Fury and despair as BP admits oil could leak for months

Fury and despair as BP admits oil could leak for months

www.guardian.co.uk

An uncontrollable fountain of oil could gush into the Gulf of Mexico until August, the Obama administration warned today, as BP conceded it was moving to a containment strategy after failing to plug the well at the centre of the most environmentally disastrous spill in US history.

As anger and despair grew in the coastal communities of Louisiana, BP began preparations to cut a leaking drill pipe on the ocean floor and attach a containment cap intended to capture at least some of the 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of crude spewing from its Macondo well every day.

The oil company, which has come

(visit the link for the full news article)

un focking believeable... words cannot described how pissed i am over this. "for months" are you kidding me... could this have come at a better time or what... the death of the united states is a certaintly now. as is the death of the gulf of mexico and every living thing that depends on it. unreal... it is amazing how the experts are incompetant at every level isnt it. bankers, government, oil corporations, military, etc... This is the worst disaster in US history...

www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 30-5-2010 by TheCoffinman]

reply to post by TheCoffinman


Why not? B P has a track record of repeating history. Go here to see how B P played a key role in the botched Exxon Valdez response:




www.huffingtonpost.com...







[edit on 30-5-2010 by manta78]

Humanity needs to learn the errors of their ways and once humanity receive it's lesson, maybe then people will become aware of the harm they are doing to the environment and change their ways.

I'm apathetic of this situation.

[edit on 30-5-2010 by GrandKitaro777]

If the oil is allowed to flow "for months", what will be the "collateral damage"? And how is the already enfeebled U.S. economy supposed to absorb the financial impact?

Summer is coming and the area impacted/likely to be impacted is very dependent on tourism.

Aqua-culture from the Gulf will be all but taboo; a result of public perception as much as from public health concerns.

Property values along the Gulf coast, already depressed due to the general economic conditions, will be further destroyed by real, and imagined hazardous material contamination.

The loss of more jobs in an already economically sensitive geographic region will be catastrophic for the South; and likely as not have a "Domino Effect" on the rest of the country.


It is shaping up to be a very long, very uncomfortable, Summer.


It might just take a limited nuclear exchange with North Korea to keep newly impoverished Americans from "Going Nuclear" this Summer!

BP, and it's sub contractors better get on the ball.

We have the potential that this spill will end the gulf coast seafood industry and the political fall out may put an end to offshore drilling.

$15/gallon gas anyone.

This whole situation stinks. I say stinks because on days when the wind blows out of the Southeast I can smell the oil and the dispersant.

I am leaning to the point that given the slow reactions of the parties that this event may have been done on purpose.

I haven't given this story anything like the attention it deserves from me - too busy watching the Persian Gulf and the Korean peninsula I guess

Is there a site that is monitoring this closely - up-to-date maps of the oil flow, etc?

Thanks.

I've posted this idea on here a few time already. All the big oil companies should use their resources to try and cap the leak(s). Whoever caps the well gets it. The only other entities in the world with the resources and knowledge to maybe stop the gusher are the other big oil companies. Ideally I would love to see an American based company cap it and hopefully profit off the mother of a gusher that is out there.

I just can't believe there is no way of stopping this leak.

As i posted yesterday in another thread, the leak so far has only spilled up to about 1.5% of the total oil down there, so there is no chance of it running out anytime soon.

BP's Gulf well stems from the Macondo oil prospect, a reservoir located roughly 18,000 feet below sea level, or 15,000 feet below the ocean floor. The prospect was estimated to have contained 50 million barrels before the explosion, a BP spokesman said earlier this month.

Calculations based on the BP and government estimates reveal that somewhere between 0.94 and 1.48 percent of the Macondo reservoir has been depleted.

Source: How Much Oil Remains Under the Gulf?

So what about all the help other countries have offered? Didn't Russia and Iran recently off help with this, or are certain people going to cut off their nose to spite their face when it comes to certain countries?

CX.

Yes, what about all of the offers of help? I believe it's upwards of 17 countries offering supplies for clean up and assistance in containing the spill.

He said the U.S. has received offers to assist from 17 countries and four international organizations. The countries are : Canada, Mexico, Korea, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and Vietnam. The organizations are : the European Union, including the European Maritime Safety Agency, the environmental unit of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the United Nations Environment Program and the International Maritime Organization. Though the State Department receives the offers, it is BP and the Unified Area Command, led by the Coast Guard, that are the entities that decide which offers to accept. So far, the UAC has accepted skimmers and booms offered by Mexico and Norway. He deferred questions as to why only those offers had been accepted so far to the UAC in Louisiana.

blogs.abcnews.com...

reply to post by CX


I agree we need to accept the help of Russia and Iran. We should also force the other two main oil companies, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, to give up whatever technology and information that have gained on stopping leaks. I know they are cheering on BP's failure, but at what price does it stop, and they realize they are in fact humans on the same polluted planet?

Why don't we just force something incredibly dense and heavy into the well to block the oil from leaking?

Or, we could create a huge dome around the oil leak to keep it from escaping into the ocean, then have mulitple pipes and oil tankers ready to receive the oil and take it to land. This would stop the most of the oil from leaking out, and get BP oil by the boat loads extremely fast. The U.S. Gov. could then jack the oil from BP and give it us for free to help pay the Gulf's loses.

DO SOMETHING FOR GOD SAKES!

[edit on 30-5-2010 by tooo many pills]

Originally posted by TheCoffinman

un focking believeable... words cannot described how pissed i am over this. "for months" are you kidding me... could this have come at a better time or what... the death of the united states is a certaintly now. as is the death of the gulf of mexico and every living thing that depends on it. unreal... it is amazing how the experts are incompetant at every level isnt it. bankers, government, oil corporations, military, etc... This is the worst disaster in US history...

www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 30-5-2010 by TheCoffinman]

Don't be SO dramatic, the Gulf of Mexico is NOT going to die or everything that's in it...do u realize this has happened before? where 30,000+ barrels of crude oil leaked for 9 months in the Gulf of Mexico......and did everything die NO

Yes, this is a bad leak but it HAS happened before....everyone needs to just stop with this doom and gloom stuff....

reply to post by Goradd


Boy, are you an optimistic one. I'm glad that your feeling all rosy about this, I know I and many others are not. You would think by now we would have learned from all the past oil spills.

So what happens to the people who live in the Caribbean now?

I am sure their economies have a lot to do with fishing and tourism.

reply to post by Goradd


So lets pour more oil in the oceans, it's ok, the environment did not die. STOP THE GLOOM AND DOOM. It's ok, TRUST ME, i work for BP. Shove some more golf balls down there, maybe it will work this time. I'm sure the CEO of BP has plenty of that equipment laying around. Oh, don't forget the golf cart. Plant life, fish and animals now stink up the beaches now. I suppose this is ok too. BIO HAZZARD, ok too. You must work for BP.

reply to post by Goradd


OH, I didn't know that.

Just on this, I know that the coast of Louisiana and Florida are under threat. and everyone is freaking over the affects there, as this is currently "ground zero", But it's not called the Gulf of MEXICO for nothing.

Does anyone know about the currents in the region to have an educated guess about how this could affect the east coast of Mexico (port of Veracruz is a major commercial port) not only that but the Caribbean sea also. Like of the tourist destinations, Rivera Maya, Caribbean island etc,

And I DO NOT want to hear any blatant replies, such as Who cares about Mexico or the Caribbean.

if this is as bad as it sounds, or as people here make out, then the effects will be felt in more places less able to deal with it, than the USA.

I had planned on retiring in the gulf region but now I won't be able to, so I will be suing BP for that.. They need to pay everyone in the world to atone for their negligence.. I see lawyers making a huge social comeback very soon

If you believe that this oil disaster in the Gulf is nothing to worry about then you are a fool!

reply to post by JakiusFogg


Good questions re other countries.

One thing for sure, other countries have suffered from equally severe oil leaks and spills.

"Spills, leaks and deliberate discharges are happening in oilfields all over the world and very few people seem to care."

There is an overwhelming sense that the big oil companies act as if they are beyond the law. Bassey said: "What we conclude from the Gulf of Mexico pollution incident is that the oil companies are out of control.

"It is clear that BP has been blocking progressive legislation, both in the US and here. In Nigeria, they have been living above the law. They are now clearly a danger to the planet. The dangers of this happening again and again are high. They must be taken to the international court of justice."

article

And so Gulf region residents will be directly affected by this disaster for months. As some are already reporting at ATS, the smell of the incoming pollutants is sickening.