Jump to content

Gulf Oil Disaster.

一方通行

By 一方通行,
in General Chatter

Recommended Posts

一方通行 Council Member

一方通行

Posted
Posted

story link

THE Gulf of Mexico oil spill may be growing five times faster than previously estimated and is in danger of accelerating out of control, it was claimed yesterday.

Experts said satellite data indicated the oil was gushing from BP’s sunken Deepwater Horizon rig at 25,000 barrels a day. Previous estimates had put the leak at 5,000 barrels a day.

...

BP has calculated that it might take up to three months to sink a new well that could cut off the flow of the Deepwater Horizon’s oil.

drill baby, drill. :thumbsup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
AxelF Squire

AxelF

Posted
Posted

Incredibly depressing. It once again highlights how our advances in technology outpace our ability to understand and plan for the associated risks. Especially in places that are 'out of sight, out of mind' like oil rigs. It also raises a few questions. Are all the offshore oil rigs subject to this risk? What kind of blowout prevention systems does the U.S. government require them to have in place? Do we need more regulations due to corporate inability to adequately protect the common welfare?

While I know both the huffington post and Bill Maher are very partisan, Bill had some choice things to say on the topic, which I think are worth listening to. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/01/bill-maher-slams-obama-oi_n_559596.html

My heart really goes out to everyone in Louisiana. They've had a rough couple of years.

I would expect new regulations to be coming down the line relatively quickly requiring all offshore oil rigs to install blowout prevention technology. We have to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
davos Council Member

davos

Posted
Posted

We go a few years, even decades without a major incident and we forget how hazardous oil drilling and transport is. The fact that overall such operations, at least in the us, have of recent years had damned close to perfect safety records in terms of spills does not make up for the fact that on the rare occasion that disaster strikes the reprocussions are truely devastating. This factor needs to be taken into account anytime we consider approving new oil extracction opperations. Unfortunately we tend to be profoundly shortsighted.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Annelise Council Member

Annelise

Posted
Posted

I feel bad for LA and any other states affected. However, if the citizens of a state support off shore drilling and want to allow it, as Virginia and SC want to do for instance*, I feel that's their choice.

*Or did, remains to be seen how this affects public opinion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lokisnow Council Member

lokisnow

Posted
Posted

BP reported a 6.1 billion dollar profit last quarter. I'm sure the lawyers are already aware of that.

I'm sure BPs accountants and actuaries are already working out how to cook the books to say that cleanup will cost 100 billion (while actually spending less than 100 million in cleanup), tax writeoffs FTW!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brude Council Member

Brude

Posted
Posted

Obama has said that BP is going to have to foot the bill to fix this mess.

The enormous scale of this is just depressing, and the chances they'll have of capping the thing anytime soon seem pretty slim. It's a mile below the surface of the ocean, covered in the ruins of the drilling rig. One idea is to drill other wells to relieve the pressure to make it easier to cap, but that's going to take like 90 days, I read...and that will only BEGIN to relieve the problem.

25,000 barrels a day is 1,050,000 gallons, in 90 days that's 94.5 million gallons, about equal to the 3rd worst in history assuming it's actually stopped that quickly. Another Gulf of Mexico drilling leak like this took the Mexican Government oil company about a year to cap and is the second worst in history at 140 million gallons. The Exon Valdez spill was just under 11 million gallons, and pretty small as these things go. The worst was during the first Gulf War when Saddam released about 400 million to 500 million gallons into the Persian Gulf.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lightning Lord Council Member

Lightning Lord

Posted
Posted

It fucking sucks... They reported today that the slick is heading towards gulf currents that will take it to the Florida Current. Conceivably this oil could foul both Florida coasts, and fuck up shorelines well up the Atlantic coast.

I hadn't seen that yet, truly? That's terrible. It will be interesting to see how it affects the election in Florida if the coast really is affected by this.

What has Jindal been saying about the spill?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lucky Pierre Council Member

Lucky Pierre

Posted
Posted

a tad extreme, but couldn't they just blow up the well mouth? or is the ocean pressure such that it would largely deplete the force of the explosion?

Not a clue... One would assume that if they could they would be working on doing that.

And it's not extreme at all. The winds will be turning to a more prevailing West to East on Tuesday once the high pressure over the Bahamas moves East... There is nothing to stop it from getting into into into the Gulf Stream after that... The only hope is that it somehow dissipates before that happens. And there is very little chance of that.

My guess is Florida is totally fucked in all this... but hey-the gulf stream could take this all the way to Iceland and repay them for that pesky Volcano crap last month!

I just hope the opening of 'The Wizarding World of Harry Potter' in two weeks is enough to keep people coming to Orlando this summer!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
一方通行 Council Member

一方通行

Posted
  • Author
Posted

a tad extreme, but couldn't they just blow up the well mouth? or is the ocean pressure such that it would largely deplete the force of the explosion?

if you thats tried they may very well just blow the thing completely open. have 15-20 leaks to plug instead of 3. that'd be bad.

ETA: when explosives are used on this sort of thing(on land) they're generally used to put out fires rather then to stop the leak itself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sologdin Council Member

sologdin

Posted
Posted

BHO is visting with st. bernard parish fishers and plaquemines parish shrimpers today, and they're begging him for help.

nevermind that they all went to teabagger rallies in jefferson parish two weeks ago, carrying anti-gubmint placards and racist caricatures of the president.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pika Hedge Knight

pika

Posted
Posted

if you thats tried they may very well just blow the thing completely open. have 15-20 leaks to plug instead of 3. that'd be bad.

ETA: when explosives are used on this sort of thing(on land) they're generally used to put out fires rather then to stop the leak itself.

well yeah I knew about the use of explosives to put out the well fires, I just wasn't sure what the leak actually was or if it could be blocked by debris via use of explosives.. but yeah I can see that having lots of leaks would be bad.

BP should go collect some.. they will probably need the lube for when the courts get a hold of them.. though judging by the valdez thing.. they will probably manage to drag it out for 20 years and then not really have to pay much..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...