Monday, August 30, 2010

Gulf Disaster, Matt Simmons: "Theres another leak, much bigger, 5 to 6 miles away"







Is there still an unplugged leak?

5 comments:

Mirlen101 said...

What I find interesting and sick is that when they finally put on the cap to stop the leak I was thinking why now ? ! Why didn't they do that from the beginning ? It seemed like a no brain-er . In fact many people said from the beginning to remove the broken part of the riser and screw a new coupling on ! Not rocket science ! In fact that 8 year old kids youtube video looked like it would have worked ! They blamed the depth as the problem. But in the past they did the same thing when it was in shallow water . Or even on the surface . They always seem so detached from the spills effects. Like they don't care . What repercussions to the top CEO's is there ? Apparently vacations and promotions ;-/ See any rolling heads ? This is the type of company that the so called "Right" want to rule the world !

Ann said...

You're correct. They cap wells in shallow water and on the surface with no problem or with little problem. (But, even a few of them leaked after they were capped.) But, with deep sea wells there are differences, besides the cold there is also a lot pressure to deal with, making the job more difficult.

There's two kinds of caps, permanent and temporary. A permanently capped well is history. They cap wells temporarily so that they'll be used later, like when the price of oil climbs, making it more profitable to drill. (But for some of us who would rather pay for cheaper gas that does us no good.) The one the blew was a temporary cap, at least it was going to be a temporary cap.

Supposedly, according to AP research, in the Gulf of Mexico there are over 1,000 wells that are temporarily capped (that's out of over 20,000 wells that have been drilled in the Gulf, most of which are permanently capped). A temporarily capped is less secure. And, no one, not BP, other oil companies, the U.S. gov't or any of its agencies are examining or checking the temporarily capped wells, which could be leaking, especially the older ones (the ones that were drilled in the 1950s).

Despite the problems and difficulties of deep sea drilling, there are plans underway to go even deeper.

Mirlen101 said...

I wasn't clear . I meant they have had shallow rigs that they went through the same process of fiddling . Sitting back while millions of gallons spilled . Complaining about how difficult it is and acting as though there was no quick way of capping a spill ( regardless of depth ) Obviously it is more difficult to cap a deep well .That's not the issue . The issue is how seriously do they take these spills . They are supposed to have a preconceived plan of action that actually works ! But they have a history of sitting around scratching their heads as if this is a new never before seen phenomena . When they are ready to do a new rig they claim it's all safe and if there were a problem they would take care of it in short order . But when a problem does arise they are no where to be seen . And have no real plan . Here was a clear case .They had an intact pipe to fit to . Remove the damaged part screw on a new fitting . Not rocket science ! Not easy but a known procedure . Why did it take so long for them to put the final cap on ! The first cap was a pathetic joke ! It was not a proper cap ! Temporary or otherwise ! TIME LINE > April 20, 2010 - Explosion and fire . Nearly a month later > ! May 16 - BP succeeds in inserting a tube ! June 2 - BP cuts off the leaking riser pipe,screws up the cut then puts on a leaky containment cap . July 15 — BP has stopped the leak ! Sort of ;-/ Why not > starting immediately ! not months later ! Remove broken part of pipe > screw new part on ! All the while drilling for the permanent cap ! It's not a question of if it would work it IS what worked in the end . My question was why didn't they do it that way from the start ! Why fiddle around for months ! When they knew how to fix it from the beginning !
And the depth issue ? They put it down there in the first place ! If they can put all that equipment down there and pump oil they should be able to handle the rest ! I mean how were they capable of putting together these amazing complex deep rigs when they can't do a fairly simple cap in a timely manner ? And they talk about cutting corners to save money ! I wonder how much money they saved now ;-/

Ann said...

You're right. Right now oil spills are a big issue, especially among the people around the Gulf states. But, huge spills have been going on in the Niger Delta and the Amazon for years. But, no one seems to care, certainly not the oil companies, even if they have to pay a few million in fines. It's a lot more profitable in the long-run for large companies to pay the fines and go on as they were, rather than to install costly safety features and set up quick procedures, however simple they may seem to be, for a volcano of oil spurting out of a hole in the deep sea.

They don't think like that. They don't think accident, or safety, or environment. They think profit in the shortest amount of time, only. A CEO is required by law to think that way. It's his job. If he doesn't he's fired, and replaced by someone who will. It makes the stockholders happy.

I'd be surprised if the Gulf spill will hurt BP, although at the moment it seems like a big deal. But, they got good lawyers working against the lawsuits. They covered up a lot of the spill. The hurricane helped churn up the water. And the media, like the NY Times and Yahoo.com, said, in so many words, its over. They actually said a lot of the oil disappeared referring to a gov't report and I suppose a lot of readers believe it. (Although some environmental scientists have recently taken issue with oil disappearing, I doubt they'll get to much media attention.) Medical information about dispersants isn't well understood, so BP can delay and muddle that issue in the courts for years. Obama said something like he ate food from the Gulf and it's ok - not that Obama would say anything much different than any other president would say. The executive branch of the gov't has a lot of former oil executives in it, during just about any administration.

Mirlen101 said...

Your right BP won't be hurt by this . It may look like they have taken a hard hit in the stock market. But investors know to buy low sell high .So BP looks like a really good investment . They have plenty of money to recover . Oil companies are solid investments . Even if they came up with a sudden miracle fuel to replace oil . Guess who would suddenly own it ! Ya the oil companies ! .
Your also right about the fact that they have absolutely no incentive to play safe . As far as government oversight goes , they know who pays the bills ;-/ They have everyone over a barrel and they know it ;-/