Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

They did, it has been talked about from the start. But BP doesn't own any nuclear bombs, and detonating nuclear bombs is a last resort.

Of course the government would probably just not let them do it like everything else: http://www.financialpost.com/Avertible+ ... story.html

Its not like they had any better ideas. It took two months of filling an oil leak with sports equipment to finally maybe consider the only viable option.

The golf balls were not the first thing they tried. They tried more standard methods first but it did not work, the first due to the temperature of that depth. (Well below freezing.)

Merged with the other threads. One is enough.

They tried more standard methods first but it did not work, the first due to the temperature of that depth. (Well below freezing.)

Methane clathrate rules.

But but but but a bubble!!! Water reaction doesn't change under different depths and pressures!! The surface is the same as the ocean floor!

But BP doesn't own any nuclear bombs

Iran has this.

They just let the Persian Gulf clean itself up after Saddam dumped the most amount of oil in human history into it. Now it's pretty much as it was prior.

So developing a bomb to help with that was a bit of an over-expenditure.

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july122010/gulf-nighmare-ta.php

Why the UK based BP has set up operations at CFB-Suffield is obvious: The company already runs three oil rigs on the base, have worked with Canada’s chemical and biological efforts on and off for almost 40 years, and have strong ties to the Commonwealth’s infrastructure.

The CFB Base, which incorporates DRDC Suffield, is one of research six Canadian military facilities and critical to the security of the country. DRDC Suffield is the lead facility for all of Canada’s engineering and weapons systems R&D.

The article lost all credibility when it mentioned Canada.

Of course the government would probably just not let them do it like everything else: http://www.financialpost.com/Avertible+ ... story.html

Only knew about that just now.

Three days after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico began on April 20, the Netherlands offered the U.S. government ships equipped to handle a major spill, one much larger than the BP spill that then appeared to be underway.

To protect against the possibility that its equipment wouldn't capture all the oil gushing from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, the Dutch also offered to prepare for the U.S. a contingency plan to protect Louisiana's marshlands with sand barriers. One Dutch research institute specializing in deltas, coastal areas and rivers, in fact, developed a strategy to begin building 60-mile-long sand dikes within three weeks.

The U.S. government responded with "Thanks but no thanks," remarked Visser, despite BP's desire to bring in the Dutch equipment and despite the no-lose nature of the Dutch offer --the Dutch government offered the use of its equipment at no charge. Even after the U.S. refused, the Dutch kept their vessels on standby, hoping the Americans would come round.

Ironically, the superior European technology runs afoul of U.S. environmental rules. The voracious Dutch vessels, for example, continuously suck up vast quantities of oily water, extract most of the oil and then spit overboard vast quantities of nearly oil-free water. Nearly oil-free isn't good enough for the U.S. regulators, who have a standard of 15 parts per million -- if water isn't at least 99.9985% pure, it may not be returned to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Americans, overwhelmed by the catastrophic consequences of the BP spill, finally relented and took the Dutch up on their offer -- but only partly. Because the U.S. didn't want Dutch ships working the Gulf, the U.S. airlifted the Dutch equipment to the Gulf and then retrofitted it to U.S. vessels. And rather than have experienced Dutch crews immediately operate the oil-skimming equipment, to appease labour unions the U.S. postponed the clean-up operation to allow U.S. crews to be trained.

With oil increasingly reaching the Gulf coast, the emergency construction of sand berns to minimize the damage is imperative. Again, the U.S. government priority is on U.S. jobs, with the Dutch asked to train American workers rather than to build the berns.

Dutch dredging ships could complete the berms in Louisiana twice as fast as the U.S. companies awarded the work. Given the fact that there is so much oil on a daily basis coming in, you do not have that much time to protect the marshlands, perplexed that the U.S. government could be so focussed on side issues with the entire Gulf Coast hanging in the balance.

When the Exxon Valdez oil tanker accident occurred off the coast of Alaska in 1989, a Dutch team with clean-up equipment flew in to Anchorage airport to offer their help. To their amazement, they were rebuffed and told to go home with their equipment. The Exxon Valdez became the biggest oil spill disaster in U.S. history--until the BP Gulf spill.

So what's keeping the Americans from accepting full help? Pride? Politics? Strictly following regulations? Everybody hates the Dutch?

Last edited by shadowgrin on Thu Jul 15, 2010 9:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You could credit me for posting it first.

As for your questions ("Are you serious?") I asked the White House Chief of Staff:

Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before.

If this had been solved months ago what justification would we have for nationalizing BP?!? THINK OF THE BIG PICTURE!

Sorry about that. Got confused, multiple tabs. Will edit.

ah! its starting to look like something is dawning on you!
remember that huge ship that came to get the oil out of the water? once it arrived they had to do tests to make sure it environmentally friendly. they were concerned because the water it would put would be 5% oil.

What you said does not make any sense. At all.

you are right it does not make sense.
let me redo that last part.
remember that huge ship that came to get the oil out of the water? once it arrived they had to do tests to make sure it environmentally friendly. the feds were concerned because the liquid combination it would emit would be 5% oil.

I don't recall such a ship. My crew and I were busy sling-shooting more ducks to the sea.

What huge ship? The Discoverer Enterprise? Wait. What again?

You keep posting links about the topic and you don't even bother to know what you're talking about. I'm about to break the curse words on you if you keep doing what you're doing.

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http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill ... ady_t.html

They managed to cap it:

NEW ORLEANS – A tightly fitted cap was successfully keeping oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time in three months, BP said Thursday.

...

Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said at a news briefing that oil stopped flowing into the water at 2:25 p.m. CDT after engineers gradually dialed down the amount of crude escaping through the last of three valves in the 75-ton cap.

"I am very pleased that there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, I'm really excited there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico," Wells said.

Now begins a waiting period to see if the cap can hold the oil without blowing a new leak in the well. Engineers will monitor pressure readings incrementally for up to 48 hours before reopening the cap while they decide what to do.

"For the people living on the Gulf, I'm certainly not going to guess their emotions," Wells said. "I hope they're encouraged there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico. But we have to be careful. Depending on what the test shows us, we may need to open this well back up."

Though not a permanent fix, the solution has been the only one that has worked to stem the flow of oil since April. BP is drilling two relief wells so it can pump mud and cement into the leaking well in hopes of plugging it for good by mid-August.

Hooray. That means puttincomputers can stop posting now.

actually not so. this is a temporary cap that is meant to come off after while so they can siphon off oil. Also this cap will tell weather or not there is oil leaking from that particular oil reserve somewhere else.

God damn it.

actually not so. this is a temporary cap that is meant to come off after while so they can siphon off oil. Also this cap will tell weather or not there is oil leaking from that particular oil reserve somewhere else.

Did you read what I posted?

It's not to siphon oil, it's to see if the cap will be able to hold so they can plug the leak via the two relief wells. They had the relief wells and were always going to have that as the permanent solution, they just needed to find some method by which to stop the leak long enough so they could do it.

I wish someone put a permanent cap on puttincomputers.

And it should be noted the oil spill was never the problem, we know how to clean up or at least deal with that. BP doesn't really give a shit about cleaning it up yet beyond the fact that it's easier and smarter to clean it as you try and cap.

The issue was always that the thing was still pouring oil into the Gulf, if the cap does in fact show that it can hold long enough for them to use the relief wells, the "crisis" is over.

Pressure readings after 24 hours were about 6,700 pounds per square inch and rising slowly, Allen said, below the 7,500 psi that would clearly show the well was not leaking. He said pressure continued to rise between 2 and 10 psi per hour. A low pressure reading, or a falling one, could mean the oil is escaping.

But Allen he said a seismic probe of the surrounding sea floor found no sign of a leak in the ground.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100716/ap_ ... _oil_spill

Lets pray it goes well, lets also pray that they are/will tell/ing us the truth.

Question 1: what is the radius of "the surrounding sea floor"?
Question 2: What is the margin of error for the psi?


edited to add the following

actually not so. this is a temporary cap that is meant to come off after while so they can siphon off oil. Also this cap will tell weather or not there is oil leaking from that particular oil reserve somewhere else.

Did you read what I posted?

It's not to siphon oil, it's to see if the cap will be able to hold so they can plug the leak via the two relief wells. They had the relief wells and were always going to have that as the permanent solution, they just needed to find some method by which to stop the leak long enough so they could do it.

from article above

The cap is designed to prevent oil from spilling into the Gulf, either by keeping it bottled up in the well, or by capturing it and piping it to ships on the surface. It is not yet clear which way the cap will be used if it passes the pressure test.