Life on an Oil Platform in the Gulf of Mexico

[jamiebk]

Well, that's really reassuring Shap, but the fact of the matter is that the sunken vessel contained over 700,000 gallons of diesel fuel in addition to about 100,000 gallons of oil that already hit the water. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... sinks.html This caused a 1 X 5 mile crude oil slick. Crews from all over the world dumped over 100,000 gallons of dispersants into the water. All the dispersants do is make the oil heavy enough to sink to the bottom.

[jamiebk]

Here's a lengthy, but comprehensive article on the disaster as of today Friday April 23rd.
The damage could have been worse I suppose....as it is, it is bad enough. I realy don't want these off of my coast.
#########################
BP vows to clean oil spill
BP: Firm doing ‘everything in our power’ to mop up oil

The Associated Press
updated 9:29 a.m. PT, Fri., April 23, 2010

LONDON - No oil appeared to be leaking after a drilling rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard said Friday, though officials were trying to contain what spilled from the blast and prevent any threat to the coast's fragile ecosystem.

The search continued for 11 workers missing after the explosion late Tuesday on the Deepwater Horizon. Family members have said they had been told they probably did not survive.

The rig burned for nearly two days until it sank Thursday morning. The fire was out, but officials initially feared as much as 336,000 gallons of crude oil a day could be rising from the sea floor nearly 5,000 feet below.

Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said no oil appeared to be leaking from a well head at the ocean floor, nor was any leaking at the water's surface. But she said crews were closely monitoring the rig for any more crude that might spill out.

The crew was finishing the well about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast when the rig exploded. Officials have not said what caused the blast, and the oil they are dealing with now is left over from the explosion and sinking.

"If it gets landward, it could be a disaster in the making," said Cynthia Sarthou, executive director for the environmental group Gulf Restoration Network.

'A god-awful mess'
BP PLC, which leased the rig and took the lead in the cleanup, said Friday it has activated an extensive oil spill response, including using remotely operated vehicles to assess the well and 32 vessels to mop up the spill.

BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward said the company will do "everything in our power to contain this oil spill and resolve the situation as rapidly, safely and effectively as possible."

Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University environmental sciences professor, said he expects some of the light crude oil to evaporate while much of it turns into a pasty mess that ultimately breaks apart into small chunks of oily residue that can wash ashore.

"It's going to be a god-awful mess for a while," he said. "I'm not crying doomsday or saying the sky is falling, but that is the potential."

Weather forecasts indicate the spill was likely to stay well away from shore at least through the weekend, but if winds change it could come ashore faster, said Doug Helton of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's office of response and restoration.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson called for a congressional investigation of safety practices at offshore oil rigs. Nelson, a Democrat who has led opposition to offshore drilling, said he asked the U.S. Interior Department to investigate and provide a comprehensive report on all U.S. drilling accidents over at least the last decade.

"The tragedy off the coast of Louisiana shows we need to be asking a lot more tough questions of big oil," Nelson said. "I think we need to look back over 10 years or so to see if the record denies the industry's claims about safety and technology."


The Coast Guard, which was leading the investigation, had not given up the search early Friday for those missing from the rig.

Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau said a Coast Guard cutter would remain on the scene Friday after searching overnight, and a helicopter would take advantage of clear weather to make three more search flights.

"We use a scientific program to make a best-guess estimate on survivability," Ben-Iesau said. "And then the Coast Guard searches a little longer than that. Because there's always the unknown."

Carolyn Kemp of Monterey, La., said her grandson, Roy Wyatt Kemp, 27, would have been on the drilling platform when it exploded.

"They're assuming all those men who were on the platform are dead," Kemp said. "That's the last we've heard."

Lawsuits
Most of the crew — 111 members — were ashore, including 17 taken to hospitals. Four were in critical condition. Four others made it off safely were still on a boat operating one of several underwater robots being used to assess whether the flow of oil could be shut off at a control valve on the sea floor, said Guy Cantwell, spokesman for rig owner Transocean Ltd.

Landry said crews first saw a 1-mile-by-5-mile rainbow sheen of what appeared to be a crude oil mix on the surface. That had expanded to 10 miles by 10 miles as of Friday morning, Ben-Iesau said.

Helton, of NOAA, said it is probably good that the sheen is spreading because it will be exposed to more waves and sunlight that will help break it down. But he said a wider area also means a greater chance that seabirds and marine mammals will be affected.

Overton said the sheen's distance from shore means the impact on wildlife is likely not widespread, although some seabirds that dive for food could become coated with oil.

The problem, Overton said, would be if thicker globs of oil reach coastal areas such as the Chandeleur islands, home to hatcheries for pelicans and other birds.

A turn in winds and currents might send oil toward fragile coastal wetlands — nurseries for fish and shrimp and habitat for birds.

To prevent that, the Marine Spill Response Corp., an energy industry cleanup consortium, brought seven skimmer boats to suck oily water from the surface, four planes that can scatter chemicals to disperse oil, and 500,000 feet — 94.6 miles — of containment boom, a floating barrier with a skirt that drapes down under the water and corrals the oil.

In addition to other environmental concerns, the well is in an area where a pod of sperm whales is known to feed, said Kim Amendola of NOAA.

Family members of two missing workers filed separate lawsuits Thursday accusing Transocean and BP of negligence. Both companies declined to comment about legal action against them after the first suit was filed.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service, which regulates oil rigs, conducted three routine inspections of the Deepwater Horizon this year — in February, March and on April 1 — and found no violations, MMS spokeswoman Eileen Angelico said.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36732329/ns ... nt/page/2/

[Haggis@wk]

Coast Guard: No Oil Leak From Sunken Oil Rig

I forgot to mention that all the "Deeepwater" rigs are actually positional drilling rigs that are towed around and search for oil/gas deposits in deep water. They are not production platforms like the one I was on.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

...The 'experts' don't know as much as they claim, but I guess they dont' get headlines by saying their won't be much damage.

The "experts" are mostly academics. All too many of them can't even change out the plug in a wall socket without killing themselves.

Actual experts are usually middle aged people with tool belts, the kind of engineer that has callouses on his hands, and the cheerful lunatics who put out oil fires with TNT. These folk will fix the disaster, but won't talk about it to the useless chucklehead with the PBS microphone.

[Haggis@wk]

Jamie raises an interesting question. What would it take before you were grudgingly willing to see (or endure unseen) oil platforms off your coast? As sad as this event was, there won't be an oil slick on any beach and the recent volcano eruption in Iceland was far more polluting than this. Other than costing the lives of 11 good men, there won't be any disruption to your lives.

By 2016, with no increase in oil production in the U.S. we'll be facing obscene gas prices and that's assuming that there won't be any increase in gas tax (Britain taxes gas at $4.42 a gallon, U.S. federal and state taxes averages $0.47) an assumption that's rather naive.

I can guarantee you that domestic oil production will a. revive the economy with tens of thousands of new jobs and b. keep gas prices at $2.00 a gallon until the end of the next century.

I can also guarantee you that without domestic oil exploration and production you'll be paying over $10 a gallon by the end of the decade and it will only increase because of the people who control it and taxes to pay for your health care.

How much are you will to endure before you will accept local production?

[Haggis@wk]

Oil leaking from rig's well THAT didn't take long

[jamiebk]

Well....here's the status of that pesky little oil leak from the platform with all the safety features to prevent this...a 50 mile by 80 mile slick, that as of today has been set afire. A mere 42,000 gallons of crude everyday. They report that they have recovered about 48,000 gallons of "oily water"....only 162,000 gallons left to pick up (if they shut off the leak)

[jamiebk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-QNAwUdHUQ

The front fell off......

[jamiebk]

This just goes from worse to worse:

Officials had estimated about 42,000 gallons of oil a day was leaking into the Gulf from the blown-out well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. That would be closer to 210,000 gallons a day with the new estimates.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36800673/ns ... vironment/

[Haggis@wk]

This just goes from worse to worse:

Officials had estimated about 42,000 gallons of oil a day was leaking into the Gulf from the blown-out well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. That would be closer to 210,000 gallons a day with the new estimates.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36800673/ns ... vironment/

Doesn't look good

[analog]

This just goes from worse to worse:

Officials had estimated about 42,000 gallons of oil a day was leaking into the Gulf from the blown-out well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. That would be closer to 210,000 gallons a day with the new estimates.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36800673/ns ... vironment/

Doesn't look good

one has to wonder about the possibility of sabotage...

as bad as 210,000 gallons sounds it's a modest amount of oil, 5000 barrels , which is about three hours fuel for a decent sized power plant.

Though it's an awful mess to clean up i'm not ready to give up my gasoline and electricity habits.

a.

[Shapley]

one has to wonder about the possibility of sabotage...

I've wondered about that myself. The timing seems just a little suspect. At the time that Mr. Obama announces his intent to allow more drilling...Wham! Along comes a drilling rig disaster. Curious. Of course, the evidence has sunk, so it's all speculation at this point.

Then, again, I hate to be a conspiracy theorist. At this point I'll chalk it up to 'accidental causes'. It's still worth a look.

[Haggis@wk]

one has to wonder about the possibility of sabotage...

I've wondered about that myself. The timing seems just a little suspect. At the time that Mr. Obama announces his intent to allow more drilling...Wham! Along comes a drilling rig disaster. Curious. Of course, the evidence has sunk, so it's all speculation at this point.

Then, again, I hate to be a conspiracy theorist. At this point I'll chalk it up to 'accidental causes'. It's still worth a look.

I dunno guys, I've seen first hand the level of security on the rigs. Only vetted and backgrounded employees are allowed on and it would have been known if another vessel approached it. I forgot what the distance is but if an unknown vessel shows up on the radar the USCG is notified immediately and with a certain distance a CG SWAT team is dispatched. If it was sabotage, then it had to be an employee.

I suspect all of them are going to be re-vetted, but I still think it was an accident. There's a reason these guys make big bucks, working on oil rig is dangerous.

[analog]

Then, again, I hate to be a conspiracy theorist. At this point I'll chalk it up to 'accidental causes'. It's still worth a look.

Conspiracy theory makes good short stories.
Once upon a time in Creative Writing class i got "A" for having the Odessa organization in Paraguay hit JFK as payback to Joe Sr for switching his support away from the isolationists an 1940 election(which he did)...

Lessee - BP is British Petroleum and we know how Obama treated the royals in that gift exchange..

i think T Boone Pickens is CEO at BP, they'll probably make out like a bandit if oil gets higher; PLUS he's ordered all those GE windmills with no contracts for the power, PLUS he'd love to get our commercial ground transportation switched to his natural gas so we'd build him an infrastructure....;

we could get real creative here and make it sound plausible!

If it was sabotage, then it had to be an employee.

agreed, not high level intrigue but somebody about as dull as the characters in Conrad's "Secret Agent"...
and odds are it's a simple accident instead.

But you never know......

a.

[Shapley]

If it was sabotage, then it had to be an employee.

...or a torpedo. (Let's get real creative...)

[Haggis@wk]

...or a torpedo. (Let's get real creative...)

Dunno, rumour has it that the USN regards the GOM to be its private bathtub and have it wired more that SOSUS. Since the wellhead is leaking when it has multiple redundant safety lockouts, I think the problem originated there. Someone could have used an ROV to deliver explosive to the wellhead???

[analog]

Someone could have used an ROV to deliver explosive to the wellhead???

or one of those Columbian cocaine smuggling submarines wandering about looking for Miami..

Semi-submersible, low-profile vessels transport drugs for profit, and they do so effectively. It does not take a great leap to imagine what danger awaits us if drug traffickers choose to link trafficking routes and methods with another -- perhaps even more profitable -- payload.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... a/spss.htm


this is the area where Carl Hiassen's imagination is so delightful. But he says he doesn't make the stuff up, all his characters are people he ran across in his newspaper reporting..

a friend who used to roughneck in oil many years ago suggested perhaps somebody took a shortcut and didn't install the shutoff... i'd hate to think that... is it possible ?

a.

[jamiebk]

Analog...it is not just computers that you should mistrust. Here is a basic piece of mechanical technology that is supposed to save us from the disaster of oil spills if something (like this) should happen on one of these platforms. Proof that this is anything but failsafe. As I see it, this blowout is something the drillers are aware of and should plan for...they say the failsafes were in place. Obviously, they don't work. Do I want these rigs off the CA coast?...not on your life. At least not until they can prove them safe, clean and reliable....which they are not.

[dai bread]

I suspect the same sort of human failure that was responsible for Chernobyl. "Don't bother with that procedure. These things are safe as houses..."

[Giant Communist Robot]

Do I want these rigs off the CA coast?...not on your life. At least not until they can prove them safe, clean and reliable....which they are not.

Perfection isn't going to happen in this world. At some point it should be acceptable. As things are in this country, the government will make those decisions for us.