BP’s containment problem is unprecedented

[n2doc]

The company must stop a relentless gush of oil nearly a mile below the surface, in a situation that hasn’t been dealt with before.



By Jill Leovy
April 30, 2010 | 4:42 p.m.


The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico presents BP Exploration and Production with a problem of unprecedented severity — a limitless gush in very deep waters — forcing the London-based company to grasp for fixes that have never been tried before.

The problem with the April 20 spill is that it isn't really a spill: It‘s a gush, like an underwater oil volcano. A hot column of oil and gas is spurting into freezing, black waters nearly a mile down, where the pressure nears a ton per inch, impossible for divers to endure. Experts call it a continuous, round-the-clock calamity, unlike a leaking tanker, which might empty in hours or days.

"Everything about it is unprecedented," said geochemist Christopher Reddy, an oil-spill expert and head of the Coastal Ocean Institute at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. "All our knowledge is based on a one-shot event…. With this, we don't know when it's going to stop."

Accidents have occurred before in which oil has gushed from damaged wells, he said. But he knew of none in water so deep.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fix-20100501,0,5376328.story

[Xipe Totec]

1. Nuke the wells!

[Shell Beau]

2. I am really worried about it.

First,the most tragic of all were the people dying in the explosion and many families not being able to give their loved ones a proper ceremony. I can't imagine what that must be like to have to wonder if my loved one's body is being feasted on by animals.

Secondly, the effects it will have on the poor wildlife. This is so tragic. My heart aches for these animals that can't do anything about this.

Third, what will this do to people whose job thrives on fishing, etc.?

The tragedy on human lives, animal life, and our environment is devastating. And we haven't even really began to see how it will impact our environment.

[Xipe Totec]

3. I feel for you, Shell Beau

This is a train wreck in slow motion.

All we can do is watch with morbid fascination.

This is a national catastrophe. Not just Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida.

Every American is going to feel the effects of this cataclysm.

[Shell Beau]

4. Yep. It is so tragic on so many levels.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Parts of the coast have not recovered from Katrina

plus we have a Depression, and now there is a loss of fishing, tourists in the area.

[Shell Beau]

8. Really, you could just go on and on and on.

x(

I don't even fish, and rarely take a vacation, but someone bought my husband and me a deep sea fishing trip off the coast for June. I guess that is a no-go. But that isn't even a big deal. The reason why we can't go is a big deal.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. They don't put a velocity valve downhole... one that could/would

react to a velocity of fluid and shut itself off. Forklifts have them, oil wells don't.

[spanone]

7. maybe someday someone will find the dead gulf scrolls?