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A series of explosions appears to have collapsed the seafloor and blown up the BOP at the well head. Oil and gas are billowing out of a depression in the seafloor where the BOP used to be at an exponentially greater rate than anything seen before.
My theory: The well consisted of the casing with the drill pipe inside it. The sand and rocks that turned the gusher into a giant sandblaster that blew out holes in the riser pipe at the kinks was coming from the walls of the well that the cement between the casing and the wall was supposed to protect. Therefore, the hole has been getting bigger and bigger and now it’s like a volcano vent with the piping inside it probably a twisted mess.
The relief wells can’t possibly stop this because anything they add will just be blown out of the volcano.
Now what?
h/t to noblejoanie for mentioning this in a comment to Scarecrows article titled "Can We Stop This and Future Oil Disasters?" She also provided this link. I’m seeking verification.
57 Comments
Here’s a link to a comment at the oil drum earlier this evening. Apparently, BP may have inserted a loop to conceal what happened because everything looks the way it looked before the explosion. This person appears to have seen the aftermath of the explosion, so monkeyfister may be legitimate. If so, we have a whole new and potentially deadly scenario to deal with.
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Great diary, Mason. Rec’d.
With all due respect, I can’t help hoping this didn’t really happen: consequences are almost too awful to contemplate.
Heaven help us.
I feel the same way.
I’ve been worried about something like this happening since the multiple plumes were reported.
I’ve been capturing the stream for just under an hour. I will look back at it in a bit.
Can you tell if you’re viewing a loop? Thanks.
I would think not. I seem to have gotten the end of whatever happened. The camera repositioned and settled back at another angle.
If you can say this with a straight face, it appears ‘normal’.
Ok. Thanks. Still worried, though. Times like this make me really wish I had broadband so I could view livestreams.
Where is Superman?
All of this could be settled by a few moments of timestamped ROV footage in the direction of the BOP + wellhead.
And some explanation of those newly sunken areas.
Momkeyfister posted this comment about 30 minutes ago at the oil drum.
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Just saw this at Yves Smith’s (NakedCapitalism), while wrapping up late weekend odds-and-ends.
No one seems to have an explanation, and the lack of time code on that footage translates into diminished trust; how do we know we’re not watching loops, eh?
Meanwhile, this news is on an econ blog, and at FDL.
Nothing as of yet at NYT or at MSNBC.
And complete silence from BP.
Mason, thanks for all the info, I’ve read all of this, from Monkeyfister to OIl Drum.
I think it’s still inconclusive to determine what has happened, why, or how.
But SOMETHING happened, and over the past 24 hours FDL Pups have presented a TON of info on the science and geologics involved in this instance.
Regarding the initial fuck up, where the leaks were the riser pipe?
It was documented early on by Oil Drum and others that erosion from hydrates melting, sediment flowing and pumped industrial mud would erode everything down there.
So I’m ok with that.
As to the past 24 hours and what Monkeyfister reports? SOMEthing has gone wrong down there!
Yes.
But what?
I don’t think we know, yet.
I do believe as you and others have suggested, shit’s happened and the possibility of a bigger hole, a new hole, and worse, are plausible.
But we don’t know yet, what DID happen, or what it means.
Do I suspect a tape loop? Absolutely.
Only time will tell what’s going on, and how bad it is.
They DID apparently, call off the Junk Shot (BP called it off I think?).
All I ask Mason, is you rephrase some of your posits to say, “WE THINK SHIT HAPPENED”, because at this moment, we don’t know what happened, and well . . . as others have said (and I’ve challenged them at times for saying it) calling ideas and thoughts for reality is just not a proven science.
We don’t know what happened today, down there. Something happened, though.
Till we have FACTUAL info to detail WHAT happened, let’ make sure in our comments and our diaries we are sharing “WE THINK SHIT HAPPENED.” Not we know something happened.
I’m all for speculating and discussing worst case in any event.
But let’s make sure when we diary, we ensure that folks know we ARE speculating.
That’s all I’m askin . . .. . . the truth of it all will reveal itself soon enough . . . in the meantime, we need to honor the privilege afforded us to SPEAK about this horrible disaster as it unfolds.
I’m suspicious of the loop idea, as Monkey Fister DID document and screen shot with solid facts.
Something happened, I don’t doubt the new live feed is a loop.
And I REALLY wanna know what’s happened down there, and what’s happening now.
Because, the speculations and ideas of what COULD have happened, and MIGHT be happening are fucking frightful.
I’m not ready to think BP poured Junk Shot and fucked up, I’m more inclined to think (speculate) that mama nature has blown a new hole, and shit sank ocean floor wise.
And NONE of those posits are good for any of us or The Gulf.
Did this hole just get incrementally HUGER, than it was?
Did the well head itself blow off completely?
Did a new hole create itself from the disturbances BP has created?
How fragile IS that rock strata cap that holds Tiber Field in place?
The fears are endless . . . now, we wait for the truth as to what’s going on.
Cuz we can’t HIDE Mama Nature, and PSI Science at them depths.
It’s gonna show itself, fully, before this is over.
From other blogs and sites I understand the pressure at the wellhead to be approx. 2500psi . High enough to erode even stainless steel . And certainly high enough to have done damage over the last 30 days . I don’t expect to hear any verification of the seafloor collapse from MSM , if indeed it did happen . I do know MSM said flow from the “straw in a fire hose” dropped significantly . Why ? A guess would be that flow was diverted somehow . Around the well pipe ? A distinct possibility . The “snowflakes” in images seen are most likely just that , methane gas crystallizing from the pressure drop as it exits hole , or the new hole , or a larger hole , or a matrix of holes .
If there is no life feed from the BOP, we have no evidence anything has happened to the BOP.
I have now watched four different camera positions looking at what appears to be the same gush-point on the riser. When the ROV with camera moves to a different position, it stirs up the sediment, and we get a whitish cloud that obscures the view, then settles out and we have another view of the same riser point.
Okay, I’m taking up religion. Doesn’t seem there’s any science or government to help out.
I don’t want to believe this and yet I notice it is once again getting very, very hard to find ANY news coverage of the BP leak or any news that hasn’t been out there for weeks already. We get political news, such as, Salazar is doing this, Obama should do that, Rand Paul said blah blah blah and so forth. But what about the leak itself? That feed is crap IMO. How do we know it’s a live feed? It could a live feed of anything. Or not.
hence my unabated state of grieving, starting April blowout, following the few years of foreboding since this spate of Gulf drilling began. Seemed just like a matter of time, whether via lazy goof or intentional.
really…really… sad.
didn’t have to happen.
I believe it was Olberman the other night: uttered a simple, “… or maybe not.”
drilling not nearly as important as securing the house against the worst case… perfectly normal, greedy/hasty/lazy/impatient humans counting on truly blind luck, and now are(?) shocked, just shocked at the most likely outcome they could have expected.
so easy for them to proceed as if they knew what they were doing.
or maybe not…
oops.
and there goes a priceless treasure….
last i looked, walmrt shelves contained no replacement coral reefs, and the legendary Gulf Stream fishery days were numbered. Storied cleansing and nursary, and migration flyway functions of southeastern US marshes?
oops.
sick at heart.
First, Larue is right. I got ahead of the story when I phrased the title and wrote my diary intro. I sincerely apologize for that.
Nevertheless, something weird is going on down there. No one appears to be questioning monkeyfister’s observations or screenshots at the oil drum and several people noticed the same things. There’s a good discussion going on at the oil drum regarding possible explanations for monkeyfister’s observations ranging from ROV thrusters kicking up mud on the bottom, to BP clearing out its straw insertion pipe every couple hours, to BP practicing a Top Kill by slowly adding drilling mud to the choke and kill valves on the BOP (which assumes the BOP is still there), to an enlarged drilling hole similar to the scenario that I described in my intro.
BP remains ominously silent and may very well have used a loop to conceal what’s happening.
I’m sticking to my original theory: Gas and oil under enormous pressure is shooting up between the casing and the sedimentary rock wall of the well eroding the wall and widening the hole. As it hits the near freezing seawater at the seafloor, the gas solidifies forming a snowfall of hydrates and the volume of oil is increasing as the hole gets wider, truly a whiskey-tango-foxtrot moment.
Meanwhile, follow the discussion on oil drum starting with monkeyfister’s comment last night, and/or check back here for updates.
Thanks so much for this post. I could cry. I feel rather helpless and hopeless at this stage, and watching assorted political idiots strutting around posturing and posing does nothing to give me the slightest bit of reassurance. Guess we all have to hunker down and assume the worst. It seems clear to me that BP is clueless about what to do, and it sure doesn’t seem like anyone else out there has a clue, either. Great… just great.
If there’s no context being provided for the videos, no conclusions can be drawn from them. If you can’t tell a riser from a wellhead, then you’re really in the dark.
Here’s a link to a nice graphic from nola.com that explains the Top Kill:
Link
Here’s another link to a graphic from the good folks at nola.com explaining the drilling method.
Link
The oil coming out of the riser pipe portrayed on BP’s streaming video looks like it has increased substantially, which is not a good sign. Meanwhile, BP says the flow from the insert pipe has been slowing down for two days, which indicates that it’s plugging up.
Looking at both diagrams, I think the sand and rocks are being eroded from the sedimentary rock wall of the well by the oil and gas gusher, which means the oil and gas gusher is not confined to the area enclosed by the casing and riser pipe. Therefore, the Top Kill and Jam Shot methods won’t stop the gusher.
If I’m right about the well wall eroding, the hole is getting bigger.
The BOP is not visible in the streaming video that I’ve been looking at.
I can only wonder, why?
Disquieting discussion @ oildrum.com:
Note that Rockman is the knowledgeable expert.
Dissident:
“Pressures naturally drop but this reservoir is not like the shallower ones. I can see the pressure being lost rapidly in some east Texas wildcat of long ago, but in this case we have an extremely pressurized gas oil mixture (no gas cap) that will exhibit similarities to gas well blowouts that lasted for years.”
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AlanFromBigEasy:
“A truly horrible point that I had not considered.”
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GregTX:
Point of confusion: What do you mean there’s no gas cap?
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Rockman:
“Greg — In some reservoirs there can be separate layers of NG/oil/water. Due to density differences the NG will sit above the oil which sits above the water. Typically you don’t produce a NG cap until you’ve depleted oil layer.
But the truly worrisome aspect of the BP blow out is not knowing the reservoir drive mechanism. If it were pure pressure depletion the NG would come out of solution and pressure would drop proportional to the amount of oil produced. But in a water drive reservoir the pressure can remain fairly constant over the life of well and the flow rate doesn’t drop until the reservoir is depleted. What makes this blow out so unique and dangerous is that it’s a cased hole. Had it blown out in a open hole it probably would vae collapsed (“bridged over”) and stopped flowing long before now.”
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Pressure and velocity can and will erode, even steel, given enough time.
That’s because you’re staring at the riser, not the wellhead.
Mason, I’m just catching up for today’s new news . . . you are doing an exemplary job of staying with this story.
Sorry I was too passionate about asking what I did . . . I should have been MUCH more encouraging of your effort when I provided my comments yesterday.
Thanks for all you are doing . . . and keep it coming.
Now to continue to catch up to it all . . . I need to spend a day at oildrum . . . I’ve missed a lot there if Pups didn’t link it to FDL postings . . .
Good links and as solid posits as we can have given what we know.
Thanks.
I’m with you. I’ve been in a state of grief since this happened….my best ever cat died too, so that may have added to it. but I’ve been an environmentalist all my life and to see this…well.
I notice NOTHING on MSM. but they’ve been trying to hide the severity ever since it happened.
Only bloggers are picking this up. Expect imminent sale of internet to Comcast.
Interesting comments over here:
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1074966/pg3
Here’s some pretty good footage. I can’t see the sequence as well in the monkeyfister shots:
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/05/24/breaking-news-reports-huge-explosions-seafloor-collapse-beneath-gulf-oil-spill/
If this is true were FUCKED big time! This is no longer a spill it’s the equivalent of a nuke meltdown! This is a thousand Chernobyls all at once if true! God help us now. Obama can kiss his Presidency all but over if this is true. All people will remember about this guy is that he left BP in charge of this and walked away saying he was powerless. WTF???
My wife calls it a reverse Event Horizon. As y’all prolly know, an event horizon is the point at which light cannot escape from a black hole in space.
This is like one of those horror movies where somebody stumbles onto an ancient moldy leather book of curses, opens it in dim candle light, and utters one curse out loud that opens a gateway to Hell releasing all of its demons.
Trouble is we can’t cancel the curse by chanting, “It’s only a movie.”
Responding to a question posed by SharpTusk, Rockman says,
“Sharp — the oil/NG is coming up the well and flowing out of the well head with the BOP sitting on top of it. Any oil/NG leaking from the riser is coming from the well head. Some of the flow is coming up the drill pipe and some from the casing that the drill pipe is sitting in. So in that sense the leaking riser is just secondary source . If the riser weren’t there the same amount of oil/NG would be spilling into the GOM.
On the production side: The well head would be sitting on the sea floor: no BOP or riser. It would have pipelines lines running to some distant processing plant. Perhaps on a platform or all the way to the shore. Control lines would run back to the well head from the process facility and that’s how they would control the well, such as shut it in. There would also be safety chokes systems that would hopefully shut the well in should it ever start leaking. And yes, pipeline plugging problems can occur. These systems allow a “pig” to be run inside the pipeline occasionally to clean out such materials.
Crimping the drill pipe isn’t that unrealistic but I’ve never seen it done. In fact, drill pipe specs are designed to prevent exactly that. Drill pipe, especially that used in DW, is very, very strong. I suspect the equipment to do such crimping may not even exist. I don’t know much about riser design but they do handle very heavy mud weights and thus can handle pressure fairly well. But this one is bent and split so I suspect that’s a mute point now.”
Link
I posted this question to Rockman on the oildrum just now:
Rockman,
I suspect the gas/oil/water mixture has breached the casing in multiple places and it’s eroding the sedimentary rock and widening the drill hole. I suspect that the cement gave way and, since no intact boundary separates the contents of the drill pipe from the contents in the space between the drill pipe and the casing and the contents of the space between the casing and the sedimentary wall, this is why there is so much sand and rock in the gas/oil/water mixture exploding out of the riser.
This puppy hasn’t shown any sign of weakening during the past 34 days. If anything the plumes appear to have increased, which suggests to me that the volume vomiting out of Hell, so to speak is increasing. I don’t think the pressure is increasing. If I’m right, the sand blaster is blowing more and ever larger holes in the drill and riser pipes before and after the BOP, plus widening the hole, and this is why more stuff is coming out.
I don’t see how the Top Down and/or Jam Shot, if successful, can do anything but divert the flow outside the casing increasing the pressure and erosion of sedimentary rock and substantially widening the hole. Since the first few hundred feet or so below the seafloor is mud, I suspect that the well hole is much wider at the top and the dramatic turbidity increase some people noticed yesterday was mud displacement at the well head.
Again assuming my scenario is correct and this is a water driven blowout, what are the chances that a relief well can shut this puppy down?
Seems to me we’re in a race against time and the biggest long-shot Louie at Hialeah wouldn’t put a fin on our fate now.
Comments?
What’s your take on this, Oilfieldguy?
I surmise the pressure is remaining pretty constant, but the volume is increasing because the sandblasting effect is opening and widening holes.
I just spotted this comment by Roger Faulkner on the oildrum.
Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill Multiple Plumes due to Supercritical Oil Fractionation
Re-posted with edits May 24, 2010 (posted to The Oil Drum Roger Faulkner)
I have consulted with several experts, and I have modified this blog post somewhat from previous posts, but the essential ideas are intact. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is different from all previous blow-outs because of four separate unusual or unique aspects of this particular blowout:
1. The gas: oil ratio (GOR) in this well is reported to be about 3000, which means about 150 pounds of gas per 285 pounds of oil (34% gas by weight, more than 70% by mole ratio methane + ethane). This well is between a typical gas well and a typical oil well. The high amount of gas at the high pressure of the reservoir means that the properties of the reservoir must be understood as a supercritical solution which I here term petrogas. It is possible that there is no fluid phase boundary within the reservoir, but the expert I spoke to (Dr. Robert M. Enick, Bayer Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh) thinks that is unlikely. On the other hand if two phases do coexist within the reservoir, it is very likely that more than 50% of the weight of the petroleum is in the supercritical phase, since at 12,000 psi Methane is a very strong solvent. We bet a beer on this; I still think the petrogas is a single supercritical phase in the reservoir. We both agree that by the time the petrogas rises to the wellhead, it is probably a two-phase flow.”
etc.
As Spock would say, “Fascinating, Captain.”
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Not only that, you’re not talking about solid rock forming the crust, it’s more than likely salt deposits and sandstone
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/05/big-picture-why-was-deepwater-drilling.html
Which seems to me to mean, that there’s a whole lotta pressure under a weak crust and that if it fractures and really does blow more than you suggest, there could be a hole hundreds, if not thousands, of feet wide
Hello fellow Firepups..and thanks Mason, Newt, Larue and NobleJoanie.
1. I also saw tweeted rpts 3:00AM E that ‘something different was happening’ on the live feed and so, tuned in. I have no screen captures to share, but it did appear almost completely blacked out with only a dim glint of ROV camera reflection as water/oil/debris blew by. I did see jerky, but not chaotic, intentional camera movement, repositioning? Again, it was like peering though squid ink with bits floating by. This in high contrast what is visible on the live cam right now. Notably:what I saw on the BP feed differed from the WKRG feed at that hour, which suggests delay or.. a loop.
FYI, the two links I’ve been using are via WKRG.com out of Mobile/Pensacola. WKRG image appears to be on 2 min. slight time delay from the BP direct feed and it bears a BP-delivered crawl of PR blather.
This is the direct BP feed. Right now, only about half the image is visible. (This may be a memory foul-up on my end, however. If you have very hi speed access and can view both streams simultaneously.. check this out.)
2. Info to share (and firepups, forgive me if this has already been covered by Oilfieldguy’s earlier diaries) – here is a link to a report filed on TheOilDrum (5/21/10) that – bullseye —
says insufficient cement was used, points to Halliburton. Further, it details the structure and depths of the well/mechanics itself. I am no geologist or oil field production person. However, I’ve seen/rd some discussions, including Faulkner’s, that reiterate the volume and force of the methane hydrate release involved is without precedent. One geochemist said, ‘you don’t wanna mess with methane hydrate..’ but didn’t elaborate. Yeah, not helpful, I know.
Also, by now you all may have heard/read that there are about 50 BP-paid PR flaks spewing disinformation on Twitter and Facebook poohpoohing everyone’s terror. If you’re on Twitter, monitor . BP rolled out the same dis-info ploy following the Texas refinery fire; their intention? To lessen their liability pay-out. Truthout may already have details about this up.
Here are just two of their oh-so-helpful tweets:
BPGlobalPR >
You know what they say about the ocean… Once it goes black it never goes back! JOKING – the water is brown.
BPGlobalPR >
Looks like the oil is on its way around Florida and up the East Coast. Consider it a hug America! Free “BP Cares” shirts – #iwantmybptshirt
Will check back with you all later on this and future #blacktide postings, pups.
-bleuz00m
Okay here are those links – the link=widget didn’t fly:
1> WKRG.com live cam feed with BP PR blather crawl:
http://newsblogged.com/video-live-streaming-gulf-oil-spill-cam-bp-webcam
2> BP’s live cam whose image looks to be only half-screen:
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html
3> TheOilDrum rpt from 5/21/10 detailing mechanics of DH rig and what went wrong:
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6493
Hope the links work this time? Sorry Firepups for the hiccup.
-bleuz00m
I believe the information you dug up probably explains why the drilling team had so much trouble with gas kickbacks and why the team finally settled on using a foam based cement containing nitrogen. The rock is so porous that the cement between the casing and the rock wall must have been disappearing into the porous walls of the formation before it could set up and dry. The team probably pumped so much more cement than on any other job that, like pilots who get disoriented when they can’t see the horizon and the ground, they stopped trusting their instruments and decided to go with their instincts and ignore the instruments.
Big Mistake!
BP appears to be actively concealing something at the wellhead/BOP.
What are they concealing?
When did it happen?
Why are they concealing it?
How bad is it?
I’ve been looking at the current live feed on CNN and I can’t tell WTF I’m looking at, or what is going on because the object in the foreground is concealing the source of the leak in the background. Seriously folks, how do we know that we aren’t looking at a scene filmed in CEO Tony Hayward’s hot tub three years ago?
OK, I’m trying to be objective here and I buried my tinfoil hat in a dumpster behind the Last Pentecostal Church after I torched my sorry ass for getting ahead of this story with my headline, but Jeeze Louise.
Obviously, MMS should issue a bunch of drilling permits for Tony Hayward’s hot tub.
Oh yes Earthquakes. Like seismic activity. Well, at least on dryland, explosions to drill deep for “renewables” – geothermal – causes seismic tremors. Like at Alta Rock
At least, if Halliburton is doing the drilling …
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/science/earth/16alta.html
http://www.halliburton.com/ps/default.aspx?pageid=3430&navid=1585
I’m providing the link to Monkeyfisters site again and I recommend scrolling down and clicking on the Comments link. The six pages of comments from people with screen shots and video clips makes a pretty compelling case supporting Monkeyfister’s observations.
As always, however, read and decide for yourselves.
It’s 11:35 PM where I live. I’m going to fix something to eat and grab some sleep.
That’s the latest and greatest for tonight.
Over and out.
Link.
If y’all believe in a higher power, please take a few minutes tonight to hook up with it and ask for help because nothing that I know about this situation gives me any reason to be hopeful.
Peace.
Good to see you wade into this John.
I concur WRT the possibility that this mess we have drilled into is lethal as hell, in a number of ways.
One thing I’m confused about is that at Oil Drum and other places, there’s a lot of talk of the oil field in question in terms of volume. That alone would determine pressures of release, combined with depth of source and well drilling, etc.
All which is under consideration, depending on who ya read.
So, wiki alone is interesting:
Tiber Field
Deep Water Rig
Macondo 252
So what’s at stake here? What’s the volume being released attached to.
Is Macondao part of Tiber Field or not?
WTF is the truth of what DeepWater Horizon tapped into, and is being released?
And what’s the difference between Tiber Field and Macondo?
Cuz SOME one is fuckin lying about it all, and callin it for some thing it ain’t.
Ya know?
Yeah, I’m kinda inclined to this from all Monkeyfister and MANY other sources have spoken of, regarding the geology of the ocean floor and what’s UNDER it at this site, and this field.
I’m with ya on this, in general . ..
We hope, eh . . . we hope.
Good questions, Mason. I just spent the last 2 hrs min reading through The Oil Drum’s latest update. Here:
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6501
begun at 9:21 this morning;last comment 12:13 AM this morning (5/25.)
And listening to the press-only conference call held earlier today by BP brass, Doug Suttles, here:
here: http://cgvi.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=881088
Briefly, there are several ROV (remote cameras) in position, and the reported holes in the seabed – visible as the cameras are panned around – were dug by the ROV themselves, in order to reposition them. The explosion reported ::appears:: to have been seabed mud getting kicked around by the ROV units being repositioned obscuring the view. NOT an oil volcano, yet.
One surprising piece of info from this Oil Drum page: most of the oil is still underwater, suspended, in plumes. I’m not clear as to why, however. From other rpts I’ve read, this may be due to the volume and type of dispersants used – both on the sea surface as well as underwater – and the density and coldness of the water and the varying viscosity of the oil itself.
Here is an industry discussion of the types of dispersants available and their actions, provided to me by a Navy friend/progressive/enviro OperationFree member who is also a geochemist. Note that it’s an oil industry site:
http://www.itopf.com/spill-response/clean-up-and-response/dispersants/
(mechanics of dispersants being used, how they work)
OilDrum page’s contributors are production field members, fluid mechanics engineers, sub-strata geologists, deep drilling pro’s and a few clueless trolls comparing insights. None of the postings are from BP brass themselves. However, one commenter stated that the Brazilian petroleum (Petrobras) engineers have been conferring w/ BP and Coast Guard behind the scenes. That’s something at least I had not heard about from MSM. Petrobras has extensive experience with deep water drilling, though BP says it the largest deep water operation. Sounds like chest thumping to me, but others here may know more about that.
Here is what one OilDrum contributor, ‘xazp,’ posted at 9:49PM tonight, summarizing this conf call w/ Doug Suttles:
http://cgvi.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=881088
From listening to the conf call myself, here’s what I know:
The top kill is now scheduled for Wednesday. Using explosives to stop the well have been completely ruled out because ostensibly at that depth, there is increased danger due to the unpredictability of rapid thawing of methane hydrates – gas. That the white, snowy stuff we’ve seen on the web cam. What’s coming outta the seabed isn’t just oil.
The top kill was delayed because BP is moving into position an object called Lower Marine Riser Package (a piece of pipe sticking up from the riser to the blow out preventer (BOP)) in prep for the top kill. Acronym city:we’ll hear LMRP slung around today (Tuesday) and tomorrow. And BP is claiming other less-toxic dispersants are being sought; there are 13 of them, and there are some questions about their relative toxicity. More, it sounds like vendors other than Nalco, producer of Corexit, don’t have the volume or supply chain to handle this. Mind you, Nalco and BP are buds:
http://www.protecttheocean.com/bp-corexit-japanese-connection/
nikko/japan http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/13/business/nikko-acquires-20-of-blackstone-group.html
Lastly, Suttles reported only 60 miles of shoreline have been hit with the oil. Others on the web incl press report it’s almost 66 miles of shoreline.
-bleuzoom
Hey Mason.. just posted herein, trying my best to find answers to the questions you posted.
-bleuz00m
Early reports from Oil drum and Truthsky dot com had mud operators pulled off the job early to save outside contractor expenses. And the mud operators were responsible for REPORTS!
Once pulled, they never got a chance to report about the fail of rising gas, failed mud.
Had then been on the job, we may never know if they could have PREVENTED this explosion on the rig.
I still can’t find a clear story that’s to the truth, about HOW that gas got up there, and exploded.
One early story was it rose to the surface outside of all the well drilling, and was sucked into the diesel engines (stories tall) and revved them up to explosion.
Most other stories claim the gas rose, ignited (how? Why? Where?) and exploded somehow.
One theory has detail, the other the MSM floats from day one, has NO explanation as to how the explosion happened.
I remain skeptical of it all.,
Thanks Mason, until we KNOW how it happened, we don’t know.
Keep on pressin!
Nice comments, but I think there’s facts others have reported that far exceed the miles of coastline already impacted.
Aside from that, thanks . . .
Seconded Its a nice theory and unless BP wants to start sharing their data well an absence of news when people are concerned about an issue does breed rumors.
The longer this goes on the worse the rumors will get.
Theories based on the best available facts are BP’s friend they need to reestablish trust. They are acting like they think they can cover this up no time stamp on the video? No video for weeks, oil leak estimates that have only gone up for weeks, overly optimistic time tables to fix the leak, insisting on using a toxic chemical dispersant because they have connections to the company even to the point of disobeying the EPA? Trying to get Fishermen to sign funny legal papers?
BP has a pattern of doing everything they can of losing our trust on this one.
Hey Larue, it’s bleuz.. the one with the NJ house being kept (ahem) safe by bears and turkey vultures? yeah, it’s been a while. Usually I chime in on LateLate