Covenient....

Just what the TOTUS and BRG needed to halt offshore drilling.....

Too convenient....

“I thought they had remote cutoff systems:”

They do.

You have a Blow out Preventer (BOP) system on the well head above the mudline, and you have a Sub Surface Safety Valve (SSSV) in the well below the mud line (once the well is drilled and completed). The SSSV is supposed to close automatically and isolate the fluids and gas from the well to the surface, even if the wellhead is severed from the sea floor.

When the well is in its drilling phase, the oil and gas pressure from below is controlled with weighted mud to overbalance or equalize the pressure. If the mud system is mismanaged and the active rig personal are not monitoring for specific signs of a pending “kick” you can have a disaster “blowout”.

Otherwise this incident will be investigated full stop and the exact cause will come to light eventually. There have been blowouts in the past due to ships hitting rigs, or other external causes.

http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/Display.cfm?Term=BOP%20stack

http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/Display.cfm?Term=subsurface%20safety%20valve%20(SSSV)

The BOP would be easier to get at if it were in ANWR!

"How can "Drill Baby Drill" go ahead, when government doesn't require the industry to use the most modern safety equipment available"

You mean, why doesn't government MORE STRONGLY REGULATE the industry? Good question.

This spill is going to hurt the people of New Orleans. Barrack Obama has not done enough to protect them from this spill.

Barrack Obama hates black people!

These companies need to be held to account. Fined and fined big time or shut down off shore drilling for a while. All of those who have little or no regard for the environment and the ecosystems therein illustrate their true colors of the contemptible people they really are.

Expalins why the Oil Sands are so popular . . no dry holes to drill, no blow out valves required.

Nice safe clean energy to keep our schools & hospitals warm.

Ever so much greener.

Too bad Barry has said 'mericuh can't use our "dirty oil".

So sad teh chines want our "dirty oil"

Death to those who have little or no regard for the environment and the ecosystems. Did I miss anything T?

even with the latest and greatest technology, crap does and always will happen. To ban drilling because of this is akin to ban automobiles because Toyota allegedly screwed up.

As an aside, television shows on History and Discovery Channels that depict real drilling operations show that a lot more technology and safety goes on than the average layman realizes. Jed Clampetts they are not.

I wonder how much of this is going to drift up the Gulf Stream?

Would not be buying one of those Nova Scotia beach cottages at the moment.

How many want to bet that BP investors will soon be the proud owners of a few Caribbean Islands, like Jamaica!

What is this going to cost Canadian taxpayers in relief funds to Haiti and Cuba?

Lots of questions all will be a huge price tag...........TIP *suggest selling any BP shares.

Yes, T, Beyond Petroleum needs to be held to account for taking shortcuts.

Death to those who have little or no regard for the lifesaving energy use and our modern technology/energy based society.

Did I miss anything Grandad?

Bad, bad Gaia. Where are those media cameras?

[ Although accidents and hurricane damage to infrastructure are often to blame for oil spills and the resulting pollution in coastal Gulf of Mexico waters, natural seepage from the ocean floor introduces a significant amount of oil to ocean environments as well. ] Geology.com

[ Now, imagine 8 to 80 times the amount of oil spilled in the Exxon Valdez accident.
According to new research by scientists from UC Santa Barbara and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), that's how much oil has made its way into sediments offshore from petroleum seeps near Coal Oil Point in the Santa Barbara Channel.] Science Daily

[ There is effectively an oil spill every day at Coal Oil Point (COP), the natural seeps off Santa Barbara where 20 to 25 tons of oil have leaked from the seafloor each day for the last several hundred thousand years.] Live Science

[ "One of the natural questions is: What happens to all of this oil?" said study co-author Dave Valentine of the University of California, Santa Barbara. "So much oil seeps up and floats on the sea surface. It's something we've long wondered. We know some of it will come ashore as tar balls, but it doesn't stick around. And then there are the massive slicks. You can see them, sometimes extending 20 miles [32 kilometers] from the seeps. But what really is the ultimate fate?" ] Live Science

Good, good Gaia

[ Microbes consume most, but not all, of the compounds in the oil. The next step of the research is to figure out just why that is.

"Nature does an amazing job acting on this oil but somehow the microbes stopped eating, leaving a small fraction of the compounds in the sediments," said study co-author Chris Reddy, a marine chemist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Mass. "Why this happens is still a mystery, but we are getting closer." ] Live Science

Soooo, take the knot out of your shirt. As you were. Back to work.

Posted by: T>

We can assume T that you live in the forest somewhere eating lentils and wild mushrooms?

It must be awful to be forced out of seclusion to borrow some oxygen thief’s evil power sucking computer to make your enlightening posts.

Reading the comments, I thought I had somehow or another been shifted to a David Suzuki website.

Oil has been seeping from the floor of the Gulf for eons. This ain't that big of a deal.

As for the suggestion that BP be sold, it has already been scalped vastly more than the estimated cleanup costs.

Get a grip, people, or alternatively, get your bicycle out of the garage and pump up the tires.

Turn off your 'puter T, you are not doing your utmost to save the earth. You are part of the problem.

Interesting time of the spill, no, given the recent victory? Related to SWAT teams being deployed perhaps?

Conspiracy theories aside....

I bet the $500K for an acoustic shut-off valve seems like chump change now, eh, BP?

SWAT will hit the rigs fast and by air ... no paid off inspectors this time, to find out just how many companies aren't following procedures or may not be using proper equipment. As a side show, they'll also find out how many banned substances are on board. If they hit some drill sites on the prairies, you'd think the Columbian cartel was running things.

Those who know me know that I'm all free enterprise all the time; all oil and gas and coal all the time ... I just get sick of supporting the industry on my blog and trading in their stock only to find out they aren't only dodging common sense regulations, but crying the blues over regulations that in the end are good for them, and good for all of us.

By the way, natural oil seeps have nothing to do with this ... nothing ... they are irrelevant.

Here's what underwater oil flows look like after thousands of years:

Scientists find ancient asphalt domes off California coast

http://www.physorg.com/news191397828.html

The one thing I find amazing out of all of this is the timing. Obama opens up offshore drilling in a bunch of areas, and short time later we have a major disaster.

BP - worked for them - hated them!

It was all about their 'Green' image. What a bunch of wankers!

Posted by: Cjunk at April 30, 2010 12:14 PM >

The fact remains that there is no known cause of this disaster to be pointing fingers yet.

That will come later.

9 times out of 10 industrial accidents are caused by someone coming up with a “Presidential Solution” and not following the safety procedures and protocols already in place. In other words, human error.

If people thought like that all the time, Cjunk we would never have things like ADSCAM or blow outs that could be prevented.

I'd venture to state that at least in Canada, we have 62% of the population who think that some kind of "shortcut" is acceptable. The rest of us who don't think like that, pay for that concept.

Mexico has been drilling, non-stop, in the gulf, for many decades. It took BP to screw up this badly. I guess they're too busy sucking up to the green movement to bother focusing on their first responsibility, corporate responsibility.

"Oil has been seeping from the floor of the Gulf for eons. This ain't that big of a deal."

And everyone dies anyway, so if somebody murders someone else, what's the big deal?

That's pretty much your logic process.

The problem here is that 5,000 barrels per day is spilling. And that when it washes up in the wetlands it will be an ecological disaster.

And besides that, already people in New Orleans can smell the oil coming and are being told to stay in doors. Seeing as it could take 4 weeks to cap the well, yeah... that shouldn't be a problem.

All is safe! Do not panic. The high priest of Hopey changey has announced he has dispatched SWAT teams to threaten all rigs in the Gulf into not spilling things. Just a show of love from Washington

I have actually spent a little time working on offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Those crews live in fear of a snap inspection by the regulatory authorities. Even something as seemingly inconsequential as a badly-secured sensor cable could get the rig shut down.

The timing of this incident is just too perfect. I wouldn't, for one second, rule out sabotage of some sort.

Frankly, it couldn't happen to a more "green" corporation than BP. Shell shoud be next. They are just as promiscuous as BP are on the green file. These two wanker companies have sucked up big time to the greeen lobby, trying to appease them and make themselves look better than the competition. So that you will buy their products over the "dirty oil" competition.

They are multinational oil companies - the bottom line is what is counting. "Dirty oil" is what they sell. If they can suck a few governments into their world by promoting how "green" they are, or how coporately "socially responsible" they are, they feel that they will escape any form of censure.

Looks good on them. Their inaction or actions will impact the bottom lines of all the others in the form of restricted areas to drill, more government regualtions, oversite and paper work, which in the end will drive up the costs to do business and diminish the amounts of oil produced.

Greens love it. You won't. They want you dead any which way they can bring it on. Driving up the cost of oil or any other form of carbon fuel or alternative is predicated on killing off your economy in the end, so that you and your kids starve. Remember that when some nice young ladies knock on your door for donations to Greenpeace or the WWF solicits you to "save" all those doe-eyed animals they stick on their propaganda handouts.

They want you to fund your own death. Any corporation promoting "green" is a hypocrite. They certainly aren't motivated to kill their customers off, it's bad for business.

Two points

1) Yes, mankind is guilty of some unforgivable oil spills but so is Gaia. The Mother of all spills being the Alberta Oil Sands. Mankind is working feverishly to clean it up.

2) Media will be saying this oil spill contamination will last forever. Naturally occurring oil eating microbes know more than MSNBC.

And I agree, there is also a smell of sabotage in the air.

Posted by: ron in Kelowna>

“And I agree, there is also a smell of sabotage in the air”

My first inclination is industrial accident. That said, this will help out the Obamba administration on so many different fronts – that you simply can’t rule out “inside job”, “false flag” or any other term the conspiracy theorists will undoubtedly come up with.

I think an interesting thread on the matter would be to list ALL the ways this “crisis” helps Obamba politically. That would be an interesting and long list I’m sure, which then becomes suspect.

There have been drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico since the 1940's.

Unless I've missed something, this is the first accident in the Gulf.

Why should they mandate anything? That would be Big Government. If the pelicans don't like being covered in oil, they can move; that's the Free Market in action.

slim - very interesting lava dome "spills" off the California coast.

How much oil and gas is down there anyways. Mankind has probably just put a very small dent in it. And I wonder how much has found its way to the surface over the millennium? Perhaps the Earth was awash in surface oil many times with just a few Jeff Clampet sites remaining.

SWAT will hit the rigs fast and by air ... no paid off inspectors this time, to find out just how many companies aren't following procedures or may not be using proper equipment.

No, inspectors, not "SWAT". SWAT are police.

Anyway, the Deep Horizon rig was inspected by the federal government 3 times in 2010, including once in April.

“......that's the Free Market in action.”

Exactly.

Big oil producers regulate themselves based on a free market environment. If you have a spill or other such ecological disaster, you lose profit, possibly your entire business, and maybe even see some jail time.

When the government regulates you get a bailout.

Set You Free: June 3rd, 1979, massive spill ... one of the worlds biggest.

An acquaintance with familiarity with production
in the Gulf of Mexico tells me that many of the
production platforms are primitive, some
even with BOP's on the surface!

That, of course, does not justify present-day
sloppiness.

The procedures used to handle the oil slick seem
counter-productive to me. In the first instance,
setting fire to the slick will burn off only the
most volatile components of the petroleum, leaving thick tarry residue which will be hard to
deal with.

Second, I would think about treating the slick
the way oil spills are handled on land: by seeding
them with bacteria. On land, the soil is
gathered up, seeded with bacteria, and churned
with earth-moving equipment. The result is good-quality topsoil. I don't see why something
similar might not be effective at sea. Some of
these bacteria are very aggressive, and can handle heavy oil. In fact, ships' engineers have
to be constantly on guard lest their fuel supply
become infected.

We are all very worried about sea birds. I, however, have prayed for the repose of the souls
of the men lost in the fire and explosion, and I
urge you to do the same if you have not done so
already.

What a day! I detest the media over-use of the catch-phrases "anytime soon" and (particularly), "gobsmacked." However I have been gobsmacked upon reading the Terence Corcoran FP Comment page column in this morning's National Post.
Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel is pitching for a Canadian carbon tax and cap-and-trade?!! Is the world I once knew turned upside down? I grew up in Southern Saskatchewan in Tommy Douglas' hometown; lived under CCF/NDP socialism until I moved to Alberta where there was opportunity to make a decent living. I formed a political philosophy that "socialism demands that we all be equal . . . equally poor."
I was (and still am, I think) a powerful defender of the free market and the oil industry that we Albertans built up from nothing. Yes, us. It wasn't Texans so much at all. Oil patch employees work damn hard, but are fairly paid.
But on reading the Enbridge socialist plan - apparently based on us proving oil for the benefit to poor people of Asia; a Gateway pipeline to the West Coast, through Carbon Tax and cap-and-trade . . . I am reeling, my friends. I shall collect my thoughts and try to come up with a big-picture scenerio. I'm afraid it will be a conspiracy theory . . . I, like many of my SDA friends, am suspicious of sabotage re: the Gulf disaster. Can there be some kind of link???

"The timing of this incident is just too perfect. I wouldn't, for one second, rule out sabotage of some sort."

Yeah. That's exactly what happened. Obama, in conjunction with his Kenyan overlords, used the same demolition team who brought down the Twin Towers to blow up the oil rig.

Excuse me Texan, this ain't that big a deal???? You're the one that has to get a grip here. 900,000 litres a day leakage and no control plan in sight is a big deal.

Posted by: John>

I think you may be onto something there John!

I doubt very much that he has Kenyan overloards though, obviously he was born there but I think he runs with the Black Panther Boyz out of Chicago first and formost.

" Big oil producers regulate themselves based on a free market environment. If you have a spill or other such ecological disaster, you lose profit, possibly your entire business, and maybe even see some jail time."

Yeah, boy. Exxon shore got dinged didn't they? All they had to do was keep appealing the lawsuit until most of the plaintive died. What did they end up paying in the end? Nobody knows. And nobody spent any time in jail. The captain had to do a few years of community service. That's pretty much it.

Thoughtful post John Lewis, thanks.

Just read that the Feds did inspect this rig as recently as this month and two other times in the last few years.
So comes under 'accident' for now...but congress will use this to their advantage no matter what.
I'd help clean up if I were there.
Hopefully the area will recover quickly and not have a long term damage. One season is bad enough on this area damaged already from Katrina.
Speaking of..wonder if a hurrican could actually would help in this situation. NOT wishing them one, just wondering.

set you free: "Unless I've missed something, this is the first accident in the Gulf."

Actually, they happen fairly often, just not on a scale that makes the national and international news: http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/offshore/safety/safetylist.html

Meanwhile....

http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1483

In the national debate about opening up more of America's offshore regions to oil and gas drilling -- and setting aside the problem of carbon dioxide-induced climate change -- a sixty mile long stretch of coastline that reaches roughly from Ventura Country west north west to San Luis Obispo Country, well south of the Big Sur coast, has some 2,000 active sea floor oil seeps. According to former JPL physicist Bruce Allen, the tectonically active zone is estimated to have leaked some 800 million barrels of oil over the last 10,000 years.

inspections dont mean squat if you shut the shear rams on the collars.

Da&%^#&^mmit, if BP screws up my oyster/shrimp season I am not gona be a happy camper.

Mt. Olive, Louisi-yana, USA.

Hey, is this gonna screw up the Goricals new beach front 'low carbon footprint' shack?

How-come this damm thing just blew up, and why's Bammy sending in swat?

There is so much mis-information going on that it is no wonder folks are confused. Work in 5000' of water is vastly different from work in 500' of water or on land. The equipment is different but operating principals are very similar. SWAT folks and other Gov't folks without oil field experience won't be able to tell a real problem from an imagined problem. This talk about the right location of the BOP's, surface vs. seafloor, assumes there is ONE right way to do things. Many major incidents result from a series of small seemingly insignificant events all occurring at the same time.

Heard on Rush that "Homeland Security" has been called in, was this a terrorist attack?

"Excuse me Texan, this ain't that big a deal???? You're the one that has to get a grip here. 900,000 litres a day leakage and no control plan in sight is a big deal."
_______________

Not a bigger deal than that volcano in Iceland. I didn't see all you weenies wringing your hands over that one.

(Hurry back, Kate. Then environuts are taking over!)

Naaah, John, you can believe that it's the work of Obama's thugs if you want to. I don't think he's quite that stupid. Nor is he stupid enough to let a good crisis go to waste.

If it was sabotage, which has to remain a possibility until the actual cause is known for certain, it was probably non-state actors. Candidates include Al Qaeda, Earth Liberation Front, rogue elements of Greenpeace, and so forth. Could also be something as mundane as a life insurance scam, or some rig worker going postal.

BTW, John Cross, izzat you?

Many major incidents result from a series of small seemingly insignificant events all occurring at the same time.

So very true Fred and I may add: it does happen in certain situations with even harsher reality restrictions than that...only a couple of small seemly insignificant missteps and down comes a plane in an abrupt and deadly manner and that can take from immediate to manifest into these disastrous results.

ops, should read:

" .. from immediate to decades to ... "

"Candidates include Al Qaeda, Earth Liberation Front, rogue elements of Greenpeace, and so forth."

You've been reading too much Michael Crichton. You know that there really isn't an island full of dinosaurs somewhere, right?

You know what's most likely? Something caught fire and blew up. I mean gee... that's a crazy thought, eh? That a large structure that's sole purpose is to transfer a highly flammable substance might catch fire due to some sort of accident? That's just crazy talk. It must have been either libruls or Muslms.

Come on guys. It's possible, but not likely. Lay off the crazy pills for a couple of days. It'll do you some good.

"You've been reading too much Michael Crichton. You know that there really isn't an island full of dinosaurs somewhere, right?"

Are you sure? Maybe the rig was attacked by dinosaurs. Librul dinosaurs...

[quote]How-come this damm thing just blew up, and why's Bammy sending in swat?[/quote]

Bammy is sending in the Twat.... He doesn't want a real Investigation. This is Sabotage for financial gain, or Sabotage for Political Gain, or Sabotage for Environmental action. This MUST be a Criminal Investigation, full stop

Posted by: John >

"Exxon shore got dinged didn't they?"

I take it you have seen the Russian state run oilfields first hand comrade?

What about any state run oilfield?

http://www.echoroukonline.com/eng/index.php?news=8921

The list of government run oilfield corruption and mismanagement around the world is endless; a view into what western government involvement would look eventually like. (Unless of course you are suggesting that we can do it better than the natives perhaps?).

At least we can be comfortable knowing that normal everyday American and other nation shareholders are endlessly demonized as BIG corporate pariahs because that is who makes up Exxon Mobil (one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world).

People in the west can choose to boycott Exxon Mobil and shop elsewhere if they wished. If you live in Mexico its Pemex or Pemex. That seems to be ok with some folks, but they don’t seem to be moving down there in droves for lifestyle and job opportunities.

So John, was that a production platform or a drilling one? Records indicate that it was not drilling but finishing cementing a plug before this happened. The exact cause is not known yet and the clues are 5,000'down at the bottom of the gulf in a twisted pile.

Even if Green Peace loaded up the Rainbow Warrior with explosives, rammed the platform and detonated it, automatic systems on the sea floor should shut down the flow of oil. If you can't do that, then don't drill.

Now BP has handed the Fruit Flies of the world more ammo than they could ever hope for. If you are at war with the left, why hand them victory this easy? Rahm and the greenies are having a major party today ... all because of BP ... all because in one fell swoop BP has destroyed the GOP energy platform and given Cap'n Tax a massive boost.

There is no excuse for this ... none. Not using every possible modern technique to prevent a catostrophic failure is gross negligence and abuse of shareholders and citizens.

Furthermore, talk of natural oil seeps is totally irrelevant ... 800 million barrels over 10,000 years ... get a bloody grip. That amounts to a tiny trickle over a vast area where natural processes like enzymes can "eat" the oil. And the Icelandic volcano ???? are you kidding ... that was a "natural" event ... again, absolutely irrelevant.

I think we can call the day this rig blew up international Cap'n Tax Day.

Youtube video of a gas well blowout in the south China sea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhZKUYVXM78

"... get a bloody grip." taking this guest host a bit seriously aren't we.

I'd call it "David Suzuki Day at Small Dead Animals."

About 30,000 people die each year in US car accidents. I don't see anyone going ape sh*t over that.

Texas Canuck: Not taking it any more serious than usual; just stunned at the lack of logic in what is usually a very logical environment ... some, so blinded by partisan thinking that the magnitude of the political gift given the O-bots by BP escapes them ... and causes them to make the most silly of partisan comments and leaps in logic.

Texas: The scale of the physical disaster is bad on it's own, but that's not the point ... it's the political disaster. Those who are fighting Cap'n Tax just lost all moral high ground ... the push for "forced-upon-us" expensive alternatives will now accelerate.

They do have enough money though to send teams of SWAT law enforcement personnel.
I smell more Nationalization.
Why goons at an oil spill?
JMO

An oil spill has absolutely no connection with carbon capture policy. If the US were to shut the Gulf of Mexico down to drilling, there would be a zero dent in the global consumption of oil. Well, maybe there'd be a slight reduction, as supply would be curtailed to some extent, prices would go up, and demand would be slightly destroyed.

Meanwhile the 'other hand' just passed a bill in the congress to allow Puerto Rico to become the 51 state - some new voters and immigrants for the anointed one's Bolshevick Plans.

Yesterday, Glen Beck joined the dots connecting Goldman Sacks with All gore's climate exchange business in thug town (Chicago - Hussain Obama's residence during his residency in the United States, just before being elected to be President); Goldman Sacks apparently owns 10% of this dirty business (exchange). BP petroleum might have 'shares' in that nefarious 'exchange, too; this would put this company (BP)in the sac (please pardon the pun!) with Goldman Sacks and the slave producing Climate exchange in Chicago.

'Create a Crisis', tax cheat Githner and Cass Sunstine must be grinning ear to ear. As my Grandmother once told me: "Never, ever underestimate evil and evil doers".

As Gen Beck said yesterday " things are not as they appear to be". Evil is almost always clad in the guise of an angel.

Some of the comments in this thread show what happens to people when they get so dogmatic that they shut their brains off. Depending on what happens, this spill could be a real disaster for the fishing industry down there and for hundreds of miles of wild coastline.

I find "what me worry" attitude in some of the comments are incomprehensible. I don't know how people can shrug it off and say it's no big deal.

There's no excuse whatsoever for offshore rigs not having multiple levels of redundancy built in when it comes to safety. Who cares if the cost is $1 or $2 a barrel? It's going to cost BP a lot more than that in the long run, that's for sure, to say nothing of the political damage - as Cjunk mentions - to those who are opposed to the inefficient, pie-in-the-sky alternatives.

We're going to be seeing oily-bird images for then next ten years, followed by stories on wind farms, ethanol, solar power, etc etc.

Of course, the whole leak is a plot by Barack Obama; he sent someone out to bomb the oil platform. /sarc

On a bike.

Ah ...here is the connection:

'Who are the major owners of ICE? The major Anglo-Dutch financial entities. According to ICE's 2006 filings with the SEC, as of Sept. 30, 2005, with percent of ICE shares owned: Morgan Stanley Capital, 11.62%; Goldman Sachs Group, 11.59%: Total Investments USA Inc., 8.12%; BP Products, 7.59%.

Others include Duke Energy, AEP, Continental Power Exchange, Societe Generale Financial Corp.
Rohatyn/Shultz Bum's Rush Is On

This then is the context for the many front groups and political patsies leading the bums' rush for governments to mandate carbon-emission reductions and unleash the "markets." On Jan. 22, 2007, in Washington, D.C., the "United States Climate Action Partnership" (USCAP) announced itself, consisting of ten major corporations including Lehman brothers, Duke Energy, DuPont, Florida Power & Light, BP America, Alcoa, Caterpillar, General Electric, Pacific Gas & Electric, and PNM Resources. They released a "Call to Action," which, in global warming lingo, "lays out a blueprint for a mandatory economy-wide, market-driven approach to climate protection" (see www.us-cap.org).

The World Bank is also on the bandwagon in a big way, led by WB president Paul Wolfowitz since 2005, when he moved in from the Bush-Cheney Administration. The World Bank has a Carbon Finance Organization (www.carbonfinance.org), working as part of the International Emissions Trading Association, to further carbon markets. Wolfowitz personally spoke on Feb. 14 in Washington on global warming, making the pitch that underdeveloped nations can expect to see a flow of some $100 billions from the developed nations, if carbon-reducing schemes are allowed to proceed in the markets.'

Read the whole, ugly, plot here:http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2007/3413carbon_swindle.html

Unca Mo rears his bald head near the middle of the article.

Did Hussein just open the Pandora's Box? Hussein O. said under his 'plan' energy prices would 'skyrocket'.

Meanwhile, in the what if file.....

http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjAyN2UxMzIxNzRmM2RkZjZiOWRmN2YwZTEzNTFhOTA=

Irony of Ironies: Could Gulf Spill Kill Cap-and-Trade?

...the spill could do what the collapse of the AGW scientific edifice, an outraged public, economic realities, and Europe's disaster have all failed to do: Kill cap-and-trade for this Congress.

EBD - Call it "disaster" fatigue. Chernobyl, 3 Mile Island, cannibals in New Orleans, H1N1 etc. etc. etc. ... it never ends.

Who said BP wasn't doing everything that they could do? ... the same "experts" that were the "experts" on the other events?

Crying about the fishing or the shore lines or whatever doesn't help anything.

The short-term effects of the oil spill will be an increase in support for an off-shore drilling ban. This will last until oil prices start to rise and/or the reality of the cost of cap and trade sets in. Most people would not admit it but the real cost of carbon pricing will still trump environmental risk. Besides, too many US states, jobs and investments are dependent on off-shore oil drilling.

They do have enough money though to send teams of SWAT law enforcement personnel.

No, this did not happen and is not happening.

The Interior Department said they were sending a team of inspectors. To jazz it up, they called it a "SWAT team" to indicate it was a special team of inspectors. But they aren't law enforcement; they aren't cops. They're inspectors.

Probably the same kind of inspectors who didn't find anything wrong in three trips to Deep Horizon in 2010 alone, but politicians sure love to be seen to appear to be doing "something".

Anyway, then Barry O, who is a gargantuan idiot and probably has no clue what an actual SWAT team is, repeats the "SWAT team" phrasing without mentioning (or more likely, not knowing) that it's a team of inspectors, not a genuine for-real law enforcement SWAT team.

CBC on at ten pm.

One Neil McDonald reporting. Replaying the statement by Sarah Palin with the "drill, baby, drill" statement. Then on to a George W. Bush statement about no long depending on foreign oil.

CBC The merciless devils. We have an ecological tragedy here. All decent human beings must wince and then pray for a solution.

CBC, who like old Rahm Emmanuel believe one should never let a crisis go to waste. I wait for them to get back to Jaffer et al.

Limbaugh was saying today that he thinks its very interesting Barry has let this thing spew for a solid week without really doing jack about it. Today its supposed to make landfall, so TODAY suddenly there's all kindsa activity.

Because landfall today means pictures of oily pelicans on the front page tomorrow, right?

If anybody in the White House gave two sh1ts about The Environment there's have been Navy equipment down there the next morning after the accident, and by now they'd have enough gear and men handy to suck every drop of the stuff out of the water with turkey basters.

Nobody planned this, this thing has SNAFU written all over it. Barry's acting like this is some irritating side issue to his Grand Plan, not a major oil spill which is going to f- up the Gulf beaches for several years.

Hey T, how you like Barry now?

Texas Canuck at April 30, 2010 11:36 AM said:

real drilling operations show that a lot more technology and safety goes on than the average layman realizes

But still sometimes shit happens. Average people don't see what goes into these efforts, they're mostly happy with going on with their daily lives, blissfully unaware.

Therefore, windmills and electric cars for everyone!

You'd thing that these days we'd have a modern time Red Adair.

You'd think that these days we'd have a modern day underwater warrior-like Red Adair. Sort of like Captain Nemo, but environmentally-friendlier.

In my imagination they'd stop oil-erupting underwater gushers with special torpedoes called Suzukis.

Makes coal look a lot better. And the oil sands.

Oh dear,
I'm bit out of sync with SDA here the other side of the world.
BUT oh dear, have we been listening to the media, you know the lazy old media that don't figure anything out or ask the questions.

Some facts.

It is NOT a BP rig, it is an ultra deep-water semi-submersible drilling rig it is owned by Transocean, it is contracted to drill for BP.
The safety case on the rig is TOTALLY owned by Transocean, they have TOTAL control over all emergency procedures including ALL well control situations.
Funnily enough they also have control of the emergency response and as in most of there other rig contracts I guess that includes first line of communication with the media.
Go ahead and sell BP shares, of course Transocean they are pointing the finger at BP.
Contractually BP have no input into well control, and I would think they have a strong case to sue for damages to their assets, but I guess right now corporately they are concentrating on limiting the damage to the environment and stemming the flow.

Come back Kate its a bit disappointing some of you guys talking shit about something you know bollocks about, most of you should know better.

Its a disaster, but most especially for the 12 guys families that have been lost, as to how it happened it shouldn't have.

I would suggest like others that until we know, any inspection by your authorities is pretty damn stupid, BUT if it makes you feel better, sure they're ready to waste your money, OR do you really think that there is anything not being done that could be.

Great thing about Big OIL, its so bloody inefficient when compared to national/government controlled oil companies that you get your cheap gas from those nice Saudis/Nigerians/Venezuelans and make getting oil so difficult that your going to be buying it from the Chinese soon enough as they simply don't have the guilt trip you want to impose on Western Companies.
But go ahead...

First time I've had to rant at SDA.

Posted by: DSV>

‘First time I've had to rant at SDA.’

Then we will be kind.

Yes, Transocean was the contractor on location but it is a BP location or lease and BP is responsible for all safety and procedure on that site.

Transocean provides the rig and the crew to operate that rig; BP supplies all the engineering, procedures, other specialized third party services and supervision.

The rig simply runs the machinery and follows orders, they and their staff are expected to give input as their experience allows, but ALL operational decisions are made by the oil company, in this case BP.

In fact there may have been human error by a Transocean rig personnel to cause the situation, which still does not mean BP has no liability. They have all the liability to that site regardless of who they hire as a contractor. There may be lawsuits between BP and Transocean after the dust has settled, but BP is contractually responsible, and that is why they supply the management and supervision.

Nothing wrong with drilling for oil on land is there? We do it all the time. In fact, we are doing it more big time, taking the expertise of horizontal drilling & fracing gas formations to some of our somewhat "played out" oil formations and even to "bypassed pay" in formations that a vertical hole would be uneconomic.

The alternative to less oil is the horse. Which is it?

Yeah, things go bang and crash and burn, so do airplanes and a lot of cars driven by people who f8%k up texting, phoning, yapping while they think they are driving. More people die or are injured in car accidents than do in the Canadian Armed Forces in a war. Annually. No Highway of Heros for car drivers is there? Nobody cares as long as the gas pumps pump.

So, what's it gonna be, cars or horses?

Get the well capped, clean it up and move on.

People nothing is 100% safe. Idle speculation regarding an acoustic trigger for a BOP being the silver bullet to stop this event is nonsense, while it is the past-time of the liberal media Wild Ass Guessing and dragging up old regulatory debates should not be encouraged until something is factually known.

Rig explosion was not terrorism: Worker

DSV, we do know that US Navy assets pretty much sat at the dock for several days after this thing blew. That's not good, in my book.

As to what BP and Transocean are doing, I think every damn thing they can think of would about cover it. Nobody wants to be the one to wreck half of Florida, right?

r i k @ 1:09
Thanks for that link. That was a stunning interview from a survivor

Knight
I've had to read a few rig contracts in my time, and every one of them has the drilling contractor responsibility for Well control on a offshore mobile rig. Its their rig and they take responsibility for safety on the their rig as most regularity authorities worldwide insist on a safety case for the rig, and the one thing that their(drilling contractors) lawyers get prissy about in bridging documents is well control.
And trust me Transocean are no different and get pretty prissy about bridging documents.

Interesting points

Oil Spill a Catastrophe of Monumental Proportions: Is It Sabotage?

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/22667

About the Author

Jim O'Neill Most recent columns
Born in June of 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jim O’Neill proudly served in the U.S. Navy from 1970-1974 in both UDT-21 (Underwater Demolition Team) and SEAL Team Two. A member of MENSA, he worked as a commercial diver in the waters off Scotland, India, and the United States. In 1998 while attending the University of South Florida as a journalism student, O’Neill won “First Place” in the “Carol Burnett/University of Hawaii AEJMC Research in Journalism Ethics Award.” The annual contest was set up by Carol Burnett with the money she won from successfully suing the National Enquirer for libel.

Phantom
Your right about the focus.
As to the US navy assets, the operators emergency response teams first priority are, or should be, the life's at risk, second is the environment.
Part of the immediate contacts of the emergency response team (that's a team that is usually specifically specified by the national government granting the license) would be the immediate nations coast guard authorities and probably their national defense force, and in this case having not worked specifically in the US Gulf I couldn't say for sure, but I"ll bet my ass that the States coastal and maritime authorities are part of that emergency response teams primary contacts.
Some how I can't see how BP are supposed to exactly ring up the US navy and ask for help?
No its a process that has to be gone through, and its dictated by the national authorities and usually the start of that will be the emergency response team.
And I'll say it again, right now metal, assets and the environment come a piss poor second to the loss of life.

Well, interesting thing today, it is reported in the Telegraph that a -second- rig has flipped over.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/7660837/Second-rig-overturns-in-Gulf-of-Mexico.html

Frustratingly, the article says a second rig has flipped but then goes on to say nothing but a bunch of boilerplate greenie crap about oil and fragile ecosystems blah blah blah.

Two rigs going down in a week is a hell of a coincidence. Possibly the Telegraph has screwed it up, we shall no doubt see.

At any rate, the White House is starting to fire on BP, blaming them for all the terrible things that were happening while FEMA and the Navy sat in port. The only Federal oufit that seems to be on the ball id the Coast Guard, they were on site rescuing guys off the burning rig and they have had subs in the water since Day 1.

It would be nice if there were some kind of NEWS ORGANIZATION who could take all this jumbled crap and make sense out of it, but unfortunately we only have the US Media Disinformation Service, and you can't trust anything they come up with.

Well, as of this morning there is no further news of a second rig accident, so looks like a Telegraph SNAFU.

As you were. :)

The only drilling that Obama can shut down in the Gulf of Mexico is the drilling done by American companies or drilling done within the 20 mile offshore limit which is American territory.

Drilling outside the 20 mile limit, international waters, is going to continue whether Americans do it for their own energy self-sufficiency or not.

Well, a couple of fellows from the oil business were on CNBC this morning.

One guy was the CEO of an oil company - forget which one, it's not one of the majors - and he said (approximately) that these rigs cost millions of dollars, and are designed to withstand hurricane force winds (gee, hurricanes in the Gulf - who would have thought?). But he made a fairly apt analogy - commercial airliners cost millions of dollars as well, and that the rigs are designed with the same level of redundancy and care that airplanes are. But still, airplanes do fall from the sky from time to time, and we don't stop flying. As us engineers say, "Feces occur". You try to clean up the mess and drive on.

The other guy worked at the landing where the oil comes in. He said if the feds close it, then we might see a rise in gas prices, but that if it's only BP's rig shut down, we won't see any effect at all.

People did worry about the shrimp season, though.

As to the efficacy of government owned oil companies, you needn't go any farther than Mexico to see what the difference is. My best friend worked for Slumberger after he left university, testing wells. After Trudeau brought in the NEP, Ken moved south to the US of A, and never came back. He moved around a lot down there, and actually made a couple of trips to Mexico, filling in for guys on vacation. One night, over adult beverages, he told me the Mexican installations were the worst he'd seen. Shoddy practices, uncaring workers, etc. By his estimate, they were wasting about 20% of the oil in the well.