Mother of all gushers - BP Oil Disaster in Gulf of Mexico

Well fwiw I remember seeing a really quite awful sci-fi film some years ago about travelling to parallel earth's.....in one a microbe that was designed to eat oil (I think....possibly related to an oil spill clean-up) mutated and started eating everything plastic.....to the point that no modern technology (all based on plastic!) could exist.
 
The thing is, will the microbes survive the onslaught of the BP dispertant sprays?

Good for the Florida mayor, I hope it catches on quick, before a big storm!
:shock:
 
as for the microbes... Research and Development... at least they should be able to try it.
I posted some info about microbes on the Gusher thread.

as for the Governor of Florida to consider it, and for the Destin FL government and
Okaloosa County government - the implications are HUGE! This IS where the power of the people is.
towns, cities, counties and states have the right to stand up again United States Government.
That is where the power of the people is supposed to reside! The states!
 
Found this petition online via a friend on facebook and thought it was worth posting here:

_http://www.gulfemergencysummit.org/2010/06/gulf-oil-emergency-summit-extraordinary.html

The whole thing is so big, it's like what to do? They did have a naked bicycle ride here in NYC for it, but I only found out after the fact...

_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlJKt8Etu64
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlJKt8Etu64

Isnt this video a little bit stupid and narcissistic,they only want attention and fun by this so called "protest".

The question is why BP puts oil in Gulf of Mexico if it is not accident,is it that they are aware of what would happen in near future and they act like this without any conscience?
 
daco said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlJKt8Etu64

Isnt this video a little bit stupid and narcissistic,they only want attention and fun by this so called "protest".

The question is why BP puts oil in Gulf of Mexico if it is not accident,is it that they are aware of what would happen in near future and they act like this without any conscience?

I think we have to put this protest into its proper context. As far as I know, this is a semi-annual protest/demonstration whose purpose is to promote bikes as a viable alternative to cars. It's mainly an environmental movement, from what I can tell, focusing on trying to lessen our reliance on petroleum. The BP disaster was, understandably, a major undercurrent this year, from what I've seen, but I don't think it was the specific target of the protest, overall. I think that the idea behind the ride is to promote biking as fun to try and get more people out of their cars and onto bikes. It's light-hearted and jovial by design although drawing attention to a serious issue. I don't think it's necessary to label it as "stupid and narcissistic"; who are we to judge the motivations of the participants? I think it's supposed to be a good time.

My $0.02
 
I thought it was a creative way to get people's attention, and it works. ::shrugs::

It also looked like a lot of fun - nothing wrong with having fun, getting attention and spreading a message, osit.
 
Guardian said:
They got your attention though didn't they? ;D

Yes :) but I just put some thoughts,it is a lot of fun for sure but it is contradictory,oil disaster is tragedy and this protestors in some sense "make fun of it",the girl on the video says that they are going on afterparty after protest,for them they do this becouse of fun but what happen in Gulf of Mexico isnt funny.

All of the protest around the world in the past and future is just nonsense,people cannot do nothing to change something and why protest if people cant influence on large scale about events in the world,things happens,people gather together and thinks that they can change something but in fact they dont ,it reminds me of Live aid.
Sry I,m going offtopic.
 
As dugdeep pointed out, the naked bike run is a regular event in major cities across North America (perhaps the world, I'm not sure) to bring attention to the environmental damage from reliance on cars. They merely try to advance the concept of having fun riding a bike and reducing harm.

Now, before their regularly scheduled run happens, the oil spill occurs. It would seem odd to have the naked bike run without acknowledging the spill, so this is how they mix their business with pleasure.

FWIW,
Gonzo
 
I have to provide the following disclaimer. I am not a geologist nor do I work in the oil industry. I am a computer engineer, and I don't know the first thing about oil wells. All I know about nuclear devices is that they make a Really Big Bang. Take what I am going to write in that context.

The past two reports from Half Past Human have been increasingly apocalyptic, even for Clif. He refers to the BP disaster as an "oil volcano" and predicts that in August, the Obama administration will make a decision because they feel literally backed into a corner involving the use of a nuclear weapon to seal the BP oil well, and that, like the maxim, "no situation is so bad that you cannot make it worse", this choice will be full of unintended consequences.

Here goes.

The BP disaster is not an oil rig fire, the oil rig fire is just one of the things that happened because of the blowout. The blowout happened because the depth of the well tapped into an extremely high pressure reserve. BP did not anticipate the consequences of their cost saving choices on the well bore casing and the cement job. What kept this oil reserve capped is not the layer of rock under the ocean but the extreme depth of the rock under the ocean. Near the ocean floor, the actual sea bed is rife with fissures and other fractures. This is why it has been reported that it seems like oil is coming from multiple sources, because the oil is coming up the well bore hole as if there is no casing, and leaking out all over the place through the fissures.

Time will pass, but it will eventually be concluded that any attempt to cap or otherwise recover the oil spewing from the apparent top of the well (by the so-called blowout preventer) is futile. This means that the only "sure solution" is the two additional relief wells being drilled. Ironically, the target arrival time for these wells is in August. When this time comes, it will become apparent that either they have no hope of finding the well because the casing has been degraded or destroyed or that the actual borehole itself is fractured and the major source of the problem, which means that capping it is not possible. The condition of the borehole is the real reason why the "top kill" approach did not work.

This will put the PTB into a desperate situation of admitting defeat and allowing this well to pollute and kill our oceans for decades, or to take the drastic step to "seal" it with a nuclear explosion. Either another quick well will be drilled or the current relief wells will be used to provide access to the nuclear warheads.

These warheads will be inserted into the well and detonated. The intent is to liquiify the rock around the borehole, essentially returning it to the state it was before the well was ever drilled. The size of the explosion should create a molten plug hundreds of feet in circumference, more than enough to seal the well.

This will not take into account two problems. First the surrounding rock has been fractured so that the oil can still flow as though through a sponge. Second, the amount of water will not be understood and nothing can fracture rock like water changing phase. The result will be that instead of simply melting a plug into the borehole, the explosion will have the unintended effect of essentially lifting the entire inverted dome over the explosion. Not so much as to blow it off the sea floor, but enough to absorb the energy of the explosion and more importantly introduce even more fissures into the rock.

The unintended consequence of this explosion will shock everyone with the surprising result that the use of the nuclear weapon will have actually made the problem infinitely worse by spreading the leak across a vast undersea area, making essentially all attempts at sealing each crack hopeless.

I hope my prognostications are way off base and my complete ignorance of undersea oil wells is showing, but Clif's latest reports have gotten under my skin so to speak.

Frankly this is one of the reasons I was starting to wonder about the transcript delay, my thought was that the information to be given was of complete disaster.

Anyway, this is my nightmare...
 
Hi rs, the not knowing aspect of this situation makes it worse, so to speak. In the end I take this as a sign of our time and I pesimistically expect more "signs" in the future. Let us wait and see what happens with this one.
 
The following material is by dougr on June 13 posted on theoildrum.com following the failure of Operation Top Kill. The name itself gives insight in the mentality of the criminals responsible for this catastrophe.

The post has a lot of technical material complete with references for those with the time and inclination to understand the science and drilling technology that have led to environmental apocalypse in the Gulf of Mexico. Dougr and Matt Simmons among other knowledgeable individuals have convinced me this is a not just an oil spill, but an oil catastrophe with world changing implications.

An Introduction to Drilling Offshore Oil Wells is a good technical reference to understand the infrastructure and geology of deep water oil drilling.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6593#comment-648967 said:
----------------------
I took some time to go into a bit of detail concerning the failure of Top Kill because this was a significant event. To those of us outside the real inside loop, yet still fairly knowledgeable, it was a major confirmation of what many feared. That the system below the sea floor has serious failures of varying magnitude in the complicated chain, and it is breaking down and it will continue to.
What does this mean?

It means they will never cap the gusher after the wellhead. They cannot...the more they try and restrict the oil gushing out the bop?...the more it will transfer to the leaks below. Just like a leaky garden hose with a nozzle on it. When you open up the nozzle?...it doesn't leak so bad, you close the nozzle?...it leaks real bad,
same dynamics. It is why they sawed the riser off...or tried to anyway...but they clipped it off, to relieve pressure on the leaks "down hole". I'm sure there was a bit of panic time after they crimp/pinched off the large riser pipe and the Diamond wire saw got stuck and failed...because that crimp diverted pressure and flow to the rupture down below.

Contrary to what most of us would think as logical to stop the oil mess, actually opening up the gushing well and making it gush more became direction BP took after confirming that there was a leak. In fact if you note their actions, that should become clear. They have shifted from stopping or restricting the gusher to opening it up and catching it. This only makes sense if they want to relieve pressure at the leak hidden down below the seabed.....and that sort of leak is one of the most dangerous and potentially damaging kind of leak there could be. It is also inaccessible which compounds our problems. There is no way to stop that leak from above, all they can do is relieve the pressure on it and the only way to do that right now is to open up the nozzle above and gush more oil into the gulf and hopefully catch it, which they have done, they just neglected to tell us why, gee thanks.

A down hole leak is dangerous and damaging for several reasons.
There will be erosion throughout the entire beat up, beat on and beat down remainder of the "system" including that inaccessible leak. The same erosion I spoke about in the first post is still present and has never stopped, cannot be stopped, is impossible to stop and will always be present in and acting on anything that is left which has crude oil "Product" rushing through it. There are abrasives still present, swirling flow will create hot spots of wear and this erosion is relentless and will always be present until eventually it wears away enough material to break it's way out. It will slowly eat the bop away especially at the now pinched off riser head and it will flow more and more. Perhaps BP can outrun or keep up with that out flow with various suckage methods for a period of time, but eventually the well will win that race, just how long that race will be?...no one really knows....However now?...there are other problems that a down hole leak will and must produce that will compound this already bad situation.


All of these things lead to only one place, a fully wide open well bore directly to the oil deposit...after that, it goes into the realm of "the worst things you can think of" The well may come completely apart as the inner liners fail. There is still a very long drill string in the well, that could literally come flying out...as I said...all the worst things you can think of are a possibility, but the very least damaging outcome as bad as it is, is that we are stuck with a wide open gusher blowing out 150,000 barrels a day of raw oil or more. There isn't any "cap dome" or any other suck fixer device on earth that exists or could be built that will stop it from gushing out and doing more and more damage to the gulf. While at the same time also doing more damage to the well, making the chance of halting it with a kill from the bottom up less and less likely to work, which as it stands now?....is the only real chance we have left to stop it all.
It's a race now...a race to drill the relief wells and take our last chance at killing this monster before the whole weakened, wore out, blown out, leaking and failing system gives up it's last gasp in a horrific crescendo.


We are not even 2 months into it, barely half way by even optimistic estimates. The damage done by the leaked oil now is virtually immeasurable already and it will not get better, it can only get worse. No matter how much they can collect, there will still be thousands and thousands of gallons leaking out every minute, every hour of every day. We have 2 months left before the relief wells are even near in position and set up to take a kill shot and that is being optimistic as I said.
Over the next 2 months the mechanical situation also cannot improve, it can only get worse, getting better is an impossibility. While they may make some gains on collecting the leaked oil, the structural situation cannot heal itself. It will continue to erode and flow out more oil and eventually the inevitable collapse which cannot be stopped will happen. It is only a simple matter of who can "get there first"...us or the well.

We can only hope the race against that eventuality is one we can win, but my assessment I am sad to say is that we will not.
The system will collapse or fail substantially before we reach the finish line ahead of the well and the worst is yet to come.
Sorry to bring you that news, I know it is grim, but that is the way I see it....I sincerely hope I am wrong.
We need to prepare for the possibility of this blow out sending more oil into the gulf per week then what we already have now, because that is what a collapse of the system will cause. All the collection efforts that have captured oil will be erased in short order. The magnitude of this disaster will increase exponentially by the time we can do anything to halt it and our odds of actually even being able to halt it will go down.
The magnitude and impact of this disaster will eclipse anything we have known in our life times if the worst or even near worst happens...
We are seeing the puny forces of man vs the awesome forces of nature.
We are going to need some luck and a lot of effort to win...
and if nature decides we ought to lose, we will....
------------------------------------------

I used to cover the energy business (oil, gas and alternative) here in Texas, and the few experts in the oil field -- including geologists, chemists, etc. -- able or willing to even speak of this BP event told me early on that it is likely the entire reserve will bleed out. Unfortunately none of them could say with any certainty just how much oil is in the reserve in question because, for one thing, the oil industry and secrecy have always been synonymous. According to BP data from about five years ago, there are four separate reservoirs containing a total of 2.5 billion barrels (barrels not gallons)*. One of the reservoirs has 1.5 billion barrels. I saw an earlier post here quoting an Anadarko Petroleum report which set the total amount at 2.3 billion barrels. One New York Times article put it at 2 billion barrels.
If the BP data correctly or honestly identified four separate reservoirs then a bleed-out might gush less than 2 to 2.5 billion barrels unless the walls -- as it were -- fracture or partially collapse. I am hearing the same dark rumors which suggest fracturing and a complete bleed-out are already underway. Rumors also suggest a massive collapse of the Gulf floor itself is in the making. They are just rumors but it is time for geologists or related experts to end their deafening silence and speak to these possibilities.

All oilmen lie about everything. The stories one hears about the extent to which they will protect themselves are all understatements. BP employees are already taking The Fifth before grand juries, and attorneys are laying a path for company executives to make a run for it.

I quoted the conclusions from the detailed and referenced post so we may understand one of the pivotal events of our lives. What does it mean? In my opinion, the political, economic, and technical infrastructure supporting the physical needs of nearly seven billion human beings on this planet has failed. The world is faced with a desperate elite, who control the infrastructure and us in a master/slave relationship. They are racing against time to establish total control and lock down of the planet. They are few and organized, we are many and disorganized, but everyday more people are discovering the lies and corruption of government and corporate criminals as it is becoming obvious with the collapse of the financial system, spreading war, and the giant BP oil disaster at Deepwater Horizon. We must not allow those responsible for this catastrophe to convince us they are the only ones who can save us in a a world enslaving shake down racket. These people are criminals and should be arrested and brought to justice before they end this ray of creation.

*I am unable to determine if the figure is barrels or gallons. BP is talking gallons now, but it was barrels in the earlier press releases.
 
I love old black & white sci-fi movies. Nuking the well reminds me of the following:
[quote author=Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]Crack in the World is an American science-fiction disaster movie filmed in Spain in 1964 and released by Paramount Pictures.

[edit] Plot
An international consortium of scientists, operating as Project Inner Space, is trying to tap into the Earth's geothermal energy by drilling a very deep hole through the Earth's crust into the mantle below. The scientists are foiled by an extremely dense layer of material at the boundary between the two. To penetrate the barrier and reach the magma below, they intend to detonate an atomic device at the bottom of the hole.

The leader of the project, Dr. Stephen Sorenson (Dana Andrews), who is (secretly) dying of cancer, believes that the atomic device will burn its way through the barrier, but the project's chief geologist, Dr. Ted Rampion (Kieron Moore), is convinced that the lower layers of the crust have been weakened by decades of underground nuclear tests, and that the detonation could produce a massive crack that would threaten the very existence of Earth.

The atomic device is used and Rampion's fears prove justified, as the crust of the Earth develops an enormous crack that progresses rapidly. Sorenson discovers that there was a huge signature of hydrogen underground, which turned the small conventional atomic explosion into a huge thermonuclear one that was millions of times more powerful. Another atomic device is used in the hope of stopping the crack, but it only reverses the crack's direction. Eventually the crack returns to its starting point at the test site, and a huge chunk of the planet outlined by the crack is expected to be thrown out into space. Sorenson remains at the underground control center to record the event despite pleas by his wife Maggie to evacuate with the rest of the project staff. She and Rampion barely escape in time to observe the fiery birth of a second moon.

[edit] Scientific Accuracy
The film was released only a few years before the theory of plate tectonics became mainstream, and later commonly-accepted fact. As it turned out that the surface of the planet was heavily cracked already, the scenario presented in the film is now considered highly improbable. Additionally, the notion of a chunk of the Earth being thrown off into space makes no scientific sense, since even a chunk of the planet completely separated from the rest by a crack would still remain in its original position due to gravity.

[/quote]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_in_the_World

edit: OOPS, I think that movie was in color not B&W.
 
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