the funny thing is Obama said he wants the expansion of drilling stopped until we find out what happens. Too bad investigations like this take years of investigation and forensics. Just shows how clueless Obama is on these type of technical matters.
Oh yes, their core is rooted in hypocrisy. You know if Bush was in office the left wing news outlets would have started the smear on him 5 minutes after the incident, and continue 24x7.
It is estimated to take about two months for this leak to be capped. This is a disaster, and an environmental one to boot, but it will be dealt with using the most advanced technology in the world, and will be done so as quickly as humanly possible.
As for the frozen production on some rigs in the gulf, this is what should happen, and i promise you it is taking place across the board, all over the world in regards to any fail safe systems that are similar to the ones that were on this rig. If there is an error beyond a human one, the industry needs to insure that their equipment is safe before going back into production. This entire spill will cost 10’s of billions of dollars across the board (if not more).
Regarding the price of gas, well stop driving if you have a problem with the price of a gallon of gas. What is going on in The Gulf of Mexico is an unfortunate side effect to the price of doing business if we want to continue using oil as our primary fuel source. Prices will continue to climb as the price of technology to reach new oil sources increase, and since the technology is advancing as rapidly as it is, there are bound to be failures occasionally that result in price spikes.
The last thing I want to see is companies starting to cut corners after the mess so that they can keep your gallon of gas down 50 cents.
No you are disrespecting them, because you are glossing over the complexities of this situation for your personal political soap box. No offense but to me it’s not different then people protesting soldiers funerals. Your exploiting catastrophe in order to suggest some sort of convoluted conspiracy that allows for you to rant and rave about your personal agenda!
People need to chill out. Yes there will be pollution on the beaches and marshes but who cares. That all can be cleaned up just as good as before it happened. The people who’s property or business is damaged by this will be overly compensated.
11 people lost their lives and the media shows a bird covered in oil flopping around. Who gives a crap about a stupid bird. You cant replace human life, but we can fix the oil spill.
Gee Bubba, it’s that easy huh? With all respect to the 11 guys and their families may God bless them, but obviously you have never been to the gulf coast nor do you live there. You cant just clean up an oil spill like a glass of spilled milk. There are possibilities of entire species being wiped out due to this. No I am not a tree hugger, but I do respect wildlife and care for helpless animals who have to suffer due to our mistakes. How about a little more compassion and insight to the whole situation, not just loss of human life?
I do live on the gulf coast; I enjoy fishing in the gulf and I spend time on her beaches. I am saddened this has happened and it is unfortunate that animals will die.
Don’t get me wrong, this is an unfortunate event. But this is getting blown out of proportion. We have bigger problems in this country then an oil slick on our beaches that can be cleaned up. For instance the drug war going on on our boarders.
bub,
Time will tell but I’ll go a cold beer this is going to end up much worse than anyone first expected. There’s a lot of smart guys/gals working on it but I don’t foresee any quick solution to stopping the leak.
If major supply lines become un-navicable…it’s gonna hurt alot more than just the civis on the gulf coast.
That is a good point.
I am afraid it will be at least a couple months before they are able to kill the well. I hope they can figure out a better way to collect the oil before then.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: “Earlier today, DHS Secretary Napolitano announced that this incident is of national significance and the Department of Interior has announced that they will be sending SWAT teams to the Gulf to inspect all platforms and rigs. And I have ordered the Secretaries of Interior and Homeland Security as well as Administrator Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency to visit the site on Friday to ensure that BP and the entire U.S. government is doing everything possible, not just to respond to this incident, but also to determine its cause.”
Hmm…I thought this was just a freak accident. Surely they aren’t being sent to make sure the valves are working and the drills are drilling because the last time I checked SWAT teams weren’t experts in the oil industry.
here’s a quote from a compadre on the ground / la:
[b]Sunday update
Let’s just say things are looking worse every day , as there is no prediction date when the leak will be stopped
The Coastguard has also said that that leak rate could turn out to be much greater than 5,000 barrels since current numbers are only guesstimates.
LA fisherman and shrimpers who know this area (bays , marshes, coastline, etc…) are pleading to help so they can set out booms to minimize the damage. They want to save their industry and the ecosystem
Sadly , Government red tape and politics are taking to long to grant them permission to help. The POTUS has waited nine days to act on this oil disaster in the Gulf.
originally, I think BP thought they could handle the problem themselves. I believe BP is doing ALL they can to fix this problem yet it has overwhelmed them. All the majors (Exxon, Shell, etc…) worldwide are trying to help BP figure out how to cork this thing.
in the long run, BP is the responsible party under the OPA, so they are on the hook for all cleanup expense. There is also a funded federal oil spill fund into which the oil companies pay for spill response which has a billion plus in it, and that will be used for compensation to third parties.
If fed resources are used directly in cleanup, they will send the bill to BP. All the majors and the feds will throw all their available resources at the crisis, and fight later over who pays who back.
Several days ago it was reported that the decision was made not to install a half million dollar electronic remote control BOP, on the basis that it was unnecessary. While that might have failed too, this is going to drive the lawyers nuts…I’m sure TransOcean and BP are going back over that little email chain right now dropping turds over who made the final call.
I support and pray for all who are involved as this ain’t good. Even if they stop the leak today, there are still millions of gallons of oil in the Gulf
100 ton steel domes are being fabricated to place over the leaks. The technology has been deployed for leaks at much shallower depths but has never been used for a deep-sea spill.
a drill ship has been dispatched to the area to begin digging a relief well that would intercept the oil from the existing pipes at about 18,000 feet below the surface. This will allow the company to close off the leaking well, but the process will take at least three months and possibly much longer.
Since Friday, high winds & waves have rendered some booms useless
[/b]
this response is just sad, and so unbelievably ignorant…
apparently you have no idea what the ramifications of this mess are.
How, exactly, can you “promise” that it is? The Russians, the Chinese, the Venezuelans, and all the other interests around the world who are drilling offshore have ceased production until they get to the bottom of what happened in the gulf?
I’d love to see the evidence of that. I think you’ll be hard pressed to find it.
Source? I was waiting for that. Your right I can’t prove anything in regards to the producers your talking about above. Rather I was talking about the U.S., and U.K. producers whose primary market for refined gas and oil products are the United States and Europe. Those companies that are listed on the big board… My apologies.
As for my source?
Well, my father spent a total of 6 years getting this project off the ground, and up and running for a major oil producer:
The extent of this project (the largest in the world at the time, and if I remember correctly the largest single investment on the part of the company) has been spread over multiple countries. His involvement meant the building of the ship, transport of the ship, first several years of operation, and training for the future employees, as well as allocating all of the spare parts and stocking them for any future breakdowns. He is also a safety coordinator for said company.
Yes, I am a son of a roughneck. I grew up in the oil fields of Wyoming. I’ve known the best way to survive gas leaks and blow outs since around the same time I knew how to handle a firearm (about 5).
I don’t even consider the producing nations your talking about when I think about projects like this. Why? Because the only way they effect the price of oil is through manipulation of the 3rd world market, not by investing in exploratory projects that insure that 1st world stock holders see a profit on their returns.
So why did I write what I wrote? Because every one of the big boys is deeply invested in exploratory deep well drilling, on land and off (deep sea). All of the big boys have invested the billions they made in the last two decades into securing projects like the Horizon , and the one I posted an image of above. They did this in order to insure their future profitability as a company and in inlight of the 80’s/90’s realities of; OPEC, the above producers you listed, the growing 3rd world demand, and the depletion of US federal reserves.
Each company utilizes an equation that determines if the investment into the new technology will produce a certain percentage of returns annually. If the project doesn’t pan out, they don’t invest. The Horizon was a major investment, and it was made based off these returns, which would have been spread out over decades. It was also the considered the cutting edge in regards to technology. Therefore so was the safety system on it (or something close to it within the last 5 years). The system was also redundant as all hell. It was deemed by the company as more then capable of protecting its investment/profit, and the lives of its workers.
If you think for a second that all of these major deep drilling projects aren’t being reviewed by the big boys and put on hold while system checks are preformed, then your naive and un-aware of how the industry works.
Exxon Valdez was the worst PR disaster the Oil Industry could have ever suffered. It destroyed a large majority of the public’s trust in Exxon, it made us timid about off shore drilling, on shore drilling, and transport of oil through “sensitive” areas. The tragedy was blamed on Exxon, not on the reality of the situation. Not on the fact that it was human error that caused the accident. All of this despite the facts that: 1. Some of the most successful advancements in the areas of oil cleanup came as a result of this accident, and 2. There have been several (last count on my end 7) spills internationally since Valdez that have been worse both in gallons lost and damage to the environment.
Moral of the story? New technology blowing up, killing workers, and drowning baby sea lions off the coast of the United States is bad for the numbers. Also, any US/UK based company that experiences similar problems abroad, while not as ugly, is also bad for the numbers, especially if it involves baby sea lions covered in oil.
Solution: Avoid all three at all costs no matter if it means stopping production for a short (or long period) and thus resulting in you the consumer having to pay a little bit more at the pump.
ExxonMobil, Shell, ChevronTexaco, and BP don’t give a flying f@ck about what we pay at the pump. They only care that we will still be paying something similar in twenty years for the same product. Shutting down production right now to insure that this happens is not a concern.
From my end, I’m happy that these equations are in existence as it means that the people that know how to do their jobs can take the time to train more, and solve problems so that future tragedies don’t happen. It means my father and people just like him can shut something down quickly and efficiently and not be questioned about a loss of immediate sales if they deem there is a safety risk to the workers and companies.
Tribute video to the 11 that died on the Deepwater Horizon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P16TDF9qEKo
This is a tribute to the 11 men missing from the Deepwater Horizon. I did not make this video but I did feel it needed to be up for the world to see. Oilfield workers catch a bad wrap but most don’t understand it is a way of life for us and once in a while some of our brothers pay the ultimate sacrifice. The song is by Trace Adkins, it’s called Missing You. Trace used to work for Transocean so it is fitting that his song speaks well about what we go through. Please don’t leave hateful comments or I will delete them.
Jason Anderson
Dewey Revette
Donald Clark
Stephen Curtis
Dale Burkeen
Roy Kemp
Karl Kleppinger
Shane Roshto
Adam Weise
Gordon Jones
Blair Manuel
As the brother of a Rough Neck, this is what it’s about. These guys were just out there supporting their families. It’s important for all of us to be responsible stewards of our environment, of course, but these men are never coming back home. Ever. There are many in this country who have it backward.
“God Speed to the men and their families, but…” is a crock.
Thank you. I’m getting about sick and tired of seeing the dead sea turtles shown over and over.
I’m sorry as I know those eleven men meant the world to their families, but eleven human beings is a pretty small deal compared to the damage this leak is going to do to the ecosystem. We’re talking tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of fish, birds, turtles, shrimp, oysters, organisms, etc., being wiped out. Those wetlands and marshes will take decades, possible centuries, to recover. We haven’t even touched on had badly this will affect the economy. From tourism to fishermen, this is going to affect a lot more than eleven families.
What if it takes three months to cap this well? This leak, as it’s not really a spill, could dump up to two million gallons of oil. This is an environmental disaster of epic proportions.
Valdez spilled 10.8 million gallons of heavier nastier thicker crude. If you look at all the major spills in the last 43 years, this one is pretty small.
I stand corrected, but my math is also incorrect. 200K gallons a day, over 90 days, would be about 18 million gallons. Still much smaller than some in the thread you posted. Still large enough to do enormous economic and environmental damage.