what will happen when a hurricane hits Gulf spill?

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Groucho Marx

 

That quotation rings a bell. It's very close to one I read years ago, from a San Francisco columnist and author who wrote in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Now it's driving me crazy, because I can't remember his name so I can look it up.

It's Hell being diagnosed with CRS....

Tell you what, though: I'll counter with one of my favorite quotes:

If you maintain a consistent political position long enough, you'll eventually be accused of treason.
-Mort Sahl

 

"If you maintain a consistent political position..." I KNOW - progressivism was all the vogue just 20 months ago!

 

Just curious....did the Coast Guard direct water to be sprayed on the platform for the 24 hours preceding the sinking?

When I look for brilliantly conceived answers, I ask my questions of Adriana!;

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/22/oil-rig-deepwater-horizon_n_548745.html

Key irony; "supply vessels shot water into it to try to keep it afloat."

 

BP: "underwater plumes don't exist, oil is on the surface."

Eric Holder making noise about 'criminal investigation'.



Here is what is going on. BP knows it will be a long time before any similar wells are allowed in that area.

If BP or someone else destructively closed the well, they will lose a massive oil field for good. Since the leases are really 'give aways' they would be losing a lot more than their $75million liability cap.

Thus, BP is doing everything to SAVE the well, not everything to stop the leak.

Sure, BP might pay a little more than the $75M, so it looks like their boy Obama got tough with them, but all that will be quietly more than made up for in tax breaks(why do you think US tax code weights several tons).

Their will be some quasi-criminal charges and BP will be on probation, but no one is going to prison.


Troy2000 "What unused assets does the US government keep on hand for containing oil spills and shutting down blowouts? Does it have stockpiles of oil booms, shovels and drilling platforms stashed somewhere that it's refusing to release?

Or would you just rather see all the equipment and manpower in use being paid for with tax dollars, instead of with BP's dollars?"

It is completely standard for a Govt agency to hire private contractors to handle some problem caused by a private entity and then send that entity a bill(backed by liens on property).

For instance, in Saratoga, CA you need a permit and approval from a committee of busy-bodies to both paint your own house and for the COLOR. No, you don't even get to keep the same color by default. What happens, eventually, if you go ahead and paint your house a color they don't like??? Push come to shove the city hires a painting contractor who will show up with a police officer in tow to correct the problem, and the city will send you the bill, and put a lien on your house as if you hired the contractor.

Of course, in Gulf Spill case BP gave enough money to politicians to get their liability capped at $75M, even thought the leases are giveaways.

 

Apparently you've moved on, from asking senseless questions to making senseless assertions.

And apparently you know almost as much about oil drilling as you do about supertankers.

Tell me: how does one go about "destructively closing a well?"

In the first place, I assure you that nothing they do to plug that blowout is going to be permanent. A solution can't be counted on to hold, and it can be undone. That well casing goes down 18,000 feet; nothing they could do is going to destroy it.

That's why they're slant drilling another well to tap into it. And when that new well starts taking the oil, guess what? BP is going to have an operational oil well anyway. So what would be the point of BP letting the blowout spew meanwhile, costing them not only incredible amounts of oil but doing horrendous--and expensive--environmental damage?

'Their boy Obama?' Really. First, explain why you think Obama is BP's 'boy.' Then explain exactly how anyone is going to 'quietly' sneak special tax breaks for British Petroleum through both the House and Senate--and get them 'quietly' signed into law by the President--without all billy hell breaking loose from the media and political opponents.

I have no idea what housepainting has to do with an oil spill in the Gulf. But complaining that the government hasn't hired more companies to stop the leak makes no sense. You might as well complain that your cake isn't getting made fast enough, and demand that the restaurant manager put four pastry chefs on it instead of one. Do you really think it would speed things up if the government were to hire crews from three other companies, and send them in to jostle and elbow BP and each other trying to get to the leak?

Again, you have no idea what you're talking about. The law BP is trying to rely on to cap its liability was written back in 1851, long before there was a BP to bribe politicians. And whether they get away with it or not, which is doubtful, will be up to the courts--not to the politicians.

Why are the most ignorant among us always the most certain they have all the answers, squid? It's obvious you know next to nothing about the oil industry, oil drilling platforms or blowouts. Nor are you all that sharp when it comes to politics, government or the law. But in spite of all that, you still insist on trying to tell us 'what's really going on.'

 

I worked the gas/oil fields in Oklahoma in the 80's, worked my way from worm corner to driller; each well was at least 15,000 feet. If they had enough heavy mud to slow it to a trickle. They had time to pump a cement plug. I believe they chose to try to have a producing well, damn the cost to the environment.

 

They did pour a cement plug. Then they replaced the mud with seawater without making sure the plug was going to hold. That was poor judgment by supervisors on the spot who were rushing the job and pushed their luck, not a corporate decision to "have a producing well, damn the cost to the environment."

It should be quite obvious that the damage to the environment is going to cost BP a lot more than they're going to make off the well, and they certainly didn't deliberately make that trade-off.

I was an oilie in Oklahoma in the early 80's myself, although I didn't hang around long enough to become a driller. I spent most of my time there working for Big Chief, out around Hobart.

 

Damn! TROY IS A CONSERVATIVE!

 

I hope you like sucking on tar balls because the oil is heading your way. Lets see how right wing you are when you are in financial ruin.

 

OK, there's no need to stoop to personal insults....

But I'm certainly not the poster child for left-wing wackos you've been trying to paint me as.

 

I lived in Burnsflat for a bit but drove from Altus to Elk City area the rest of the time. Moran Drilling, rigs 38 and 31. I spent the whole time with one company. I worked with 4 brothers at diff times with the last name of Addy, Jay or Jack was married to a girl from Hobart, been to long to remember which. =)

 

The reserve that BP tapped was found in 1997 and was estimated in 2003 at 1.5 billion barrels. They can probably produce half of that. The estimated flow is at 5000 BOPD. (I believe it to be more like 70,000 BOPD). But anyway, at 5000 BOPD and the 4" pipe that they are sucking about 15% of the oil out gives BP around 750 BOPD production. At say $60 a BBL, that's 45K a day and $1.35MM per month. Also in one month, they have only lost 150,000 BBLS of oil from the reserve. 150,000 barrels from a 1.5 Billion BBL reserve in a month is all BP is loosing.

It does not matter how long she gushes, BP wants to produce the well. They can't becausing of the failed cement casing, which is why the first and formost plan of attack is the releif wells. Until the relief wells are drilled, (and they are hitting zones on the way down) all the rest of this stuff they are trying is just to show, "Hey, we're trying stuff. We care." There really is no other way besides relief wells. The walls of the well itself are inferior. If you capped the top, Oil would seep out of the sea floor. It is just taking the path of least resistance at the present time.

The cut corners on this job were just amazing. It really is sad to hear people say horrible thhings about "Oil companies" when most oil companies really do strive for safety before profit.

BP ultimately has me disgusted, in their work , in their safety measures, and in the money above all else attitude. This is a terrible accident that could have been prevented. I will not be fishing, trawling, etc. for a very long time. Many peoples heritage's have been ultimately destroyed because BP wanted to save a few bucks.

 

Hah! I am already in financial ruin!

 

The Coast Guard directed all the booms be moved from Mississippi an Alabama to Louisiana and now those 2 states have no protection against the oncoming slick. Dey soooo smatt!