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Interesting bit of reading that helps us to understand the cause of the oil rig explosion and to get a sense of the difficulties in repairing it.
On Friday, April 30th 2010, an anonymous caller contacted the Mark Levin Show to clarify the events that preceded the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. Rigzone has transcribed this broadcast for your convenience. To hear the actual radio broadcast please visit www.MarkLevinShow.com.
Mark: Dallas Texas WBAP. Go right ahead, sir.
James: Just want to clear up a few things with the Petroleum Engineer, everything he said was correct. I was actually on the rig when it exploded and was at work.
Mark: Alright, let's slow down. Wait, hold on, slow down, so you were working on this rig when it exploded?
James: Yes sir.
Mark: OK, go ahead.
James: We had set the bottom cement plug for the inner casing string, which was the production liner for the well, and had set what's called a seal assembly on the top of the well. At that point, the BOP stack that he was talking about, the blow out preventer was tested. I don't know the results of that test; however, it must have passed because at that point they elected to displace the risers -- the marine riser from the vessel to the sea floor. They displaced the mud out of the riser preparing to unlatch from the well two days later and they displaced it with sea water. When they concluded the BOP stack test and the inner liner, they concluded everything was good.
Mark: Let me slow you down, let me slow you down. So they do all these tests to make sure the infrastructure can handle what's about to happen, right?
James: Correct, we're testing the negative pressure and positive pressure of the well, the casing and the actual marine riser.
Mark: OK, I'm with you. Go ahead...
To continue reading go to Rigzone.
H/T Business Insider
I'm posting this article in its entirety because it's important to understand the possibilities for disaster presented by the oil spill. The news of containment and caps are distractions; of that I am convinced. The time lines on the reporting have smelled bad the whole way through what with Armageddon in the morning and salvation in the afternoon. This catastrophe is pushing and probably exceeding our technological capabilities so I know these reports of the simplicity of dropping an 80 ton concrete container over this thing and stopping it are just so much B.S, generated by someone that wants the truth hidden. This isn't a conspiracy, just good old fashion C.Y.A. Everyone is trying to shift blame to avoid liability, fiddling while the world burns.
We've got a major problem on our hands.
One other thing to consider. I find it interesting that in the article below this spill is likened to a volcano. There have been many prophecies of late relating to volcanic activity and the effects spreading across Europe, causing great harm. Many have thought these words referred to the Icelandic volcanic activity, and maybe they did. But, what about this? If the oil hits the Gulf Stream it will spread to Europe, potentially causing incredible damage. Could there be a connection?
The Cover-up: BP's Crude Politics and the Looming Environmental Mega-Disaster
Written by Wayne Madsen
WMR has been informed by sources in the US Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Florida Department of Environmental Protection that the Obama White House and British Petroleum (BP), which pumped $71,000 into Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign -- more than John McCain or Hillary Clinton, are covering up the magnitude of the volcanic-level oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and working together to limit BP's liability for damage caused by what can be called a "mega-disaster."
Obama and his senior White House staff, as well as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, are working with BP's chief executive officer Tony Hayward on legislation that would raise the cap on liability for damage claims from those affected by the oil disaster from $75 million to $10 billion. However, WMR's federal and Gulf state sources are reporting the disaster has the real potential cost of at least $1 trillion. Critics of the deal being worked out between Obama and Hayward point out that $10 billion is a mere drop in the bucket for a trillion dollar disaster but also note that BP, if its assets were nationalized, could fetch almost a trillion dollars for compensation purposes. There is talk in some government circles, including FEMA, of the need to nationalize BP in order to compensate those who will ultimately be affected by the worst oil disaster in the history of the world.
Plans by BP to sink a 4-story containment dome over the oil gushing from a gaping chasm one kilometer below the surface of the Gulf, where the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and killed 11 workers on April 20, and reports that one of the leaks has been contained is pure public relations disinformation designed to avoid panic and demands for greater action by the Obama administration, according to FEMA and Corps of Engineers sources. Sources within these agencies say the White House has been resisting releasing any "damaging information" about the oil disaster. They add that if the ocean oil geyser is not stopped within 90 days, there will be irreversible damage to the marine eco-systems of the Gulf of Mexico, north Atlantic Ocean, and beyond. At best, some Corps of Engineers experts say it could take two years to cement the chasm on the floor of the Gulf.
Only after the magnitude of the disaster became evident did Obama order Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to declare the oil disaster a "national security issue." Although the Coast Guard and FEMA are part of her department, Napolitano's actual reasoning for invoking national security was to block media coverage of the immensity of the disaster that is unfolding for the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean and their coastlines.
From the Corps of Engineers, FEMA, the Environmental Protection Agency, Coast Guard, and Gulf state environmental protection agencies, the message is the same: "we've never dealt with anything like this before."
The Obama administration also conspired with BP to fudge the extent of the oil leak, according to our federal and state sources. After the oil rig exploded and sank, the government stated that 42,000 gallons per day was gushing from the seabed chasm. Five days later, the federal government upped the leakage to 210,000 gallons a day.
However, WMR has been informed that submersibles that are monitoring the escaping oil from the Gulf seabed are viewing television pictures of what is a "volcanic-like" eruption of oil. Moreover, when the Army Corps of Engineers first attempted to obtain NASA imagery of the Gulf oil slick -- which is larger than that being reported by the media -- it was turned down. However, National Geographic managed to obtain the satellite imagery shots of the extent of the disaster and posted them on their web site.
There is other satellite imagery being withheld by the Obama administration that shows what lies under the gaping chasm spewing oil at an ever-alarming rate is a cavern estimated to be around the size of Mount Everest. This information has been given an almost national security-level classification to keep it from the public, according to our sources.
The Corps and Engineers and FEMA are quietly critical of the lack of support for quick action after the oil disaster by the Obama White House and the US Coast Guard. Only recently, has the Coast Guard understood the magnitude of the disaster, dispatching nearly 70 vessels to the affected area. WMR has also learned that inspections of off-shore rigs' shut-off valves by the Minerals Management Service during the Bush administration were merely rubber-stamp operations, resulting from criminal collusion between Halliburton and the Interior Department's service, and that the potential for similar disasters exists with the other 30,000 off-shore rigs that use the same shut-off valves.
The impact of the disaster became known to the Corps of Engineers and FEMA even before the White House began to take the magnitude of the impending catastrophe seriously. The first casualty of the disaster is the seafood industy, with not just fishermen, oystermen, crabbers, and shrimpers losing their jobs, but all those involved in the restaurant industry, from truckers to waitresses, facing lay-offs.
The invasion of crude oil into estuaries like the oyster-rich Apalachicola Bay in Florida spell disaster for the seafood industry. However, the biggest threat is to Florida's Everglades, which federal and state experts fear will be turned into a "dead zone" if the oil continues to gush forth from the Gulf chasm. There are also expectations that the oil slick will be caught up in the Gulf stream off the eastern seaboard of the United States, fouling beaches and estuaries like the Chesapeake Bay, and ultimately target the rich fishing grounds of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland.
WMR has also learned that 36 urban areas on the Gulf of Mexico are expecting to be confronted with a major disaster from the oil volcano in the next few days. Although protective water surface boons are being laid to protect such sensitive areas as Alabama's Dauphin Island, the mouth of the Mississippi River, and Florida's Apalachicola Bay, Florida, there is only 16 miles of boons available for the protection of 2,276 miles of tidal shoreline in the state of Florida.
Emergency preparations in dealing with the expanding oil menace are now being made for cities and towns from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Houston, New Orleans, Gulfport, Mobile, Pensacola, Tampa-St.Petersburg-Clearwater, Sarasota-Bradenton, Naples, and Key West. Some 36 FEMA-funded contracts between cities, towns, and counties and emergency workers are due to be invoked within days, if not hours, according to WMR's FEMA sources.
There are plans to evacuate people with respiratory problems, especially those among the retired senior population along the west coast of Florida, before officials begin burning surface oil as it begins to near the coastline.
There is another major threat looming for inland towns and cities. With hurricane season in effect, there is a potential for ocean oil to be picked up by hurricane-driven rains and dropped into fresh water lakes and rivers, far from the ocean, thus adding to the pollution of water supplies and eco-systems.
This story contributed by the Wayne Madsen Report for Oilprice.com
H/T SHTF
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
The article posted below comes from The Coming Depression blog. I don't know anything about the guy that wrote it or if it has any basis in fact, scientific or otherwise. That being said, it gave me pause.
Over the last week, watching this whole story evolve I've been struck by a few things that have made it different than the normal, run of the mill disaster that seems to come along with predictable regularity. Usually some experts are run out in short order to explain the fix. This time around, not only have the experts been lacking but so have the solutions. What has been discussed is the massive difficulties involved, but not in detail, only vaguely. I've had the feeling that there really isn't a solution, at least not one that is readily available. We haven't heard any real details of precisely what the repair crews are facing; the kind of details that are normally broadcast in a minute by minute fashion. Look at the recent mine collapses as an example.
The only real solution I've heard to this is to drill a relief well. How long will that take to put in place? And how much oil will be spilled in the meantime? How much oil can be spilled before the effects begin to grow beyond the local coasts and fisheries? Can they? How much oil leaks into the oceans everyday naturally? How many years will it take the gulf states to recover from this assuming at a minimum months of leaking? How will that effect the economy of the nation?
Also, there was a news conference a few days back from Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana. He looked like he was well aware that this was something much greater than the public was being told about. He had a sort of Hurricane Katrina look about him. It looked and sounded as though he knew that what was coming couldn't be stopped and that massive damage was inevitable.
Then there's this from the Daily Comet today:
"Today, Governor Bobby Jindal said he remains concerned about BP’s ability to respond to the oil spill in the Gulf and the state is developing contingency plans in order to protect Louisiana’s way of life. The Governor stressed that it is critical for BP and the Incident Commander to provide funding approval and authorization quickly for these contingency plans in order to protect the state’s coast.
Governor Jindal said, “We continue to be concerned about BP’s ability to respond to this incident. As we continue to work with local leaders on the ground, we are focused on forward-leaning and proactive action. I want to be very clear on this point – this incident is not just about our coast. It is fundamentally about our way of life in Louisiana (emphasis added).
“Our shrimpers, our fishermen, the coasts that make Louisiana Sportsmen’s Paradise – this all makes up Louisiana and this is our way of life. We have to do absolutely everything we can to protect our land, our businesses and our communities.
“We are past the point of waiting for any clean up plans from BP or the Incident Commander. We have already begun developing contingency plans for parishes – meaning we are preparing detailed secondary response capabilities to protect our land and our people. We are developing those plans ourselves and we need two things to implement these plans – funding approval from BP and authorization from the Incident Commander."
I applaud the Governor and his proactive stance. However, the hesitancy and inaction on the part of both the federal government and BP tells me that they don't have any sort of plan, that this thing is much bigger and worse than they're letting on. It almost sounds as though the Governor is resigned to no real help and knows that he will have to do what he can, with the understanding that it will be woefully inadequate.
All of this is purely subjective on my part; just things that have been bothering me as I watch this unfold. Is the guy in the article below an expert? Is he right in his assessment of the situation? I don't know.
Not to mention the Biblical perspective and the words of many of the modern seers regarding the oceans and the worlds water.
What I am sure of is that this oil leak is far more significant than is being reported. It bears close watching.
"Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
The very deep did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.
About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue, and white.
And some in dreams assured were
Of the Spirit that plagued us so;
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
From the land of mist and snow.
And every tongue, through utter drought,
Was withered at the root;
We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.
Ah! well-a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung."
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"Saturday, May 1, 2010
An Nuclear Bomb Can Only Fix This Oil Spill
A reader who is an engineer of considerable experience says watch this one evolve carefully because it is destined to continue to grow and he shares this long (but worthy explanation why:
"Heard your mention of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico this morning, and you (and most everyone else except maybe George Noory) are totally missing the boat on how big and bad of a disaster this is.
First fact, the original estimate was about 5,000 gallons of oil a day spilling into the ocean. Now they're saying 200,000 gallons a day. That's over a million gallons of crude oil a week!
I'm engineer with 25 years of experience. I've worked on some big projects with big machines. Maybe that's why this mess is so clear to me.
First, the BP platform was drilling for what they call deep oil. They go out where the ocean is about 5,000 feet deep and drill another 30,000 feet into the crust of the earth. This it right on the edge of what human technology can do. Well, this time they hit a pocket of oil at such high pressure that it burst all of their safety valves all the way up to the drilling rig and then caused the rig to explode and sink. Take a moment to grasp the import of that. The pressure behind this oil is so high that it destroyed the maximum effort of human science to contain it.
When the rig sank it flipped over and landed on top of the drill hole some 5,000 feet under the ocean.
Now they've got a hole in the ocean floor, 5,000 feet down with a wrecked oil drilling rig sitting on top of is spewing 200,000 barrels of oil a day into the ocean. Take a moment and consider that, will you!
First they have to get the oil rig off the hole to get at it in order to try to cap it. Do you know the level of effort it will take to move that wrecked oil rig, sitting under 5,000 feet of water? That operation alone would take years and hundreds of millions to accomplish. Then, how do you cap that hole in the muddy ocean floor? There just is no way. No way.
The only piece of human technology that might address this is a nuclear bomb. I'm not kidding. If they put a nuke down there in the right spot it might seal up the hole. Nothing short of that will work.
If we can't cap that hole that oil is going to destroy the oceans of the world. It only takes one quart of motor oil to make 250,000 gallons of ocean water toxic to wildlife. Are you starting to get the magnitude of this?
We're so used to our politicians creating false crises to forward their criminal agendas that we aren't recognizing that we're staring straight into possibly the greatest disaster mankind will ever see. Imagine what happens if that oil keeps flowing until it destroys all life in the oceans of this planet. Who knows how big of a reservoir of oil is down there.
Not to mention that the oceans are critical to maintaining the proper oxygen level in the atmosphere for human life.
We're humped. Unless God steps in and fixes this. No human can. You can be sure of that."
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