BP Says Crude May Continue Flowing into Gulf Until August

[Hissyspit]

Source: Washington Post

BP says crude may continue flowing into gulf until August

By David S. Hilzenrath and Matt DeLong
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 30, 2010; 2:10 PM
As BP prepared to implement another fallback plan to contain the worst oil spill in U.S. history, Obama administration and BP officials said crude could continue flowing into the Gulf of Mexico until August.

The "American people need to know that it is possible we will have oil leaking from this well until August when the relief wells will be finished," presidential adviser Carol Browner said on the CBS show Face the Nation.

Browner also warned that the spill could get worse for several days as BP attempts to put in place another containment structure. That effort will involve cutting a pipe that rises from the seabed, and because a kink in the riser may be limiting the flow, cutting it could release as much as 20 percent more oil over a period of four to seven days, Browner said.

Hopes for an earlier solution were dashed Saturday when BP conceded defeat in its attempt to plug the well through a maneuver known as a "top kill." The effort involved pumping mud into the runaway well, but the pressure of the leak proved overpowering.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/30/AR2010053002195.html?hpid=topnews

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Editorial Comment from OP:

Duh...

[pinto]

1. Just saw the blurb from the LA Times, as well.

Agggh.

[Enrique]

2. someone translate from BP to English

August means, what, December?

[AtheistCrusader]

3. It's a function of drilling time.

But yeah, bad idea to assume all will go well.

[Robbien]

16. What they are not saying is that August "solution" is pretty iffy

There's not much faith in those side wells being able to stop the gusher.

So in August we will be told results won't be known until Sept, Oct, Nov or whenever.

When the result is finally known there is a good possibility it will be another failed attempt. By then BP hopes the media attention will have moved on so that BP can move on and just abandon it.

[Kolesar]

17. Not from what I have heard

They can drill the relief wells and join with the existing well.

[Robbien]

19. Sure they can drill the relief well

but chances of it actually shutting off the oil gusher is iffy. If they get it to work, a relief well only draws off enough oil to relieve the pressure of the existing gushing well. Then they will have to cap off the gusher.

Funny how the BP execs are wording this relief well solution:


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gBmz_mYPQxmvGJhJ5ViAYlglbXyQD9G17P2O4
A BP executive says a relief well is the "end point" of efforts to stop the Gulf oil spill


End of EFFORTS. Not end of the oil gusher but end of efforts.

As I said previously by then they are hoping the media will have moved on so BP can end their efforts.

[TheEuclideanOne]

21. Do you think that if it really were August they would say August?

If it actually were August, they would say "late June" with the hopes of offering better news at the end of June.

I think that December is probably realistic, but they are surely not going to say that. Right now, the media is still using 5K as the official number because that is what BP reported, although it was clear to every non-republican that the number was many times higher.

[curiousdemo]

34. In other words.......

We're S.O.L. :nopity:

[aquart]

4. The American people need to know that BP is out of business.

We need to know they are being held accountable and that PUNITIVE damages will be assessed until they die.

[jwirr]

20. They'll just change their name. Standard Oil - Exxon, Blackwater - Ze.

[LawnKorn]

25. Yeah, BP changes it name to 'Blackwater' - it fits

[jwirr]

28. LOL I was just trying to give examples - didn't see the pun. Thanks.

[joanmj]

5. Aaargh.....

the underwater plumes will only grow...

[Lorien]

13. The whole damn Gulf will die.

Time to put some grown ups on this!

[Karenina]

23. Not future, present continuous: IS DYING.

Or rather more accurately, present perfect continuous: has been dying.
The Gulf has been severely compromised for DECADES. Losing Louisiana...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQcPOQXc9vE

"Grown ups?" We are being shown what destructive, poorly socialized, out-of-control children that we collectively are. Sun Tzu vs Lord of the Flies or some such thing.

[IcyPeas]

6. What if the relief well(s) don't work? what the next option?

[Arrowhead2k1]

15. The relief well will work. That is proven science. nt

[Scruffy1]

29. Yes, but the rock structure is problematic

The first hold they drilled in this location was a failure because the cracked the rock formation and had to abandon it. The second one apparantly blew out the bottom seal. I was shocked to see how poorly this thing was engineered for an exploratory well in poor conditions. I haven't seen the well design for the relief wells but I hope they are better, Originally BP only wanted to drill one well, but the Obama administration made them start a second in case the first ran into problems. I'm giving it over 90% success factor even in these conditions since they are more aware of some of the problems and won't be trying to scrimp on expenses.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

7. No more f'n "dispersant" (aka sweeping under the carpet).

We need to have this oil surface and capture it there.

[joanmj]

9. I agree.

[SammyWinstonJack]

14. ^5

:thumbsup:

[Baclava]

8. time to start drinking heavily

It's gonna be a long ride

[Proletariatprincess]

10. They haven't got a clue how to stop this.

experts, my sweet Irish ass. They are in the business of making money...not stopping oil flows.
BP should be forced out of business NOW! Nationalize the damn company and send the best minds in the world to work on the disaster. Even if the best come from the Middle East....or Cuba...or China.....FIX IT!

[Lorien]

11. Amen. They know that they'll have limited liability, so they're spending as little

as possible on any of it. Bring in those who have been offering help from the start!

[mvd]

22. President Obama said the government has veto power

So MAKE them hire the best experts and spend all they are capable of.

[CountAllVotes]

12. Welcome to the Great Depression II

and it will be for real this time around except it will have something very nasty to go with it called inflation inflation inflation inflation.

Hang-on folks.

It is going to be one hell of a damned ride!

:kick: & recommend.

[Tesha]

18. Here's the next thing that will go wrong...

BP will look at the riser pipe, decide to cut the riser just below
the first big bend/kink, and then discover that the 12" of straight
pipe that they left just isn't enough to actually allow the new BOP
to clamp on to the old riser.

They'll try anyway, but the clamping force will be insufficient.

They won't tell us about this little glitch for three or four days,
though.

This is really starting to sound like the old "worst case plumbing
joke" where the guy needs to fix the dripping faucet, so he tries
to shut off the water to the sink with the shut-off valve, but the
shut-off valve is corroded and breaks, starting a flood. He goes
to the house shut-off, but it won't close. and so on, and so on
until the street main has to be dug up and the basement pumped
out...

Tesha

[Corrupted Edge]

24. Something isn't right...

Should be pretty obvious no?

But, all these "solutions" involve being able to siphon off more oil, because they can still make millions if not billions from it. We are the most powerful military force in the history of the world... And we can't collapse where the s*** is spewing from? I know explosives are a bad idea around that much oil, but damn they've already been burning the godforsaken substance as a "solution"...

Something tells me those pesky "business interests" keep rearing their head on the plans that would actually stop the flow, but wouldn't allow BP access to the money, excuse me, oil gushing into our gulf.

[AlphaCentauri]

26. I bet they have not try epoxy glue n/t

[bora13]

27. whoops. back to the drawing board.

"It is always necessary that the means that are to accomplish
any end be equal to the accomplishment of that end, or the end cannot be accomplished."

Thomas Paine

[bora13]

30. There's a ship arriving too late

There's a ship arriving too late
To save a drowning witch
She was swimmin' along
Tryin' to keep a date
With a merchant marine
Who told her he was really rich
But it doesn't matter no more...
She's on the ocean floor
'n the water's all green down there
'n it's not very clean down there
'n water snakes
'n rusty wrecks
Is all that she can see
As the light goes dim
And she's tryin' to swim
Will she make it?
(boy, we sure hope so...)

Not even a witch oughta be caught
On the bottom of america's spew-infested
Ho-ho-ho, hey-hey...
She could get radiation all over her
She could mutate insanely... (aie-ee-aie)
She could mutate insanely... (earth wall)
Then you know
She could go on the freeway and grow up to be 15 feet tall
And very very scary-lookin'
And then...
Cars could crash all over the place
As a result of people with hawaiian shirts on...
Lookin' up to hear her go ha ha ha...
Sardines in her eyebrows...
Lobsters up 'n down her pudenda
All of them horribly large from graduation...
And smelling very bad
And dangerous!

Maybe a submarine could save her,
That's right! yes, that's true!
And bring her back just like a mud-shark...
Tell 'em what they win, bob!
Well, therefore ladies:
A full week's supply of gartenion's onion rings,
Bronco's new bondage-in-a-bottle!
It won't crack, it won't stake, it won't beat, it won't budge,
It won't bite the old fate...
And of course a brand new, absolutely brand new,
New, new, and of course, but also a new car!

Frank Zappa

[cachukis]

31. I've been doing a daily update with my students

with the worst case scenario. I had them do a project about Tampa Island (make believe in the middle of the Pacific, but living in Tampa they would know the city) being struck by an earthquake at 9.6. They were the oldest son or daughter of the governor and the only one with government experience as the Capitol collapsed burying the government in session.

I tried to draw parallels with the oil leak in the gulf. The disaster here will take time to unfold, but the impact will be similar. The loss of life will be our swimming and flying fellows.

I am old enough to be resigned rather than angry.

The white men who came to America were astonished that the natives drank from the rivers.

Rich men foster others to be rich.

My students are closing out the year, learning I hope, from watching the "Seven Samurai."

Warriors hired for defense become bandits without work. That gene pool was diminished by their actions.

Would that that would become the case with greed.

[bora13]

32. solution #1

Here is a great solution:
Let's take Glen Beck's head (which is the source of incredible energy in the form of hot air)
and position it directly above the well. Then, when his mouth is pointed directly up,
have him say anything at all. This should cause the head to dive straight down at tremendous speeds,
until finally entering the pipe and plugging it forever.

[CHIMO]

33. The Whole Thing Stinks

It is over one month since this started. I have not seen a schematic of the whole system. They must have had their underwater cameras trace the whole system. They must have a record of the system that is in the ground.

Without that information we are ignorant. A syphon is what one gets with a straw. The most that one can syphon is one atmosphere. We are talking about more than 150 atmospheres. And they still talk about syphons.

Until the government demands a schematic, and publishes that schematic, the only thing I can concur is that they don't have the correct technical people in the correct positions.

[Skittles]

35. EPIC FAIL

[wtmusic]

36. They tell you August, they plug it in June. BP efforts hailed as heroic.

They raise gas prices to $4/gallon, they lower them to $3. BP efforts hailed as heroic.

I know that game.

[L0oniX]

37. Bunker buster the fucking thing. Fuck BP trying to save the hole.