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Submerged Oil Plumes Suggest Gulf Spill Is Worse Than BP Claims
Scientists believe marine 'dead zones' being created; firm succeeds in blocking rig riser pipe with siphon
Members of the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology have been traversing the area around the scene of the Deepwater Horizon, the rig that exploded and sank on 20 April.
A girl stands in front of a banner during a demonstration outside a building being constructed on the University of California Berkeley campus funded by British Petroleum May 14, in Berkeley, California. (AFP/Getty Images/File/Justin Sullivan) Using the latest sampling techniques, they have identified plumes up to 20 miles away from the Deepwater Horizon well head that continues to spew oil into the water at a rate of at least 790,000 litres a day. The largest plume found so far was 90 metres thick, three miles wide and 10 miles long.
Samantha Joye, marine science professor at the University of Georgia, who is working on the project, told the Guardian: "The plumes are abundant throughout the region. I would say they've become characteristic of this environment."
BP last night announced the first good news in several days in its efforts to contain the spill, saying it had succeeded in inserting a tube into the riser, the broken pipe from which most of the oil is gushing, allowing oil and gas to be siphoned off into a drill ship at the surface. The procedure, likened to threading a needle, failed early on Sunday morning, but a second attempt succeeded.
Kent Wells, a BP executive, said he had no idea how much oil and gas was now being safely siphoned off. The firm intended slowly to increase the volume until they had reached the maximum possible, he said, though no figures could be put to that either.
Wells added that in the next 10 days BP would try to block off the entire riser using heavy materials which, if successful, would kill the leak for good.
The presence of huge strings of oil deep underwater has puzzled scientists on board the research vessel Pelican, back in dock after almost two weeks at sea. The assumption had been that the oil would rise to the surface, but instead it has formed into multiple layers suspended in varying thicknesses deep in the water.
There is speculation that the plumes, first reported by the New York Times, might be forming as a result of BP's use of dispersants injected close to the source of the spillage at the sea floor.
The technique has never before been used, and scientists are now wondering whether the dispersants are causing the oil to coagulate into relatively large clumps which are then heavier than water and remain suspended below the surface of the sea.
One concern linked to the plumes is that the oil will reduce oxygen levels in the water as micro-organisms work to decompose it. In some parts of the Gulf, oxygen levels are already almost one-third below normal. If they fall below levels needed to support life, dead zones devoid of all marine creatures could be created.
The Pelican scientists, from the University of Mississippi, have been using a range of gadgetry to detect the plumes. They include flourometers that spot oil using colour measurements, a remotely operated vehicle that they submerge to describe oil aggregates at up to 75 metres below the surface, and equipment that records oxygen levels. They have set up a long-term acoustic monitoring device on the sea floor that will pick up marine mammal calls to help track the impact on population sizes over time.
As knowledge grows of the environmental impact, pressure is mounting on both BP and the Obama administration.
The oil giant has been accused of trying to withhold the full scale of the disaster. Some experts who have studied video footage of the oil spewing from the wellhead have estimated the rate of spillage at up to 13m litres a day – 14 times greater than BP's figure.
The US government is also coming under scrutiny for the way it has handled the crisis, and for having had too relaxed an attitude towards offshore drilling before the disaster happened.
One environmental group, the Centre for Biological Diversity, has threatened to sue the administration for having bypassed regulations in approving new drilling sites. The centre says that more than 300 drilling operations have been given the go-ahead since Obama took office in January 2009, without obtaining proper permits relating to protection of whales and other marine mammals.
59 Comments so far
Show AllI hope they have blocked it, but there is so much oil out
there now it will take a while to know if they really have.
Why was this plan D ?? The MSMs have helped BP
lie about the volume of the gusher, I hope we can believe
them now.
Will Salazar be indicted?
Obomber is prosecuting the Utah oil lease auction disrupter and the Swiss Bank (UBS?) tax evasion whistle blower,
Will he get around to prosecuting a criminal at some point?
"Lie TO Me" should have this show for their next season--featuring all these con men right to left trying to lie themselves out of it
Seriously, we need to have on-sight inspectors--doing their own videos of all leaks--also figure out a way they can track the globs. and recover them before they can do more harm and spread every where.
Me too, I cannot figure out why we have to rely
on BP for video of the well head.
I have been assuming that this is all classified - highly.
It will be treated as a war zone. That is what i feel about it. Think Falluja.
You hope they have blocked it Baboon? I didn't read where they had blocked it as yet.
You are correct about there is a (lot of oil) out there already and it will take "awhile" to know or clean it up. There was a relatively minor oil spill during Katrina and it was 18 months before that was cleaned up. This one may make the Exxon Valdez leak seem like a minor annoyance and of course that was a ecological disaster also and the results of that spill are still being felt by the locals.
This absolutly negligence caused leak is a major catistrophic disaster for the ecology and our economy and it ain't over yet; the fat lady hasn't started singing and she may not ever start.
First comment. The use of disbursing chemicals at the well head to prevent the oil from reaching the surface is such a great metaphor for how the racket of our corporately run government operates. Keep the scum of the system out of site of the plebs for as long as possible. Then when it finally surfaces, down play it as much as possible. As the saying goes: "Move along people, nothing much to see here..."
Second comment. Why the hell isn't oil a nationalized industry run industry run by the government, and profits going to the people? Why is a resource so valuable to the country, in the hands of private companies?
Finally, I can guarantee that BP will NEVER completely pay for the damage they do to the environment. It will be like the Exxon Valdeze. They'll fight it in court for 20 years to get the damages reduced. It will be one more industry where the profits are private, and the risk/losses are made public, and borne by the tax payers.
I wonder how long this can continue before the whole rotten system collapses?
Even if they pay billions and trillions, how can you put a value on 11 lives, a large ecosystem and a way of life along the Gulf that is likely to be severely damaged over decades? That being said, I think BP should be tapped until it's coffers are empty in order to pay for actual economic damages to every widow, fisherman, shrimper and vacation based business extended out over the years for which they are likely to be affected. They should also be charged punitive damages for willful neglect. And if the damages affect Cuba and the Eastern US through the Loop Current, BP should have to pay for that as well.
Last night on 60 Minutes there was a guest who had worked for Transocean, the company doing the hands-on construction of the platform for BP. He described some of the planning dynamic and the accident itself. BP evidently bullied the subcontracter in charge of the platforms to skip safety steps and to ignore signs of failure in several key components in the name of saving time. For giving in to the current amoral mode of business expediency, Transocean is partly responsible. Of course Halliburton is responsible for shoddy work. They should pay up too and be banished from ever getting a single dollar from the taxpayer for whatever they do.
The only moral limit on damages should be how much money those three companies, their executives and shareholders have. The only legal limit should be what the most aggressive lawyers can win. There should be no cozy government sponsored pre-capitulation limiting damages. That would be an insult to all of us.
Oh yes - the government regulatory body in charge of overseeing drilling should not be broken into two bodies (what good would that do?) but the top layers should be fired. The toadies at the EPA or elsewhere who approved the dispersants should be fired, prosecuted, stripped of wealth and disgraced. OK, our system punishes whistleblowers, not collaborators, but that should be changed. Clever lawyers, please step up to the plate on this.
I agree with this comment: "Why the hell isn't oil a nationalized industry run industry run by the government, and profits going to the people? Why is a resource so valuable to the country, in the hands of private companies?" Except that I think we should be moving away from oil and coal. Clean energy should be a priority and developed by our taxes, with the profits going back to us. But this government is all about privatization, moving in the opposite direction to give everything to the likes of BP, an international corporation.
Joe
The 60 Minutes video is well worth watching:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6490348n
What is no doubt happening right now is that BP is mounting a full legal assault on the brave witness who spoke out here. He, OTOH, is now undoubtedly completely blackballed from ever working again in the oil industry.
Time to nationalize our essential energy infrastructure? I'm 100% in favor of it. Starting with doing to BP what Hugo Chavez had the courage to do in Venezuela, what the Mexican people had the courage to do when they created Pemex, what the Russians had the courage to do when our biggest oil corporations decided to cheat Russia out of the royalties due on Sakhalin Island.
It's time for America to grow up and take the toys away from the childish little bastards running our corporations and ruining our nation.
***
I've been paying a lot of attention to this man-made catastrophe. One of the most feckless and despicable websites I've come across is "The Driller's Club". http://drillingclub.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=4872 You might think there would be a lively conversation there about what went wrong, how to fix the damage and how to prevent future disasters. You'd be wrong. The attitude is one of criminal conspiracy to engage in a mafia-like Omerta and keep quiet about the incident. I think we ought to consider putting the entire oil industry in prison based on RICO prosecutions. The only thing preventing this is that the oil industry is more powerful than the meager forces left inside our hollowed out government who still have any power over the corporations.
So far the government's handling of this incident is vivid proof that the People have completely lost control of our federal government. It's firmly in the hands of the very same corporate CEOs who are hellbent on ruining us.
"Second comment. Why the hell isn't oil a nationalized industry run industry run by the government, and profits going to the people? Why is a resource so valuable to the country, in the hands of private companies?"
Same reason as they are doing it to us with the wind.
I find it hard to believe that BP didn't know that things like these plumes would form. The only thing they worried about was keeping the surface oil slick as small as possible so they could more effectively lie about the scope of the disaster. The fact that there may be many severe consequences (e.g., genetic mutations and carcinogens) to the chemicals used to disperse the oil is the least of their concerns. NC-Tom is right. A resource like oil should never be allowed in private hands.
Some 15 countries plus the United Nations so far have offered
to help, there has been no response.
For our own convenience we give names to different parts of the one ocean we have, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, etc. But they are all interconnected, there really is just one big ocean, and IMHO these countries have every right to get involved in saving it. The Earth is just as much their planet as it is ours.
NC-Tom,
Re: "IMHO these countries have every right to get involved in saving it. The Earth is just as much their planet as it is ours."
In spirit I agree with you. However, the U.S. government has agreed to international treaties regarding Exclusive Economic Zones, and that extends to 200 miles beyond the beach. [Aside:In the Gulf of Mexico, the southern extent of the EEZ is limited by the longitudinal position of the outlet of the Rio Grande, so thus is less than 200 miles.] The spill area is still contained within the USA EEZ.
Talking about 'dead zones', there is already an exisiting dead zone.
Currently the most notorious dead zone is a 22,126 square kilometre (8,543 mi²) region in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Mississippi River dumps high-nutrient runoff from its vast drainage basin, which includes the heart of U.S. agribusiness, the Midwest. The drainage of these nutrients are affecting important shrimp fishing grounds. This is equivalent to a dead zone the size of New Jersey.(from Wiki)
Maybe the knee jerking from this catastrophe will lead to more than a point of defense from BP if their legal team attempts to highlight minimal penalties from the commonplace dumping of municipal and commercial waste into the streams and rivers feeding into the delta.
Rallies demand: Seize BP!
The momentum of the Seize BP campaign is growing each day. As BP executives hedge at Congressional hearings, saying they’ll pay only “legitimate” damage claims for the oil disaster they caused, people across the United States came out in protest. May 12, was a National Day of Action to Seize BP. Demonstrations happened at BP offices, gas stations and other places in over 20 cities and towns, organized by Seize BP.
“Working people on the Gulf Coast are now struggling to survive, while BP brings in $93 million in profit each day,” said Sarah Sloan, spokesperson of Seize BP. “Unless we build a movement around the demand to seize BP’s assets, they will pay only a fraction of what they owe. Justice demands that BP’s assets be seized so that those who were negatively impacted by the oil spill are fairly compensated.”
Click here for brief reports and video from some of the May 12 actions across the country.
Read the media coverage of the Seize BP campaign and the May 12 National Day of Action.
Possibly the greatest
environmental
disaster in U.S. history--
Who will pay the price?
A Seize BP delegation speaks to William Mitchell Granger in Venice, Louisiana. William has been a shrimper for 30 years.
Click this link to read the full report
Seize BP Petition button
Seize BP: Campaign Statement and Petition
The government of the United States must seize BP and freeze its assets, and place those funds in trust to begin providing immediate relief to the working people throughout the Gulf states whose jobs, communities, homes and businesses are being harmed or destroyed by the criminally negligent actions of the CEO, Board of Directors and senior management of BP.
Take action now! Sign the Seize BP petition to demand the seizure of BP!
200,000 gallons of oil a day, or more, are gushing into the Gulf of Mexico with the flow of oil growing. The poisonous devastation to human beings, wildlife, natural habitat and fragile ecosystems will go on for decades. It constitutes an act of environmental violence, the consequences of which will be catastrophic.
BP's Unmitigated Greed
This was a manufactured disaster. It was neither an “Act of God” nor Nature that caused this devastation, but rather the unmitigated greed of Big Oil’s most powerful executives in their reckless search for ever-greater profits.
Under BP’s CEO Tony Hayward’s aggressive leadership, BP made a record $5.6 billion in pure profits just in the first three months of 2010. BP made $163 billion in profits from 2001-09. It has a long history of safety violations and slap-on-the-wrist fines.
BP's Materially False and Misleading Statements
BP filed a 52-page exploration plan and environmental impact analysis with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service for the Deepwater Horizon well, dated February 2009, which repeatedly assured the government that it was "unlikely that an accidental surface or subsurface oil spill would occur from the proposed activities." In the filing, BP stated over and over that it was unlikely for an accident to occur that would lead to a giant crude oil spill causing serious damage to beaches, mammals and fisheries and that as such it did not require a response plan for such an event.
BP’s executives are thus either guilty of making materially false statements to the government to obtain the license, of consciously misleading a government that was all too ready to be misled, and/or they are guilty of criminal negligence. At a bare minimum, their representations constitute gross negligence. Whichever the case, BP must be held accountable for its criminal actions that have harmed so many.
Protecting BP's Super-Profits
BP executives are banking that they can ride out the storm of bad publicity and still come out far ahead in terms of the billions in profit that BP will pocket. In 1990, in response to the Exxon Valdez disaster, Congress passed and President Bush signed into law the Oil Pollution Act, which immunizes oil companies for the damages they cause beyond immediate cleanup costs.
Under the Oil Pollution Act, oil companies are responsible for oil removal and cleanup costs for massive spills, and their liability for all other forms of damages is capped at $75 million—a pittance for a company that made $5.6 billion in profits in just the last three months, and is expected to make $23 billion in pure profit this year. Some in Congress suggest the cap should be set at $10 billion, still less than the potential cost of this devastation—but why should the oil companies have any immunity from responsibility for the damage they cause?
The Oil Pollution Act is an outrage, and it will be used by BP to keep on doing business as usual.
People are up in arms because thousands of workers who have lost their jobs and livelihoods as a result of BP’s actions have to wait in line to compete for lower wage and hazardous clean-up jobs from BP. BP’s multi-millionaire executives are not asked to sacrifice one penny while working people have to plead for clean-up jobs.
Take Action Now
It is imperative that the government seize BP’s assets now for their criminal negligence and begin providing immediate relief for the immense suffering and harm they have caused.
http://www.seizebp.org/
"200,000 gallons of oil a day, or more, are gushing into the Gulf of Mexico with the flow of oil growing"
If you repeat that figure this way, it sounds really absurd, but it is the same amount (actually equates to 210,000 bpd)…
2.43 gallons per second which is an average of .81 gallons per leak , or more, are GUSHING into the Gulf of Mexico
I know that's not your intent to downgrade this disaster, but by repeating the 200,000 figure (actually you are downgrading the official 210,000 gallon figure that correlates to the per second breakdown) you are inadvertently spreading base propaganda put out by BP and the government agencies whose common interest in covering up the magnitude of this catastrophe is obvious.
Your post is excellent, but just wanted to point that out.
I could not agree more Mccoyote. Thanks for the links. Paul
I am far from an expert in chemistry, oceanography. You name it. However.
It seems the despersant aka, poison, that has been injected deep into the sea at the source of the gusher has created a frankenstein's monster here.
Now we are dealing with some kind of mutant, non biodegradable substance that does not behave as oil would. They managed to create a disaster that is a first. On every possible level.
But i am still assuming they will surprise me, yet again.
One news report I heard said that the "surfactant" had the effect of making the oil sink so that aerial views wouldn't show that horrifying puddle approaching the shore.
There seems to be very little news about the 11 B.P. oil rig workers who have lost their lives. For example: If the B.P. oil rig had been sabotaged by Muslims, you would have non-stop 24/7 emotional, coverage of their families and the total demonization of the perpetrators ( and the cheerleaders for war making some kind of connection to Iran, even if they were from Mexico ). But nothing about the individuals, only that 11 workers lost their lives. But in this case, B.P., Halliburton ( by the way,Cheney seems to be no where to be found ) and Transocean are all pointing their fingers away from themselves. These three corporations are not guilty of sabotage, but they sure as hell are guilty of negligent, homicide in the murders of the 11 oil rig workers and they need to have all their funds frozen; a grand jury trial; and all the people convicted of negligence sent to jail!
Really good point.
If marine life were held equal to human life on this godforsaken planet, the death toll in the oilwell holocaust would dwarf that of the twin towers incident. All of the human life that revolves around coastal life with fishing, hotels, boating operations, etc., is wounded and terrorized too.
Sioux Rose
SCRIBE: In the U.S.A today's upside-down universe where the robbers get to take hold of the banker/Wall St bailout, and warriors are seriously tasked with making peace, it is NOT a wonder that those that caused the fire are being asked to put it out. Welcome to the asylum. Get your papers in order.
Worthless article. Just chock full of propaganda. Thanks for bringing it to us Common Dreams.
Idiots, imbeciles, morons, CRIMINALS
BP and Federal regulators are beyond redemption and should be fined and jailed as well as BP being banned from the Gulf forever !
And Obama is "angry" about industry testimony avoiding blame, when it was his administration that allowed them to drill without an EIS or inspection of the drilling operation. Might as well lock up Barack Obomber as well.
Thee will be more oil under the surface than on the surface due to fractioning, or separation of the oil, further complicated by the use of the WRONG type of disperant.
The dispersant being used might reduce the amount of oil reaching the surface but is adding toxins to the ecosystem and keeping more oil underwater. This could be a calculated scheme to reduce B P's liability for dealing with oil on the surface by hiding the disaster underwater.
an interesting read:
A VOLCANO OF OIL ERUPTING
http://pesn.com/2010/05/13/9501651_a_volcano_of_oil_erupting/
excerpt:
"The fact that the spill has reached land clearly states that the size of the spill is probably well above 200,000 barrels per day. Yes, that's BARRELS, not gallons. There are 42 gallons per barrel.
It is also certain that the slick volume on the surface is substantially lower than the rising column of oil. This is a key point to bear in mind. Because of this fractioning, what you see from the air on the surface of the water represents maybe just 20% of the volume of the various types of oil in that area. And we're talking an area the size of Maryland (10,000+ square miles) that is on the surface. The remaining 80% is under the surface; and all of it is highly toxic to the living organisms encountered."
So, why are they using a toxic dispersant, approved by Obama's EPA, when they could be using a proven and less toxic dispersant like Oil Spill Eater rather than Corectix 952 ?
Oil Spill Eater was developed years ago as a non-toxic treatment for oil messes, using biosurfactants, molasses and about 150 enzymes. BP used it successfully on at least two events, in foreign operations. Quickly renders the oil in water non-flammable and non-toxic to aquatic and terrestrial and avain wildlife. So why we can't we use that ?
Oil Spill Eater goes way back. In January, 1990, in the aftermath of the Exxon Valez spill, the Universtity of Alaska @ Fairbanks ran a test using Oil Spill Eater on contaminated artificial seawater (containing a consortium of micro-organisms and hydrocarbons) mimicking that of Prince William Sound water, and found OSE degraded Hexadecane 300% faster than the same consortium amended with mineral spirits.
It worked better than Exxon's initial trial experiments to clean the damaged shoreline using a French fertilizer, a formula that ultimately became its Corectix 9527 dispersant which is the nasty shit they are throwing into the Gulf water and oil column by the many thousands of gallons, that hides it below at first, but the oil broken up into droplets later shows up as tar balls on beaches, contaminates the sea floor, depletes marine oxygen (along with the crude) and is harmful to sea life.
Once again it looks like Big Oil is calling the shots rather than Federal regulators using valid science for the best results.
I would imagine there are corporate connections and hidden profits at work with the choice of dispersant. Once again we see a criminal response by sociopaths to the disaster they have inflicted upon the environment and the public.
But should we be surprised by this Corporate Congressional White House Corruption, as at the public expense two wars, or rather war crimes, are being waged for the benefit of Corporate Big Oil profits ?
Guardian/UK lies in this article:
LIE: siphon tube "blocks" the rig riser pipe.
FACT: The siphon pipe is only six inches in diameter. The riser pipe is 21 to 31" diameter and is spewing oil at the rate of 50,000 to 80,000 BARRELS a day of which the siphon only recovers 1,000 barrels a day.
LIE: the Deepwater Horizon well head that continues to spew oil into the water at a rate of at least 790,000 litres a day
FACT: 790,000 litres/day equals about 5,000 barrels/day-- the continuation of a grossly criminal underestimation of the actual 50,000 to 80,000 barrels/day (some estimate even more).
Common Dreams should be ashamed of repeating this disinformation without even providing editorial corrections and comments.
"The largest plume found so far was 90 metres thick, three miles wide and 10 miles long."
thats about 7,000,000 liters or 9 full days at the official rate (5000bpd)or about half of the total estimated discharge.
another bit of evidence that there is a massive underestimation of the gush rate. (I won't use the word "leak")
typo: There will be more oil...
And for anyone interested, the following is a brief discussion of Oil Spill Eater.
http://www.breakdownofamerica.com/2010/05/03/man-thinks-his-product-could-solve-oil-spill-problem?wpmp_switcher=desktop
Man Thinks His Product Could Solve Oil Spill Problem
"He said the product, called Oil Spill Eater, works by causing natural bacteria in the water to rapidly grow when mixed with the solution. The bacteria then essentially consume the oil, leaving no harmful elements behind.
Barbier added Oil Spill Eater has another big advantage over the dispersants being currently used.
“It will also cause the oil spill to rise above the water level, so you’re not damaging the water table, whereas the dispersants are going to sink it and it’s going to pass right through the water table and kill everything it comes in contact with,” Barbier explained."
And do the scams ever end ? The political party that allowed this to happen through their criminal negligence now wants to take advantage of the disaster ?
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0510/DSCC_capitalizes_on_oil_spill.html?showall
DSCC Capitalizes On Oil Spill
by:Ben Smith
excerpt:
"The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee emailed to ask supporters today to sign a petition to "stand with President Obama to hold BP accountable."
Petitioning the White House to keep doing what it's doing is a bit of an odd stance, but the world of political email is always a bit detached from reality, and petitions are a great way both of harvesting email addresses and of bringing supporters smoothly onto the contribution page, which is where a petition signature takes you."
Stand with President Obama (or is it Sarah Palin?) to support off-shore drilling.
There is a way to get some answers about the rate of the spill--
Compel the ship that's recovering the oil not only to report the amount it is recovering, but also to allow federal inspectors on board to monitor operations and measurements.
At the same time, continued daily updating of the undersea video should be made public to determine if there is a corresponding "apparent" decrease in the rate of flow from the end of the riser.
If they're "recovering" 3-5 thousand barrels per day, which they should be able to do, and there is no "apparent" reduction in flow from video, we will know someone has been at least "mistaken" about the rate of the leak.
The government agency responsible for overseeing this emergency should be doing this NOW.
The press reports I saw earlier today stated that the siphon tube could capture at most 5,000 barrels a day when it's fully operational. Realistic estimates of the flow rate vary from 50,000 to 80,000 barrels a day.
It's really important to get the numbers right. The relief wells are supposed to take 2 months to drill. At a flow rate of 1,000 to 5,000 barrels a day, this might be a workable solution. But not at 80,000 barrels a day it isn't and then you have to start considering more radical alternatives.
Hello !
I once again suggest readers check out this entire article at:
http://pesn.com/2010/05/13/9501651_a_volcano_of_oil_erupting/
A Volcano of Oil Erupting
excerpt:
"The fact that the spill has reached land clearly states that the size of the spill is probably well above 200,000 barrels per day. Yes, that's BARRELS, not gallons. There are 42 gallons per barrel.
Budgeting an Oil Rig
There is also another factor that says that the numbers are vastly higher than published to date. That is money. The BP investment in this well is very high -- close to a billion dollars. They must earn over $5,000,000 a day off of the well in order to pay back their investment. (That was before the explosion, and doesn't count the cleanup costs, etc)
They were, until the well blew, extremely happy with the well. In fact, on the day of the explosions, executives were on board celebrating the well's success.
This well had to produce over 60,000 barrels per day in order to break even. Shocking as it seems, this well would have been closed in and disposed of had it produced a minor total like 20,000 barrels per day. That would have been a "Dry Hole"! It wouldn’t have paid for the pipes to bring the oil to market. The fact that BP management was aboard the rig and very happy, celebrating, just prior to the explosion says the well probably produces more than 200,000 barrels per day. It might well have produced 500,000 or more. Royalties to the US Government multiply the numbers for break even by about 2:1 so 500,000 barrels per day is very realistic. And that is what they would have been celebrating while things were under control.
With this in mind, remember that this well is running wild. A wild well produces far more than a well during normal production. This is why it is so dangerous. The conclusions for how much is coming up are simply unbelievable."
Thanks for the link. I've been trying to explain this theory but had no idea what realistic numbers would be for the truth.
It's not a spill as much as it is a major leakage. In any case, unless oil spills can somehow be converted to algae for fuel, I'm afraid the damage isn't over yet. As for the marine life, do people in this country really care given the lack of education? Someone on this site or another said something about biology classes failing to properly teach and teachers doing a terrible job of putting students to sleep and making biology uninteresting. I think that we have a connection here. Big oil can sleep safely because they know that people lack the care of wild life and they'll allow oil to be drilled anywhere. But wait, dig this. Uneducated idiots blame the whales or "sea monsters" for causing the oil leakage ! I don't know how to say this but I am afraid that big oily has already made a clean getaway.
And other estimates from engineers:
Mother Of All Gushers Could Kill Earth's Oceans
http://pesn.com/2010/05/02/9501643_Mother_of_all_gushers_could_kill_Earths_oceans/
excerpt:
Oil Deposit Capacity
"The deposit is one I have known about since 1988. The deposit is very big. The central pressure in the deposit is 165 to 170 thousand PSI. It contains so much hydrocarbon that you simply cannot imagine it. In published reports, BP estimated a blow out could reach near 200,000 Barrels per day (165,000) They may have estimated a flow rate on a 5 foot pipe. The deposit is well able to surpass this.
The oil industry has knowledge of the deposit more than they admit. The deposit is 100 miles off shore. They are drilling into the edge of the deposit to leak it down gently to be able to produce from the deposit. The deposit is so large that while I have never heard exact numbers it was described to me to be either the largest or the second largest oil deposit ever found.
It is this deposit that has me reminding people of what the Shell geologist told me about the deposit. This was the quote, "Energy shortage..., Hell! We are afraid of running out of air to burn." The deposit is very large. It covers an area off shore something like 25,000 square miles."
And it is my understanding that currents could potentially carry the oil around Florida, up the East Coast and across the Atlantic to Europe.
gonzonews,
And the South China Sea has one just like it, estimated to be bigger than all the deposits in Saudi Arabia. Then there's a bunch in Siberia. The "Oil Shortage" is fake, just like the wars are.
They are inventions by Royal Scammers who are after one thing: Your pocket change.
I get so tired of the misinformed "Peak Oil" people who claim we're "running out". The peak they refer to is entirely man-made by curbing exploration. There's enough oil on this planet to turn the atmosphere into Venus, a greenhouse global hell at 400 degrees.
What we are short of right now is breathable air and a cool set of poles.
We need to outlaw the private automobile, nationalize the oil companies and mandate solar in all the southern climes no matter what it costs. Stop the brutal wars and one trillion dollars annually could be diverted to solar in the south shutting down all those lethal coal plants. Rooftop residential solar owned by the citizen would solve most of our problems.
But noooooooo. We are lorded over by greedy, suicidal senators and the CEO's they work for.
TJ
Add to that, some people still believe that hemp and algae aren't the answers even when there is scientific evidence to prove so. I know hempseed oil requires diesel engines while algae oil can run on both.
Read at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/17/gulf.oil.spill/index.html:
"The pipe is "producing over 1,000 barrels of oil into the drill ship, so it's good progress," he told CNN's "American Morning" on Monday.
The pipe isn't capturing all the oil gushing into the water, Suttles said, but the company hopes to increase the amount of oil it is siphoning from the site. Crews are trying to avoid mixing water with the oil, which can cause the formation of crystals known as hydrates, he said.
The 4-inch-diameter insertion tube extends five feet into a pipe 21 inches in diameter, BP told reporters. The insertion tube has a foam buffer extending several inches on either side of the pipe to help keep the water from mixing with the oil."
Ok...so you have a 4 inch tube with "several inches" of foam on each side...obviously FAR from being a clogged hole. And BP is concerned about siphoning only oil that has not been mixed with water. Is BP attempting to turn this leak back into a producing well? Is that a valid concern?
I would like to see a video of the pipe and the hose inserted with the foam surround.
With the pressures (about 70,000 psi) involved they could not possibly be holding back the entire blowout with the inserted hose. If this arrangement were blocking a significant part of the flow, the hose would be blown right out of the pipe.
I would imagine they are siphoning off less than one percent of what is gushing out of the pipe.
And if the estimate of 200,000 barrels a day is accurate, that means 199,000 barrels a day are still being discharged into the ocean with no immediate end in sight.
There's NO CHANCE that the amount coming out could be that large, although numbers in the order of 20,000 bbl/d would be possible.
The information problem may well be that the neither the EPA head or that Sec. of Energy Chu have a clue about oil production and what information can and should be obtained from BP.
We don't have a number on the specific gravity, which is the first thing published about any oil reservoir. Since they've collected some of it, NOW they know FOR SURE. Where is this number published???
Second, what is also needed is the gravity (and distillation curve) of the oil on the surface collected in closest proximity to the spill. This number will tell us WHAT FRACTION OF THE ORIGINAL OIL DISSOLVED IN SEA WATER on the way up.
The addition of dispersants makes the oil droplets smaller and allows the "light ends" including natural gasoline to dissolve in water, eventually producing a droplet that RISES SLOWLY, OR NO LONGER CAN RISE IN SEAWATER. After they dissolve, the light hydrocarbons are eaten by bacteria, and may be the cause of the "plumes" visible at various levels.
If the oil is medium or has a specific gravity greater than 0.85, it may actually be advantageous to spray a paraffinic jet fuel (sg=0.80) into the broken riser. This will coalesce with reservoir oil, making the droplets lighter, more viscous, less likely to lose light hydrocarbons on their journey to the surface, and therefore more likely to reach the surface where they can be vacuumed up.
I'm sorry, and you work for/represent who?
"There's NO CHANCE that the amount coming out could be that large, although numbers in the order of 20,000 bbl/d would be possible."
Did you miss the article about the internal BP/MMS e-mail marked "Not for Public Distribution" that admitted the '5000 bbl/day' number was pure PR media BS, and that the number BP engineers were using was 25 000 bbl/day?
Or the announcement on Friday that an analysis showed the flow rate of the main blow out was approximately 70 000 bbl/day? At 69 000 psi?
If you are going to sound off, at least be informed. This place can be like a knife fight in a phone booth.
What I said was that there's no way from observing the video that the flow coming out of the end of the riser could be 200,000 bbl/d. Most of what is coming out is gas, and even so, the velocity doesn't appear to be that high. I conceded that something in the 20,000 bbl/d range might be possible.
What qualifies you to make such judgments, anyway?
It's also rich that you're accusing me of being uninformed--as well to threaten me with a knife, as "figurative" as you might have intended your comment to be.
Ever hear of a word called 'analogy'?
On the alternative energy front:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/17/2901059.htm
Oops.
See? When you increase technological complexity, the chance for catastrophic failure multiplies.
And on the Gulf Gusher front:
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6475#more
Anyone want to attend Mardi Gras in an only slightly radioactive New Orleans after a hurricane?
AVE_fan May 17th, 2010 7:28 pm
Sounds like Big Oil technical spin. Do you have employment links ?
If the unrestricted flow is only 20,000 barrels a day, which some sources are now stating, that would not be an economically viable well considering the huge expenses involved.
The 5,000 barrel a day spin is a huge lie another crime against the public.
The size of the surface slick and the now discovered underwater plume are undeniable facts verifying a huge flow volume.
Now lets see...a 21 inch pipe with oil at 70,000 psi, or more...that is a hell of a lot of oil.
And for a practical visualization of the pressures involved, the pipe of the well contained nearly four miles of heavy fluids and the pressure in the deposit pushed that up and out of the hole as an explosion.
I am not a scientist, but worked in the oil patch for two years and would say anything is possible. On one rig we were nearly blown up when high pressure gas suddenly started coming out of the hole. The blowout preventer did not stop the gas. We walked away from the rig and some specialists came out to deal with the situation.
I would say the oil industry is more like organized crime, incompetent at times, rather than a legitimate business.
They have punched a hole in hell and we will all pay
And hurricane season is just around the corner.
What you are seeing in the video is the flow coming out of the 21" riser after passing through the blow-out protector, which worked partially. If the BOP orifice were wide open, you would get much more than 20,000 bbl/d, but it's not. It's partially restricting the flow.
The only oil company I've ever worked for is not even in the top ten producers in the world, and never drilled in water more than 100 feet deep, at least when I was there. I'm retired now.
We don't know what the underwater "slick" consists of. While it's large, we don't know how "dense" it is in oil. It could just be the "dead" bacteria" who ran out of oil to eat, but I'm not a biologist.
You folks are "assuming too much" and jumping to conclusions.
Where are you getting the 70,000 psi figure? Is that absolute pressure relative to air at sea level or relative to the surrounding water at about a mile below the surface?