Question for the C's concerning the BP Oil Spill and how this will effect Gaia

[Maia]

I'm wondering if the C's have anything to say about the BP Oil spill?

Personally I think this is going to affect the entire planet more than most people realize.

Ever since April 29Th I have been physically sick over this issue and can't seem to let go of it.

Thank you
Maia

 

[1984]

Welcome to the Forum, Maia. It is customary that new members post an introduction in the Newbies section. No need for personal information, just perhaps how you found us, what your interests are, etc.

 

[Hesper]

Hi there Maia and welcome to the forum.
:)
I too was interested in the BP oil spill, but from a slightly different angle. The question I'm interested in is: was this an intentional act of violence towards the people who will be affected by it, or just a bunch of psychopathic businessmen cutting corners for too long? Maybe they both weave together though, like a kaleidoscope image... hmmm...

 

[Brewer]

Oil spills aren't good but the environment seems to recover, thousands of ships were sunk in WWII, doesn't help the people that live there and I don't think those responsible will be doing much to help. Probably get a massive taxpayer handout.

Apparently Halliburton did some work on the rig....

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-10/bp-halliburton-transocean-blame-each-other-in-gulf-oil-spill.html

BP and Halliburton are blaming the other

They also did work on an Australian rig, which also blew out.

Do a search, many links....

 

[Zaphod]

Oil spills aren't good but the environment seems to recover, thousands of ships were sunk in WWII, doesn't help the people that live there and I don't think those responsible will be doing much to help. Probably get a massive taxpayer handout.

Apparently Halliburton did some work on the rig....

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-10/bp-halliburton-transocean-blame-each-other-in-gulf-oil-spill.html

BP and Halliburton are blaming the other

They also did work on an Australian rig, which also blew out.

Do a search, many links....

Strange isn't it? There's no shortage of blame-storming going on, even apparently at governmental levels. You would think, that if the widely publicised potential gravity of this situation, is even half as substantial as we've been led to believe, we would be using any and every resource at our disposal to cap off the leak as swiftly as possible ... Then drag BP to the guillotine.

I'm not really sure what's going on. Maybe it just isn't that bad, or maybe everyone's too busy showing each other PowerPoint presentations about how bad it's going to be.

 

[Cyre2067]

Given the way the cleanup is going my intuition is that the leak itself maybe have been caused on purpose. I mean, I'm not really getting a vibe that suggests this cleanup is going well, nor that everything that can be done is being done. The question I'd like to know is why? What's there to gain?

 

[Hesper]

Given the way the cleanup is going my intuition is that the leak itself maybe have been caused on purpose. I mean, I'm not really getting a vibe that suggests this cleanup is going well, nor that everything that can be done is being done. The question I'd like to know is why? What's there to gain?

I know what you mean. Fox news is saying that because of this mess the carbon tax system won't be pushed through. However articles on SOTT.net and others have said that it may be the opposite.

Kerry said that while the path to the 60 votes required for Senate passage of climate change legislation has been long, the goal is within reach despite conventional Washington wisdom. “This is the time. We have a House bill already passed. We have a never-before-seen coalition from across America, including key stakeholders embracing energy and climate legislation for the first time ever. They aren’t giving up, they’re doubling down. They understand this isn’t a choice, it’s a necessity, and we’re going to get it done this year,” he maintained.

The above was dated May 13th. Maybe this spill is being seen as a chance for a shock and awe tactic? I haven't found anything more current concerning climate change legislation but the next tidbit of information, concerning the cause of the oil spill itself, is interesting.

Stupak said that BP officials told subcommittee investigators that “after the accident, they asked Transocean for drawings of the blowout preventer.”
“Because of the modifications, the drawings they received didn’t match the structure on the ocean floor,” Stupak said. “BP said they wasted many hours figuring this out.”
The failed pressure test caused Waxman to question the work of a third company, Halliburton, which was contracted to pour concrete around the well's pipe and cap it.
Waxman said that the well was tested multiple times on the day of the explosion to ensure its integrity.
It passed one set of so-called positive pressure tests in which fluids were injected into the well to increase pressure to monitor whether the well remains stable.
It failed, however, a negative pressure test, in which fluid inside the well is reduced to see whether gas leaks into the well through the cement or casing.
It was this test _ made after Halliburton had cemented the well at 12:35 a.m. on April 20, the day of the accident _ that the system failed, Waxman said.
Another test showed high pressure in the main well pipe but zero pressure in two other connecting lines, a sign, Waxman said, that gas was leaking into pipe.
What happened next, Waxman said, is "murky." BP attorneys say the well passed subsequent tests and at 8 p.m. the company resumed removing heavy and costly drilling lubricants known as mud from the well.
The well blew about an hour and a half later when a huge mass of methane gas burst up the pipe, engulfed the rig and exploded into flames.
On Tuesday, Frank Patton, a drilling engineer for the government's Mineral Management Service, which oversees offshore drilling, told a separate inquiry in Kenner, La., that drilling mud "is the most important thing in safety for your well."
He said that any alteration to the blowout preventer would have required both BP and MMS approval.

and...

Newman of Transocean said “it simply makes no sense” to blame the accident on the blowout preventers because “the drilling process was complete” and the well already “had been sealed with casing and cement.”
Probert of Halliburton said “the final cement plug” to close off the well was never set.
Halliburton was “contractually bound,” to follow BP’s instructions, Tim Probert, president of global business lines for the Houston-based energy services company, will tell the panel.
“All offshore oil and gas production projects begin and end with the operator,” Stephen Newman, chief executive officer of Swiss drilling company Transocean said in his prepared remarks. BP, the London-based oil company, decided “where and how” its well was to be drilled, Newman said.

So why then, after the test has proven there is something wrong, why go ahead with the operation? More Fun and Games? I find it interesting that Halliburton seems to be the company who was left in charge of the final stages of the operation, right when it starts to get "murky". Especially considering their track record in Iraq.

Anyways another opportunity to minimize the disaster goes awry:

BP inserted a mile-long tube into its damaged pipe late Saturday night aimed at capturing much of the oil gushing from a well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, but it got yanked out as a line from a Remotely-Operated Vehicle got entangled with the tube's line to the surface, according to sources familiar with the project.

This along with the 8 days it took for anyone to actually DO anything about the spill and the fact that they actually had to BORROW the equipment necessary to clean this up!! Meanwhile, in that evil Venezuela:

Venezuelan gas rig sinks, workers evacuated

The incident comes just three weeks after the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank into the Gulf of Mexico, unleashing thousands of barrels of crude in what could become the worst oil spill in US history...
...Ramirez announced an investigation into the origin of the collapse, which he said had happened "too fast" given that only three hours passed between the detection of the first technical failure and the sinking.
...The gas well was immediately sealed and all safety valves were activated, said Venezuela's national oil company PDVSA.

The whole thing stinks to me but then again what doesn't anymore?

 

[Juba]

Given the way the cleanup is going my intuition is that the leak itself maybe have been caused on purpose. I mean, I'm not really getting a vibe that suggests this cleanup is going well, nor that everything that can be done is being done. The question I'd like to know is why? What's there to gain?

Perhaps less working space/rights for non USA oil giants in very own backyard and more for home teams, and on what cost, unbelievable.....,...

 

[Mona]

Given the way the cleanup is going my intuition is that the leak itself maybe have been caused on purpose. I mean, I'm not really getting a vibe that suggests this cleanup is going well, nor that everything that can be done is being done. The question I'd like to know is why? What's there to gain?

Puck, that was my first thought about the spill, there is not enough being done to clean up the mess, and also there were 11 people (the magic number 11) who died during the explosion.Also, when such a disaster occurs I noticed that the price of gasoline goes up, but this time it actually went down here in Calgary. I would also like to know why this happened, it is such a disaster for mother nature and I just feel so sorry for all the animals that are dying and will die as a result of this useless/caress man-made calamity.

 

[Hesper]

Here's an excerpt from an article on UC Berkeley professor Robert Bea's opinion on what caused the situation. Keep in mind that it was Halliburton who was in charge for cementing the well.

A UC Berkeley professor who is conducting an informal assessment of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead blast said Tuesday that BP documents leaked to him indicate that contaminants in cement encasing the well were the initial cause of the explosion that led to the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Robert Bea, a UC Berkeley professor who directs the school's Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, said the flaw led to natural gas shooting up a riser pipe from the wellhead to the rig above, where it exploded. Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead from the accident, which has led to a leak of 210,000 gallons of oil a day.

Bea said that the cement was tainted with the same slushy gas hydrate that scuttled BP's plan to contain the oil with a giant box last week.

The hydrates hidden in the cement turned to gas and seeped into the well column, Bea says.

Not all experts agree that the evidence suggests this. But most agree with Bea's general point: Cement used to close up the well was leaky.

Emphasis mine. What do you think? The clean-up has obviously been "botched" but was it botched the same way Iraq was "botched"? Halliburton's stock has fallen in recent days so it doesn't seem they benefit at all from this, so, if this was done on purpose, who benefits?

 

[Al Today]

Up here on the Great Lakes, every now and then again we get some of those warm tropical breezes along with rain, FROM THE GULF OF MEXICO. It's only a matter of time until some air currents swoop up some oil and drop that oil inland. AND... What about hurricane season???
Boy-Oh-Boy: Although I do voice my concerns, lightly per person, I use strategic enclosure to not appear as a conspiracy theorist, but yeah, it's only a matter of "time"... Most people around here seemingly don't get it or just don't care until they are personally affected. Yeah, Ohio and heading south is gonna be an exciting hot spot to watch the pissed off masses when it start raining some oil based substance(s).
AND I WANT TO BE WRONG.

 

[Nawd]

I'm down in South Alabama, just a few minutes Gulf Shores. It's a big issue here, mostly because of the tourist industry that feeds people throughout the rest of the year, the fishing businesses that provide the yummy restuarants with seafood and the looming issue of possible hurricanes that would bring that oil long inland.

So far, many restaurants have lost money. Tourists have cancelled their summer plans...which is what this area is famous for. Fishing is still allowed inland, but if the oil goes into the swamplands, the loss of wildlife would be significant. The economic matters for these areas could very well be devistated.

It could get worse, and that's what we all fear.

 

[Nawd]

Oh I wanted to add, we skipped spring. It went from being 60 during the day back in March, to being in the 90's so far for a week. What happened to spring?

 

[1peacelover]

Re: Question for the C's concerning the BP Oil Spill and how this will effect Ga

How do you stop/slow down the pressure of oil forcing its way to the surface? It almost seems like band-aid trying to stop the bleeding of an artery. How does the flow of the gulf stream affect this situation?

 

[Joe]

I have no evidence for this theory, but thought I'd throw it out there anyway; could the Israelis have been involved? A distraction from something or other? They're pretty wily that way - when they can't effect change directly, they do it indirectly and covertly.