Oil Flow Is Stemmed, but Could Resume, Official Says

[SidDithers]

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

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.

Sid

[FLPanhandle]

1. Admiral Allen is just parroting whatever BP tells him to say

He's waiting to retire and get that big "consulting" job for $500K/year with BP afterwards.

Obama should fire his ass.

[Junkdrawer]

3. Thad "Rip and Read" Allen...

When I want the official BP position, he's my go-to guy.

[Webster Green]

2. Thad (Brownie) is out of the loop.

It doesn't matter WTF he says.

[NNN0LHI]

4. Why did they remove the live feed off of the BOP?

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html

[maddezmom]

7. CNN has some other camera shots here

http://edition.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=stream4&hpt=T1

[NNN0LHI]

8. Thank you very much

But I still can't see the BOP in any of them any more.

Am I just missing it?

I would have thought the camera shot of the BOP not leaking any more would be high priority.

Don

[maddezmom]

15. Don

Check now, I think one of the camera's is on it.

[NNN0LHI]

16. Oh shoot, looks like part of the top blew off it

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html

Thanks for alerting me.

Don

[csziggy]

9. Anybody got a tweet for CNN?

The camera on the mult-feed is NOT in focus. If they can't give us the feed directly, they could at least focus the damn camera. I don't do Twitter, so if anybody who does could let them know, thank you!

By the way, the flow was about the same, maybe a little lighter than when I went to bed at 4 AM. About 9:10 AM the ROV monitoring the flow at the top of the BOP (where the pipe was bent over) moved away. Then there was a lot of turbidity and chunks of stuff flying around. The ROV has not gone back to the location to monitor the flow out of the top of the BOP.

The BP livestream has changed to a different ROV camera - the "Deep 1" (upper left on the CNN multifeed) is still floating around showing nothing but little "flakes".

[golddigger]

5. I don't believe one fucking word they say.

[stray cat]

6. Who will you believe - and I hope its not DU

[FLPanhandle]

10. Not someone with a track record of parroting wrong information.

I'd trust the few independent sources or scientists who have been saying that what BP/Allen are saying can't be right.
I'd trust folks that point out how the protection operation is all for show and not going to do anything with data.
I'd trust oil experts who are not employed by BP who give independent assessments of the chances of each "solution".

That's a good start.

[MineralMan]

11. In other words, you'll believe whoever is telling you what you

have already decided is the truth? Got it.

[FLPanhandle]

12. and you'll believe anyone with a track record of lying to you.

Got it.

[MineralMan]

13. No. I believe nobody on a short-term basis. What I do is

wait until more information is available. I do not know if they have stopped the flow with this junk shot. BP says it is stopped for now, but may not be permanently stopped. That seems to make sense. So, I'll be hopeful that things are working. Time will tell. I don't know, and you don't know, and all those people posting on all those sites don't know.

Hopeful skepticism is the appropriate response.

[FLPanhandle]

14. I'll believe an independent assessment only

When someone lies to me over and over, and then tells me, yet again, another story makes them look good...well, I'm more than a little skeptical.

I won't believe a word until someone without a vested financial interest confirms this.

[Donnachaidh]

17. yeah yeah -- this is what, the 92nd time this BS has been announced, only to have

it refuted within minutes or hours of posting?

:rofl: