BP Oil Spill Scuttlebutt

[Traveler 45C]

I spoke with one of my friends (a trusted source) who has just returned from the oil spill site. He’s been out there for the last 40 days. He’s a safety inspector but not involved with BP. I don’t know how much of this is already out there but here’s the scuttlebutt:

1. Series of events- A week before the explosion they hit a pocket of pressure during drilling operations. I think it was at this time that they discovered that the Blowout Preventer (BOP) was defective. BP knew they were close to tapping into the oil and knew that the BOP was defective but requested a waiver from MMS to proceed and they got it. They drilled another 300’ and hit oil, the BOP failed to close the pipe and the gasses rushing up the drill pipe at such huge pressures heated the pipe to the point that it ignited the gases and the rig.

2. When BP requested the waiver from MMS, they failed to report the first pressure surge indicating that they were close to hitting oil.

3. The Oil Plume exists. Most of the spilled oil has not reached the surface yet.

4. The spill could have been stopped the first week. BP was offered the services of a company that specializes in oil industry demolition. According to my friend, the well could have been sealed by detonating explosives inside the oil reservoir, collapsing it and sealing the well, but this would have rendered the entire reservoir unusable. BP said, “No Thank you”.

Both BP and MMS knew the BOP was defective.

 

[MikeP]

Makes good "conspiracy theory" stuff.

Frankly, I don't blame anybody. If anyone actually believes that this couldn't happen regardless of how much "safety" stuff was in place, they are dreaming. It sounds just like a typical aircraft accident - not one thing but a sequence of bad things, any one of which could have prevented it. Now it's all about blame which seems to be all we do nowadays. We are a sad shadow of the country we were when "the Greatest Generation" served in WWII.

OTOH, I was happy when the President signed up for more offshore drilling but this event has made me totally change my view of all this. I now believe that the greenies are right. We should just give up on this oil stuff and work toward whatever it takes to get us away from it. If that means that Diesel/gas costs $10 or $20 bucks a gallon at some point, fine. It's time to move on. We used to clean horse crap of the streets every night; those days are gone. The oil days need to be gone too but I don't know if we have the willingness to deal with it.

 

[Vincentc]

I appears to me that an incredible amount of speculation and imagination is passed off as fact. The "frightening" facts presented in most every news story about DWH which I have had the time and ability to research has turned out to be story rather than fact.

For example, to my reading of the Noaa report, the oil plue discovered and sampled consisted of "less than 1/2 part per million" oil. Photos and videos I've see show visible oil in clouds of droplets and "moouse" (spelling?) extending about 5 feet and no more than 10 feet below the surface. I did read of very low oxygen saturation reading about 10 miles south of the Alabama coastline.

This was and is a serious event, like airplane crashes and tanker spills, but it seems to me the extent and effcts of the leak has been grossly overstated.

I have been walking the Perdido Key Beach since Thursday am and have yet to see any oil or visible sheen. I have seen perhaps a sand bucket full of tar balls total. I have seen a bunch of workers on the beach, and am told they have picked up stuff, but I cannot say that I have seen that. I do see slick patches on the Gulf, but not the least sheen.

Based upon my reading and questions to employees of various agencies, to date, despite extensive daily testing, neither the LA or MS marine enviormental agencies has found a single contaminated commercial or sport fish. There have been turtle and dolphin strandings ( which occur anyway, without spilled oil and in particular this time of year ) and most have not, after testing, been attributed to oil.

I will speculate and state my assumption that the "greenies" and government have impeded the efforts to stop the leak and clean up the oil. I picture a mechanic working to fix the engines in my boat with a crowd of angry people who want to go out, standing over him, telling him it is his fault, he should be punished and why hasn't he fixed it yet. According to the park ranger I spoke to, who is supervising the clean up on the beach here, the people out here on the beach, per OSHA, work 10 minutes then have to rest for 20.

The government has taken over health care, and will soon take over energy production and consumption. Visits to the president cost a business $20 billion. Utopia will be here shortly.