Oil Flow Is Stemmed, but Could Resume, Official Says

[Botany]

Source: NY Times

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and JOHN M. BRODER
Published: May 28, 2010


HOUSTON — By injecting solid objects as well as heavy drilling fluid into the stricken well leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico overnight, engineers appeared to have
stemmed the flow of oil, , Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard, the leader of the government effort, said on Friday morning. But he stressed that the next 12 to
18 hours will be “very critical” in permanently stanching what is already the worst oil spill in United States history.

Admiral Allen, who spoke on ABC’s Good Morning America, said the biggest challenge will be to sustain the “top kill” effort, which involves pumping material into the
well to counteract the upward pressure of the gushing oil so that the well can be sealed.“They’ve been able to push the hydrocarbons and the oil down with the mud,”
he said, referring to the heavy drilling fluid. “The real challenge is to put enough mud into the well to keep the pressure where they can put a cement plug over the top.”

The top kill effort has proceeded in fits and starts. BP officials, who along with government officials created the impression early on Thursday that the strategy was working,
disclosed later that they had stopped pumping the night before when engineers saw that too much of the drilling fluid was escaping along with the oil.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/us/29spill.html?hp

---

Please let this be true and get that damn leak (gusher) stopped.

[HereSince1628]

1. Totally agree...I hope it's true....and on to remediation!

That effort should vertically integrate local, regional and national agencies and horizontally integrate volunteers, industry, and safety officials of government.

Remediation is where Obama can REALLY make things happen by using the US government's logistical strengths to support all efforts to remove the toxins from seas and shores.

[BeFree]

10. It will work

The engineering now has the best minds working on this problem.
Obama finally sent some of his people in to interact with BP.

Now that the will to fix this is overwhelming, I have complete faith the experts will devise a way to cap the well as best as humanly possible.

It is just a matter of time. It took 5 weeks to get here, but here we are.

Next time you can bet the responsible party will not be allowed to run the show all on their own for 5 weeks. Next time Obama's people will be there on day 2.

[CountAllVotes]

16. Obama's people should have been there on Day #2

and declared this to be a National Emergency on that day. No ifs ands or buts about it.

:kick:

[dixiegrrrrl]

23. "Next time"?????!!!!

I am not quite so optimistic about having another disaster so he can be more prompt in his response.

[Tansy_Gold]

24. It boggles the mind, doesn't it?

"Oh, it's okay that we screwed up this disaster, because we learned so much from our mistakes and delays and inaction that the next time we face this kind of monumental catastrophe -- if we manage to survive this one, which isn't assured yet either -- we'll do a LOT better."

:wtf:


Spare me. Spare all of us.



Tansy Gold

[BeFree]

25. Oil + deepwater + drilling

Are you going to stop it from happening again? No.

It will happen again. It has happened before, just wasn't anywhere near the US, so, out of sight, out of mind. EH?

This is not about Obama. It is about the government and it's learned responsibility. It has now learned a lesson, and that's about all the hope we can have, and all the change we will see in oil supply process, just so we can keep on trucking. Beep, beep!

[ShortnFiery]

2. With all the past misinformation, hasn't Admiral Thad "Peach Fuzz" Allen ...

have, by now, a reputation of being "mis-quoted." Yesterday he jumped the gun to say there was no leaks not to mention after the oil rig first sank one of his subordinates reported to claim "no apparent leaks from the site" at the onset of this disaster.

Sorry, I don't trust THIS official. :thumbsdown:

[Botany]

3. He might be somewhat of a shill but Admiral Allen was reporting ..

... the information that BP gave him. They hung him out to dry.

He was saying that only drilling mud was coming out of the breaks and things were going O.K.
but BP had shut down the mud and oil was still coming out of the leaks.

[valerief]

4. I thought Prez Obama was calling him Fat Allen, and I thought that was kind of a

rude nickname. I didn't realize until later that he was calling him Thad Allen.

[FLPanhandle]

8. The definition of a shill is using only the information that the company give you.

He should have been making sure everything BP did was being monitored.

No excuse for the Coast Guard not to know BP stopped 16 hours later.

[ooglymoogly]

11. One look at this gasbag good ol boy to realize

he is not up to this catastrophe....longing for his home in "Tunbridge Wells" perhaps, with a martini in one hand and a croquet mallet in the other, yakking about the time he single handedly.........

[Kelvin Mace]

5. Sadly, I require confirmation

from sources other than BP and their lackeys at the USCG (an organization I used to respect).

[MineralMan]

6. Well, I'm sure you're sitting by your phone, waiting for that

confirmation call. Bottom line is that the Coast Guard and BP are the ones on the scene. Who do you imagine is going to confirm?

If this news is true, it's very good news indeed. I can't see how anyone benefits from saying it unless it has occurred. No benefit...no reason to tell an untruth. Note that they're saying it's a good sign, not that the problem is solved.

[bowens43]

7. no reason to tell an untruth??

You have got to be kidding. Do you really think that they need a reason to tell an untruth? I agree with the poster, BP is not a valid source of information.

[SOS]

18. BP has a big reason to tell an untruth

Their liability is, by law, directly related to the total number of barrels spilled.
That's why no video was released until demanded by Congress.
That's why all these estimates have been lowballed.
That's why they reported that the leak was "slowed" yesterday, when in fact there was no such thing.

Confirmation will come from different sources including the USCG, EPA, NOAA and independent analysis.
BP has been lying and covering up since day one.
Why would anyone believe a word this company says?

[tavalon]

19. No reason to tell an untruth?

Then why have they so consistently been telling them. There have been so many lies from these people, I'm starting to rely on the likelihood that anything they say is a lie.

[Bette Noir]

9. The best confirmation will be if the visible flow has stopped

within a couple of days, and they proceed to the cement cap.

[niceypoo]

15. Indeed

It aint over til its over

[niceypoo]

12. Tentative Progress Reported On Gulf Spill Top Kill

Source: NPR

The Obama administration's point man on the Gulf disaster said Friday that the top kill procedure had for the moment stopped the flow of oil and gas from the blown-out well, while BP's chief executive said it may take up to 48 hours to know if it is working.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said heavy drilling mud injected into the wellhead under high pressure had pushed down the oil and gas coming up at great force from underground — at least temporarily.

"The challenge is going to be to keep enough pressure on the oil flow to put a cement plug in place," he told ABC's Good Morning America. "The real question is can we sustain it, and that'll be the critical issue going through the next 12 to 18 hours."

Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127232222

[kestrel91316]

13. Why aren't they showing this miraculous cessation of spewing on their live feed?

Seeing is believing.

[tavalon]

14. It is awfully hard to take them at their word these days, isn't it

Too much lying.

[FLPanhandle]

17. Doesnt' look stemmed on the live cam.

Looks like the color during the oil flow so far.

[Botany]

20. Looks like drilling mud to me

:shrug:

I thought the "junk shot" should have closed the holes in the pipe.

This is really tricky .... enough pressure and junk to force the oil down the well and to
seal the holes but it has to be done "light enough" to keep from blowing up "the plumbing."

[FLPanhandle]

21. Just checked back. Looks a lighter color now.

Hope it's just drilling mud, but it also looks like it's flowing out at the same rate as the abondoned effort.

You're right, should the junk be blocking it up some?

[Botany]

22. I think they are afraid of the pressures after they plug the holes ......

....... that oil and methane coming up the well is under huge pressure. The holes might act as
relief valves. They have to force the oil back down the well before they try to plug the holes w/
junk.

[BelgianMadCow]

26. NOT true any longer - pumping is suspended since 2 PM

meaning the oil is coming back up (if indeed it had been forced down to some degree) and it is a matter of time before the riser bend leaks are oil/mud mixture again.

see this LBN thread on 2nd top kill being suspended

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4402394&mesg_id=4402394

[FLPanhandle]

27. and yet again Thad Allen is wrong

They never stemmed the flow and now it's back to square one.

Does this guy have no shame just repeating whatever BP tells him to say?

[icee]

28. Guy needs to be decomissioned.

[Owl]

30. I agree.

[lark]

29. No shame, but lots of dough

for parroting the lies is my guess.

[kestrel91316]

31. If it has truly been stemmed, where is the live video feed showing that?

Until I see it, I will only believe that BP officials are lying through their teeth.