Gas Leak in Gulf 3000 Times Worse Than Oil Leak

Wow, i was totally unaware that that much gas was coming out. Pretty insane to think about.

And btw, CNN has in fact covered leak estimates over 5000 barrels/day. I saw them report extensively on estimates of 20k, 35k, 70k, and even mentioned an estimate of 80k.

reply to post by Gamecock


I just saw them yesterday on CNN insist that it was 5,000. I did however see their Headline News yesterday mention higher numbers.

reply to post by webpirate


Disclaimer up front: I am not fan of the oil companies and I do believe the MSM are about useless when it comes reporting anything of value.

I read the AP article and the blog posting. Unfortunately I did did not see where the amount of natural gas claimed prior to the explosion is actually spewing out with the oil now was verified. I have no doubt it is highly likely but without verification it is a claim made without evidence.

Please do not get me wrong, I think the whole thing is a disaster. I believe BP has mislead and fabricated data. But without some hard evidence (I do not know how we would get it) showing the natural gas is leaking out we are making wild claims no better than BP.

I believe the danger is real. I believe the possibility is real. I believe in protecting the Gulf. I just wish we had some evidence outside of BP or the government to use to drag these pieces of garbage into court.

I will try to find Images as the weeks and years moves along to see how much the oil changed the gulf

[edit on 18-5-2010 by AndersonLee]

reply to post by expat2368


Gas is almost always found with oil - totally normal.

Is it barrels or gallons? There is a difference by a factor of 45.
I have heard the MSM report both gallons and barrels.

5,000 barrels = 225,000 gallons

an important detail

reply to post by rival


5,000 barrels is what the MSM is reporting. However, numbers up to 100,000 BARRELS a day have been discussed realistically. A lot of the oil is underwater. That has been documented. So BP's using satellites to measure the slicks doesn't work there.

Also, they based their estimates using what they saw coming from the pipe. Remember though, the pipe is about 1 mile deep in the ocean. The first article I posted has the math, but what we are seeing coming out of the pipe at the bottom is under immense pressure. So it will look smaller than it actually is. A good estimate I have heard is between 25,000 and 50,000 barrels a day.

This is why BP doesn't want it to get out. CNN Headline News did actually start mentioning higher figures yesterday than the 5,000 barrel/day that has been stuck to for so long. Other sources have been saying this all along.

Could the natural gas be why most of the oil workers died so quickly? At least that is what I assume based on one guy making it by jumping. Most must not of had the time to think about it.

Originally posted by LucidDreamer85
reply to post by webpirate

 

They didn't talk about this too much , but they did have a 5 minute segment on Sandra Bullocks new Baby she adopted, which I guess is NEED TO KNOW information for America.....

Notice how all these people are being exposed of cheating and what not....

It's the new thing for 2010........it will be what keeps our attention away from the real thing going on, like oil spills......

Even under the Clinton Administration they would have handled this much better.....

The Clinton Administration?
Instead of finding Bin Laden, we were so focused on slick willy getting his..willy wet.

The media loves scandals. Look at the current president. Poor guy. Can't even do his job without everyone shi**ing on him, even when he does something good. Everyone has to make up lies about him being born outside of this country or him being a Muslim. We're so distracted from real issues, it's upsetting.

[edit on 18-5-2010 by GorehoundLarry]

There are many scientists, though not very popular, who postulate that what killed the dinos was not an astroid but a methane eruption. Also, I would like to point out that if the dinos were killed by astroid, it hit in what is now the very same gulf of mexico that might take us out.

Originally posted by Z.S.P.V.G.
There are many scientists, though not very popular, who postulate that what killed the dinos was not an astroid but a methane eruption.

And that may very well happen to us.

No drilling required...

Methane Begins to Erupt From Arctic Permafrost

www.celsias.com...

In what sounds like a scene from a Hollywood disaster film, scientists looked over the side of the Russian research vessel Yacob Smirnisky to view the ocean foaming as huge ancient deposits of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, began to thaw and bubble to the surface. The alarming reports of what the International Siberian Shelf Study 2008 have been witnessing over the last few days were sensationally revealed by Britain's Independent Newspaper two days ago (23rd September 2008). As the newspaper reports this is the first evidence that millions of tons of methane are beginning to be released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic Ocean.

The intense concentrations of the greenhouse gas, some up to 100 times background levels, were discovered in the East Siberian Sea and the Laptev Sea, an area some tens of thousands of square miles in the Siberian continental shelf. The Independent published extracts from emails sent from one of the lead researchers aboard the Yacob Smirnisky, Orjan Gustafsson of Stockholm University:

Maybe one day the permafrost will give way to a massive methane
eruption.

Massive stores of methane, which formed before the last ice age, are locked away beneath the permafrost of the northern hemisphere. Produced naturally by the decay of water-logged vegetation, over millennia the methane deposits have accumulated beneath the land and ocean, removing huge quantities of carbon from the atmosphere. Permafrost at the sea floor had acted like a lid to prevent the huge methane deposits, from escaping. It's thought that this new phenomenon is related to the rapid warming that the Arctic region has experienced in recent years.

post deleted by author


[edit on 18-5-2010 by Thermo Klein]

reply to post by Thermo Klein


It's cold and high pressure while flowing out the pipe, but as it rises to the surface it normalizes with the surrounding environment where it will expand more than a thousand times. At least, this is my laymen understanding. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[edit on 18-5-2010 by unityemissions]

Methane-trapping ice of the kind that has frustrated the first attempt to contain oil gushing offshore of Louisiana may have been a root cause of the blowout that started the spill in the first place, according to University of California, Berkeley, professor Robert Bea, who has extensive access to BP p.l.c. documents on the incident. If methane hydrates are eventually implicated, the U.S. oil and gas industry would have to tread even more lightly as it pushes farther and farther offshore in search of energy. Drillers have long been wary of methane hydrates because they can pack a powerful punch. One liter of water ice that has trapped individual methane molecules in the "cages" of its crystal structure can release 168 liters of methane gas when the ice decomposes. Bea, who has 55 years of experience assessing risks in and around offshore operations, says "there was concern at this location for gas hydrates. We're out to the [water depth] where it ought to be there." The deeper the water, the greater the pressure, which when high enough can keep hydrates stable well below the sea floor. And there were signs that drillers did encounter hydrates. About a month before the blowout, a "kick" of gas pressure hit the well hard enough that the platform was shut down. "Something under high pressure was being encountered," says Bea—apparently both hydrates and gas on different occasions.

Workers from Halliburton who had just pumped cement into the well to temporarily seal it off were well aware of the potential hydrate hazards, says Bea. Halliburton just last year had developed strategies to avoid having the heat of curing cement decompose any nearby hydrates and trigger a kick, he says. A special foamy cement was used to seal the well this time. It was just after the seal was tested that natural gas drove through it, a malfunctioning blowout preventer, and a drill pipe full of seawater to ignite on the platform, killing 11 and eventually sinking it. "There are so many operations like this around the world," says Bea. "My hope is we'll use this disaster as an opportunity to take a step forward" in risk reduction.

news.sciencemag.org...

For more detailed explanations of the area and problems with methane hydrates check this thread:

Gulf spill: is the methane a bigger problem than the oil?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

So what would happen if they somehow ignited the gas while they try to weld something over the gusher? would it ignite the gas and cause a massive underground explosion?

That would be scary.. or if all the gas was floating on the top of the ocean and some guy on a boat smoking ignited it. There would have to be massive parts per million though..

The methane could potentially be a bigger problem than the oil... my God, it never even occured to me with all the "revised" numbers on how much oil was gushing out. Potentially, if the methane outgassing is large enough, the entirety of the Gulf could become a dead zone from the bottom up... it would kill everything in the food chain either directly or through attrition. Not to mention the fact that methane bursts can sink ships on the surface if they ascend quickly enough. I've been trying to tell myself that this crisis could be contained and fixed... I'm starting to have my doubts.

edit to add; to whomever asked why BP was allowed to drill in the first place; technically the rig was in international waters and TransOcean, not BP owned the rig - you'd be amazed how many foreign companies own oil rigs in the international waters of the world, no matter how close to U.S. shores they are.

[edit on 18-5-2010 by Legion2112]

Thank for you for letting me express my freedom of speech and present my speech . I want to thank everyone who is looking at the problem in the gulf of mexico . I also want to thank everyone I'd also like to remind my fellow freedom-loving Americans that the American flag is Legal and its real . letting me express my freedom of speech...A rare event in 2010 ...the oceans are home to 90% of the life on earth

[edit on 19-5-2010 by AndersonLee]

F u, BP!
2nd line.

reply to post by Quickfix


This is a very good idea to create nurseries for all biological forms around the
world. I believe difficulties arise in marine enviroments because of both water temperatue and the refreshment of naturally occuring deepwater ocean minerals and the multitude of biological factors that occur with that refreshment. There are numerous protected areas, Scientific reasearch areas,
as well as private habitat areas, who are truly concerned and care about this.
As well as private areas that exploit this angle but at the same time are willing
to compromise as it is good for business in the long run. But at best, most of
these installations are expensive "Lagoons" that are subject to mineral and
freshwater runoff from shore and exposed to warm water shallow depths.
Which greatly inhibit the biodiversity and scope of their projects.

Oil In Ocean Shows Up On NEW Images

I did not no the oil was that huge...Everyone look at the size of the oil ...Dam ...



earthobservatory.nasa.gov...




And this is a real UFO ..

api.ning.com...


[edit on 19-5-2010 by AndersonLee]