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It is a disaster, and a lot of special interests, from the fundraisers for environmental groups to trial lawyers, have their own axes to grind. A new generation of journalists are excited to have a Big Environmental Story of their own. Just like Three Mile Island and Bhopal, most of what you hear and the impression you get from that, will be way off from the truth. The jury is still out on this, as the oil companies may be able to capture this plume of oil and pump it into tankers. On other spills larger than this one, they have been able to capture 95% of the oil, but they were able to coordinate the efforts among themselves, instead of having it all controlled by a government agency (USCG), with more government agencies under that.

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This is not a spill, it is an out-of-control blown out well head.

It's gushing over a million gallons a day into the fragile gulf.

There has been no spill larger than this one.

I have registered to go and clean wildlife, but they REQUIRE I purchase my own haz-mat suits and training before I can VOLUNTEER.

BP is stalling so the wildlife cleanup will be at a minimal cost, ie disposal.


I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.
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It is a horrible disaster. And not just the ecological implications, which are dire. But I have friends who work at Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, and they are already in severe financial distress, and having more cancellations every day. The weird thing is that all the photos my one friend posts are beautiful. A few very small tar balls, but that's it so far. But according to the media, the entire beach is black and toxic. They are already planning for what they can cut and what they will do about their mortgages. Sad.

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As this Deepwater Horizon well continues to spew oil, it will climb the list of largest oil "spills", from it's current place at 35th largest. But the technology is available and in place to still recover 85 percent of the oil from the water. The federal government is not permitting booms, skimmers, pumps, barges and tankers to be put into service as they normally would be.

1. Kuwait - 1991 - 520 million gallons
Iraqi forces opened the valves of several oil tankers in order to slow the invasion of American troops. The oil slick was four inches thick and covered 4000 square miles of ocean.

2. Mexico - 1980 - 100 million gallons
An accident in an oil well caused an explosion which then caused the well to collapse. The well remained open, spilling 30,000 gallons a day into the ocean for a full year.

3. Trinidad and Tobago - 1979 - 90 million
During a tropical storm off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago, a Greek oil tanker collided with another ship, and lost nearly its entire cargo.

4. Russia - 1994 - 84 million gallons
A broken pipeline in Russia leaked for eight months before it was noticed and repaired.

5. Persian Gulf - 1983 - 80 million gallons
A tanker collided with a drilling platform which, eventually, collapsed into the sea. The well continued to spill oil into the ocean for seven months before it was repaired.
6. South Africa - 1983 - 79 million gallons

A tanker cought fire and was abandoned before sinking 25 miles off the coast of Saldanha Bay.

7. France - 1978 - 69 million gallons
A tanker's rudder was broken in a severe storm, despite several ships responding to its distress call, the ship ran aground and broke in two. It's entire payload was dumped into the English Channel.

8. Angola - 1991 - more than 51 million gallons
The tanker exploded, exact quantity of spill unknown

9. Italy - 1991 - 45 million gallons
The tanker exploded and sank off the coast of Italy and continued leaking it's oil into the ocean for 12 years.

10. Odyssey Oil Spill - 1988 - 40 million gallons
700 nautical miles off the cost of Nova Scotia.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill was a disaster, but so were the 33 oil spills that were, in fact, worse.

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Watch the wellhead -

These are the better cams, but are not always active:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...ill-live-video-feed-bp.html?ref=us#q4000

This one seems to always be active, and less irksome if you have a Mac:

http://www.livestream.com/wkrg_oil_spill


"Never forget that your pain means nothing to a WS." ~Mulan

"An ethical man knows it is wrong to cheat on his wife. A moral man will not actually do it." ~ Ducky

WS: They are who they are.

When an eel lunges out
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Thats a moray ~DS
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See how the live camera views show the oil billowing out like smoke? That's because it is about 80% natural gas. The reason the oil blew out the well head while they were trying to seal it is that the pressure jumped to 13,000 PSI, then to 18,000 PSI, then has fluctuated in such a high range. The drillers were prepared to handle the normal 8,000 to 9,000 psi, and this well was far below that when they first got it punched. At these high pressures, as the oil leaves the pile into the 2,200 PSI of the surrounding water, it almost explodes. The gas expands to 6 to 9 times its previous volume, and causes all that turbulence you see.

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I was thinking methane ice clathrates.

We know there were methane hydrate crystals clogging their top cap gizmoid a while back. Wouldn't surprise me if that's how the problem started in the first place.

-ol' 2long

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My husband is in this business and this is what is going around in his circle:

A Smoking Gun in BP's Deep Horizon Mess

Submitted by BassMan2 on 15. May 2010 - 11:31
Thom's nationally syndicated radio show

This hasn't seemed to have gotten much circulation yet, and I think it really needs to. Seems that a crew from Schlumberger, on contract to BP, hightailed it off the platform at their own expense 6 hours before the blowout becuase BP refused their recommendation to shut down the well. This lends more credence to Thom's suggestion that corners were cut because the bigwigs were coming for a vist.

"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."

More at: http://adropofrain.net/2010/05/rumor-schlumberger-exits-deep-horizon-hou...

--


"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.." Theodore Roosevelt

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Sounds like Schlumberger employees were exercising their power and training to call a halt if they did not feel safe, or if any conditions were outside those in their service agreement.

But what's the relevance? None of that points to the root cause, much less assigns blame for negligence.

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Originally Posted by Retread
But what's the relevance? None of that points to the root cause, much less assigns blame for negligence.

I am not following your point. SLB said the well was kicking too heavily and tried to kill the well. BP would not kill the well, therefore, the implication is that they were negligent. How can that not be relevant?


"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.." Theodore Roosevelt

Exposure 101


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Well, since it turned out that the well could not be capped due to the pressure rise, that doesn't necessarily mean anyone was negligent. Schlumberger employees noticing the same thing that the other firms already knew doesn't mean the others were negligent. They may have been negligent in some other areas, but it is far too early to make that judgement.

This scenario was foreseen, and plans were written up for it in exercises between 1990 and 1994. The feds took control of all this in 1994, and they are mighty quick to try to blame everyone but themselves for the lack of response and lack of success in the responses. I am just saying, consider the source of everything you hear, especially when it is someone who might have dropped the ball, or some phony "environmental group" trying to raise money with scare tactics.

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Just curious how people feel about the blame game played by politicians on BP and the oil industry. Most of my friends think BP was cowardly to submit to this arm twisting to pay $20 billion into a slush fund they don't control, when the damages so far are less than $1.3 billion.

Maybe they are so used to working with dictators in South America and Africa that they don't question these illegal requests from an American president.

But then I hear commentators and talk radio callers cheering for more money, and they don't care about the legal process being bypassed.

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The legal process being bypassed is a HUGE deal, but it isn't the first time it has happened recently. It will be interesting to see who all comes out of the woodwork to claim "damages." Kinda like those people who had never even lived in New Orleans who stood in line and got a fat check anyway.

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Originally Posted by Retread
Just curious how people feel about the blame game played by politicians on BP and the oil industry. Most of my friends think BP was cowardly to submit to this arm twisting to pay $20 billion into a slush fund they don't control, when the damages so far are less than $1.3 billion.

The government's illegal extortion of money from this company really bothers me. I am alarmed that BP went along with this, but they are over a barrel. They are the new ATM for a corrupt government that hates corporations. Our government has strong motivation to let the oil well flow as long as possible so they can continue to capitalize on the crisis. BP=ATM


"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.." Theodore Roosevelt

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The legal limit on liability is $75 million. BP has already voluntarily committed to spending $1.3 billion to contain and clean up the oil on the surface, hiring trawlers, workers, paying fishermen who can't fish, etc.

But putting $20 billion in play, and then boasting that, "This is just a down payment", invites a lawyer feeding frenzy. If there is $20 billion on the table, they are going to try to clean off the table, even if actual damages are only $2 billion.

This news story has pushed some of the scandals, like the Stupek bribery attempt, out of the news entirely. Another major attack on business is the federal government suit filed by Elena Kagan, the nominee to the Supreme Court, against the tobacco companies, for $300 billion PAST PROFITS. This is the money they already paid income taxes and dividends on for the last 20 years. Never mind the so-called "Tobacco Settlement" where they paid billions to the states.

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The power grab by the current oligarchy is astounding and unprecedented. The only thing that can rein it in is a massive overhaul of the sitting members of Congress. And elections are still four months away. A lot of damage can be done in that time.

And what happens if the current dissatisfaction with Congress DOESN'T result in a lot of "sudden retirements?" I shudder to think.


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Originally Posted by MelodyLane
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."

I interviewed with Schlumberger a couple of months before I finished my undergrad degree in EE. I still thought I was going into the Navy no matter what (my lottery number was 8, and I had taken the OCS exam and been accepted pending the physical), and Schlumberger wanted me to pay my dues on the North Slope before I could do anything really cool � like drill a mile under water. So I never followed up on the job offer.

A friend of mine worked for Schlumberger in GB for a couple of years (after paying his own dues on the North Slope). He loved it. Both places. Very interesting work. I have occasionally wondered what life would have been like had I accepted. I used to think I would not have had the opportunity to work on cool things that could destroy all life on earth. But gosh, I see now I probably could have anyway.


"Never forget that your pain means nothing to a WS." ~Mulan

"An ethical man knows it is wrong to cheat on his wife. A moral man will not actually do it." ~ Ducky

WS: They are who they are.

When an eel lunges out
And it bites off your snout
Thats a moray ~DS

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