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Gulf Oil Spill: Quick Fix Dashed as BP Tower Fails to Contain Oil
First oil washes ashore in Alabama • BP engineers admit rethink is needed • Failed 100-tonne tower lifted off the seabed
Hopes of a quick fix to stop oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig gushing into the Gulf of Mexico were dashed on Saturday, when a build-up of crystallised gas blocked the pipes in the huge metal containment tower, which then had to be lifted from the seabed.
Oil is seen on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico as BP tries to stop oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico. Photograph: Staff/Reuters While BP
engineers wrestled with the problem, reports came in of the first tar
balls and tar beads washing up on the white sand beaches of Dauphin
Island, off Alabama.
The metal tower, specially designed and constructed to cap the leak, is the height of a four-storey building and weighs 100 tonnes. The hope was it would hold the oil still gushing out of the well, which could then be siphoned out of the top, but the blocked pipes made that impossible.
The chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, said: "I wouldn't say it's failed yet. What I would say is what we attempted to do last night didn't work because these hydrates plugged up the top of the dome."
He predicted that it could take another 48 hours to find a resolution.
The problem is blamed on methane gas, partly frozen into slush by the cold temperatures on the seabed at 1,500 metres (5,000ft). Engineers anticipated the problem, but not the volume of the gas build-up in the pipes. Suttles said that solutions could include heating the area, or adding methanol to break up the hydrates.
Meanwhile, oil continues gushing into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of 4,000 barrels a day or more.
Teams were sent by BP to Dauphin Island to test the tar washing up on the beaches, to establish whether it really does come from the spill. They will also lay down clusters of oil-absorbing synthetic fibres, and build storm-fencing along the beach.
A spokesman for the spill response command said that tar washing ashore on Alabama's beaches was common. However, local residents, holding up fist-sized chunks, said they had never seen anything like it before.
Construction workers have been racing around the clock, all weekend, to finish laying a three-mile boom across the mouth of Mobile Bay, Alabama, the ninth largest port in the US. The boom, tethered to a line of pilings driven into the sea bed, is being built with a double gate to allow ships to pass through. Vessels will be held between the gates, checked for oil contamination, and cleaned if necessary before being allowed to proceed. The bay is also home to beach resorts and commercial and leisure fisheries, including oyster beds.
Fishing restrictions mean thousands of boats have been tied up idle. Oyster processing plants are running out of supplies and shutting down, putting hundreds of people out of work.
Wayne Eldridge, owner of J&W Marine Enterprises, an oyster plant operator, said: "I'm screwed. The biggest thing is I've got 35 people unemployed there."
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93 Comments so far
Show AllHumans need to stop over-reproducing. Ninety percent (90%) of our environmental problems are caused by the demands of our ever-growing population. People seem to be in a severe state of denial regarding our absurd numbers and their negative effects on what remains of our natural environment.
End all oil and gas drilling in waters deeper than fifty feet.
Nope. Reducing population won't help very much. Ever-increasing resource usage and pollution is caused by capitalism. Even if the population of the whole earth were only a few million, the capitalists would simply figure a way to get those few million to use at least as much resources that 5-6 billion are using now.
Under capitalism, economic growth and population growth have little to do with each other.
And unless they get lucky, the blowout will still be gushing when the hurricane season begins.
Imagine Katrina II with a storm surge of crude oil !
Thanks. That's unimaginably depressing.
Imagine one offshore earthquake with A resultant tidal wave/tsunami in the Gulf...Earthquakes have become familiar lately in this part of the world...
Could this be the "Harbinger" of change that the Aztec calendar warns us of for 12/21/2012???Let's all hope not...
Tsunami: "Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions (detonations of nuclear devices at sea), landslides and other mass movements, bolide impacts, and other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami
I still think this mega-slick should be be called 'Barry'...
The storm surge of oil will be horrific, but I wonder if it will be as horrific as petroleum rain all over the southern US. This is one really major fuckup. All of the worlds resources need to be directed at somehow stopping the oil geyser. This could easily become an extinction level event.
These rapacious bastards had "NO" right drilling upon the Earth's seabed, knowing the ramifications of such a volcanic eruption of this magnitude, and especially without any contingency plans. We only have ourselves to blame. We vote these assholes into office year in and year out, they promise us the moon and what do we get? An ecological disaster.
The only known planet that sustains life and we've allowed a chosen few to destroy it for years to come.
Say goodbye to the Gulf of Mexico and it's inhabitants and quite possibly a portion of the Atlantic ocean.
It's very sad. However, there is a silver lining. The sheople can sit back in their apathetic easy chairs and still watch American Idol, Dancing with the Stars and Millionaire.
Oil spill! What oil spill?
God help us!
I wonder what Alberta will be like once BP has completed its raping of the TARsands.
Southern Alberta will become even more of a desert than it now is. Northern Alberta and the Mackenzie River delta will become a toxic dump. But hey, we'll have had some jobs and the companies will have made profits for their shareholders - especially as those companies pay bugger all in royalties for destroying the wildlife and the wetlands.
Well Canadas minister of the Enviroment said that this Guld Disatser PROVED that mining the tar sands is the way to go and much more enviromentally friendly.
Watch for ads soon stating "Save the whales..invest in Albertas tarsands"
Canada's present environment Minister is an asshat.
Chatter from FEMA and US Army Corps of Engineers is surfacing that this monster could take *TWO YEARS* to cap and fill with enough cement to stop the geyser of oil spewing out of the ocean floor.
Deepwater Horizon was operating at the very fringe of technological oil recovery capability. 11 men died to pay the price for BP's lust after a profitable bottom line.
The eleven dead should be no big deal as I'm fairly certain that BP carries life insurance on all the people working on their ocean drilling rigs.
Abiogenic oil formation:
http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Geopolitics___Eurasia/Peak_Oil___Russia/peak_oil___russia.html
Confessions of an “ex” Peak Oil Believer
By F William Engdahl, September 14, 2007
excerpt:
"In 1956, Prof. Vladimir Porfir’yev announced their conclusions: ‘Crude oil and natural petroleum gas have no intrinsic connection with biological matter originating near the surface of the earth. They are primordial materials which have been erupted from great depths.’ The Soviet geologists had turned Western orthodox geology on its head. They called their theory of oil origin the ‘a-biotic’ theory—non-biological—to distinguish from the Western biological theory of origins.
If they were right, oil supply on earth would be limited only by the amount of hydrocarbon constituents present deep in the earth at the time of the earth’s formation. Availability of oil would depend only on technology to drill ultra-deep wells and explore into the earth’s inner regions. They also realized old fields could be revived to continue producing, so called self-replentishing fields. They argued that oil is formed deep in the earth, formed in conditions of very high temperature and very high pressure, like that required for diamonds to form. ‘Oil is a primordial material of deep origin which is transported at high pressure via ‘cold’ eruptive processes into the crust of the earth,’ Porfir’yev stated. His team dismissed the idea that oil is was biological residue of plant and animal fossil remains as a hoax designed to perpetuate the myth of limited supply."
*Partial Crosspost*
Abiotic/abiogenic oil has been repeatedly proven to be a load of bull.
*NO* previously depleted oil reservoir has *ever* magically refilled, and any oil that had been found in depleted wells has been proven to be seepage from porous rocks that were finally free to release the trapped oil once the higher pressures had decreased.
Abiotic/abiogenic oil is in the same realm of alt energy BS as Zero Point Energy and perpetual motion.
Instead of being an apologist and enabler to the Oil Companies, I would suggest you look at the available data that Peak Oil is a recognized and legitimate crisis. The US Military recently released a second report outlining the impending global oil supply shortage as early as summer of next year (2011), with the admission that oil supply would become so scarce as to make the transportation of US troops and military hardware to bases and operational theaters around the world impossible to implement. Does that sound like a bunch of alarmist doomsayers to you? When the *US MILITARY* is concerned about it's continued ability to project American dominance around the globe, don't you think there might be something to the whole Peak Oil debate?
Yet there are pools of Methane and hydrocarbons on the surface of Titan which dwarf that of Earths.
This does not prove an abiogenic source but the Scientists who are speculating how those pools formed ARE at a loss. It simply not possible that the atmosphere itself produced these pools and thus they speculate that such pools are seeping up from deep in Titans crust.
So if Hydrocarbon pools can seep UP from Titans crust, why not on Earth?
>>A recent study suggested that there's not enough liquid methane on Titan's surface to resupply the atmosphere over long geologic timescales,” said Dr. Elizabeth Turtle, Cassini imaging team associate at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Md., and lead author of today’s publication. “Our new map provides more coverage of Titan's poles, but even if all of the features we see there were filled with liquid methane, there's still not enough to sustain the atmosphere for more than 10 million years.”
>>Combined with previous analyses, the new observations suggest that underground methane reservoirs must exist.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080213-titan-oil.html
That said it MUST be acknowledged that not all hydrocarbons are the same. Oil is not Coal and Coal is not natural gas. They all can form in different ways BUT science still refers to natural gas (methane the largest component of it) as a FOSSIL fuel.
With that in mind should it be proved that there are in fact Hydrocarbon pools dwarfing Earths on Titan then one of two things must be true.
1>There is life on Titan and has been for billions of years as the definition fossil fuels is that it comes form prehistoric life.
2>Science got it wrong on how fossil fuels are formed. Other processes can produce natural Gas and methane that preclude "Life".
>>When the *US MILITARY* is concerned about it's continued ability to project American dominance around the globe, don't you think there might be something to the whole Peak Oil debate?
Well to be fair, the US Military has a history of hyping threats, be they the threats posed by a Panama or Granada, or the threats posed by Communism.
The have felt threatened by Cuba, Canada and Mexico. They use these alleged threats to advance an agenda that ensures continued Military spending AND the Continuation of the US Projecting its power overseas.
If there WAS no peak Oil theory the US Military would have to invent one in order to ensure they can keep and expand all those military bases overseas.
I am not personally denying "Peak Oil Theory". I am simply stating that the US Military is not a reliable source on such.
The problem was solved for the US Military and ruling elite. Iraq, the second largest known oil reserves in the world, has been secured. That country has been garrisoned. The oil is available for USA exploitation.
Good Grief.
Iraq has oil, yes.
It's refinery facilities however, are not up to the task to supply US demand. And the oil from Iraq is going on the world market, not just to the US.
"...oil supply would become so scarce as to make the transportation of US troops and military hardware to bases and operational theaters around the world impossible to implement...
that presents quite the pickle... now doesn't it...
we're running outta oil... to secure the oil... hmmm...
either the troops will be getting one-way tickets... or we wrap up these "freedom and democracy" things pronto...
I read that the military uses 300,000 gallons a day. Not sure if it was just the wars. I live by an air force base and the jets fly ALL day long. What a waste.
In addition to GalenW's comments I read a report on an oil site about studies done on the rock formations at various major oil well sites around the world. These are based on core samples take from these sites prior to and during the drilling process. I will see if I can find where I read the reference, but basically the rock formation from the Ghawar oil field (largest Saudi field) is made up of high concentrations of compressed fecal materials in clay and limestone sediments...in other words CRAP! Sounds pretty biological to me.
Oh, and by the way...the Ghawar oil field is NOT replenishing itself.
I will see if I can find the article.
Found the source material for my previous ramblings;
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5798
Quote from article, "The voids and spaces in the rock are also formed from the spaces from what might have been old coral reefs, or where water dissolved holes through the rock. But sometimes the two methods of formation mix, and I would like to quote from Kenneth Deffeyes book "Hubbert's Peak" (my favorite text as an explanation of the geological case)....
"Fine grained calcium carbonate mud usually gets consolidated into massive limestones, usually with little or no porosity. . . . . . . .About 10 percent of ancient limestones do have porosity. . . . . . .Most massive and nonporous limestones contain textures made by invertebrate animals that ingest sediment and turn out fecal pellets. Usually the pellets get squished into the mud. Rarely do the fecal pellets themselves form a porous sedimentary rock. . . .I twisted Aramco's collective arm for samples from the supergiant Ghawar field. . . . .Examining the reservoir rock of the world's biggest oil field . . .a small part of the reservoir was dolomite, but most of it turned out to be fecal pellet limestone. I had to go home that evening and explain to my family that the reservoir rock in the world's biggest oil field was made of shit."
Interesting isn't it?
Sounds good to me, now we know what to do with the inedible matter produced in pig farms and cattle pens. I wonder how long it'll take to turn muck into black gold?
We don't have the luxury of that much time unfortunately.
On a lighter note, we now know the answer to Ausin Powers question,
"Who does number 2 work for?"
This project was "Typical" BP crap for PR telling us all "well at least they are trying", "E-for effort" and all of that BULLSHIT...You can't tell me that with the best Petroleum Engineers and Scientists money can buy that they actually didn't know that the methane would make this an impossible situation...This company has really stepped on their dick this time and can't talk or reason their way out..This whole thing was A huge gamble from the get go, with no safety plan in place and now it is "worse case scenario" time...That FKN Doug Suttles and Tony Hayward, along with their U.S. Government co-conspirators shoud be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, after all they and BP are common citizens now according to the SCOTUS....
When I used to work on land drilling rigs, I was nearly killed while working in the derrick. A driller (the guy operating the controls) was running the rig way too fast and ran the blocks (huge pulley lifting the drill pipe) up to the top of the derrick crown and nearly knocked me out of the derrick. I could have been very dead, but hung on.
The point here is that rigs are expensive to run so they cut safety corners trying to save money.
The fact that the Deep Horizon did not have a back-up acoustic regulator to engage the blowout preventer could be called criminal negligence.
Another possible reason for the blowout could have been cementing the well casing after they reached the deposit. This has happened before. Our friends at Halliburton were doing the cementing around the time of the blowout. Arguably, cementing the casing prior to entering the actual deposit and giving it time to set up would reduce the risk associated with the cementing process.
There are a variety of possible errors or forms of deliberate negligence, but these two are problems that were easily avoided.
Criminal charges brought against BP and Federal regulators might improve future scenarios. If Obama played a direct role in reducing regulatory oversight, he should at least face civil penalties.
I've posted this before, but here it is again.
"Mother Of All Gushers Could Kill Earth's Oceans"
http://pesn.com/2010/05/02/9501643_Mother_of_all_gushers_could_kill_Earths_oceans/
Such is the price of "deregulation" not unlike the banks and Wall Street.
"The fact that the Deep Horizon did not have a back-up acoustic regulator to engage the blowout preventer could be called criminal negligence."
It boggles the mind that the USan model of resource extraction has failed so miserably in the area of accident prevention/mitigation. But it's clear to most people that the political power reigning over the USA's gulf coast is the key influence, and being bundled with great contempt for the environmental agenda, and the earth itself. It's most clearly illustrated in the off-the-record commentary captured from the region's Congruss-people, often laced with vulgarities. Over the past eight years, their more general contempt for people/planet has intensified as it's been more fully exposed in this unprecedented series of political, economic and environmental disasters. The emperor has not only been butt-naked but has been mooning us while twisting his face around to also thumb his nose at us, us being anyone who's critical, domestic social/environmental activists, and foreign critics/challengers alike. The empire steamroller keeps steamrolling because that is what it was built to do. It can't stop on its own, and nobody with access to its inner cogs has thrown a monkey wrench into it, yet. But the people can do their part - and stop feeding it. Demand local production, and for long-haul travel, demand rail.
Well, i just saw that the latest attempt from these guys is to "Throw Junk" in the hole. I am not making this up.
Things like tires and golf balls, under great pressure to clog it up. It is called a "Junk Shot".
Words elude......
Wow! "Junk shot", huh? I guess it's the opposite of "Money Shot".
Just yesterday I snarkily wondered if Plan B involved stuffing the rupture with whale carcasses. Now I wish I'd cep my mouf shut.
Lily Tomlin nailed it: "No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up."
This means they are desperate, and all of their fancy technological toys are just so much useless trash.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/08/gulf.oil.spill/index.html
This is just terrible proof of the concept that technological complexity breeds it's own collapse.
The problem with a junk shot, is that eventually *something* is going to shift or move, weakening the plug. A weak plug under pressure *will* fail. When the plug fails, the geyser of oil will resume spewing into the gulf.
This is a panic driven stopgap measure at best, the little Dutch boy in the dyke.
[ the little Dutch boy in the dyke.]
That's plan 'c'.
A little boy would not do. It would have to be a big oil executive.
The great oil spill is truly a work of art. Just like great art it inspires awe.
acutenecrotizingfasciitus
Now that we have another disaster on our hands, it is time to take advantage of the situation and privatize everything the federal govorporation owns, everything below the border w/ Canada.
Hopi Prophecy. The 8 signs.
..."The Fourth World shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. This the elders everywhere know. The Signs over many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left.
"This is the First Sign: We are told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, but not living like Pahana men who took the land that was not theirs. And men who struck their enemies with thunder.
"This is the Second Sign: Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. In his youth, my father saw this prophecy come true with his eyes -- the white men bringing their families in wagons across the prairies."
"This is the Third Sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. These White Feather saw with his eyes -- the coming of the white men's cattle."
"This is the Fourth Sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron."
"This is the Fifth Sign: The land shall be criss-crossed by a giant spider's web."
"This is the Sixth sign: The land shall be criss-crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun."
"This is the Seventh Sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it."
"This is the Eighth Sign: You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like my people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn their ways and wisdom.
"And this is the Ninth and Last Sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.
"These are the Signs that great destruction is coming. The world shall rock to and fro. The white man will battle against other people in other lands -- with those who possessed the first light of wisdom. There will be many columns of smoke and fire such as White Feather has seen the white man make in the deserts not far from here. Only those which come will cause disease and a great dying. Many of my people, understanding the prophecies, shall be safe. Those who stay and live in the places of my people also shall be safe. Then there will be much to rebuild. And soon -- very soon afterward -- Pahana will return. He shall bring with him the dawn of the Fifth World. He shall plant the seeds of his wisdom in their hearts. Even now the seeds are being planted. These shall smooth the way to the Emergence into the Fifth World.
http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/prophecy/hopi1.html
Make of it what you will.
they knew this was not going to work...they are just making it look like they are making a good faith effort. they know it will take probably 4 to 6 months to drill a new relief well. They also know it's more like 20k barels per day. And they know and fear the relief well may not even work.
Settle in for a long and garish site...as the ghouls of oil moniter the situation from their million dollar vacation homes.
Humankind in it's arrogance. All other creatures of nature have learned to live in harmony with it. But not humankind!
It will perhaps be his undoing if he does not.
Catastrophe is never averted by the greedy and ignorant, only experienced as a financial setback and then quickly forgotten. This current attack on the environment, may be the one that cannot be forgotten. Herein lies the hope of humans reconnecting to their benefactor.