Oil Slick in Gulf of Mexico (Following Thread!)

TWO BREAKING NEWS!!!

More offshore platforms may shut due spill

HOUSTON, May 1 (Reuters) - More offshore oil and natural gas production platforms could be shut down in the Gulf of Mexico as a precaution due to the oil spill, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Minerals Management Service said on Saturday.'

www.lse.co.uk...

Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill Triples In Size

Satellite images studied by the University of Miami reveal the slick has expanded from about 1,150 square miles (3,000 square km) to some 3,850 square miles (9,900 square km) over the past day.

uk.news.yahoo.com...


[edit on 1-5-2010 by JanusFIN]

reply to post by zeddissad


Yeah Sarah Palin is an idiot. Off shore drilling is NOT our answer. Conservation, decreasing demand, alternative energy i.e. NUCLEAR energy are great options. I think nuclear should be our number one energy source........I think these windfarms are retarded.

A nuclear reactor crisis is almost easier to deal with than this oil spill crap. This is absolutely disgusting.

One thing this historian guy was saying on the news was how unsympathetic BP and their CEO was. The only thing he's done is try to blame others and hasn't been sympathetic at all in his concern for the damage his company has done to the people of the Gulf and the environment. HE deserves to go to prison and his company deserves to go banktrupt paying for this. But as usual he'll get off scott free.

Developing...

Slick shuts in two Gulf platforms

A US Coast Guard spokesman confirmed the shut-ins, first announced in an update released by the Deepwater Hoirzon Unified Command, but could not immediately name the fields affected or the companies involved.

He said one of the installations had been evacuated as a precaution. The spokesman added that the growing slick from Macondo had prompted the move. About 6.2 million cubic feet of natural gas production has been shut in, the Coast Guard statement said.

www.upstreamonline.com...

Normally the BOP is tested after every string of casing is run. The BOP if the proper drilling mud system is monitored & maintained is seldom in use and is normally only an emergency response.

This equipment has two rams that are hydraulicaaly controlled. One has a slot that fits the drillpipe and closes around the pipe. The other rams are called blind rams and close where all pipes are severed and close in the entire borehole. Field rumors indicate that when the well "kicked' they were landing the production casing and had some tools in the BOP that prevented the blind rams from closing.

Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill Triples In Size

The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has tripled in size, American scientists have warned. Satellite images studied by the University of Miami reveal the slick has expanded from about 1,150 square miles (3,000 square km) to some 3,850 square miles (9,900 square km) over the past day.

Source

If you think it's bad now, just wait until early next week and then on from there. The Gulf is about to be devastated folks.

Satellite images shows spill tripling in size

Graber says estimates of only 1,000 barrels spilling a day seem to be more public relations than anything accurate.

Read more: www.kansas.com...

Obama to visit Gulf Coast Sunday
www.news-press.com...

- Oh. thank god - I almost think we have great emergency there, but no worry anymore, Obama will save us tomorrow!

[edit on 1-5-2010 by JanusFIN]

With all the mindless prattle on this subject and having drilled oil & gas wells for over 30 years I decided to provide a few facts concerning this disaster.

If there are 6 degrees of separation in the world there are 2 degrees in what is left of the oilfield. I heard that the "kick" occured when they were trying to land the 7" casing in the wellhead to temporarily abandon the well after cementing the production casing i place. This was an exploratory well to ascertain whether the discovery was commercially viable to justify the expense of setting a production platform. The blow out preventers have two set of closing devices. One set is designed to close in the well around the pipe that is in the well. There exists larger diameter pipes that it is attached to. By shutting off the annulus between the larger pipe and smaller pipe weighted fluid can be [pumped to increase hydrostatic head to control the enormous bottomhole pressures. Basically the same principal that allows you to have water pressure to take a shower. The second set of closing devices are called blind rams that in an emergency can close and cut off any tube in the way.The field rumor is that while landing the casing the well blew out the annulus outside the 7" casing indicating a problem with the cement job. The second failure occurred when the pipe rams did not close and then the final failure occurred when the blind rams could not close due to tools used to set the casing preventing the blind rams from functioning. With the 3 strikes your out as apparently happened, the oil & gas proceed up the riser to the rig floor. The riser is the pipe that connects the wellhead on the seafloor to the rig floating on the surface. These risers are apprently not designed to withstand any significant pressure and apprently exceeded the design allowing the escape that was set on fire by a random spark. Game, set and match. When a kick occurs normally everyone runs like hell and at best 3 people are left on the floor. The company man(BP's manager),the tool pusher(drilling contractors rig manager) & hopefully the driller(the rig controls operator). Things during a kick tend to be chaotic with alot of screaming and yelling and particularly with a well this deep I am sure the pressures and flow rates were enormous.

After the explosion and rig burned down & sunk the entire wellhead area is covered with junk. Since the pneumatic/electronic controls didn't work the manual controls will also probably not work, particularly since the bottom of the ocean is now covered by the rig. The oil is probably coming out of the riser which is a mile long and may be escaping in several parts over the its mile long length. So the idea about funneling may require several funnels to contain at the site.

In short, this appears to an accident in which there was a series of failures or oversights not just one failure or negligence on BP's part. Just like the Challenger space shuttle in any man made effort there may occur a circumstance that could not be anticipated.

reply to post by billyjack

Thanks from sharing your knowledge.

What is your opinion from estimates and what is the possibility to handle situation from now on - what can be done? ... Or do we just see that more oil spreading before well dry out naturally?

Thanks.

Coast Guard Estimate 1.6 Millions Gallons Of Crude Oil Has Leaked

The Coast Guard estimates now that at least 1.6 million gallons (6 million liters) of oil have spilled since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers. The amount already threatens to make it the worst U.S. oil disaster since the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons (42 million liters) off Alaska's shores in 1989.

cbs13.com...

Damage could last up to 20 years

If oil makes its way into gulf coast marshlands, the damage may last up to 20 years, said a marine biologist during a televised interview. Efforts are currently underway to contain the damage from a massive oil spill that is dumping an estimated 200,000 gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Four states have declared a state of emergency: Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Those states’ wildlife isn’t the only thing the oil threatens; local economies are in jeopardy as well.

primewriter.com...

Lawyers (Halliburton's) flock to Gulf Coast for oil spill lawsuits

At least 26 federal lawsuits have been filed since the spill by commercial fishermen, charter boat captains, resort management companies and individual property owners in Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. Many of the suits claim the disaster was caused when workers for oil services contractor Halliburton Inc. improperly capped a well — a process known as cementing. Halliburton denied that. Investigators are still looking into the cause.

Source

Wouldn't you know it? Halliburton being a player in this event, and possibly being responsible for this catastrophe?

I hope karma has finally caught up with them and they get it for this fiasco, and add an extra lawsuit, or twenty, to compensate for the atrocities committed in Iraq that they are directly or indirectly responsible for.

JanusFIN: I hope you don't mind me adding to your stellar coverage of this event bro.

[edit on 1-5-2010 by susp3kt]

Dispersants may bring about their own set of issues.

The chemicals BP is now relying on to break up the steady flow of leaking oil from deep below the Gulf of Mexico could create a new set of environmental problems.
...
But the dispersants contain harmful toxins of their own and can concentrate leftover oil toxins in the water, where they can kill fish and migrate great distances.

The exact makeup of the dispersants is kept secret under competitive trade laws, but a worker safety sheet for one product, called Corexit, says it includes 2-butoxyethanol, a compound associated with headaches, vomiting and reproductive problems at high doses. Raw Story

Not the best news, it seems that either way we're going to have some serious issues to be faced. The article also mentions that BP has bought a third of the world's stockpile of dispersant, and even with the remaining quantity left, it may not be enough to work in the coming weeks. Seems like somewhat of a gamble in an already losing game.

reply to post by billyjack


Thanks for your interesting post. BillyJack. I'm very interested in your hunch/opinion about the integrity between the wellhead and BOP, and what the feasible options are. Obviously, corporations and government will not be providing a lot of public information about the experimental options for mitigating the disaster, until highest officials have signed off on what to do and say. But I'm more interested in what's happening at the seabed than in the boardrooms.

Does DWH seem like a repeat of the events at Ixtoc I to you?

Since fluid is pushing out of the riser in several locations, I'm curious if this suggests to you (as it does to me, with no special knowledge) that there is still containment between wellhead and BOP.

If so: Is there any remaining chance of capping the wellhead with any adaptation of the broken BOP, in your opinion?

I would also be interested to hear (from you, or from others with direct or nearly first-hand offshore drilling experience/knowledge) about the feasibility of clearing the crashed riser, and positioning a rig, funnel, and tankers over the wellhead, operating in the slick. This would seem potentially faster (if feasible) than the relief well recourse being publicized.

The U.S. Navy has had considerable experience (and may have equipment still) for the manipulation and modification of cased deep undersea cables. It would be in the national interest IMO for such equipment and expertise to be employed in clearing wreckage around the wellhead- even if the activity might reveal classified capabilities.

To pick up on a more outlandish idea mentioned in previous posts here: Could you or anyone with undersea geology experience address the notion of a large explosion fracturing the wellhead and seabed there: Would a gusher be self-sealing, if the seabed there were pulverized to a considerable depth?

Overall, it would be interesting for anyone with knowledge of the geology and technology involved in this problem to speculate here: Is the relief well (a months-long process) really the only remaining means for plugging this hideous thing at this point in time?

If so, it's very troubling to contemplate a continuous catastrophe unfolding along the loop current to the Eastern seaboard over coming months. There must be geological knowledge to forecast the flow rates of an open wellhead while the relief well(s) is/are being drilled and controlled with unprecedented care and scrutiny.

For obvious reasons, corporate and government channels may not be going into much initial detail about how a scenario would likely unfold, should the flow of crude remain uncontrolled for many weeks or months.

There's so very much we don't know, that it would be very interesting to read here the prognostic opinions of any contributors with offshore drilling, petroleum engineering, and/or geological expertise.

Thanks.

[edit on 1-5-2010 by hypewaders]

B.C. premier pledges aid for oil-stricken U.S. Gulf Coast

Read more: www.vancouversun.com...

VICTORIA - With an oily disaster looming on the United States Gulf of Mexico coast, Premier Gordon Campbell has offered to send emergency response officers from British Columbia to help in the clean up...

I think assistance offered is a good thing!

At least this might help.

Originally posted by niteboy82
Dispersants may bring about their own set of issues.

The chemicals BP is now relying on to break up the steady flow of leaking oil from deep below the Gulf of Mexico could create a new set of environmental problems.
...
But the dispersants contain harmful toxins of their own and can concentrate leftover oil toxins in the water, where they can kill fish and migrate great distances.

The exact makeup of the dispersants is kept secret under competitive trade laws, but a worker safety sheet for one product, called Corexit, says it includes 2-butoxyethanol, a compound associated with headaches, vomiting and reproductive problems at high doses. Raw Story

Jeremy Leggett, a Greenpeace scientific director, explained to Green Left Weekly, "Spraying just transfers the oil from the surface of the sea to the floor", with the risk of prolonging the pollution.
www.greenleft.org.au...

Out of sight, out of mind logic? Tragically flawed, I think.

Another issue with the chemical dispersants:

Proximity to land and strong winds mean the chemical dispersants have covered farmers' crops and grass where cattle and sheep graze. Even government authorities don't pretend to know what effect the chemicals will have on the soil: in theory, such contact is not meant to happen.

Although the article referenced here deals with the spill near the Shetland Islands, I would think there is much similarity in circumstances considering the proximity of marsh and beaches in the gulf area. In the Shetland Islands scenerio, the winds carried the dispersants into fields and crop lands and farmers had to take their livestock indoors and feed them by hand due to the contamination.

A film of oil has settled on thousands of hectares in the south of Shetland. Some crops have been condemned, and livestock possibly will be also. In the long term, more persistent toxic residues like benzene and its derivatives, which cause cancer, might remain in the soil.

I am surprised that nothing is mentioned concerning the immediate health effects of residents. Already I am hearing from friends in the gulf area with complaints of "smelling something odd for past few days" (probably fumes), and of headaches.

Are "authorities" are deceiving people with a false sense of security in explaining away the severity of the repercussions?

Oil is a mixture of very toxic chemicals, many proven to cause cancer, added Leggett, regardless of whether the oil has evaporated into the atmosphere or is in the water. Authorities have explained to an apprehensive public that 40% of the oil will evaporate and no longer be a problem.

This, says Leggett, is "another trick the media and the oil companies will try to play on us. For even when oil is not visible in Shetland, it will still be there. It will still be there in the sediments on the seabed, still there in suspension in the water. Even the atmosphere people breathe will be highly carcinogenic. It will be many, many years before the chemicals are broken down, in some instances."

Even though I am comparing oil spills and subsequent problems by citing an older story, the fact seems to be that nothing much has ever changed. Are these companies taking more care and precautions? Or is it hurry up and get'er done with the drilling---throwing caution and safety to the wind?

Does the good ole boy corporate network shrug off 'accidents' only to give another money-making opportunity to their buds in the spill clean-up dept?

They don't care; they will just charge the peons more for fuel to cover the cost of $80,000 for each otter and it's rehab. It's the little people who will be paying 8 dollars a gallon to cover all their lawsuits. It's always a win-win for these big companies. When do we stop enabling them?

Has anyone seen the DAWN Dishsoap commerical? I recall that a week or two before the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Dawn was airing the commercial about cleaning up the oil soaked wildlife. Am I only one who noticed this? Then of course the bombscare in Newyork last night. Seems like a law enforcement training senerio If you ask me. Things have been way to weird lately. When are we going to stop this drilling in our oceans take our country back and stop these tyrants from destroying our lives and freedoms?

[edit on 2-5-2010 by Moose318]

Volunteers train for oil spill impact on animals

GULFPORT, MS (WLOX) - The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies (IMMS) in Gulfport hosted the first of many required training sessions for volunteers helping animals impacted by the oil spill. The session covered the health hazards volunteers face while working with bio-hazardous chemicals. Brenda Sumerall is a veterinarian who came down from Hattiesburg for the training. "I think it's important for everyone to be certified and be on the same page. We have to have organization," said Sumerall.

www.wlox.com...

Oil slick that threatens an Armageddon

The oil spillage in the Gulf of Mexico threatens to become the greatest-ever catastrophe of its kind. Its full impact has yet to be felt, but it seems inevitable the massive slick will ruin the livelihoods of thousands in Louisiana and neighbouring states and cause an ecological Armageddon. The magnitude of the slick - half the size of Wales - gives some idea of the overwhelming damage it could wreak. But that is just the start of it.

www.mirror.co.uk...

Limited Operations Due To Bad Weather

The response to the Deepwater Horizon incident continues with limited operations due to inclement weather, with operations are scheduled to resume Sunday weather permitting.

www.eurasiareview.com...

BP Chief: Failed Equipment Caused Explosion, Spill

BP's chairman is rejecting criticism that his company's safety record played a role in the drilling rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Lamar McKay is putting the blame on "a failed piece of equipment." He tells ABC's "This Week" that he doesn't know how much oil is flowing from the well off the Louisiana coast. He says that estimates of 5,000 barrels a day are uncertain.

www.npr.org...

reply to post by JanusFIN


To anyone here with geology/oceanography background:

The DH gusher is shown at the edge of the continental shelf, near mountains, domes, etc in reportedly unstable seabed. Is there any opportunity (in informed opinion) to bury the site in a triggered submarine avalanche?

look the gulf is gonna be devastated so stopping the offshore drilling is a lot like wearing a condom after you get aids. there are mining accident every yeah but we mine. one oil rig and everyone freaks out...god i miss when Americans used to be proud honest brave people not a load oh whining scared cowards..p.s. i am American though every day i become more ashamed to admit

Originally posted by Dicexlook the gulf is gonna be devastated so stopping the offshore drilling is a lot like wearing a condom after you get aids.

The strains of HIV-1 can be classified into four groups: the "major" group M, the "outlier" group O and two new groups, N and P. These four groups may represent four separate introductions of simian immunodeficiency virus into humans.



Source

And the same goes with offshore drilling. Just because you get a cavity doesn't mean that you let the tooth rot off. :shk:

there are mining accident every yeah but we mine.

Mining accidents kill people, not much of a mass environmental impact there.

god i miss when Americans used to be proud honest brave people not a load oh whining scared cowards..p.s. i am American though every day i become more ashamed to admit

Right now after reading that, I'm a bit ashamed myself. An honest, brave people that care nothing for the environment around them that sustains them is hardly being honest, and definitely not brave.

[edit on 5/2/10 by niteboy82]