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BP: 'Top Kill' Has Failed to Stop Gulf Oil Leak
BP has abandoned its most recent "top kill" effort to contain its well, a company official announced Saturday evening.
"After three full days, we have been unable to overcome the flow," said the company's chief operating officer, Doug Suttles.
In its next effort to halt what its officials have called an "environmental catastrophe," BP will cut off the leaking riser at the top of the five-story blowout preventer atop the wellhead to get an even surface on the broken pipe.
Then the company will install what's called a lower marine riser package, a cap containment system that would be connected to a new riser from the Discoverer Enterprise drillship 5,000 feet above on the surface. The aim is to minimize the amount of oil reaching the shore until BP can drill relief wells, Suttles said.
He estimated that the procedure would take about four days to complete, but if it also fails, it could be several months before BP can finish drilling two relief wells to intersect the runaway well. During that time, millions more gallons of crude oil could contaminate the Gulf of Mexico, poison wildlife, destroy fragile marshlands, close fishing grounds and deprive fisherman, resort workers and many others of their livelihoods.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said officials were disappointed that the top kill method failed, but added that the Coast Guard and BP are still fighting to keep the oil from reaching the shoreline.
"It's a little bit of a roller coaster ride for everyone," she said. "Obviously, we've said we've had to prepare for a worst-case scenario from day one, that this could fail totally and release a tremendous amount more than it is releasing now."
After three days in which BP said it pumped more than 30,000 barrels of drilling lubricant known as mud into the runaway wells blowout preventer, BP engineers determined that it was time to try something else, Suttles said.
He said the decision was made in consultation with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Energy Secrtary Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics.
Engineers had hoped that the drilling mud pumped into the blowout preventer using the top kill method would block the crude oil and gas from spewing out of the damaged wellhead and blowout preventer.
However, from the beginning technicians said that most of the mud flowed right back out, along with the oil and natural gas. BP halted pumping the mud for an extended period within hours after it began on Wednesday, and in the ensuing days, it also pumped debris into the blowout preventer in hopes of blocking leaks and allowing the mud to accumulate. Those efforts apparently failed, too.
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130 Comments so far
Show AllAt some point soon we will be able to make comparisons to the Russians who covered over Chernobyl.
Your comment brings to mind a concern of mine. Given the lack of regulation and shoddy industry standards, is it only a matter of time before a nuclear plant melts down in the U.S.? We have experienced coal mine disasters, an oil drilling disasters, so why not expect a nuke disaster? Is anyone in Washington thinking about this possibility right now? Are regulators being challenged? I doubt it!
"Elections don't seem to do any good. Once we finally got our votes counted, we voted in 2006 and 2008 to bring home the troops and for single payer health care."
If those are the things you wanted, did you vote for Obama? If so, why? He wasn't for either one.
Really! I guess I did not read the fine print. He certainly gave me the impression that he was going to bring home the troops and that he was for a single payer system. I won't be fooled again.
@SJRyan - Do a little research. Look for John Pilger, Barry Soretero, CIA. What turns up is information that Mr. Obama worked for a CIA front company, and there is a two year gap in his biography where he spent a lot of time in the Af/Pak region he doesn't like talking about.
Obama is doing EXACTLY the job he was appointed to do.
absolutely, and check out brother pastor manning here (http://atlah.org/media/nodewnorrainchannel.html) who just held a public trial at columbia university where there is proof that barry wasn't even physically present at the school for a significant period of time and was awarded his degree fraudulently. barry is a fraud and has been groomed for his present trojan horse work as the black/underclass superman.
vote 95% of the incumbents out. nullify overreaching federal laws at the state level
peace
Is there any sane person left who actually thinks the COST of a gallon of gas is $3.00? When you factor in the MIC bill to secure it, the external costs of pollution, acidic oceans killing marine life, our degraded health and all the rest - oil is way more expensive than even gold. But yet, you'll still hear the randian free market freaks and gubment haters who will defend this catastrophe as the price we pay for our standard of living. I just got off the phone with such a person. No amount of reason can change his mind and he'll go down on his good ship America with pleasure rather than seek another way.
"There's no more left to buy or sell
There's no more oil left in the well
A gallon of gas can't be purchased anywhere
For any amount of cash."
Pretty amazing - everybody seems to be missing the point.
The real story here isn't the fact that top kill did not work and the real issue isn't how effective the next tactic will be. BP and CNN are leading us all around by the nose.
Matthew Simmons believes that tiny 21" pipe is actually not the source of that massive plume that is now the size of the state of South Carolina - he believes there is another leak on the ocean floor about 5-6 miles away that is much, much worse. BP won't ackowledge it and CNN won't press them on it.
It appears that BP is deliberately ignoring it and Obama et al is content to just stand there and watch it bleed out:
Must see:
- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37363529#37363529
We're screwed.
That's not what I got from the video, and it supports what I've been hearing all along: Obama is not handling the situation properly, and must wrench it from the clutches of BP. Certainly BP must be a player in that they be forced to foot the bill, but NOT in control of the monitoring and sealing of the well.
First, a state of emergency must be called, and using some independent means of locating and monitoring all leaks. Obama is clearly out of his depth, and should resign and let someone else make the hard decisions if he cannot. He has thus far proved he is not qualified to be president; it's not that he's not intelligent enough, but does not have the resolve to do what needs to be done. BP must move aside, or at least work, in tandem with others in a conjoined effort to resolve the problem, and must be prohibited from remaining at the head of the helm.
Time is quickly ticking for Obama; he is like a man inside a truck asleep, while it speeds downhill with no brakes. He must rouse himself and apply the brakes. This means he must make those hard choices that he'd most likely dreads, even if it means cutting BP's hand away from his balls.
My explanation is excactly what Simmons suggests is the case in the video - your comment makes no sense.
That's fine, because I wasn't seeking your approval to post it. Obviously, BP is covering its corporate arse, and Obama is meekly enabling it to do so and control things. That was at least part of my point. Don't really know why you are taking issue with my comment. You concluded with 'we're screwed,' even when the guests offered what they thought were better alternatives. They were giving hope for a better resolution to the situation, not a proclamation of doom and gloom.
"BP 'totally in charge of the news' about oil leak, energy expert says
As the latest effort to plug the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico meets with failure, the idea of nuking the immediate area to seal the oil underground is gaining steam among some energy experts and researchers.
One prominent energy expert known for predicting the oil price spike of 2008 says sending a small nuclear bomb down the leaking well is "probably the only thing we can do" to stop the leak."
Past performance indicates that BP should try more than one nuke.....or drain the Gulf of Mexico.
"One prominent energy expert known for predicting the oil price spike of 2008 says sending a small nuclear bomb down the leaking well is "probably the only thing we can do" to stop the leak."
The last thing they need to do is listen to a "prominent energy expert" who suggests a nuclear device.
In the 1960s the Atomic Energy Commission used nuclear devices on two occasions to STIMULATE flow, not to stop it. Once in a gas-bearing deposit and once in an oil-bearing deposit. The devices fractured the rocks extensively and the hydrocarbons flowed into the cracks and the cavity that formed. There is no way to tell if the fractures created in a test in the Gulf would reach the sea bottom, so there is no way to tell if the situation just become worse.
'DCH May 29th, 2010 8:39 pm
Didn't Barry Obamageddon say that the safety technology has never been better for oil drill in the ocean?
Guess Barry was wrong again.'
The world isn't dealing with Obama, he is merely the face. A coloured one, that will be discarded after use.
I wonder does he really think those 'white-faced' Master Race raving lunatics actually 'respect him'..
Look up 'Eugenics'.
"experts" on cnn said eating seafood from the gulf is okay unless it smells like oil. So smell your food...if it smells ok then dig in. I would love to see that idiot blitzer with oily shrimp pieces in that ratty snot catcher of his.
Thanks for the comic relief; I laughed out loud.
I needed to laugh. Been unemployed (except for workplace-busting temporary jobs) for almost 18 months now. O's concern for the unemployed has been about as serious as his concern for the environment. I heard him say a few months ago that he doesn't believe it's government's responsibility to create jobs. This was akin to him asking out loud at a health care rally, "If anyone has a better way to manage health care [other than his plan to add staggering profits of the insurance companies], let me know." The crowd roared in approval.
The horror in the Gulf has him making similar statements, like "BP is best qualified to deal with this problem."
What a corporate slut. How duped can the masses be?
IT'S NOT THE GOVERNMENT'S JOB TO CREATE JOBS,
THEIR JOB IS TO SEND THEM OVERSEAS.
Yes, of course you are right. Pardon my rhetoric--I got carried away.
LOL!! Hysterical. A priceless image of the Blitzkreig.
obama must not care about a second term. He looks like a stammering lying bufoon...pretty dumb to let bp pull him down with them. I don't think he's as smart as he likes to think he is.
Have you noticed that he has lost his eloquent cadence, his smoothness in delivery?
Are you saying that this lying sack of shit "has no clothes?"
He started out naked. What I'm suggesting is that he is fumbling, struggling to make the lies convincing with his faux M L King delivery and may end up speaking like a blabbering fool similar to his predecessor.
He's more like the cowardly lion in the Wizard of OZ; oh sorry, the lion had more courage than he has, or at least demonstrated up to this point.
berry was slurring the other day. able to slither and be High, amazing. now if berry could get off that pipe and get on the right one
''DCH May 29th, 2010 8:39 pm
Didn't Barry Obamageddon say that the safety technology has never been better for oil drill in the ocean?
Guess Barry was wrong again.'
The world isn't dealing with Obama, he is merely the face. A coloured one, that will be discarded after use.
I wonder does he really think those 'white-faced' Master Race raving lunatics actually 'respect him'..
Look up 'Eugenics'.
(I was referring to a post I had read in here. Some people seem to pay no attention to what others are posting. Just post an opinion and leave. No wiser than they were)
Are we wiser because you mentioned a "colored face"?
"The world isn't dealing with Obama, he is merely the face. A coloured one, that will be discarded after use."
Home run. Obama gets the "blame it on the black man" prize. But, Obama only wanted to be the first black president. Too bad Obama is nothing more than an empty suit trained at Harvard.
There are tons of competent, honest, hard working black people who would have made very good presidents, but we got stuck with this shill, Obama.
I hold onto hope in sections of humanity. There are loving people who will continue to offer hospice-like love and empathy as masses of people awake, scared and frazzled.
There are plans in place - not draconian ones - fun ones, that can help save entire communities at once. But, first things first, we need the truth on the oil wound damage and for world powers, friends and enemies alike to come together with a solution Apollo 13 style, and get it fixed.
We need a big global family talk about resource allocation and fairness, one with people's voices, not corporations. Together we can slow down and untie this impossible knot together.
Rule: Food and fuel rationing to nurses, doctors, police, fire, counselors - yes, of course. Children get to learn fun games like "Plant the right seeds in the right holes" - they can form teams and make it competitive like their gym classes that have been cut from school budgets anyway.
It's spring - planting time. The perfect time for a national teaching program on TV, Radio, Internet and Print headed by Obama's special pop-culture sustainability team. They will focus on how to connect communities and support local leaders who grow food, fix soils, grow mushrooms, get started with fruit and nut trees, cooking dinners with friends and neighbors - and host adaptation classes.
This will be like a national rapid-detox from Prescription drugs and Porn. Whip ourselves into shape with exercise and healthy eating - music and stories to share with one another, helping one another - not preying on one another.
My father in law had to move in with us and I'm none too pleased about it - but that's adaptation as people run out of options. Besides - he is doing a lot of house work and it has it's benefits, though my sex life feels like I've tapped into the light sweet crude and now it's much more expensive to extract.
No need for suicide - just a new set of eyes, open minds, a sense of understanding how we are all part of the problem, and real paths to using much, much less of toxic chemicals like oil, gas, pesticides, etc.
Organic methods and permaculture strategies at the community level are proven to work. There are even people who drive Ferrarri's that are willing to get in on the sharing action.
This is when America needs to shine again.... people need to discover that we are in the SCENE OF OUR COLLECTIVE LIVING MOVIE when EVERYTHING GETS INTENSE.
God has popcorn in hand.... let's make it a happy ending.
Check it out at www.brightneighbor.tv
"they can form teams and make it competitive like their gym classes"
This is counterproductive. We should not be teaching children to be competitors. That is the root of the degenerate condition faced today. Mutual cause, selflessness in a common goal should be taught. Everyone does what they can according to their abilities.
'scribe May 29th, 2010 7:57 pm
This isn't just any blowout. This is an experimental well drilled into a very large reservoir. Knowledgeable sources predict that the relief wells (due in August) will also fail. Do people understand how serious this is?
This is the worst environmental catastrophe in human history. There is zero hyperbole in that description.'
Yes, it is. In fact, just simply, the worst catastrophe... And it will literally kill off those who are responsible for it just as it will kill those who aren't.
At least there is that!
What fools these mortals be.
Rather than hyperbole your comment is spot on. This disaster shows plainly that the ennui of our citizenry has spread far and wide. I see no outrage, I see no concern even. What, I wonder, is it going to take to awaken this nation?
By the by, a strange coincidence that just last evening I watched my granddaughters drama class put on a performance of Midsummer Nights Dream featuring my girl as Puck:
Puck:
Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand,
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover's fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
A Midsummer Nights Dream Act 3, scene 2, 110–115
and also ,
I would bet dollars to donuts that BP has also taken
over the Web Site ,,,Oil Drum....
I believe this site is there for diversion...
The Oil Drum is a leading Peak Oil discussion site. It was active *long* before this debacle in the Gulf.
Do yourself a favor and read through the archive pages and learn something before you sound off and look like even more of an idiot.
Fucking idiots!!!
Don't worry about it. Go shopping!
Those who live by the oil, shall die by the oil.
the next mother of a spill in the Arctic
dont worry go shopping
and..what next?
Oil Before Obomber Oil Many Autos Oil Had "No War" Oil Bumper Stickers Oil Now they are gone Oil and all that can be seen Oil are "Obamanos" Bumper Stickers" Oil Cooption of Liberals Oil How Pathetically Sad Oil Oil
Newoileans.
Every time Obamageddon screws up, which is about every time, I think of the poor bastards who voted for this shill thinking he would be "change we can believe in". Then I think:
GOOD GRIEF.
'...shill thinking he would be "change we can believe in".'
And the O groupies continually rationalize his behavior by pointing to the alternatives, namely the crazed teabaggers or Rand Paul-types. See frank rich's column in today's Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/opinion/30rich.html?hp) for a great example of the kind of 'liberal' thinking that dooms us all (i.e., 'Well, O's not perfect, but bush caused these problems and O is only trying to catch up; let's always remember the horror that awaits us if we don't get behind Obama.')
This kind of thinking is the real cause of our problems. Forget the 'baggers or glenn beck or sarah palin. When democrats, who have a mandate, govern shamelessly as plutocrats, what hope is there? Where's our out?
In April 2009 the Center for Biologogical Diversity won a halt to drilling in the Missippi Canyon Block 252 among others. This is where Deepwater Horizon is.
Salazar file a special intervening motion in DC Circuit Distict Court to exempt Block 252 also in April 2009.
THe Horizon Well was drilled because of the specific direct intervention of Obomber henchman Salazar.
The technology has improved. They can now drill in deeper waters and go down further into the earth below where the pressures are even greater. The safety measures needed to contain an accident if it does happen--that hasn't improved so much, in fact as Rachael Maddow has shown us, it has hardly changed since 1979 when the last big blowout occurred. The facts are all there and have been through Administrations and Congresses Republican and Democrat who have been equally complicit and bought off by big oil. To have prevented this some public officials, somewhere in the past would have had to say, "your safety measures are not good enough and your practices have not changed to the point that we believe you can drill safely in our waters." Those officials would have suffered a withering political attack by corporate forces and even perhaps have put themselves in personal danger by corporate hit men. These oil guys, they speak well, dress well, drive nice cars, have big houses and socially connected wives. BUT THEY ARE PROFOUNDLY AND DEEPLY AMORAL AND UNCONCERNED ABOUT THE PUBLIC CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR CORPORATE ACTS. They pass for respectable with the public which is uninformed and does not even want to know. A public which elects candidates like Obama solely on the basis of his charisma is an interlocking part of this culture of corruption. Things have become so corrupted in Washington that even the appearance of honesty is suspicious for me now. When Joe Sestak walks down the capitol steps flinging his sports jacket RFK style behind him, and says that he is the "people's" candidate and will work for ordinary working folk-- I shudder. I am almost certain he is playing us. How would we know an honest politician if we saw one?
The Federal Government !DID! put a Ban on some offshore drilling.
This was overturned by Salazar in April 2009. See Post Below.
Retired Admiral Sestak. More MIC anyone?
The ole revolving door between the MIC, Corporations and Government.
The Corporate Elite are the new nobility. For a while. At least until the oil runs out.
I am going to swipe a phrase from some other frequent posters here: "Grow Hemp!" Not for all the 'alt' technology things it is expected to do, but for simple rope.
Because we are going to need a gawdawful lot of it for all the nooses...
We wouldn't, we don't, we can't believe any of them.
Don't participate in this sham nation.
ignore them and everything they say, it's all lies all the time.
ignore networks that interview them, send corporate media ratings into a nose dive, shut them out like they shut us out
Don't support any of them, and don't participate in their shitty elections either. One crooks the same as the next.
And beleive me, if the establishment accepts a candidate it's a major red flsg and run like hell.
Katrine one of the first offers of help came from Iran. And if you recollect what happened to the emergency relief kept at bay by the USA in Haiti, you'll again find Iran at the forefront. 'We don't want your help and we certainly don't need it' appears to be the prevailing attitude. The population devastated in Haiti at the time would surely have disagreed.
Fair play to Obama for selecting Bill Clinton and George Bush to oversee the aftermath in Haiti too. Shows his real pedigree!