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

[Guardian]

Is anybody else watching this? It looks like the attempt to plug the leak has resulted in constricting the flow aperture, but just like a nozzle on a hose it is now flowing faster (with likely the same overall rate)?

Yeah, I've been watching it too. I could be wrong, but it sure looks like they blew another hole in the BOP?

 

[Joe]

Looking at it now, about 12 hours since the effort to plug began and it looks no different than before. They did however say it would take up to 24 hours

http://globalwarming.house.gov/spillcam

 

[Rabelais]

So, I'm assuming that particulate matter from the surface burn off they are doing in a few places is being carried in the clouds to the shore? That's the only way I can figure 'oil' would get into the clouds since it wouldn't just 'evaporate', to my understanding. So, what am I missing?

Good question. I was wondering the same thing. Has there been any severe weather down there? I have a hard time getting my head around evaporation alone being the cause of the fall in Tampa.

 

[Guardian]

Coast Guard, BP say Gulf top kill effort continues

_http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iufzoAvzMW_Zg9ZMxKNn7DWhjjhwD9FV85JO0

(AP) – 1 hour ago

COVINGTON, La. — The Coast Guard says BP is having some success slowing the Gulf of Mexico oil leak by injecting mud but the fix isn't done yet.

Coast Guard Lt. Commander Tony Russell said Thursday reports that Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the operation, had called the procedure a success were incorrect. He said Allen said that the flow of mud was stopping some of the oil and gas but had a ways to go before it proved successful.

BP spokesman Tom Mueller said the effort that started Wednesday to plug the blown-out with mud, called a top kill, was continuing.

Mueller said BP PLC doesn't anticipate being able to say anything definitive on its success until later Thursday.

 

[NormaRegula]

Was just sent this article from Newsweek online by the host of a photography show I produce:

_http://www.newsweek.com/2010/05/26/the-missing-oil-spill-photos.html

According to the article, news photographers are being held back by combined government and corporate agencies from photographing the spill and the area surrounding it.

As BP makes its latest attempt to plug its gushing oil well, news photographers are complaining that their efforts to document the slow-motion disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are being thwarted by local and federal officials—working with BP—who are blocking access to the sites where the effects of the spill are most visible.

More than a month into the disaster, a host of anecdotal evidence is emerging from reporters, photographers, and TV crews in which BP and Coast Guard officials explicitly target members of the media, restricting and denying them access to oil-covered beaches, staging areas for clean-up efforts, and even flyovers.

Last week, a CBS TV crew was threatened with arrest when attempting to film an oil-covered beach.

On Monday, Mother Jones published this firsthand account of one reporter’s repeated attempts to gain access to clean-up operations on oil-soaked beaches, and the telling response of local law enforcement. The latest instance of denied press access comes from Belle Chasse, La.-based Southern Seaplane Inc., which was scheduled to take a New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer for a flyover on Tuesday afternoon, and says it was denied permission once BP officials learned that a member of the press would be on board.

 

[durabone]

'Top kill' stops gulf oil leak for now, official says
Officials are cautionary but say drilling fluid has blocked oil and gas temporarily. Engineers plan to begin pumping in cement and then will seal the well.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-top-kill-20100528,0,5782115.story?track=rss

Hmm, we'll see about that. It looks like it is still flowing to me.
Mmm, that is one 'vanilla' story.

 

[durabone]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/27/bp-oil-spill-top-kill

I guess I'm getting it. Immense pressure from two or more sides gives us a self-annihilating story:

Headline: BP's 'top kill' mission halts the oil gush – but is it stable?

Text: Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, insisted that the operation was going to plan, but admitted: "What we do know is that we have not yet stopped the flow."

This reminds me of a bunch of people feeling an elephant with blindfolds on.

 

[Guardian]

Is anybody else watching this? It looks like the attempt to plug the leak has resulted in constricting the flow aperture, but just like a nozzle on a hose it is now flowing faster (with likely the same overall rate)?

Yeah, I've been watching it too. I could be wrong, but it sure looks like they blew another hole in the BOP?

I'm fairly certain I saw another small hole/fracture open up about an hour before they stopped pumping.

"Mr. Suttles said that the operation stopped at 11 p.m. Wednesday. "

HOUSTON — BP resumed pumping drilling fluid into its stricken oil well in the Gulf of Mexico Thursday night after stopping a day earlier when engineers saw that too much of the fluid was escaping along with the leaking crude oil.
Gulf Spill: Readers' Reports

Engineers had spent Thursday revising their plans, the company said.

“We have not yet stopped the flow so the operation has not achieved its objective,” Doug Suttles, the chief operating officer of BP said earlier in an afternoon news conference from Robert, La.

....article continues at _http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/us/28spill.html?pagewanted=2

 

[Jacques]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/27/bp-oil-spill-top-kill

I guess I'm getting it. Immense pressure from two or more sides gives us a self-annihilating story:

Headline: BP's 'top kill' mission halts the oil gush – but is it stable?

Text: Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, insisted that the operation was going to plan, but admitted: "What we do know is that we have not yet stopped the flow."

This reminds me of a bunch of people feeling an elephant with blindfolds on.

Have a look at that video

 

[Guardian]

Have a look at that video

It's not going to stop is it? It's just going to keep getting bigger and bigger.

 

[Jacques]

Have a look at that video

It's not going to stop is it? It's just going to keep getting bigger and bigger.

What is amazing is that they have tried all the same things in 1979 !!!

They have not learnt their lesson and they do not care about that for one second.

 

[Guardian]

What is amazing is that they have tried all the same things in 1979 !!!

They have not learnt their lesson and they do not care about that for one second.

Or worse...they did learn from the 1979 accident, and know exactly what they're doing now.

 

[go2]

Oil industry insiders claim the spillcam is not focused on the main source of the massive oil slick. This is shaping up to be a Chernobyl sized disaster.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cDGAoU1H2gM

 

[Guardian]

Oil industry insiders claim the spillcam is not focused on the main source of the massive oil slick. This is shaping up to be a Chernobyl sized disaster.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cDGAoU1H2gM

Yeah, I saw it on the SOTT page
http://www.sott.net/signs/list_by_category/12-U-S-News

 

[Guardian]

WARNING: Extremely graphic and very difficult to watch

Gulf Oil Photo Essay

_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzQR0G-2kY0

PBSNewsHour — May 26, 2010 — Since the oil leak began in the Gulf more than a month ago, Associated Press photographer Gerald Herbert has as been documenting the people and places at the center of the disaster.