AP: BP Plug/Top Kill Has Failed

AP | 5-29-10

[My Favorite Headache]

AP news break via ABC News Radio that the top kill plug has failed and has not worked. Link to follow...

[snarkybob]

“Thank politicians and eviornmentalist for forcing people to drill deep and the middle of nowhere instead of closer in shallow waters.”

I tend to think that BP would have drilled where ever there was oil. Deep or shallow, offshore or not. Since they make their profits bringing in oil it seems naive to think that drilling somewhere else would keep BP from also drilling in deep water. IMHO if Anwr were open to drilling they would be drilling there as well as in the Gulf. It’s not an either or deal.

[Berlin_Freeper]

[krogers58]

This is exactly what happens when a bribe taking Chicago pol is mated with a communist street agitator who knows nothing about anything other than, "pay to play" and "go along to get along." When all the drillling permits for this well were granrted, BP, the dirtiest, most reckless of the large oil companies, was on probation from a felony conviction based on recklessness that killed 15 people in the 2005 explosion of its Texas City, TX refinery and from a misdemeanor conviction based on an Alaskan oil spill. It got a greenwash by contributing more to the 2008 Obama campaign than it contributed to any other campaign. Then there was a sudden miracle; it was deemed the world's most responsible corporate good citizen and Obama give it carte blanche to drill this well. SURPRISE!! The same kind of thing happened that would happen if a local prosecutor was bribed to release a convicted child rapist and allow him to run a child day care center unsupervised. We're now going to have as much economic damage to the Gulf coast as if the old Soviet Union had dropped an atom bomb on New Orleans. IMPEACH OBAMA FOR BRIBERY.

Well said sir!

[kittymyrib]

Make that three months...August, if they’re lucky.

[TexasFreeper2009]

man !

this is really going to interfer with that pickup game Obama had planned for tonight!

hm...

well ... maybe not! heck he can do anything he wants! because he’s black!

[libstripper]

Somehow or other, they and the NY Times failed to pick up on the little fact that BP, to save money, sped up the drilling and cracked some very fragile rock formations, as reported on 60 Minutes a couple of weeks ago. A top kill often won't work in such a situation because the mud just gets pumped out into the damaged formations.

[Southnsoul]

It looks worse to me too...
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html

Does anybody know if this the same 5-hole leak we’ve been watching for the last couple of days?

[TexasFreeper2009]

He can only plug boys holes from what i’ve heard.

[TexasFreeper2009]

can’t Bush just turn on his earthquake machine and shut this thing off?

/s

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

I say we take off, and Silly Putty it from orbit! It’s the only way to be sure!

[austinaero]

I wonder if people with gulf plans for summer would be willing to go ahead and go and be part of the rescue/clean up effort? Surely those who love the Gulf would jump at the chance to try to help out. Does anyone know of any local organized effort?

[dr_lew]

The reason the top kill failed was that the BOP is not sealed, and the “mud” injected below the BOP valve just blew back out. They said only 10% of it was going into the well, and this was not enough. The “junk shots” were an attempt to clog the BOP and reduce the blowback of the “mud” but this didn’t work and is the crux of the failure.

You can see that pumping seawater instead of “mud” would accomplish nothing. The point of the “mud” is that it’s heavy, and the idea is that if you get enough in there it will start to sink of its own weight and seal the well.

As to freezing the BOP ... how could you hope to do that? It’s pretty cold there anyway, and this causes problems with clathrate formation when they try to capture the outflow.

[gulfcoast6]

Should have started another rig long ago, back in the same place we were. I ive on the MS Gulf coast and this thing has killed our season here.

[MHGinTN]

As an alternative, why are they not considering lowering a much larger pipe down over the leaking area and use that to collect the escaping oil, especially while drilling other wells into this pocket? If a larger pipe is lowered over that leaking pipe, much more controlled harvesting could be done, instead of waiting for the leaking oil to spread around the Gulf, uncontrolled.

[Yossarian]

Good to see we’re on the same exact wavelength on this.

[RetroSexual]

Here ya go:

[Lmo56]

Meanwhile ... out on the golf course, Obozo is playing a round. Here is the rest of his foursome:

"Hello ... Hello ... Hello ........ HELLO !!!"

[Balding_Eagle]

I think they tried something like that already.

[krogers58]

It is indeed stunning that they relied only on a blow out preventer as their single source of protection given the potential for damage that this well could produce should the unthinkable happen. In engineering terms, this is virtually engineering malpractice and rates in the order of engineering failures that have led to deaths and should be prosecuted accordingly. Every engineer associated with this collosal failure, as well as any regulatory agencies that signed off on this should be held accountable. It is an engineer’s first duty to see to it, that any project they work on, is safe. If the industry has felt safe in drilling with single blow out preventers, they should’ve known what would’ve happened if the preventers had failed, particularly at this great depth. Now, I’d suspect, if they ever allow drilling to take place in the ocean again, there will probably be reduncancy in blow out preventers, as well as probably a relief well being drilled simultaneosly with the primary well so that in the event of a failure like this, it would only take a day or two to implement the relief well fix.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Barry said that he was going to “spread the wealth around”. I just wish he’d put it in barrels first.