Oil Spill Deal

[Wil_Bloodworth]

This is NOT a political topic, isn't meant to be, please don't turn it into one because Abel will kill the thread.

Today, they officially announced that the BP oil spill in the gulf is now the largest in US history. I did not vote for Obama and disagree with a lot of his views. However, I believe in treating everyone fairly and justly. It seems that a vast majority of the people who voted for him (and some that didn't) are totally peeved at him for this oil spill deal.

Sure, the US government has been cutting some corners on the permits and other issues... but that is a completely different issue than the oil spill itself. They're two totally separate issues and solving one does not solve the other (at this time).

BP is the 5th largest oil-producing company in the world. They've got years and years and years of experience, top scientists, and tons and tons of gear to deal with pretty much anything and everything related to drilling for oil.

Here's my problem with the people who are complaining that Mr. Obama isn't doing anything... you say you want him to do more... What EXACTLY would you like the man to do? You say, "Take complete control of the situation and get the military involved!" Really?

I feel that is completely ridiculous. Here's an analogy... a surgeon is performing surgery on a patient and accidentally has an artery burst. Blood is going everywhere and unless the artery is fixed, the patient is in a world of hurt. The hospital administrator, who has ZERO medical-training, is informed by the staff that a patient is in dire straits.

That's the situation... and you guys are suggesting that the untrained hospital administrator run in and completely take over the operating room and attempt to solve the problem without any training, any equipment, and any clue. Really?

Our country doesn't have a bunch of people just sitting around who are the best experts in the field at deep-water emergency oil-well capping. We just don't. Do you really think BP doesn't want to get this problem resolved as quickly as possible? They're taking a major hit and will be paying for this for many decades. Therefore, they are more motivated to solve them problem than anyone else.

Even IF the US government was more motivated to solve the problem than BP, the available resources, on-hand knowledge, and equipment... do not exist. They probably exist on a small scale... but nothing compared to the resources, knowledge, and equipment readily available to BP.

So, while I don't agree with the man on a lot of political issues, you've got to give him a break on this oil deal. He's even trying to take responsibility for the problem... which is noble. Let's be a little bit more fair to him. (This is NOT Katrina. There wasn't a huge warning that a few hundred people flipped the bird at and then cried like little babies once they realized it was too late to get out.... but the Katrina deal is a different issue entirely.)

[rab3rd]

I was on Galveston island lastnight down near the state park and while I didnt see any oil coming a shore, I can tell you the number of dead baby and med sized crabs deposited on the beach at the high tide line was like nothing I have ever seen down there before. I have spent most of my life on the beaches here and have seen several red tides kill off lots of fish but I have never seen the crabs die in numbers like I saw yesterday.

[Jake]

I agree with you Wil, but you have a strange way wording things for it not to get political...

[groovyone]

I think part of the scorn sent his way is because it was a day or two before the initial incident that he announced he wanted to increase off shore drilling.

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Originally Posted by groovyone

I think part of the scorn sent his way is because it was a day or two before the initial incident that he announced he wanted to increase off shore drilling.

Yeah... I probably do. I kind of just wrote what I was thinking. I, in no way, want this to be political. I guess it's a really fine line. I prefer to keep it as far from political as possible... as I really hate political discussions.

- Wil

[iCe]

Ditto the voting / support / etc comments

I am going back and forth (internally) about what could and could not be done. He (government via EPA) appears to have blocked dredging that may or may not have helped in Louisiana. There are a lot of emotions tied to the problem and that's understandable but I'm not sure digging a hole and piling up a bunch of mud and bottom dwelling sea life to hold back oil is such a good idea. Typically when we intervene and try to force "nature" we kill everything in the process (Exxon Valdez comes to mind) So... in the end I agree with you.

Rob- I don't know why the crabs are dying but I kind of doubt the cause is the spill. Only "kind of doubt" though. The gulf current normally flows from down south, up across Louisiana and then reconnects with the Loop current, flows on down past the tip of Florida and out to the Atlantic. There are eddy currents that spin off of the Loop current that actually "back flow" into the "Texas" gulf so I suppose it's possible that one has made it to our area and if it has it would likely be carrying oil. If it hasn't it probably will. As an aside to that, the eddy currents are not a given. They don't always spin off. I noticed that NOAA indicated that there were two about a week ago. There is some pretty strong evidence that the eddy current support the formation and strengthening of tropical weather.

One other thing... the oil spilling out in 5,000 foot deep of water is going to add a whole new dimension to the problem (no pun intended). If it were a tanker or two spilling out crude oil then it would start on top of the water, containment booms could be deployed, and while it would be a bad problem it would not have the potential to be as bad as it does now. Basically it was a jet of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (think garden hose nozzle). Because of the way that it was released the likelihood of mixing is high (bad) and mid, lower, and bottom layer stratification likelihood is high (bad). I don't think anyone knows what's going to happen. The "little bit" of oil that has landed on Louisiana shores is tiny compared to what is lurking out there. Nothing good will come out of this I'm afraid.

If you look at the site on Google Earth, it's right on the edge of the Florida Plain. The water lever drops rapidly from 5,000' to 10,000' plus. The odds are pretty high that a lot of oil is stratified in mid, lower, and bottom layers, it was picked up by the Loop current, and a lot has dropped into the Florida plain (still in the loop current)

[brewercm]

I think that the biggest problem is the lack of anyone from the Government coming out and really saying anything about it for over a week. What could they have said was probably minimal at the time but just show that they were involved with BP to try and figure out a fix for the situation. Is it correct that this is the way a majority of the public feels about the govt. being the fix to all their problems, I doubt it but that's the path the country has decided to take. And no, I'm not talking about just this president or any for that matter. The country has decided more and more to give up any responsibility to someone else to decide what is best for them, and this goes back decades.

Personally I doubt that anyone in the govt. has the training or knowledge to deal with this disaster. In which case you have to show up and support those who are trying to fixt it. Not stand back and constantly says that this is BP's fault, they are to blame, we will bilck them for every dollar we can because of their rediculous profits in the past and will basically put them out of business. Then you turn around and say the the only real people who have the experience to fix this problem is the same people you've been kicking in the nuts for the last week all over television.

As far as I'm concerned the best thing that can be done is the govt. say they will be helping in any cleanup processes that need to be completed, and yes BP will be financially responsible. Now put people in place to complete this and if we have anyone that can assist BP in the process of fixing this let us know and we will support you. But by all means don't go onto television and say I wont rest until this emergency is past then leave to go on vacation the next day. Yes, I realize that the president is capable of doing the job from anywhere. It's just the perception that looks bad when you do something like that. Not to mention being blind sided by whatever happened to the head of department that deals with these companies when being asked and not knowing if she's been fired, quite or whatever the case was. It just looks like incompentence and someones head should roll for not getting me that bit of info before putting me out in front of the a press conference.

Just my .02

[Hanky]

I would rather see this in the letters to editor page of the paper but thats me.

[utdbear]

I think they are peeved because he's not doing anything about it(because he really can't) and we've become accustomed to having the government swoop in and save us anytime anything comes along. Until we rid ourselves of that mindset, it doesn't really matter who's in charge, the same result will happen every disaster that comes along. Obama just happened to be sitting in the chair at the time this happened.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

I can guarantee you that anybody and everybody who does deep water drilling and support has their best engineers working on this and giving PB and the govt their advice on how to stop this as quickly as safely as possible, since it could happen to anyone of them in the next day or week or month or year.

So they didn't want this to happen and the longer that it goes the more that it will cost them, read that someone dug into some legislation dating back from after the Exxon Valdeze and that the govt can put fines of like $4,000 per barrell spilt on a situation like this. Heard today that BP has already spent close to $1 billion on this operation todate.

So hope that the mud mix can be thickened up slowly till they can equalize the pressure and then that they can do the cement capping to plug this baby up till they can get the relief wells in.

[janikphoto]

I just shot the exxon annual shareholder's meeting in dallas the other day for a newswire service. This was on their minds, too. Everyone in the industry is worried about the spill for several reasons. Exxon said they've been in contact with the white house and with BP since the first hours that the accident happened. People are trying to solve this problem. It's not a post-accident mistake, it's a pre-accident mistake of poor/inoperable safety equipment on the rig.

[texkam]

A few thoughts.... People are P O'ed at the constant misinfo, covering up and downplaying of things at every step of the way by BP and to a certain extent by the administration. Both were slow to get a grasp and act on the problem. The administration has shown some lack of experience and leadership in the way they communicated to the American people. Way too trusting of BP's numbers and solutions. Slow to allow State and local government to take control of things. It would have been nice to see the President less in a photo op, I feel your pain, we're doing everything we can setting, but more in a strategic, war room, here's what we're doing and we are bringing in our own experts and equipment because BP is not being aggressive enough type of setting.

I'm no expert, but it seemed like BP was reluctant to use this current method of killing their well. Initially it seemed they wanted to find a way to just stop the leak while still being able to get the oil without having to actually kill the well.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Heard that they will let La do the barrier island thing but that may be mute if the well is shut down in the next couple days since it would take them a couple weeks to get them built up and long enough to do much good.

One thing a lot of people don't realize or are not thinking is that a lot of what is being viewed as coming out of the well right now is the drilling/blocking mud. See they are sending it down with pressure and of course they are trying to counter pressure the well so the mud is being pushed back out the pipe since the pressures are not equal. Remember that the well itself is about 2 miles or more down to the zone where the oil and gas is so as the mud is going that 10,000 ft past the ocean floor it is thicker than the oil and defenitely the gas but not at as high of a pressure. So as they ramp up the pressure, don't want to do it to fast or it could blow out the pipe in that 10,000+ft length (anybody know if any of that had been cased?), the mud will work it's way further and further down the pipe until they can exceed the oil beds/zone pressure and once they get to that level they can stabalize it which would allow them to put on a concrete "cap" (basically fill up a bunch of the pipe with concrete to plug it up permenantly-sometimes when they do this plug on land they will go back and redrill through the concrete and reuse the drill hole to re-work the well site which BP probably was hoping that they could do later after everything gets stabalized because I don't think that they want to rely on the angled relief wells for production because of the high pressures that this field probably contains.

Hey at least they know it ain't a dry hole! I bet they will go back and redrill the field with an all new platform and wells.

(If I am mistaken on any of this please let me know-nice to learn about the biz from people who have been there done that.)

I knew the Exxon Shareholders Meeting was coming up and then forgot about it until the afternoon after it was held. I guess there was the usual gaggle of protesters outside?

[rab3rd]

They were about to move off this well, so I would assume that the hole was cased.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

If it was cased they can put more pressure on it when forcing the mud in.