No, thank ME!
Posted on 05/27/2010 12:05:47 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
British Petroleum and the federal government are both claiming victory today after an experimental process to stop the flow of oil from a blowout in the Gulf appears to have succeeded. The “top kill” process dumped mud into the broken pipe, effectively snuffing out the spewing of thousands of barrels of oil (via Instapundit):
Engineers have succeeded in stopping the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government’s top oil spill commander, Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning.
The so-called “top kill” effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers in Houston, has pumped enough drilling fluid to block all oil and gas from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well is very low, but persistent, he said.
Once engineers have reduced the well pressure to zero, they will begin to pump cement into the hole to entomb the well. To help that effort, he said, engineers are also pumping some debris into the blowout preventer at the top of the well.
That’s pretty good timing for today’s presser, but undeniably just great news altogether. It verifies a more or less speculative solution that apparently was the last guess at stopping the oil. “Top kill” had worked at much shallower depths in the past, but so had the bell cap process, too, which turned out to be unsuitable for 5,000 feet.
However, the trouble may not yet be past. The ship pumping the mud has run out of material; a second ship is on the way. The shell of mud may still blow open from the upward pressure, but that could be resolved by more applications of “top kill.”
Now all that is left is the cleanup — and that will take much, much longer than plugging the leak did. Expect this to drag on for months and perhaps years.
I wonder if they are speaking too soon?
I hadn’t heard that they started pumping the cement in yet. I thought they needed to keep pumping the heavy mud until the upward pressure from the oil reaches zero before doing that.
Wish it was as easy to stop the flow FROM Mexico!
Then what the hell is spewing out of the hole??!!
Um, why is stuff still coming out if it is plugged?
I wouldn’t consider it a success until it is PLUGGED and NOTHING is coming out!
Not mud, not cement, and certainly not OIL!
Funny, not one mention of this specie of animal until the great 0 so spake today.
“The government did nothing.”
Well, the govt DID cause BP to wait until today to try the TopKill. So, in effect, the govt created this devestation by standing in the way.
I hope the engineers and other assorted working stiffs get the credit for figuring this out. I can’t imagine how hard they must have worked.
LOL
Obama's promises.
We salute you!
[Well, betcha this just went from a BP to an Obama operation. ]
Oh it did. The Obama administration was there at every step, with their slippers on the neck of BP.
wonderful now we have an Obama BS gusher.
BP Engineers succeed in stopping oil flow in Gulf of Mexico.
XXXX
Engineers...Schmengineers.
Everyone knows it was those ever-constructive, career bureaucrats and Ivy League lawyers in this productive, hard-working Administration.
Is there ANYTHING they can’t do better than the schmucks in the private sector?
We’re lucky to have them......
“I stand corrected.”
Man, you’re easy....but with my profound sense of logic and common sense, I see why one would capitulate so quickly.
Now, let me at ObommieDaCommie!
What/who are you listening to?
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