Gulf of Mexico oil disaster

[Marshmallowman]

Well going by history, there will be huge cost to the cleanup. BP will agree to it and 10 years later we will see they will have actually spent less than 10% actually doing anything and the damaged environment will still be damaged.

This sleigh of hand will likley be "enabled" during the next election when the lobbying (bribery) begins in ernest. Both side will essentialy look the other way when they heat is off, they will proabaly get some dodgy TAX offset or something for the clean up making the white wash even more obscene.

So they will save money, its very hard to beat career psycopaths

[RedRed]

BP estimates of Gulf oil spill range up to 100,000 bpd
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN...e=domesticNews

Intresting.

Bp has agreed to put 20Billion in escrow for the cleanup. A beautiful move, as the escrow will protect those assets in the event of pressure a wind up of the company, while maintaining assets on the balance sheet/enableling the company to raise debt on it.

Big oil/govt - working in partnership to make your life complete.

[Tjalfe]

so what is going on with the spill now?,.. I have not seen any recent mention of what their next step is

[cjolley]

They are trying to siphon off as much of the oil as they can, but are really down to waiting for the relief wells.
One of my nephews is a BSD system programmer consultant for several oil companies.
He told me that the BOP was damaged when the rig and stand pipe basically fell on it (not surprising).
They are apparently worried that the BOP or well head will break apart if they put too much back pressure on it.
Remember that the BOP is partially closed. If it broke off the well head then you would get that unrestricted 100k b/day

[Tjalfe]

so right now they have a new valve put on top of the BOP, which is slightly closed, and a big straw sucking off as much oil as it can from this said valve?
How is the drilling of the relief well going?.. do they have a new platform put up for it yet, has it started drilling?
How long will it take to drill a relief well, once you have a new drill in place?

[cjolley]

There are two relief wells.

as of today: http://af.reuters.com/article/energy...24945420100621

HOUSTON June 21 (Reuters) - BP Plc's (BP.L: Quote) (BP.N: Quote) relief well to kill its blown-out Macondo well is ahead of schedule, but is still expected to be complete during the second week of August, the top U.S. oil spill official said on Monday.
U.S. experts are trying to refine estimates for how much oil is gushing from the well, but won't have an exact figure until a new metered containment system is installed in July, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen told reporters on a conference call.

[Sasq]

found this via fark

"Damn."

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/06/22/damn/

[Evildead666]

Just heard one of the underwater robots has bumped into the cap thats capturing the oil, and they have had to remove the cap because some gases have started to go up the pipe that was sending methanol or something to prevent hydrate crystals forming......so now its spewing full belt for the moment.

Lordy Lordy, this is going to go on forever....

[Evildead666]

Live feeds:

Full List :

http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9033572&contentId=7062605

And some with images ongoing :

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/html/Skandi_ROV1.html

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/html/Skandi_ROV2.html

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/html/Enterprise_ROV_2.html

and a boring couple :

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/html/Enterprise_ROV_1.html

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/html/Q4000_ROV1.html

[Evildead666]

They seem to be adding sh*tloads of dispersant, which will make it harder to follow the slick, and contain it.

It will help it get further than if it was thick wouldn't it ?

Not counting the repercussions of all the dispersants...

[SitFlyer]

Though this post could also apply to many other threads, but, I just decide to post it here since the text message sent in the video is about the spill (I don't feel like searching for the Dexter or Will it Blend ttreads that may be more applicable).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBHE1fuoD-A

Gotta love all them netcasts from TWiT...

[ND66]

They seem to be adding sh*tloads of dispersant, which will make it harder to follow the slick, and contain it.

It will help it get further than if it was thick wouldn't it ?

Not counting the repercussions of all the dispersants...

It's not a good thing at all.

Caution Required for Gulf Oil Spill Clean-Up, Bioremediation Expert Says
…

"It is important to remember that oil is a biological product and can be degraded by microbes, both on and beneath the surface of the water," Hazen says. "Some of the detergents that are typically used to clean-up spill sites are more toxic than the oil itself, in which case it would be better to leave the site alone and allow microbes to do what they do best."
…

In 1978, an oil tanker, the Amoco Cadiz, split in two about three miles off the coast of Normandy, releasing about 227,000 tons heavy crude oil that ultimately stained nearly 200 miles of coastline. The spill-site was so large that only the areas of greatest economic impact were treated with detergents. Large areas in the more remote parts of the coast went untreated.

"The untreated coastal areas were fully recovered within five years of the Amoco Cadiz spill," says Hazen. "As for the treated areas, ecological studies show that 30 years later, those areas still have not recovered."

In March of 1989, the oil supertanker Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into the Prince William Sound and impacted some 1,300 miles of coastline. It remains the largest oil spill in U.S. history. A combination of detergents and bioremediation were used in the clean-up. The detergents were nutrient rich, being high in phosphorous and nitrogen compounds. In addition, as part of the bioremediation effort, fertilizers were also used to promote microbial growth. After the first year, the treated areas were dramatically cleaner, Hazen says, but after the second year no improvements were observed. Long-term prospects for the treated area are grim.

While BP only care to make it look like not a big deal...

…While the world waits to see if a "top kill" operation can seal off the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf, the staggering proposition of dealing with the more than 11 million gallons of crude spilled to date remains. To combat the massive slick, BP’s primary weapon is chemical oil dispersant. The company has already used an unprecedented amount of dispersant—over 840,000 gallons—and is poised to deploy more. …

[Brian Ellis]

There is much more knowledge acquired on the biodegradability of surfactants since the historical accidents you cite. These are often the same chemicals found in household and industrial detergents. Their BOD5 and COD5 aew often high, meaning that they pass unaltered through public sewage treatment plants into natural waters (sea, lakes, rivers etc) where they degrade over several weeks. Imagine that every American uses 100 g of detergent/week; that means that something like 1½ billion kg is discharged into nature each year, so what BP add is almost negligible.

The detergents used in the old spills were often the non-ionic octyl- and nonyl-phenoxylates. Unhappily, these biodegraded into by-products that were very toxic to marine organisms and were themselves non-degradable. They have BIG caveats today because they are classed as 'persistent' and anionic surfactants are now preferred. These are slower to degrade but the toxicity of their by-products is much lower and they themselves are also biodegradable.

Furthermore, the dispersed emulsions will be easily carried (more so than a semi-solid slick) into the North Atlantic Conveyor whence they will diffuse south and east to the Indian and Pacific Oceans with massive dilutions.

I'm not too worried over the long term fate: it's the immediate that is more disturbing.

[ND66]

If I just could trust BP on what they have used.

If they were running low on the "new" stuff, or had a big pile of the old stuff... you know, saving money just like switching from mud to seawater...

.