oil I would like to know more about what bacteria this is as most info I've been hearing are that there are very few naturally occurring bacteria, if any, that can easily digest crude oil. That is why there has been efforts to engineer bacteria that can. Also as other posters have noted a bacterial bloom isn't necessarily a good thing as it could remove a lot of oxygen and wipe out the ecosystem.
This. If the droplets get too small you can easily end up with an emulsion. They use emulsions all the time in creating drilling fluids. Once emulsified, good luck getting it to separate out in any reasonable period of time.
A lot of these fisherman want compensation for BP. What BP has said is, bring in your tax documents, and you'll get your check. The problem? A lot of these fisherman communities in Louisiana aren't even paying taxes. From the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-claims-20100530,0,4758933.story
Went to New Orleans this weekend and talked to my brother in law who works for Landrieu about this, he says at the moment BP is erring on the side of caution and paying almost anyone a minimum of $2500 bucks right off the cuff. He figures later on they'll start checking on claims, but for now they are being quite proactive about it.
Nice to know that many of the fisherman aren't actually paying any taxes. I sympathize with your plight and what you are dealing with...but you are not true citizens in my book. A true citizen reports earned income and pays taxes...not makes excuses like I don't pay taxes because I deal in cash and I don't make enough money to pay taxes while living comfortably. I'm not saying withhold BP claim payments on them...but how is this fair to people who do report earned income and pay their taxes? Many of them are barely getting by as well. It's a double standard. The tax evaders may get less payouts...and it will be their own damn faults.
Follow the link - it contains links to the sources for the points brought up in this article. Ten Things You Need (But Don't Want) To Know About the BP Oil Spill 1. Oil rig owner has made $270 million off the oil leak Transocean Ltd., the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig leased by BP, has been flying under the radar in the mainstream blame game. The world's largest offshore drilling contractor, the company is conveniently headquartered in corporate-friendly Switzerland, and it's no stranger to oil disasters. In 1979, an oil well it was drilling in the very same Gulf of Mexico ignited, sending the drill platform into the sea and causing one of the largest oil spills by the time it was capped... nine months later. This experience undoubtedly influenced Transocean's decision to insure theDeepwater Horizon rig for about twice what it was worth. In a conference call to analysts earlier this month, Transocean reported making a $270 million profit from insurance payouts after the disaster. It's not hard to bet on failure when you know it's somewhat assured. 2. BP has a terrible safety record BP has a long record of oil-related disasters in the United States. In 2005, BP's Texas City refinery exploded, killing 15 workers and injuring another 170. The next year, one of its Alaska pipelines leaked 200,000 gallons of crude oil. According to Public Citizen, BP has paid $550 million in fines. BP seems to particularly enjoy violating the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and has paid the two largest fines in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's history. (Is it any surprise that BP played a central, though greatly under-reported, role in the failure to contain the Exxon-Valdez spill years earlier?) With Deepwater Horizon, BP didn't break its dismal trend. In addition to choosing a cheaper -- and less safe -- casing to outfit the well that eventually burst, the company chose not to equip Deepwater Horizon with an acoustic trigger, a last-resort option that could have shut down the well even if it was damaged badly, and which is required in most developed countries that allow offshore drilling. In fact, BP employs these devices in its rigs located near England, but because the United States recommends rather than requires them, BP had no incentive to buy one -- even though they only cost $500,000. SeizeBP.org estimates that BP makes $500,000 in under eight minutes. 3. Oil spills are just a cost of doing business for BP According to the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, approximately $1.6 billion in annual economic activity and services are at risk as a result of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Compare this number -- which doesn't include the immeasurable environmental damages -- to the current cap on BP's liability for economic damages like lost wages and tourist dollars, which is $75 million. And compare that further to the first-quarter profits BP posted just one week after the explosion: $6 billion. BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, has solemnly promised that the company will cover more than the required $75 million. On May 10, BP announced it had already spent $350 million. How fantastically generous of a company valued at $152.6 billion, and which makes $93 million each day. The reality of the matter is that BP will not be deterred by the liability cap and pity payments doled out to a handful of victims of this disaster because they pale in comparison to its ghastly profits. Indeed, oil spills are just a cost of doing business for BP. This is especially evident in a recent Citigroup analyst report prepared for BP investors: "Reaction to the Gulf of Mexico oil leak is a buying opportunity." 4. The Interior Department was at best, neglectful, and at worst, complicit It's no surprise BP is always looking out for its bottom line -- but it's at least slightly more surprising that the Interior Department, the executive department charged with regulating the oil industry, has done such a shoddy job of preventing this from happening. Ten years ago, there were already warnings that the backup systems on oil rigs that failed on Deepwater Horizon would be a problem. The Interior Department issued a "safety alert" but then left it up to oil companies to decide what kind of backup system to use. And in 2007, a government regulator from the same department downplayed the chances and impact of a spill like the one that occurred last month: "lowouts are rare events and of short duration, potential impact to marine water quality are not expected to be significant." The Interior Department's Louisiana branch may have been particularly confused because it appears it was closely fraternizing with the oil industry. The Minerals Management Service, the agency within the department that oversees offshore drilling, routinely accepted gifts from oil companies and even considered itself a part of the oil industry, rather than part of a governmental regulatory agency. Flying on oil executives' private planes was not rare for MMS inspectors in Louisiana, a federal report released Tuesday says. "Skeet-shooting contests, hunting and fishing trips, golf tournaments, crawfish boils, and Christmas parties" were also common. Is it any wonder that Deepwater Horizon was given a regulatory exclusion by MMS? It gets worse. Since April 20, when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, the Interior Department has approved 27 new permits for offshore drilling sites. Here's the kicker: Two of these permits are for BP. But it gets better still: 26 of the 27 new drilling sites have been granted regulatory exemptions, including those issued to BP. 5. Clean-up prospects are dismal The media makes a lot of noise about all the different methods BP is using to clean up the oil spill. Massive steel containment domes were popular a few weeks ago. Now everyone is touting the "top kill" method, which involves injecting heavy drilling fluids into the damaged well. But here's the reality. Even if BP eventually finds a method that works, experts say the best cleanup scenario is to recover 20 percent of the spilled oil. And let's be realistic: only 8 percent of the crude oil deposited in the ocean and coastlines off Alaska was recovered in the Exxon-Valdez cleanup. Millions of gallons of oil will remain in the ocean, ravaging the underwater ecosystem, and 100 miles of Louisiana coastline will never be the same. 6. BP has no real cleanup plan Perhaps because it knows the possibility of remedying the situation is practically impossible, BP has made publicly available its laughable "Oil Spill Response Plan" which is, in fact, no plan at all. Most emblematic of this farcical plan, BP mentions protecting Arctic wildlife like sea lions, otters and walruses (perhaps executives simply lifted the language from Exxon's plan for its oil spill off the coast of Alaska?). The plan does not include any disease-preventing measures, oceanic or meteorological data, and is comprised mostly of phone numbers and blank forms. Most importantly, it includes no directions for how to deal with a deep-water explosion such as the one that took place last month. The whole thing totals 600 pages -- a waste of paper that only adds insult to the environmental injury BP is inflicting upon the world with Deepwater Horizon. 7. Both Transocean and BP are trying to take away survivors' right to sue With each hour, the economic damage caused by Deepwater Horizon continues to grow. And BP knows this. So while it outwardly is putting on a nice face, even pledging $500 million to assess the impacts of the spill, it has all the while been trying to ensure that it won't be held liable for those same impacts. Just after the Deepwater explosion, surviving employees were held in solitary confinement, while Transocean flacks made them waive their rights to sue. BP then did the same with fishermen it contracted to help clean up the spill though the company now says that was nothing more than a legal mix-up. If there's anything to learn from this disaster, it's that companies like BP don't make mistakes at the expense of others. They are exceedingly deliberate. 8. BP bets on risk to employees to save money -- and doesn't care if they get sick When BP unleashed its "Beyond Petroleum" re-branding/greenwashing campaign, the snazzy ads featured smiley oil rig workers. But the truth of the matter is that BP consistently and knowingly puts its employees at risk. An internal BP document shows that just before the prior fatal disaster -- the 2005 Texas City explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 170 -- when BP had to choose between cost-savings and greater safety, it went with its bottom line. A BP Risk Management memo showed that although steel trailers would be safer in the case of an explosion, the company went with less expensive options that offered protection but were not "blast resistant." In the Texas City blast, all of the fatalities and most of the injuries occurred in or around these trailers. Although BP has responded to this memo by saying the company culture has changed since Texas City, 11 people died on the Deepwater Horizon when it blew up. Perhaps a similar memo went out regarding safety and cost-cutting measures? Reports this week stated that fishermen hired by BP for oil cleanup weren't provided protective equipment and have now fallen ill. Hopefully they didn't sign waivers. 9. Environmental damage could even include a climatological catastrophe It's hard to know where to start discussing the environmental damage caused byDeepwater Horizon. Each day will give us a clearer picture of the short-term ecological destruction, but environmental experts believe the damage to the Gulf of Mexico will be long-term. In the short-term, environmentalists are up in arms about the dispersants being used to clean up the oil slick in the Gulf. Apparently, the types BP is using aren't all that effective in dispersing oil, and are pretty high in toxicity to marine fauna such as fish and shrimp. The fear is that what BP may be using to clean up the mess could, in the long-term, make it worse. On the longer-term side of things, there are signs that this largest oil drilling catastrophe could also become the worst natural gas and climate disaster. The explosion has released tremendous amounts of methane from deep in the ocean, and research shows that methane, when mixed with air, is the most powerful (read: terrible) greenhouse gas -- 26 times worse than carbon-dioxide. Our warming planet just got a lot hotter. 10. No one knows what to do and it will happen again The very worst part about the Deepwater Horizon calamity is that nobody knows what to do. We don't know how bad it really is because we can't measure what's going on. We don't know how to stop it -- and once we do, we won't know how to clean it up. BP is at the helm of the recovery process, but given its corporate track record, its efforts will only go so far -- it has a board of directors and shareholders to answer to, after all. The U.S. government, the only other entity that could take over is currently content to let BP hack away at the problem. Why? Because it probably has no idea what to do either. Here's the reality of the matter -- for as long as offshore drilling is legal, oil spills will happen. Coastlines will be decimated, oceans destroyed, economies ruined, lives lost. Oil companies have little to no incentive to prevent such disasters from happening, and they use their money to buy government regulators' integrity. Deepwater Horizon is not an anomaly -- it's the norm.
Oh, and here's something fun: Documents Show Early Worries About Safety of Rig (more at the link) WASHINGTON — Internal documents from BP show that there were serious problems and safety concerns with the Deepwater Horizon rig far earlier than those the company described to Congress last week. The problems involved the well casing and the blowout preventer, which are considered critical pieces in the chain of events that led to the disaster on the rig. The documents show that in March, after several weeks of problems on the rig, BP was struggling with a loss of “well control.” And as far back as 11 months ago, it was concerned about the well casing and the blowout preventer. On June 22, for example, BP engineers expressed concerns that the metal casing the company wanted to use might collapse under high pressure. “This would certainly be a worst-case scenario,” Mark E. Hafle, a senior drilling engineer at BP, warned in an internal report. “However, I have seen it happen so know it can occur.” The company went ahead with the casing, but only after getting special permission from BP colleagues because it violated the company’s safety policies and design standards. The internal reports do not explain why the company allowed for an exception. BP documents released last week to The Times revealed that company officials knew the casing was the riskier of two options. Though his report indicates that the company was aware of certain risks and that it made the exception, Mr. Hafle, testifying before a panel on Friday in Louisiana about the cause of the rig disaster, rejected the notion that the company had taken risks. “Nobody believed there was going to be a safety issue,” Mr. Hafle told a six-member panel of Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service officials. “All the risks had been addressed, all the concerns had been addressed, and we had a model that suggested if executed properly we would have a successful job,” he said. Mr. Hafle, asked for comment by a reporter after his testimony Friday about the internal report, declined to answer questions. [....] from a nice little webpage at bp.com entitled 'Working responsibly' We try to work in ways that will benefit the communities and habitats where we do business – and earn the world’s respect Finding oil and gas can take years. So can building facilities to extract it. Production can run for decades. And some of the new and renewable energy sources we’re developing may not reach common usage until well into this century. In other words, we have a long-term commitment to the communities we work within. As such, we recognise a responsibility to create more than quick revenues from our investments. Whatever we do, wherever we do it, we always strive to preserve and improve the surrounding environment, support enterprising businesspeople and encourage energy-related education. [...] What a load of bull****.
Of course it is a big factor but you can't use it as an excuse. I can drive a car safely, I pass certain test, then I can get my driver license. If I can not drive an 18 wheeler (or a submarine) safely, should I expect to get a license to drive it?
I'm not defending BP or the oil industry. It is pretty ridiculous that there is no contigency plan for a broke pipe on the ocean floor. that being said, they've (the oil industry) only experienced this type of accident once in the last 31 years. just because you can drive a car safely doesn't mean you won't have an accident.
Most people never believe there will be a safety issue... most people operate on the assumption that the worst thing that can happen is the worst thing that has happened within their personal experience. Organizations that have too much reliance on hierarchy always fail at some point. Here's what we're emphasizing in wildland fire (I apologize for the formatting)... Looking at the 5 basic principles of a Highly Reliable Organization... 1. Preoccupation with failure, 2. Reluctance to simplify, 3. Sensitivity to operations, 4. Commitment to resilience, and 5. Deference to expertise. I think in regards to Horizon Deepwater, we can say there was not a preoccupation with failure, there was a desire to simplify, there was not a sensitivity to operations, there was not a commitment to resilience, and expertise was dismissed. Textbook, really.
Agreed. Most accidents happen this way. Complacency is a b**** - you get used to doing things without incident and the reasons for why these incidents don't occur start to fade. Then you think it's a simple operation you've done a hundred times, without realizing that each step is an insurance policy against monumental failure. I saw it when I worked at NASA during and after Columbia. I've seen it in multiple, multiple safety presentations for the oil and gas work I do now - and it's written all over this BP mess. Everyone does this. It happens. That's not an exscuse in any way, shape, or form, but there is no reason to presume BP any worse (or more prone) than any other engineering firm in the same circumstance. Habit becomes ritual, and you begin to forget the difference between the two.
I was watching CNN on Sunday and they were asking about this affecting oil prices. One person says to put into perspective, the oil spilled so far from day 1, americans burn through in about five minutes. it is amazing how much of this stuff we use
True but the lack of foresight and cavalier attitude in regard to safety that BP had, as shown in the articles that Thadeus posted, is something that should really concern us in regard to BP.
Not just 'in regard to BP.' Transocean didn't have a solution, and none of the other deep sea drilling participants offered up their ready to go caps, fixes, or clean up plans. BP's at fault -- but I'm thinking the industry as a whole was vulnerable to this type of disaster.
It's funny, the price of oil has been in a freefall all month. Makes "Drill baby drill" in order to lower gasoline prices seem really, really really dumb.
Basso keeps talking about commandeering tankers, one of the problems is that the traders ran out of storage space and are using tankers to store oil waiting for the price to go up. pretty soon they are gonna have to flood the market with more oil
