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Feds Let BP Avoid Filing Blowout Plan for Gulf Rig
NEW ORLEANS - Petrochemical giant BP didn't file a plan to specifically handle a major oil spill from an uncontrolled blowout at its Deepwater Horizon project because the federal agency that regulates offshore rigs changed its rules two years ago to exempt certain projects in the central Gulf region, according to an Associated Press review of official records.
A slick of chemically dispersed oil floats in the Gulf of Mexico with an offshore rig in the background about 14 miles from the Venice marina off the coast of Louisiana.
(AFP/Mira Oberman) The Minerals Management Service, an arm of the Interior Department known for its cozy relationship with major oil companies, says it issued the rule relief because some of the industrywide mandates weren't practical for all of the exploratory and production projects operating in the Gulf region.
The blowout rule, the fact that it was lifted in April 2008 for rigs that didn't fit at least one of five conditions, and confusion about whether the BP Deepwater Horizon project was covered by the regulation, caught the attention of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
Following a tour of a boom operation in Gulf Shores, Ala., Salazar said Wednesday that he understood BP was required to file plans for coping with a blowout at the well that failed.
"My understanding is that everything was in its proper place," said Salazar.
But an AP review of government and BP documents found that the company had not filed a specific comprehensive blowout plan for the rig that exploded April 20, leaving 11 workers dead and spewing an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil a day.
Instead, a site-specific exploration plan filed by BP in February 2009 stated that it was "not required" to file "a scenario for a potential blowout" of the Deepwater well.
When questioned about the exemption claim, BP spokesman William Salvin said provisions for handling a blowout incident were actually included in the firm's 582-page region oil spill plan, though he had difficulty pointing to specific passages.
He later maintained that the Deepwater location was not subject to the blowout scenario requirements because it triggered none of the conditions cited in the MMS's April 2008 notice to operators about a loosening of the rules.
Still, Salvin insisted the company was prepared to handle a blowout and catastrophic spill at the project through provisions included in its regional plan.
"We have a plan that has sufficient detail in it to deal with a blowout," Salvin said, while acknowledging that the ongoing crisis at the Deepwater site is "uncontrolled."
The lack of a specific plan for the Deepwater project raises questions about whether BP could have been better prepared to deal with the ongoing disaster and whether MMS is fulfilling its regulatory oversight.
Robert Wiygul, an Ocean Springs, Miss., environmental lawyer, said the lack of a blowout scenario "is kind of an outrageous omission, because you're drilling in extremely deep waters, where by definition you're looking for very large reservoirs to justify the cost."
"If the MMS was allowing companies to drill in this ultra-deep situation without a blowout scenario, then it seems clear they weren't doing the job they were tasked with," he said. "The MMS can't change the law just by telling people that they don't have to comply with it. I think it really indicates that somebody at MMS was asleep at the switch on this."
Brendan Cummings, a Joshua Tree, Calif.-based lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the exploration plan submitted by BP for Deepwater Horizon failed to adequately analyze the project's oil spill risks. Cummings has filed a notice of intent to sue the government over another offshore drilling operation, by Royal Dutch Shell in Alaska.
"The technology used on the now-sunken Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf was supposed to be the most advanced in the world, including various mechanisms to prevent or cap a blowout," Cummings wrote in the filing. "None of these mechanisms worked, and the state-of-the-art technology completely failed to stop the spill."
In its 2009 exploration plan for the Deepwater Horizon site, BP strongly discounted the possibility of a catastrophic accident. Similarly, Shell's environmental impact analysis for its Beaufort Sea drilling plan asserts that the possibility of a "large liquid hydrocarbon spill ... is regarded as too remote and speculative to be considered a reasonably foreseeable impacting event."
The Deepwater Horizon disaster is not the first time MMS has been criticized as being too close to the oil industry.
In 2008, the Interior Department took disciplinary action against eight MMS employees who accepted lavish gifts, partied and - in some cases - had sex with employees from the energy companies they regulated. An investigation cited a "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" involving employees in the agency's Denver office.
MMS workers were given upgraded ethics training.
Associated Press Writer Richard T. Pienciak reported from Atlanta; AP Writer Jay Reeves reported from Gulf Shores, Ala.
47 Comments so far
Show AllYup ... BP is already on its way to rewriting its history.
They should simply be put out of business with all the BP corpo-fascists put in jail with their jail-time spent in ball and chain cleaning up the every last 'dispersed' drop of oil and dispersant. When they are finished with that job I suggest that they are then required to drink/eat everything they've 'cleaned' up and everything that dies because of their criminal activity.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
All the TV McNews programs that periodically show the military photos and names of military personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq should follow that by photos of endangered and other species covered in this crude glop as the photos of them proliferate so the country can see what we're REALLY fighting for. Most Amurkans are now such pigs or near zombies I find it really infuriating and depressing. In my city of 6 million everywhere I go I see them zooming by with their gas pedals floor-boarded in their SUVs and Humvees. They really believe their unsustainable way of life is limitless. The flip-side of our country's warped regression is our unwillingness as a people to learn from our mistakes because we're so corporately stampeded just trying to attain a certain pre-packaged life style. And so many younger Americans are so willing right out of college to figure out some way to prey on their fellow Americans for money or help our worst competitors at our expense to make themselves wealthy. I don't see how America can stand much longer when so many Americans inside it as well as our competitors outside of it look at our nation as this eternal humongous Walmart department/grocery store that exists only to be endlessly looted while the planet is endlessly looted to stock it.
Speaking of toxic sludge, that neo-liberal pig Ben Bernanke is right now trying to figure out how to transfer the toxic sludge of 1.23 Trillion dollars of mortgage bundled securities (that he exceeded his legal authority with the Fed to buy from the big banks) to shove it all off on Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's balance sheet--serving up a propaganda grand slam to the far-right who will escalate their blame of the entire housing bubble implosion on poor blacks too stupid to read the fine print when 40% of the sub-prime ARMs were pushed on at-prime black females so the mortgage originators could rake in fatter commissions and ignore ultimate liability when the payment rates jumped--long after those mortgages had been bundled and re-sold multiple times.
Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney05042010.html
"Speaking of toxic sludge, that neo-liberal pig Ben Bernanke is right now trying to figure out how to transfer the toxic sludge of 1.23 Trillion dollars of mortgage bundled securities (that he exceeded his legal authority with the Fed to buy from the big banks) to shove it all off on Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's balance sheet--serving up a propaganda grand slam to the far-right who will escalate their blame of the entire housing bubble implosion on poor blacks too stupid to read the fine print when 40% of the sub-prime ARMs were pushed on at-prime black females so the mortgage originators could rake in fatter commissions and ignore ultimate liability when the payment rates jumped--long after those mortgages had been bundled and re-sold multiple times".
This is a Classic analysis. The banks and mortgage companies have sucked out all the profit they can. The foreclosed houses go back on the market and the taxpayer foots the bill. Meanwhile the right continues to gin up the ole pull yourself up by the bootstraps rhetoric and the people have been used again. This is what rape must feel like.
A little off the oil subject, but the principle is the same, do they have no shame? No, they don't. There is a remedy to this madness, it's called "reciprocity". Patience and dilgence is required for positive impact on a personal and social level.
http://www.alternet.org/rss/breaking_news/184546/russian_paper_suggests__%E2%80%98nuclear_explosion%E2%80%99_may_cut_off_gulf_oil_geyser/
Here's a suggestion from a Russian newspaper about using a nuclear explosion to stop the oil spill. They used it in Russia in 1963 to cut off a gas well blowout that had burned uncontrollably for three years. Ordinarily I wouldn't recommend setting off nuclear bombs (it would involve violating the nuclear test ban treaty), but which is worse, a pound of plutonium or an Exxon Valdez oil spill in the Gulf every four days or so? If that second oil well can't stop the oil geyser, then we may have to start thinking the unthinkable in a year or so. I'm half joking here or course, but only half.
Normally I'd have something really sarcastic or ironic or silly or angry to reply.
But your statement leaves me completly speechless. Wow
A pound of plutonium indeed................
I must admit i didn't read about this event in Russia.
But on a purely intuitive level, and in all due respect GDS, i just don't think that the cold war mindset and understanding of the implications of detonating a thermo nuclear device in Russia in 1963, would necessarily imply a wise path to tread.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
The concept of "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is utterly lost on contemporary Americans.
For those of you keeping a tally on the various estimates of the Gulf spill as it accumulates in comparison to the Exxon Valdez, the oil tanker spilled a total of 11 million gallons. We're not there yet but we will be in a matter of weeks--less than two months.
Yes, I've read those estimates, too. It just keeps getting worse. Yesterday the New York Times reported on a closed door hearing in congress in which a BP employee said that the flow rate could exceed 60,000 barrels a day. A new government report says it might go as high as 100,000 barrels a day. A barrel is 42 gallons so 100,000 barrels a day is 4.2 million gallons a day. The Exxon Valdez oil spill was about 11 million gallons total. So at a rate of 100,000 barrels a day, that amounts to an Exxon Valdez oil spill every 2.6 days. If you believe BP's estimated 60,000 barrels a day, that's still an Exxon Valdez every 4.3 days. And we can expect this to go on for months. I suspect the 3 months they're talking about is too optimistic. According to T. Boone Pickens we may be looking at 6 months before the geyser can be stopped.
I'm only kidding about using nukes, but perhaps a big conventional explosive might work. It's bad, but you have to weigh it against letting the oil gusher continue.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Well, why SHOULD we trust what industry and government tell us about the spill rate since Big Oil is one of the reigning set of oligarchs that owns and operates the government for itself. When one reflects on it, we shouldn't trust them anymore than we trusted the flock-of-birds consistent government, Big Media and the military-industrial complex claim (without credible evidence) that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq only killed less than two hundred thousand instead of independent estimates of somewhere over 1.5 million.
Maybe it's high time for some ass kickin civil disobedience, Hey, how bout them Greeks, the oldest and first Democracy, out in the streets kicking ass....."Banker Beware"....
We should all think the worse here...Speaking of explosives, there is an apparatus called A "football" that can and should be deployed..Basically it is A last ditch safety device, A remote operated explosive charge placed deep in the well that seals the well off in cases such as this..Rumor has it that Congress is holding investigative hearings next Wednesday...If this is true, I would hope that they will be televised LIVE on C-SPAN so we can see what these BOZO's have to tell the American people and the soon to be victims of the Gulf...The first victims that is...
The Exxon Valdez spilled between 11 million and 37 million gallons of oil...Exxon got away with the lower figure for cost and liability reasons...I would go with the upper number...Google "Riki Ott" and check out her web site, she should know, she was there and is here now.....
"Robert Wiygul, an Ocean Springs, Miss., environmental lawyer, said the lack of a blowout scenario "is kind of an outrageous omission, because you're drilling in extremely deep waters, where by definition you're looking for ""very large reservoirs to justify the cost.""
Read the letter to BP Alaska president John Ming'e who replaced Mr. Doug Suttles last year in Alaska...The letter is from Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak of the House Energy and Commerce Department. You can see for yourselves what Mr. Doug Suttles is all about and the mess he left behind while being promoted by BP...Incontrovertable evidence that shit actually does run up-hill at times...
http://www.propublica.org/article/congressmen-raised-concerns-about-bp-safety-in-months-before-gulf-spill
Another thing, B.P.'s Mr. Doug Suttles is nothing short of A LIAR, remember the first estmates for that leak were One thousand {1,000} barrels A day and now the estimates are five times that..Well, let me tell you, BP does NOT drill deep ocean wells for only A thousand barrels of oil A day, not ever!!!...This particular well was estimated at forty thousand+ {40,000+} barrels A day and Mr. Suttles was very well aware of that long before the drill bit pierced the ocean bottom...This guy had better go to jail for A very long, long time....
Can't they just pack the rupture with whale carcasses instead?
The Associated Press: "In 2008, the Interior Department took disciplinary action against eight MMS employees who accepted lavish gifts, partied and - in some cases - had sex with employees from the energy companies they regulated. An investigation cited a 'culture of substance abuse and promiscuity' involving employees in the agency's Denver office. MMS workers were given upgraded ethics training."
These twerps "were given upgraded ethics training." Why were they not fired on the spot and investigated for accepting bribes and exploiting their positions of authority?
Oh, that's right--in Amerikkka the powerful are not held accountable for any of their actions.
"These twerps "were given upgraded ethics training." Why were they not fired on the spot..." My thought exactly, Tom Joad. I assume the upgraded ethics training was supposed to turn them into model citizens. I would love to see that upgraded ethics training manual. Why don't we just use it on our prisoners and let them out?
So the energy companies are hiring hookers to bribe the corrupt MMS. When we can't tell the crooks from the cops, we have a real problem here.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Let me dispell your doubt. All branches of government in the FSA (formerly USA) serve at the pleasure and priviledge of multinational corporations.
AP -- AMNESIA PROPAGANDA
Classic misinformation and thought control by corporate media, the goal being to destroy your grasp of the present by blinding your mind to the past.
For news is worthless unless it is presented along with relevant history to put it in a proper context. For not knowing that our capitalist government has been a rich nobility dictatorship since 1776, this gives you a not-know blindness to all that goes on in government.
“If you don’t know history,
its as if you were born yesterday.”
Howard Zinn
Sioux Rose
Two points:
1. The "deregulation" mania which gives corporations the "rites of free trade" without any mandates in place to preserve the commonwealth or in many cases established law, is at the root of MANY of the nation's problems.
The deregulation of banking allowed the erasure of Glass-Steagal and the nation's money supply is now polluted with its faux equivalent, derivatives and their byproducts.
The deregulation of broadcasting has allowed a handful of corporations to control content.
The deregulation of the EPA allows the mountain blasts of West VA. to continue at an insane pace.
And on and on.
My second point is really a question posed to the forum. It would seem to me from my understanding of Earth Science, that much of the oil in deeper layers acts as a kind of lubricant to lessen the pressure between abrading tectonic plates. With the loss of so much oil in the Gulf, arguably the "middle ground" between the quake that hit Baja last month and the one that hit Haiti 3 months ago, it would seem that this loss could exacerbate more seismic activity. So those of you who think detonating a major weapon there to block the opening might work have to consider that the entire shelf might fall in and cause enormous reverberations.
There is no question that earth changes are speeding up. Some are manmade and some are nature's responses, but in both cases, the carnage is tragic and then some.
Sioux Rose,
In regards your second point on oil layers acting as tectonic plate lubricators, I have always wondered the same thing. Wondering if they work not only as a lubricant but also like a shock absorber or buffer, allowing movement but reducing it's energy. It is interesting that a lot of undersea or coastal oil is found near or at intersections of major plate fault lines and continental shelves.
I am sure there are many other forces at play, but it is an interesting concept.
Sioux Rose
A NEW WORLD: The litmus test may soon be in evidence given how much oil is being lost from the high tech operations that have dangerously drilled far too deeply under the crust.
Prophecies of major earth changes can be found in many places. An astrologer friend and colleague of mine just sent me an article she just published on this topic. If anyone would like me to forward it to them, send me an email and I will do so. I am unsure if this astrologer would want me to cut and paste items from her analysis on CD. She's quite astute and has a great grasp of history (which she has tied to astrological cycles in a number of published articles).
I'm also thinking of the wetlands, and the fact that they were a natural impediment, and they stood as a buffer that tempered the strength of hurricanes that were headed toward New Orleans, etc. The drilling for oil, and the subsequent pipeline system set up to transport the oil, has literally destroyed the natural wetlands.
Sioux Rose, I have also wondered about oil acting as a lubricant for the tectonic plates. I don't have a background in science, though, and therefore, I would welcome some scientific thought and expertise on this issue.
Sioux Rose
Hi, Kay. What I have observed in 3 of the 5 major environmental catastrophes that have taken place this year is that FULL MOONS play a role. These once-every-29-day events exert a major pull on the tides, and seem to play a major biological role in clocking the menstrual cycles of women (healthy women's cycles run parallel to the 29 day lunar cycle). Tides of all sorts are impacted. Therefore any evidence of seismic activity influenced by the reduction in oil beneath the earth crust in the Gulf Basin is apt to show on the next full moon (or the next). Generally about 2 days before full moon the pull is strongest. May 14 will be new moon IN the sign of Taurus; and this sign deals directly with the state of the land and nature.
The full moon to follow will take place on May 27 in Sagittarius. Venus (ruler of Taurus) will oppose Pluto (the planet of destruction and eventual rebirth) on May 24, a few days before full moon. We may see some problems then, or perhaps Venus will catalyze major group protests. It's about time the captains of industry who have bought politicians to offset their liability factor for calamities like "The Gulf Massacre" in our own waters begin to own up.
FROM CREATION PERFECTION -- TO CIAOS AND MASS DISTRUCTION
If the world evolved, then your theory would be false, as blind faith in evolution requires us to believe that no intelligent design went into nature, just one nature disaster and ciaos after another.
Whereas, if the Universe was created in six days, earth created in one day, then most logical is it that,
"much of the oil in deeper layers acts
as a kind of lubricant to lessen the
pressure between abrading tectonic plates."
But if we were created, then the purpose of this world is to prove the harm in it, with oil and coal being taken out of the ground about the greatest harm of all. Excessive pollution to destroy the environment, excessive wealth to corrupt the morals of society, surely filthy oil and dirty coal should be forever left in the ground.
Sioux Rose
T & L: I think you are a pretty sick cookie. This world was not created to prove evil. Your views are prehistoric. You know nothing about truth and your concept of "light" is a derivative of Bible-based fundamentalism. Since I don't accept the metrics of your thought process, there is no basis for discussion here. Nor do I wish to waste more of my time trying to educate you. In a previous attempt you sought to discredit me by stating I was not of the light, a ludicrous assertion.
I couldn't even figure out his/her message! His/her literacy is certainly prehistoric!
P.S. Truth_Light: change your handle to Dim_Bulb!
His original handle was "Alabama John" based on the posting history in the past. He must have changed it for obvious reasons.
Obviously, I can't speak for John, but I must say there is wisdom in his words. Let's think about evolution and the development of humans. Nature is indifferent. Earth has elements of "heaven" (the light/love)and also the darkness of "hell"(darkness/hatred). It is the duality that is represented in the Taoist symbol. So, back to evolution, it was a hostile world in which we evolved. Darwin postulated that the stiffest competition for any living organism comes from its own specie due to the need of the same life sustaining requirements. Along comes humans, Homo sapien saoien, possessing self awareness and asking the ancient question of "Why are we here". All religions and spirituality comes from this quest. So, it seems to me that the challenge for mankind is to overcome the selfish urges of survival to enter the light of selflessness; respect, consideration, love for all. The idea is that we, as individuals, are components to a whole, members of the family of life.
Darkness defines light.
The best job in Government is a regulator. You get a good paycheck, free hotel rooms, drugs, sex, a nice house, nice things, and when you get caught you get let off the hook and go to work for the industry you regulated.
The other fringe benefit is insider trading too. As I had mentioned before our reps are merely "coat room attendants at the country club". It looks like the "tips" are rather generous.
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/congress-refuses-to-outlaw-insider-trading-for-lawmakers-478701.html?tickers=%5edji,%5egspc,%5eixic,brk-a,brk-b,gs,xlf&sec=topStories&pos=9&asset=&ccode
DISASTER CAPITALISM -- INTENT TO DO EVIL
Having worked as an Instrumentation and Systems Control Technician for several corporations including 3M Co, also having taught the subject at a vocational college, may it be said that any effort to blame the equipment is pure brainwash.
For all of the fluid control valves and sensors suitable for this high pressure/high flow application are of the highest quality, highest expense and a stock item shipped direct to you by same-day air express.
Surely this Gulf oil spill is premeditated, that’s my perception, just another 9/11 act of terror to keep “Disaster Capitalism” going forward with abandon.
Truth_Light:
Good post!!!I have yet to read Naomi's book but have seen her speak and what you bring to this post is more than food for thought...
I have been in the Inspection business and find that when "Standards, "Procedures" and "Codes" are followed and ENFORCED that things are A hell of A lot safer and successfull...I think we can thank Mr. Bush and his slacker appointees within this Government for the mess we are all in...Obama hasn't helped much either...
It goes way beyond bush. The government has catered to corporations for the duration.
Ever since Alexander Hamilton gave control of the government to the rich, we're been in deep doodoo. Hamilton's latest incarnation, Dick Cheney of Haliburton fame, is making even more money from the spill. And Obama? You can't hate Big Oil and Wall Street --not in the job description. All plotted out,long ago.
So, if the rich are not to rule, who then? Hamilton was down on the rabble. Actually, Jefferson liked the rabble. Give it a shot, I say.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Are you with me Doctor Wu
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew
Are you crazy are you high
Or just an ordinary guy
Have you done all you can do
Are you with me Doctor
--Steely Dan (Dr. Wu)
It was reported here and elsewhere what the contents of Obama's (and McCain's) war chests were. Who gave and how much.
It was there.
In naked daylight no less.
Yet a lot of you voted for him and a lot of articles were printed telling others to do the same.
Otherwise, we were told, there was going to be some sort of 'disaster'.
Good thing Obama's election insured proper stewardship of our beloved planet.
As a fellow Louisianan, whenever a tragedy in this great state strikes, I can never forget Huey Long. He opposed Big Oil and nobody to this day knows it. The people of LA back in his time loved him for doing that unlike today's rednecks who shout "COMMIE" if any of us dare question Big Oil or make a simple request on sharing wealth !
Check this out:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu
/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=474
I thought the world of Huey Long but if A real man of the people, like Huey, was even close to being elected he would wind up like JFK......
Long was assassinated upon his presidential ambitions in 1935 while a US Senator. You could say he ended up like RFK if not JFK. I hear that LA politics is very corrupt. With racism and land degradation going on in that state to complement state and local corruption, I wouldn't even want to visit that state let alone live there.
I heard from A couple who moved here to Michigan about all of the "Ma and Pa" offshoot businesses working with oil companys that line the river banks and have been polluting for years...I worked in the Gulf on an off shore pipe lay barge briefly in the late 70s....I've seen few places so green with vegetation but felt like A fish out of water there....Too damn hot for this Eskimo..
It isn't merely BP's fault, then, after all!
Usually, this sort of stuff is a two-sided story, with the government (its regulatory agencies, that is) bearing at least some of the responsibility.
Is that why Obama has been so eager to blame it all on BP?
For, really, we know it ain't because of the taxpayers, or is it?
Indeed, our Government is in, up to their political asses with this one!!!
all these disasters, eviromental, economic, terrorism, war, on and on they come. And like most of you I saw them coming because I pay attention. So none of these things surprise me. But what makes me really fearful are the things we all know are going to happen in the future. And how powerless we are.
Government needs to go back to serious regulation of business, not enabling it.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Ya think? Not without massive outside pressure the likes of which we haven't seen since the '60s.