MOON SHOTS AND OIL LEAKS

Twelve days in and no real plan to contain the oil. This is going to push us right to the very limits of technology. The comparison to Apollo 13 is the most honest assessment I've heard so far. This time, however, there is far more at stake than the lives of three men.

"BP Plc, owner of the Gulf of Mexico Macondo well that has been spewing oil 5,000 feet below the water’s surface since April 20, outlined a battery of techniques it will use to attempt to stem the leak.

Plans include chemical injections, containment domes and new pressure equipment, Bob Fryar, senior vice president of BP’s operations in Angola, said yesterday in Houston. U.S. President Barack Obama visited Louisiana yesterday and said the government would protect the natural resources of the region and rebuild the area. He said the U.S. had coordinated a “relentless response” to a “potentially unprecedented” disaster.

Admiral Thad Allen, the Coast Guard commandant overseeing efforts to control and clean up the spill, described the dark, mile-deep region where the oil is leaking as “inner space” that can only be tackled using remotely controlled devices.

“What we’re doing is closer to Apollo 13 than the Exxon Valdez,” Allen said, referring to the 1989 tanker spill that dumped 260,000 barrels of oil off Alaska.
Business Week

"Teams are working simultaneously on five possible solutions to stop or at least minimize the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Bob Fryar, senior vice president of BP in Angola, said Sunday that 389 people from BP PLC, the Coast Guard, the Pentagon and Energy Department reported to BP's emergency center in Houston.
The five efforts include:

Injecting dispersants at the sea floor to break up the oil.

Closing the blowout preventer that for some unknown reason failed.

Deploying steel boxes atop the flows to contain oil and redirect it through pipes to a ship on the sea surface.

Installing new pressure control equipment at the well.

Drilling two relief wells

NOLA.com

President Obama defended his administration's response to the Gulf Oil Spill by visiting the area Sunday (5-2-10). It was unclear whether the visit was more in response to developments in the Gulf and along the coast or to the growing media criticism and complaints from local officials about how little they think the Federal government is doing to prevent damage from the spill.

The Washington Times filed this report and Administration officials defended Obama's actions on the Sunday talk shows. Nonetheless, criticism mounted as a former NOAA official said that Obama waited too long to act. It was also revealed Sunday that Obama has still not called the Federal Emergency Management Agency into action.

In the meantime the leak has not been capped and the oil continues to pour into the Gulf.
Beaufort Observer

The chairman of BP PLC's U.S. subsidiary on Sunday blamed failed equipment on a drilling rig for the oil-well blowout and subsequent huge leak into the Gulf of Mexico that now poses the threat of an unparalleled ecological disaster.

The leak, which began April 20, is threatening the Louisiana shoreline and experts say it could endanger the coast from Louisiana to Florida. Some experts say the leak, the Gulf Stream and the approaching hurricane season could combine to send a slick down Florida's Gulf Coast, around the tip of the state, up the Atlantic Coast and beyond.

The leak has become so extensive that U.S. officials on Sunday banned commercial and commercial and recreational fishing in areas from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.

BP America Inc. Chairman Lamar McKay, appearing on ABC's "This Week" program, said fail-safe mechanisms on the rig that were designed to prevent an oil spill had not worked as predicted and that a "failed piece of equipment" was to blame for the spill, according to the New York Times and other media outlets.

...McKay also said Sunday that he doesn't know when the well could be capped.

...According to Associated Press, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the fishing ban begins immediately and will last at least 10 days. The ban covers fishing waters from the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana to Pensacola Bay in Florida.

The move came after cleanup crews said they have had little success in stopping the spread of oil from the ruptured well. As the well continues to leak oil into the ocean, containment efforts are being hampered by high winds and bad weather."
Market Watch