THIS IS AWFUL!!! Scientist feel the oil spilling is 4-5 x the amt. estimated----at 4x more that is over 800,000 gallons a freaking day!!!!!!!
From NY Times:
Size of Oil Spill Underestimated, Scientists Say
By JUSTIN GILLIS
Two weeks ago, the government put out a round estimate of the size of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico: 5,000 barrels a day. Repeated endlessly in news reports, it has become conventional wisdom.
But scientists and environmental groups are raising sharp questions about that estimate, declaring that the leak must be far larger. They also criticize BP for refusing to use well-known scientific techniques that would give a more precise figure.
The criticism escalated on Thursday, a day after the release of a video that showed a huge black plume of oil gushing from the broken well at a seemingly high rate. BP has repeatedly claimed that measuring the plume would be impossible.
The figure of 5,000 barrels a day was hastily produced by government scientists in Seattle. It appears to have been calculated using a method that is specifically not recommended for major oil spills.
Ian R. MacDonald, an oceanographer at Florida State University who is an expert in the analysis of oil slicks, said he had made his own rough calculations using satellite imagery. They suggested that the leak could “easily be four or five times” the government estimate, he said.
“The government has a responsibility to get good numbers,” Dr. MacDonald said. “If it’s beyond their technical capability, the whole world is ready to help them.”
Scientists said that the size of the spill was directly related to the amount of damage it would do in the ocean and onshore, and that calculating it accurately was important for that reason.
BP has repeatedly said that its highest priority is stopping the leak, not measuring it. “There’s just no way to measure it,” Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president, said in a recent briefing.
Yet for decades, specialists have used a technique that is almost tailor-made for the problem. With undersea gear that resembles the ultrasound machines in medical offices, they measure the flow rate from hot-water vents on the ocean floor. Scientists said that such equipment could be tuned to allow for accurate measurement of oil and gas flowing from the well.
Richard Camilli and Andy Bowen, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, who have routinely made such measurements, spoke extensively to BP last week, Mr. Bowen said. They were poised to fly to the gulf to conduct volume measurements.
But they were contacted late in the week and told not to come, at around the time BP decided to lower a large metal container to try to capture the leak. That maneuver failed. They have not been invited again.
“The government and BP are calling the shots, so I will have to respect their judgment,” Dr. Camilli said.
BP did not respond Thursday to a question about why Dr. Camilli and Mr. Bowen were told to stand down. Speaking more broadly about the company’s policy on measuring the leak, a spokesman, David H. Nicholas, said in an e-mail message that “the estimated rate of flow would not affect either the direction or scale of our response, which is the largest in history.”
Dr. MacDonald and other scientists said the government agency that monitors the oceans, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had been slow to mount the research effort needed to analyze the leak and assess its effects. Sylvia Earle, a former chief scientist at NOAA and perhaps the country’s best-known oceanographer, said that she, too, was concerned by the pace of the scientific response.
But Jane Lubchenco, the NOAA administrator, said in an interview on Thursday: “Our response has been instantaneous and sustained. We would like to have more assets. We would like to be doing more. We are throwing everything at it that we physically can.”
The issue of how fast the well is leaking has been murky from the beginning. For several days after the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, the government and BP claimed that the well on the ocean floor was leaking about 1,000 barrels a day.
A small organization called SkyTruth, which uses satellite images to monitor environmental problems, published an estimate on April 27 suggesting that the flow rate had to be at least 5,000 barrels a day, and probably several times that.
The following day, the government — over public objections from BP — raised its estimate to 5,000 barrels a day. A barrel is 42 gallons, so the estimate works out to 210,000 gallons per day.
BP later acknowledged to Congress that the worst case, if the leak accelerated, would be 60,000 barrels a day, a flow rate that would dump a plume the size of the Exxon Valdez spill into the gulf every four days. BP’s chief executive, Tony Hayward, has estimated that the reservoir tapped by the out-of-control well holds at least 50 million barrels of oil.
The 5,000-barrel-a-day estimate was produced in Seattle by a NOAA unit that responds to oil spills. It was calculated with a protocol known as the Bonn convention that calls for measuring the extent of an oil spill, using its color to judge the thickness of oil atop the water, and then multiplying.
However, Alun Lewis, a British oil-spill consultant who is an authority on the Bonn convention, said the method was specifically not recommended for analyzing large spills like the one in the Gulf of Mexico, since the thickness was too difficult to judge in such a case.
Even when used for smaller spills, he said, correct application of the technique would never produce a single point estimate, like the government’s figure of 5,000 barrels a day, but rather a range that would likely be quite wide.
NOAA declined to supply detailed information on the mathematics behind the estimate, nor would it address the points raised by Mr. Lewis.
Mr. Lewis cited a video of the gushing oil pipe that was released on Wednesday. He noted that the government’s estimate would equate to a flow rate of about 146 gallons a minute. (A garden hose flows at about 10 gallons per minute.)
“Just anybody looking at that video would probably come to the conclusion that there’s more,” Mr. Lewis said.
The government has made no attempt to update its estimate since releasing it on April 28.
“I think the estimate at the time was, and remains, a reasonable estimate,” said Dr. Lubchenco, the NOAA administrator. “Having greater precision about the flow rate would not really help in any way. We would be doing the same things.”
Environmental groups contend, however, that the flow rate is a vital question. Since this accident has shattered the illusion that deep-sea oil drilling is immune to spills, they said, this one is likely to become the touchstone in planning a future response.
“If we are systematically underestimating the rate that’s being spilled, and we design a response capability based on that underestimate, then the next time we have an event of this magnitude, we are doomed to fail again,” said John Amos, the president of SkyTruth. “So it’s really important to get this number right.”
010
yeah anyone with a brain knows it's huge numbers.
yet they want to down size the crisis.
how many gallons did it drill/suck up every day?
then multiple that x's a whole shit load.
these ppl are fuckin idiots
im just a fucking iowa corn fucker and i seem to know it's a lot more than what they are saying
i was just talking about this.
i thought "holy shit, what if they nuke the fucker?" (good idea? bad idea?)
i just now found this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ojCbqfRRr8
i was just talking about this.
i thought "holy shit, what if they nuke the fucker?" (good idea? bad idea?)
i just now found this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ojCbqfRRr8
unbelievable
ha! do we really have to say...BAD IDEA???? :? :roll:
peace,
jo
http://www.Etsy.com/Shop/SimpleEarthCreations
"How I choose to feel is how I am." ~ EV/MMc
"Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends." ~ One Stab ~
What do we all make of the statement that Halliburton did some "cementing" work on the rig before the disaster occurred? Hmmm...sound familiar to anyone? Ridiculous.
A MONTH now...a freakin' MONTH.
peace,
jo
http://www.Etsy.com/Shop/SimpleEarthCreations
"How I choose to feel is how I am." ~ EV/MMc
"Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends." ~ One Stab ~
I feel a sickness...
A sickness coming over me
Like watching freedom
Being sucked straight out to sea
And the solution?
Well, from me far would it be
But the delusion
Is feeling dangerous to me ~ EV
peace,
jo
http://www.Etsy.com/Shop/SimpleEarthCreations
"How I choose to feel is how I am." ~ EV/MMc
"Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends." ~ One Stab ~
Isn't the earth turning to shit?
Seems that way to me.
The great Pacific garbage patch, that's what they call it, right?
The oil spill catastrophe in the gulf.
Plus all the other stuff, past & present.
Natural disasters.
Madmen running governments across the globe?
Unbelievable?
Believe it!
It's been happening forever.
Is the oil situation in the gulf considered a major ecological disaster?
(I don't have a tv so my news is limited)
(I think im wanting tv for the news) :shock: :?
Why isn't President Obama down at the Gulf kicking some series ass.
(Holy Toledo, if I had any sort of authority... omg.) :twisted:
We need Ed Vedder, Neil Young & anyone with power to get something done.
This is outrageous.
We're all going down the tubes even if we love the earth. love trees, the soil and air...
Love the whales, fish, and birds.
It's like we're all going down the drain rather you like it or not.
No way out?
I agree with you this whole world is going to hell... :evil:
Ladies and Gentlemen, Once again I give you, our Good Friend and former Vice President of the United States, Mr. Dick Cheney.....
(REMINDER: Halliburton is to be read as "Dick Cheney"... YOU MAY NOW PROCEED :roll:
QUOTE: An oil-drilling procedure called cementing is coming under scrutiny as a possible cause of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico that has led to one of the biggest oil spills in U.S. history, drilling experts said Thursday.
The process is supposed to prevent oil and natural gas from escaping by filling gaps between the outside of the well pipe and the inside of the hole bored into the ocean floor. ....
In the case of the Deepwater Horizon, workers had finished pumping cement to fill the space between the pipe and the sides of the hole and had begun temporarily plugging the well with cement; it isn't known whether they had completed the plugging process before the blast......
Regulators have previously identified problems in the cementing process as a leading cause of well blowouts, in which oil and natural gas surge out of a well with explosive force. .......
The scrutiny on cementing will focus attention on Halliburton Co. the oilfield-services firm that was handling the cementing process on the rig, which burned and sank last week. The disaster, which killed 11, has left a gusher of oil streaming into the Gulf from a mile under the surface.
Federal officials declined to comment on their investigation, andHalliburton didn't respond to questions from The Wall Street Journal.....
According to Transocean Ltd., the operator of the drilling rig, Halliburton had finished cementing the 18,000-foot well shortly before the explosion.
Houston-based Halliburton is the largest company in the global cementing business, which accounted for $1.7 billion, or about 11%, of the company's revenue in 2009, according to consultant Spears & Associates.
...."The initial likely cause of gas coming to the surface had something to do with the cement," said Robert MacKenzie, managing director of energy and natural resources at FBR Capital Markets and a former cementing engineer in the oil industry....
A 2007 study by three U.S. Minerals Management Service officials found that cementing was a factor in 18 of 39 well blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico over a 14-year period. That was the single largest factor, ahead of equipment failure and pipe failure. Halliburton also was the cementer on a well that suffered a big blowout last August in the Timor Sea, off Australia. The rig there caught fire and a well leaked tens of thousands of barrels of oil over 10 weeks before it was shut down. The investigation is continuing; Halliburton declined to comment on it. END QUOTE ~ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 69072.html
other interesting reads:
QUOTE: And if Halliburton already knew about this problem months (years) ago, and knew the risks it might create, why are we just now learning about this? END QUOTE ~ http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/44349
QUOTE: In the case of the Deepwater Horizon, Scott Bickford, a lawyer for a rig worker who survived the explosions, said the mud was being extracted from the riser before the top cement cap was in place, and a statement by cementing contractor Halliburton confirmed the top cap was not installed. Mud could have averted catastrophe
If all of the mud had still been present, it would have helped push back against the gas burping up toward the rig, though it might not have held it back indefinitely. END QUOTE ~ http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill ... befor.html
QUOTE: Halliburton May Be Culprit In Oil Rig Explosion ( 0)
By Huffington Post, Investigative News Report, Saturday, May 1, 2010
This story has been updated
Giant oil-services provider Halliburton may be a primary suspect in the investigation into the oil rig explosion that has devastated the Gulf Coast, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Though the investigation into the explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon site is still in its early stages, drilling experts agree that blame probably lies with flaws in the "cementing" process -- that is, plugging holes in the pipeline seal by pumping cement into it from the rig. Halliburton was in charge of cementing for Deepwater Horizon. END QUOTE ~ http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publi ... 9658.shtml
peace,
jo
http://www.Etsy.com/Shop/SimpleEarthCreations
"How I choose to feel is how I am." ~ EV/MMc
"Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends." ~ One Stab ~
The CBS 60 Minutes oil spill report featured a survivor of the Deep Horizon rig explosion named Mike Williams. Thing after thing went wrong on the Deep Horizon rig explosion. There were procedures for how to proceed when something went wrong, but those procedures were not followed.
This man, Williams, was left by two life boats as well as another inflatable boat. He had only a life jacket at his disposal when he finally decided take the 10 story plunge from the side of the rig as it burned out of control.
Williams described an accident with the blowout preventer that happened just weeks before the disaster. Pieces of the annular ended up coming up on the deck of the rig. BP and Deep Horizon were aware that the BOP as well as the Pod were damaged. However, the entire operation was losing money because they were over schedule.
Also, on the day of accident, there was an argument between the Transocean manager and the BP person on how to finish the well. The BP guy wanted to save time and money, and he won the argument. If it had been done the way Transocean wanted to do it, this accident and the 11 deaths likely never would have happened.
These videos from CBS 60 Minutes oil spill report are amazing. You have to watch them! I have both the first and second video below. They are long, but you need to see these if you haven’t already.......
So I'll just lie down and wait for the dream Where I'm not ugly and you're lookin' at me
watched the second one so far...wow. some serious, sobering stuff there. I hope nobody else gets killed. I hope all the men in charge handle it smoothly. This country is already hurting so badly right now. All we can do is pray I guess.
The CBS 60 Minutes oil spill report featured a survivor of the Deep Horizon rig explosion named Mike Williams. Thing after thing went wrong on the Deep Horizon rig explosion. There were procedures for how to proceed when something went wrong, but those procedures were not followed.
This man, Williams, was left by two life boats as well as another inflatable boat. He had only a life jacket at his disposal when he finally decided take the 10 story plunge from the side of the rig as it burned out of control.
Williams described an accident with the blowout preventer that happened just weeks before the disaster. Pieces of the annular ended up coming up on the deck of the rig. BP and Deep Horizon were aware that the BOP as well as the Pod were damaged. However, the entire operation was losing money because they were over schedule.
Also, on the day of accident, there was an argument between the Transocean manager and the BP person on how to finish the well. The BP guy wanted to save time and money, and he won the argument. If it had been done the way Transocean wanted to do it, this accident and the 11 deaths likely never would have happened.
These videos from CBS 60 Minutes oil spill report are amazing. You have to watch them! I have both the first and second video below. They are long, but you need to see these if you haven’t already.......
pretty wild info.
the whole thing makes me sick.
it's a global disaster.
today on the radio i heard some horrible news (from the university of Florida) about the coral reefs.
it's way fucked.
we need maps and things,
i'm off to search the internet for them.
post pictures, maps, and the like if you folks happen to find any.
why maps?
i want to know what Mexico has going on.
the Mexican fishermen needs paid.
how far is the oil catastrophe from Mexico?
?(how far and where do the currents travel?) ?
?(intersecting currents)?
I believe every fisherman on earth needs paid.
to much over fishing as it is.
perhaps this will cease fishing for some time.
on a positive note:
maybe aquatic species' numbers could rebound to greatness?
Like a great dark cancer
Poured over ice cream
We watch the sickness
Once again
Descend on our shore
A disease
All too visible in the surf
In the feathers
Flesh and fur of past mistakes
Bound
Like the tide
To invade and retreat
For all eternity
Until there is nothing
To claim as victory
And the oceans
Burn themselves dry
What might they think
One day
Visitors to our endless
Silent desert of sticky
Black sand
Bleached out skulls
And buried promises
Will they feel
For what could have been
Or shake
Their collective mind
In disbelief
At our fossilized
Suicide pact
Idaho's Premier Outdoor Writer
Please Support My Writing Habit By Purchasing A Book:
Statfjord is a enormous oil and gas field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea operated by Statoil.
It is a "trans-median" field crossing the Norwegian and UK North Sea Boundary with circa 15% being in the UK Continental Shelf waters. At peak production it produced over 700,000 barrels of oil per day. Oil is loaded offshore and taken direct to refineries; gas is transported via the Statpipe pipeline to mainland Norway.
The Statfjord field has three Condeep concrete production platforms, A, B and C. Each platform is made up of circa 250,000 tonnes of concrete with circa 40,000 tonnes of "top-side" processing and accommodation facilities.
Statfjord holds the record for the highest daily production ever recorded for a European oil field (outside Russia) : 850,204 barrels (crude oil + Natural Gas Liquids) were produced on January 16, 1987. Now it is producing less than 70,000 barrels a day, and no European field exceeds 250,000 barrels a day.
Statoil has planned [1] the "late life" of the field. The company expects to ultimately recover 68% of Oil in Place (an exceptionally high figure) but more than 60% have been produced already, leaving modest oil reserves in the order of 300 million barrels, so the focus will now be placed on extracting the associated natural gas that had been reinjected into the field all over its life. As a mainly natural gas producer, Statfjord is scheduled to remain active until 2019.
It was true in Kevin Costner's classic film "Field of Dreams" and it may prove true again, as an oil-cleaning device financed by Costner is being considered by energy company BP in its efforts to recover from the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
BP approved a test of the Ocean Therapy machine, a centrifugal processing device that separates oil from water that was developed by a group of scientists funded by the Hollywood star following the Exxon-Valdez oil spill in 1989, reports CBS affiliate WWL-TV in New Orleans.
"The machines are basically sophisticated centrifuge devices that can handle a huge volume of water and separate at unprecedented rates," Ocean Therapy Solutions CEO John Houghtaling told WWL, who added that "Costner has been funding a team of scientists for the last 15 years to develop a technology which could be used for massive oil spills."
Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf
Oil Spill by the Numbers
Gulf Oil Spill Containment Efforts
According to the company, one machine can clean up to 210,000 gallons of water per day, separating the oil and storing it in separate tanks.
Oil has been spewing since the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded off the Louisiana coast April 20, killing 11 workers, and sank two days later.
BP and the Coast Guard have said about 210,000 gallons of oil a day is gushing from the well, but professors who have watched video of the leak say they believe the amount is much higher.
BP has tried several unsuccessful methods to contain the oil, but earlier this week managed to insert a tube into one of the leaks and says it has been sucking about 42,000 gallons a day to the surface.
BP is preparing to shoot a mixture known as drilling mud into the well later this week in a procedure called a "top-kill" that would take several weeks but, if successful, would stop the flow altogether. Two relief wells are also being drilled to pump cement into the well to close it, but that will take months.
Meanwhile, scientists waited anxiously Wednesday to see where the massive oil slick might be heading.
Tar balls that had floated ashore in the Florida Keys were not linked to the spill, the Coast Guard said Wednesday, but that did little to soothe fears a blown-out well gushing a mile underwater could spread damage along the coast from Louisiana to Florida.
U.S. and Cuban officials were also holding talks on how to respond to the spill, a U.S. State Department official said Wednesday, underscoring worries about the oil reaching a strong current that could carry it near the Florida Keys and the pristine white beaches of Cuba's northern coast.
The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill – Florida Keys A Direct Hit? Residents of the Florida Keys are on edge awaiting the first signs of oil reaching their beautiful beaches. The “loop current” is expected to pull the oil down through the Gulf of Mexico and along Florida. The question is, when?
Officials are trying to ease residents concerns pointing out that the loop current is actually carrying the oil to the west, which can delay the arrival of tar and oil along the Florida Keys. The loop current constantly changes due to winds and currents. This makes it very hard to predict when the oil will show up along the shore. Some officials are predicting that the most likely day to see tar balls from the doomed BP rig will be Monday.
Officials from BP and the Coast Guard stand by their original statement that the Florida Keys are not in any danger from the oil spill. “A (oil) sheen over time will break down, will become weathered (and) will evaporate.” said U.S. Coast Guard Key West Sector Captain Pat DeQuattro. “If we’re to be impacted, it will more likely be tar balls.”
Apex News Network will follow to see if the Floriday Keys will be a direct hit by the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill or not.
As technology constantly laps itself, we literally, well virtually have the world at our fingertips. And yet, we are on a spiraling sleighride to hell. Evil gangs, evil wars with evil weapons, evil oil, evil governments filled with evil men, churches filled with evil priests, boyscouts with evil pack leaders, and my personal favorite, evil toy companies selling "Pole dancing kits" to children, specifically girl children.
All of the good people with all of their good thoughts cannot curb the environmental disaster visited upon us by these evils. We have to rely on the very evil by which it began to stop it, and all the while, NEVER acknowledging their responsibility.
No, I have no answers. Just these thoughts to give HELP a bump.
Thanks cw
gayle
As technology constantly laps itself, we literally, well virtually have the world at our fingertips. And yet, we are on a spiraling sleighride to hell. Evil gangs, evil wars with evil weapons, evil oil, evil governments filled with evil men, churches filled with evil priests, boyscouts with evil pack leaders, and my personal favorite, evil toy companies selling "Pole dancing kits" to children, specifically girl children.
All of the good people with all of their good thoughts cannot curb the environmental disaster visited upon us by these evils. We have to rely on the very evil by which it began to stop it, and all the while, NEVER acknowledging their responsibility.
No, I have no answers. Just these thoughts to give HELP a bump.
Thanks cw
gayle
you are fantastic.
that is beautiful.
i like what you wrote.
i was just reading some peoples' comments on some news site where you can add comments.
it was amazing reading actually.
people with grave concern.
Comments
yeah anyone with a brain knows it's huge numbers.
yet they want to down size the crisis.
how many gallons did it drill/suck up every day?
then multiple that x's a whole shit load.
these ppl are fuckin idiots
im just a fucking iowa corn fucker and i seem to know it's a lot more than what they are saying
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
i thought "holy shit, what if they nuke the fucker?" (good idea? bad idea?)
i just now found this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ojCbqfRRr8
unbelievable
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
ha! do we really have to say...BAD IDEA???? :? :roll:
jo
http://www.Etsy.com/Shop/SimpleEarthCreations
"How I choose to feel is how I am." ~ EV/MMc
"Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends." ~ One Stab ~
A MONTH now...a freakin' MONTH.
jo
http://www.Etsy.com/Shop/SimpleEarthCreations
"How I choose to feel is how I am." ~ EV/MMc
"Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends." ~ One Stab ~
A sickness coming over me
Like watching freedom
Being sucked straight out to sea
And the solution?
Well, from me far would it be
But the delusion
Is feeling dangerous to me ~ EV
jo
http://www.Etsy.com/Shop/SimpleEarthCreations
"How I choose to feel is how I am." ~ EV/MMc
"Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends." ~ One Stab ~
Wish you were here...
♥~RIP Dad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxFc1RMbko4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOoKiszmKAQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD3k_FDYJss fantastic @ 0:20ish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYY1oDDYS18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kv5oi2tA_U
for some reason im getting ill...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M73EGtVoWyA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_JiDYkmu6s
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
(REMINDER: Halliburton is to be read as "Dick Cheney"... YOU MAY NOW PROCEED :roll:
QUOTE: An oil-drilling procedure called cementing is coming under scrutiny as a possible cause of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico that has led to one of the biggest oil spills in U.S. history, drilling experts said Thursday.
The process is supposed to prevent oil and natural gas from escaping by filling gaps between the outside of the well pipe and the inside of the hole bored into the ocean floor. ....
In the case of the Deepwater Horizon, workers had finished pumping cement to fill the space between the pipe and the sides of the hole and had begun temporarily plugging the well with cement; it isn't known whether they had completed the plugging process before the blast......
Regulators have previously identified problems in the cementing process as a leading cause of well blowouts, in which oil and natural gas surge out of a well with explosive force. .......
The scrutiny on cementing will focus attention on Halliburton Co. the oilfield-services firm that was handling the cementing process on the rig, which burned and sank last week. The disaster, which killed 11, has left a gusher of oil streaming into the Gulf from a mile under the surface.
Federal officials declined to comment on their investigation, and Halliburton didn't respond to questions from The Wall Street Journal.....
According to Transocean Ltd., the operator of the drilling rig, Halliburton had finished cementing the 18,000-foot well shortly before the explosion.
Houston-based Halliburton is the largest company in the global cementing business, which accounted for $1.7 billion, or about 11%, of the company's revenue in 2009, according to consultant Spears & Associates.
...."The initial likely cause of gas coming to the surface had something to do with the cement," said Robert MacKenzie, managing director of energy and natural resources at FBR Capital Markets and a former cementing engineer in the oil industry....
A 2007 study by three U.S. Minerals Management Service officials found that cementing was a factor in 18 of 39 well blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico over a 14-year period. That was the single largest factor, ahead of equipment failure and pipe failure.
Halliburton also was the cementer on a well that suffered a big blowout last August in the Timor Sea, off Australia. The rig there caught fire and a well leaked tens of thousands of barrels of oil over 10 weeks before it was shut down. The investigation is continuing; Halliburton declined to comment on it. END QUOTE ~ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 69072.html
other interesting reads:
QUOTE: And if Halliburton already knew about this problem months (years) ago, and knew the risks it might create, why are we just now learning about this? END QUOTE ~ http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/44349
QUOTE: In the case of the Deepwater Horizon, Scott Bickford, a lawyer for a rig worker who survived the explosions, said the mud was being extracted from the riser before the top cement cap was in place, and a statement by cementing contractor Halliburton confirmed the top cap was not installed.
Mud could have averted catastrophe
If all of the mud had still been present, it would have helped push back against the gas burping up toward the rig, though it might not have held it back indefinitely. END QUOTE ~ http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill ... befor.html
QUOTE: Halliburton May Be Culprit In Oil Rig Explosion ( 0)
By Huffington Post, Investigative News Report, Saturday, May 1, 2010
This story has been updated
Giant oil-services provider Halliburton may be a primary suspect in the investigation into the oil rig explosion that has devastated the Gulf Coast, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Though the investigation into the explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon site is still in its early stages, drilling experts agree that blame probably lies with flaws in the "cementing" process -- that is, plugging holes in the pipeline seal by pumping cement into it from the rig. Halliburton was in charge of cementing for Deepwater Horizon. END QUOTE ~ http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publi ... 9658.shtml
jo
http://www.Etsy.com/Shop/SimpleEarthCreations
"How I choose to feel is how I am." ~ EV/MMc
"Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends." ~ One Stab ~
:x :evil:
Where I'm not ugly and you're lookin' at me
didn't watch it. what were some of the things?
The CBS 60 Minutes oil spill report featured a survivor of the Deep Horizon rig explosion named Mike Williams. Thing after thing went wrong on the Deep Horizon rig explosion. There were procedures for how to proceed when something went wrong, but those procedures were not followed.
This man, Williams, was left by two life boats as well as another inflatable boat. He had only a life jacket at his disposal when he finally decided take the 10 story plunge from the side of the rig as it burned out of control.
Williams described an accident with the blowout preventer that happened just weeks before the disaster. Pieces of the annular ended up coming up on the deck of the rig. BP and Deep Horizon were aware that the BOP as well as the Pod were damaged. However, the entire operation was losing money because they were over schedule.
Also, on the day of accident, there was an argument between the Transocean manager and the BP person on how to finish the well. The BP guy wanted to save time and money, and he won the argument. If it had been done the way Transocean wanted to do it, this accident and the 11 deaths likely never would have happened.
These videos from CBS 60 Minutes oil spill report are amazing. You have to watch them! I have both the first and second video below. They are long, but you need to see these if you haven’t already.......
Where I'm not ugly and you're lookin' at me
watched the second one so far...wow. some serious, sobering stuff there. I hope nobody else gets killed. I hope all the men in charge handle it smoothly. This country is already hurting so badly right now. All we can do is pray I guess.
pretty wild info.
the whole thing makes me sick.
it's a global disaster.
today on the radio i heard some horrible news (from the university of Florida) about the coral reefs.
it's way fucked.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
i'm off to search the internet for them.
post pictures, maps, and the like if you folks happen to find any.
why maps?
i want to know what Mexico has going on.
the Mexican fishermen needs paid.
how far is the oil catastrophe from Mexico?
?(how far and where do the currents travel?) ?
?(intersecting currents)?
I believe every fisherman on earth needs paid.
to much over fishing as it is.
perhaps this will cease fishing for some time.
on a positive note:
maybe aquatic species' numbers could rebound to greatness?
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
BP owes Cuba lots of money.
how far from Cuba is the oil?
if it's near Florida it's working it's way to Cuba.
Bahamas?
holy shit...
BP & all these oil pricks owe a lot of countries/people a lot of money.
plus they have to fix the environment.
get busy assholes...
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
we can only hope !!
"To question your government is not unpatriotic --
to not question your government is unpatriotic."
-- Sen. Chuck Hagel
Like a great dark cancer
Poured over ice cream
We watch the sickness
Once again
Descend on our shore
A disease
All too visible in the surf
In the feathers
Flesh and fur of past mistakes
Bound
Like the tide
To invade and retreat
For all eternity
Until there is nothing
To claim as victory
And the oceans
Burn themselves dry
What might they think
One day
Visitors to our endless
Silent desert of sticky
Black sand
Bleached out skulls
And buried promises
Will they feel
For what could have been
Or shake
Their collective mind
In disbelief
At our fossilized
Suicide pact
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statfjord_oil_field
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAEoFWqZYKE
Statfjord is a enormous oil and gas field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea operated by Statoil.
It is a "trans-median" field crossing the Norwegian and UK North Sea Boundary with circa 15% being in the UK Continental Shelf waters. At peak production it produced over 700,000 barrels of oil per day. Oil is loaded offshore and taken direct to refineries; gas is transported via the Statpipe pipeline to mainland Norway.
The Statfjord field has three Condeep concrete production platforms, A, B and C. Each platform is made up of circa 250,000 tonnes of concrete with circa 40,000 tonnes of "top-side" processing and accommodation facilities.
Statfjord holds the record for the highest daily production ever recorded for a European oil field (outside Russia) : 850,204 barrels (crude oil + Natural Gas Liquids) were produced on January 16, 1987. Now it is producing less than 70,000 barrels a day, and no European field exceeds 250,000 barrels a day.
Statoil has planned [1] the "late life" of the field. The company expects to ultimately recover 68% of Oil in Place (an exceptionally high figure) but more than 60% have been produced already, leaving modest oil reserves in the order of 300 million barrels, so the focus will now be placed on extracting the associated natural gas that had been reinjected into the field all over its life. As a mainly natural gas producer, Statfjord is scheduled to remain active until 2019.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
why wont this thing sink one day?
it will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNvmK9mUjvI
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
just keeping my word, chadwick.
like you, i wish there was something i could do too.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/ ... 9351.shtml
CBS/AP) If you build it, they will come.
It was true in Kevin Costner's classic film "Field of Dreams" and it may prove true again, as an oil-cleaning device financed by Costner is being considered by energy company BP in its efforts to recover from the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
BP approved a test of the Ocean Therapy machine, a centrifugal processing device that separates oil from water that was developed by a group of scientists funded by the Hollywood star following the Exxon-Valdez oil spill in 1989, reports CBS affiliate WWL-TV in New Orleans.
"The machines are basically sophisticated centrifuge devices that can handle a huge volume of water and separate at unprecedented rates," Ocean Therapy Solutions CEO John Houghtaling told WWL, who added that "Costner has been funding a team of scientists for the last 15 years to develop a technology which could be used for massive oil spills."
Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf
Oil Spill by the Numbers
Gulf Oil Spill Containment Efforts
According to the company, one machine can clean up to 210,000 gallons of water per day, separating the oil and storing it in separate tanks.
Oil has been spewing since the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded off the Louisiana coast April 20, killing 11 workers, and sank two days later.
BP and the Coast Guard have said about 210,000 gallons of oil a day is gushing from the well, but professors who have watched video of the leak say they believe the amount is much higher.
BP has tried several unsuccessful methods to contain the oil, but earlier this week managed to insert a tube into one of the leaks and says it has been sucking about 42,000 gallons a day to the surface.
BP is preparing to shoot a mixture known as drilling mud into the well later this week in a procedure called a "top-kill" that would take several weeks but, if successful, would stop the flow altogether. Two relief wells are also being drilled to pump cement into the well to close it, but that will take months.
Meanwhile, scientists waited anxiously Wednesday to see where the massive oil slick might be heading.
Tar balls that had floated ashore in the Florida Keys were not linked to the spill, the Coast Guard said Wednesday, but that did little to soothe fears a blown-out well gushing a mile underwater could spread damage along the coast from Louisiana to Florida.
U.S. and Cuban officials were also holding talks on how to respond to the spill, a U.S. State Department official said Wednesday, underscoring worries about the oil reaching a strong current that could carry it near the Florida Keys and the pristine white beaches of Cuba's northern coast.
The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
http://apexnewsnetwork.com/21695/2010-g ... irect-hit/
2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill – Florida Keys A Direct Hit? Residents of the Florida Keys are on edge awaiting the first signs of oil reaching their beautiful beaches. The “loop current” is expected to pull the oil down through the Gulf of Mexico and along Florida. The question is, when?
Officials are trying to ease residents concerns pointing out that the loop current is actually carrying the oil to the west, which can delay the arrival of tar and oil along the Florida Keys. The loop current constantly changes due to winds and currents. This makes it very hard to predict when the oil will show up along the shore. Some officials are predicting that the most likely day to see tar balls from the doomed BP rig will be Monday.
Officials from BP and the Coast Guard stand by their original statement that the Florida Keys are not in any danger from the oil spill. “A (oil) sheen over time will break down, will become weathered (and) will evaporate.” said U.S. Coast Guard Key West Sector Captain Pat DeQuattro. “If we’re to be impacted, it will more likely be tar balls.”
Apex News Network will follow to see if the Floriday Keys will be a direct hit by the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill or not.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
All of the good people with all of their good thoughts cannot curb the environmental disaster visited upon us by these evils. We have to rely on the very evil by which it began to stop it, and all the while, NEVER acknowledging their responsibility.
No, I have no answers. Just these thoughts to give HELP a bump.
Thanks cw
gayle
"what a long, strange trip it's been"
you are fantastic.
that is beautiful.
i like what you wrote.
i was just reading some peoples' comments on some news site where you can add comments.
it was amazing reading actually.
people with grave concern.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
oh, and by the way...
it's coming.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce