Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

[Starving Steve]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Just when things were looking better for the oil industry, a group of eco-frauds in San Francisco starts putting-up billboards to kill Alberta's oil sand projects by killing Alberta's tourist industry. All this is to save some stupid ducks in a tailing-pond in the middle of no-where in North-East Alberta.

The group is The Committee on Corporate Ethics from SF, California. Their website is: www.rethinkalberta.com

It would seem to me that this is a bunch of criminal racketeers that are being funded by those who would like to see everyone in the Western World starve and live in caves. Who is funding this group: --- Greenpeace? --- Tort-lawyers? --- The rich West Coast snobs who benefit by having people starve so that they can have a perfect ocean view? --- The Sierra Club? ---Arminijad in Iran?

[KGW]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Crawl back under your rock, provocateur, poseur, etc. All you care about is your "investments" in the tar sands.

[Slimprofits]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

http://www.federalnewsradio.com/inde...37&sid=1947286

By COLLEEN LONG and HARRY R. WEBER
Associated Press Writers

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - BP and the Obama administration offered significantly differing views Sunday on whether the capped Gulf of Mexico oil well will have to be reopened, a contradiction that may be an effort by the oil giant to avoid blame if crude starts spewing again.

An administration official familiar with the spill oversight, however, told The Associated Press that a seep and possible methane were found near the busted oil well. The official spoke on condition of anonymity Sunday because an announcement about the next steps had not been made yet.

[Rajiv]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Crawl back under your rock, provocateur, poseur, etc. All you care about is your "investments" in the tar sands.

KGW,

I think there is a point that SS makes that needs to be addressed.

It is clear that the current life style to which we are accustomed , and the scale of economic activity that it implies is going to have ecological impacts on the world we inhabit. If we humans use resources, and that usage of resources affects the ecological food chain, then it is going to reduce biodiversity in the ecosphere. Reduction of biodiversity in general will increase the probablity of a systemic collapse by reducing the massive parallelism that exists in ecology.

But nobody including the "Volvo Environmentalists" is willing to really address what the implications of correcting the "overshoot" is going to be. It is clear that 8 billion people on this planet is "Overshoot"

The more people there are on this planet, the poorer the average lifestyle is going to be. Even the most avid environmentalist is not willing to embrace the life style of a Bombay or even a Mexico City slum dweller. So who is going to pay the bill for correcting the overshoot?

To me that is the value of SS's contribution to the discussion. He poses questions that are extremely uncomfortable to answer.

[blazespinnaker]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Frankly, I think Simmons has completely lost it...

oh really?

U.S. Tells BP to Prepare for Reopening Oil Well After Seep Found
http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?...d=aVUXHcgK212s

basically, it looks like if they cap the well they risk having the whole thing blow wide open.

Seems to me that capping is out of the question. We'll need to wait for the relief wells..

[KGW]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Overshoot is real, Rajiv, of course. But I must respectfully disagree with you that SS poses any useful information of any kind. All SS says is "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" The thinking that got us here will not get us out of here.

We are already paying the bill, Rajiv. As I am sure you are well aware.

KGW,

I think there is a point that SS makes that needs to be addressed.

It is clear that the current life style to which we are accustomed , and the scale of economic activity that it implies is going to have ecological impacts on the world we inhabit. If we humans use resources, and that usage of resources affects the ecological food chain, then it is going to reduce biodiversity in the ecosphere. Reduction of biodiversity in general will increase the probablity of a systemic collapse by reducing the massive parallelism that exists in ecology.

But nobody including the "Volvo Environmentalists" is willing to really address what the implications of correcting the "overshoot" is going to be. It is clear that 8 billion people on this planet is "Overshoot"

The more people there are on this planet, the poorer the average lifestyle is going to be. Even the most avid environmentalist is not willing to embrace the life style of a Bombay or even a Mexico City slum dweller. So who is going to pay the bill for correcting the overshoot?

To me that is the value of SS's contribution to the discussion. He poses questions that are extremely uncomfortable to answer.

[blazespinnaker]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

We could easily fix the overshoot problem by creating large carbon taxes and a large consumption tax.

We all could have just a pretty good life actually, if we all just stopped spending so much time buying and making so much useless crap!

I love women and admire them in so many ways, but for christsakes, someone ban them from the internet and shopping malls!

[Jay]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Now that it looks like they might be handcuffed from above due to the seep, since they have proven they can attach a new BOP, why not place a new diversion device until the relief well is dug?

[GRG55]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

oh really?

U.S. Tells BP to Prepare for Reopening Oil Well After Seep Found
http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?...d=aVUXHcgK212s

basically, it looks like if they cap the well they risk having the whole thing blow wide open.

Seems to me that capping is out of the question. We'll need to wait for the relief wells..

If you go back and check my previous posts you'll note that I wrote some weeks ago that once the original BOPs failed the ONLY high probability of success way to kill the well is with a relief well.

Everyone is trying to second guess everyone else...and it would appear that BP and the government agencies are no longer on the same agenda.

I have not seen anything that confirms the "seeps" contain hydrocarbons, and certainly the government communications to BP on the subject [the ones that have been public] have imo a distinct "I am writing this to cover my ass" tone to them. And what is actually in the text of the press report is filled with qualifications [see below]. I tend to be suspicious of anyone that makes qualified claims that neither they nor anyone else can verify, and then insists on remaining anonymous.

The last reports are that the pressure in the well continues to build at about 2 psi per hour. If the well is leaking then one would have expected either a loss of pressure in the wellbore when it ruptured, or at the very least no futher pressure build-up.

Working at these depths and in these circumstances involves risks and plenty of uncertainties, compounded by the highly politically charged environment surrounding this situation. I would suggest that we all take "definitive" statements in the press by anyone, including the government and BP, with a healthy degree of scepticism and wait for confirming information to surface before jumping to any firm conclusions.

Official: Seep found near BP's blown out oil well

By COLLEEN LONG and HARRY R. WEBER (AP) – 14 hours ago

NEW ORLEANS — A federal official says scientists are concerned about a seep and possible methane near BP's busted oil well in the Gulf of Mexico

Both could be signs there are leaks in the well that's been capped off for three days.

The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Sunday because an announcement about the next steps had not been made yet.

The official is familiar with the spill oversight but would not clarify what is seeping near the well. The official says BP is not complying with the government's demand for more monitoring.

[GRG55]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

...Everyone is trying to second guess everyone else...and it would appear that BP and the government agencies are no longer on the same agenda...

...

It would appear that the goverment and BP are trying to get back on the same page...AP reported this in the past hour...

BP allowed to keep cap closed for 24 hours

Last Updated: Monday, July 19, 2010 | 8:20 AM ET
The Associated Press

The U.S. government Monday allowed BP to keep the cap shut tight on its busted Gulf of Mexico oil well for another day after the company promised to watch closely for any signs of new leaks breaking through the sea floor, settling for the moment a rift between BP and the government.

The federal point man for the spill, retired U.S Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said early Monday that government scientists had received the answers they wanted about how BP is monitoring the seabed around the mile-deep well site, which has stopped gushing oil into the water since the experimental cap was closed Thursday.

Late Sunday, Allen said a seep had been detected a distance from the broken oil well and — in a sharply worded letter — demanded that BP step up monitoring of the ocean floor. Allen didn't say what was coming from the seep...

...Early Monday, Allen issued a statement that said there had been an overnight conference call between the federal science team and BP.

"During the conversation, the federal science team got the answers they were seeking and the commitment from BP to meet their monitoring and notification obligations," Allen said.

He said BP could continue testing the cap, meaning keeping it shut, only if the company continues to meet their obligations to rigorously monitor for any signs that this test could worsen the overall situation.

Both Allen and BP have said they don't know how long the trial run will continue.

[don]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Once again deep value investors vie for the claim they are not only consummate relative value stock pickers (in a time when implied correlation is at all time highs, making relative value as dead a concept as the dodo), but underwater geologists too. At least that was the case until last night, when it was uncovered that (at least one more) seepage near the BP well site may be leaking oil, methane and who knows what else uncontrollably, potentially confirming the running thesis proferred by Matt Simmons that leaks are prevalent and not localized to just the Macondo well. Reuters follows up: "Investors fretted about possible seepage from BP's capped Gulf of Mexico well on Monday and speculation grew about assets the company may sell to pay multibillion dollar costs for its oil spill. A BP spokesman said the seep was detected by its engineers but it was unclear whether the source was the blown-out well, adding that seeps were a natural phenomenon in the Gulf." The stock has sold off appropriately, now that BP trades as a "distressed catalyst" story, with any given day seeing the shares going up or down by double digit percentage. How this stock is still pitched as a relative value play is mindboggling, when one adverse piece of news could send it materially lower.


More from Reuters:

Analysts said investors were concerned about reports of the seepage, though any updates on a more permanent relief well to kill the leaking well were more important.

"There's been a lot of punting around the stock," said Richard Griffith, oil analyst at Evolution Securities, adding that would likely be continued volatility.

"The only thing that really matters is the relief well. If the relief well doesn't work, they will have a massive problem," he said.

National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen said in a statement that he had sent a letter to BP stating there were a number of unanswered questions about the monitoring systems it committed to as a condition of the U.S. government extending the well integrity test.

He listed detection of a seep near the well and the possible observation of methane over the well. He said he had authorized BP to continue the integrity tests for another 24 hours.

The BP spokesman said that if a seep is confirmed from the well, the cap will be lifted and oil flowed to the surface.

Of course, should the well be unblocked, the rage in the GoM coastal areas, which have recently seen a brief respite from the ongoing gusher, will be unprecedented, which explains the unwillingness of both the administration and BP to step back to a previous level in the operation:

Carol Browner, Obama's top energy adviser, said in an interview on ABC's Good Morning America program: "If anything changes we can move rapidly to open parts of the cap and release the pressure in the event that is necessary."

She added: "Nobody wants to do that. Absolutely not... Clearly we want this to end but we don't want to enter into a situation where we have uncontrolled leaks all over the Gulf floor."

Unfortunately Carol, that is precisely the impression the administration is creating.
BP's troubles continue:

BP's role in the disaster and speculation about any influence the British oil giant may have had over the release of the Lockerbie bomber from a Scottish prison last year are sure to be discussed when British Prime Minister David Cameron meets Obama in Washington this week.

BP has confirmed that it lobbied the UK government in late 2007 over a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya but said it was not involved in talks on the release of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight.

British foreign secretary William Hague said on Saturday that there was no evidence BP had any connection with al-Megrahi's release.

Cameron's visit comes at a time when U.S. lawmakers are considering a range of new rules that could require tougher safety regulations on offshore drilling or bar companies like BP from new offshore exploration leases.

As we pointed out, the UK has been buying hundreds of billions of US debt. Assuming this is not just a Chinese bidding offshore operation, or a Fed shadow monetization facility, the UK suddenly has a lot of leverage over the US so any discussions between Cameron and Obama should be interesting.

Yet the biggest issue is how to deal with a potential major disappointment for millions of potential voters, should it be uncovered that not only does the cap have to come off, but that the seepages are becoming problematic.

U.S. authorities probing the spill are looking into why workers missed signs of an impending explosion and have drawn up a list of more than 20 anomalies in the crew's response to them, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The current plan had been for BP to resume siphoning the oil after the completion of the pressure tests on the well, which extends 2.5 miles under the seabed, to judge if it is able to withstand the process to seal the leak.

But Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, said the company now hopes to keep the damaged well shut until the relief well is completed in August and the leak is sealed off with heavy drilling mud and cement.

"We're hopeful that if the encouraging signs continue that we'll be able to continue the integrity test all the way to the point that we get the well killed," he told reporters before Allen issued his statement. "Clearly we don't want to reanimate flow into the Gulf if we don't have to."

Suttles' statement could indicate diverging viewpoints between BP and the U.S. government on plans for the well integrity test. It prompted Allen -- who will ultimately make the final call on the test -- to issue a statement that "nothing had changed" in the joint plan.

Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana, said the new cap was good news after a three-month losing battle to try to clean up oil hitting fragile marshlands as more lapped ashore.

"We're very optimistic," Nungesser told the "Fox News Sunday" program. "We see light at the end of the tunnel. It's a very long tunnel but today we're making progress."

We hope Obama is not doing a teleprompted press conference in Plaquemines Parish when the brand new optimism once again turns to realism.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/new...king-investors

[Starving Steve]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Whether or not I own stock in BP, and whether or not I own shares in oil and oil-sand trusts in Alberta and Saskatchewan, I say here the plain truth on my honour: "Oil is a non-toxic and a natural part of the environment everywhere on Earth. Every living thing decays into oil because every living thing is made out of hydro-carbons. Oil seeps out of fissures everywhere on this planet, and oil seeps out of fissures in significant amounts all along the central and southern California coast. Oil seeps out of fissures all along the faults of central and southern California. I swam in natural oil in Monterey Bay in California as a kid. Every swimmer in the California surf knows that oil is part of the natural environment and is not toxic. With every wave, oil is deposited all along the beaches of central and southern California. The oil is broken-down by natural processes, including bacteria eating the oil."

[don]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Whether or not I own stock in BP, and whether or not I own shares in oil and oil-sand trusts in Alberta and Saskatchewan, I say here the plain truth on my honour: "Oil is a non-toxic and a natural part of the environment everywhere on Earth. Every living thing decays into oil because every living thing is made out of hydro-carbons. Oil seeps out of fissures everywhere on this planet, and oil seeps out of fissures in significant amounts all along the central and southern California coast. Oil seeps out of fissures all along the faults of central and southern California. I swam in natural oil in Monterey Bay in California as a kid. Every swimmer in the California surf knows that oil is part of the natural environment and is not toxic. With every wave, oil is deposited all along the beaches of central and southern California. The oil is broken-down by natural processes, including bacteria eating the oil."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Larp-...layer_embedded

[don]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Whether or not I own stock in BP, and whether or not I own shares in oil and oil-sand trusts in Alberta and Saskatchewan, I say here the plain truth on my honour: "Oil is a non-toxic and a natural part of the environment everywhere on Earth. Every living thing decays into oil because every living thing is made out of hydro-carbons. Oil seeps out of fissures everywhere on this planet, and oil seeps out of fissures in significant amounts all along the central and southern California coast. Oil seeps out of fissures all along the faults of central and southern California. I swam in natural oil in Monterey Bay in California as a kid. Every swimmer in the California surf knows that oil is part of the natural environment and is not toxic. With every wave, oil is deposited all along the beaches of central and southern California. The oil is broken-down by natural processes, including bacteria eating the oil."

Cajuns on Gulf Worry They May Need to Move Again

By SUSAN SAULNY

CHAUVIN, La. — Stanley Sevin knew it was time to have the difficult conversation with his parents when he saw the oil sheen shimmering under his family’s dock on the bayou. He had been putting it off ever since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April.

“Sell the house and go start fresh somewhere else,” Mr. Sevin, 24, pleaded with his family, shrimpers of Cajun ancestry. “The business is dead and this life is over.”

For the Cajuns of South Louisiana — exiled in the 1700s from French settlements in Acadia, now part of eastern Canada, for refusing to swear allegiance to the British — life along the bayous has been bittersweet, with the constant threats of lightning-quick destruction from hurricanes and floods on top of the slow-motion agony of coastal erosion.

What they got in return for their tolerance of living in what early cartographers called No Man’s Land was a world-class bounty of seafood and freedom in an environment of striking natural beauty. Now that is in jeopardy.

The oil spill has delivered a dose of misery for all those who live intimately with the land here. But for the Cajuns, whose rustic French-American culture is almost wholly dependent on the natural bayous that open to the Gulf of Mexico, it has forced the question of whether they can preserve their way of life — and if so, at what cost?

“This has been the lowest low for me,” said O’Neil Sevin (pronounced SAY-vann), Stanley’s father, whose 45-foot skimmer, Heaven Bound, has been mostly bound to its dock on Bayou Petit Caillou because prime fishing areas are closed. The Sevins live above their fishing business on the bayou, and fish their dinner out of it, too. “My wife cried and cried over this. Just the other night she told me, ‘Thank God there isn’t a loaded gun in this house.’ ”

Along Little Bayou Black in Houma, north of Chauvin, Wylma Dusenbery, the matriarch of a large Cajun family of folk singers, said: “When our people got here from Nova Scotia, they called it ‘la paradis de la Louisiane.’ It was paradise.” She paused, then said sternly, “Nobody’s moving.”

Interviews with Cajuns along the coast show that the spill has also renewed a generations-old resolve to persevere in an inhospitable environment, for the sake of independence and family unity. They refuse to be expelled again, so they say, by a 21st-century menace spreading economic hardship in their beloved but grief-giving lowlands.

Many Cajuns can count on a few fingers the number of miles they have moved away from parents or grandparents. Ask Randy Jones, a deckhand on the Heaven Bound, how many generations his family has lived along Bayou Petit Caillou and he answers, “All of them.” Typical of many here, he cannot fathom another way of life.



In Chauvin, in south Terrebonne Parish, it is as common to hear people speak Cajun French while shopping at the Piggly Wiggly as on the shrimp docks. You can hear zydeco on local radio hosted by a D.J. who speaks the patois. Fried fish is not uncommon at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The economy in the parish of 110,000 people, about 50 miles southwest of New Orleans, is heavily dependent on the fishing and oil industries — precisely what the spill has hurt most.

While Cajuns on the coast may be able to hold on for now, the question of what happens in the long run remains.

“I would not expect to see any great migration away, regardless of what happens to these communities,” said James Wilson, assistant director of the Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. “It’s a life-or-death decision for them: People can’t see a life anywhere else. If they can’t live the life that they’re used to within their culture, then that is death.”

Stanley Sevin, a mechanic, decided years ago to get out of the family business because he did not see a future in shrimp. He founded a company, SS Motorsports, and hopes to move away.

He still thinks his family should consider it.

“I’ve never seen them so devastated,” he said.

His mother said: “I understand he wants better for us because he’s seen us struggling. But living away, that’s something I can’t think about right now. We Cajuns are stubborn and hard-headed, what can I say?”

Slipping into the mix of Cajun French and English that he usually speaks, O’Neil Sevin said, “Here, it was never easy, mais yeah, it was une bonne vie.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/us/19cajun.html

[Jay]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

I
The last reports are that the pressure in the well continues to build at about 2 psi per hour. If the well is leaking then one would have expected either a loss of pressure in the wellbore when it ruptured, or at the very least no futher pressure build-up.

Couldn't this also mean that the pressure in the formation is high enough to compensate for the oil leaked through a breech? If I blow hard enough, I can still inflate a balloon with a small hole in it (as long as the balloon doesn't burst!)