Posted on 05/29/2010 10:26:29 PM PDT by Java4Jay
Game over. The New York Times has the smoking gun. BP internal documents show they knew the risk of using thin casing in high pressure, lied to MMS.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
we are talking like 10 billion per quarter. They can afford some extra precautions when drilling in deep water.
I agree.
Exxon Mobil's profits of $10 billion are the result of investing 90+ billion to make that money in that same time frame. The profit margin is some 8 to 10% (in a good year).
Double Expenses, and they SHUT DOWN because there is no profit.
Of course they should take precautions or not perform deep-water drilling at all. But that’s not my point. You are alluding to gross profits which is irrelevant. It is net profits which is relevant to how much a business is able to spend on such things.
I thought about that a long while last night. The more I did, the more I became convinced that all the hearings and testimony are down right unconscionable at this point in the crisis. The company execs need to be totally focused on capping the well, recovering the oil, drilling a relief well, etc. Distracting them from that effort causes more harm than good. It's not yet time to understand what happened. That comes later when the crisis has abated.
Washington Briefing: Deepwater Horizon Interim Incident Investigation
http://energycommerce.house.gov/documents/20100527/BP.Presentation.pdf
Obama’s fault
I don’t think being prepared with an extra relief well (in deep water well situations) would double their expenses.
You don't? You would need twice as many offshore rigs, at $300,000,000.00+ (each!). You would need twice as many service vessels, you would need twice as many experienced people to operate them. You would need twenty years for them to get that experience, you would need to pay for all of that and so much more--and there would be a shortage, because there would only be enough to meed 55-60% of the demand, so today's day rates are nothing compared to what the costs would be in such a situation.
There are enough years when drilling companies have operated a few rigs at a loss to keep key personnel employed that they'd have no qualms about doubling current day rates for a rig. I'd double mine, too, to help make up for the years when the rigs were in the weeds and we got by on savings and odd jobs.
I don't think you understand much about the industry, or you just haven't given much thought to the expense/time/personnel problems in doubling the size of a skilled workforce and capital intensive infrastructure overnight.
*
With the size of this well, a relief well would be a bag of shells. Supposedly this is one of the biggest oil reserves left.
Two major mistakes in operating.
One, the bottom section of pipe was cemented inside.
It is the smallest diameter in the well.
As they go up the well the pipe sections get bigger,
and are sealed with a sealring at each size stepdown
as well as cement on the outside to bedrock..
Testimony says that they didn’t think think it
was needed to seal the bottom section to the next
bigger section above, and the folks relating this
figure that the gas and oil under 14,000 psi blew
out between these two.Above the cement plug in the
bottom section. As stupid as can be.
And second mistake was replacing heavy mud
above all this with lighter seawater to try to save time
putting in the top cement seal.
These are really secondary causes, as the main cause is
oil company and gov greed. The whole sleazy business of
cementing huge fields and pressures like this to keep them
off the market for high prices and gov getting high
taxes is criminal..Should be hooked to the pipeline system
when drilled, not backed up against the pressure,
and gotten to the refinery and any corresponding
amount from the ME shutoff. Also the biggest continental
shelf area in thr gulf is off west coast of FL,
good for shallower drilling, should have couple thousand
wells there also, and shutoff rest off ME oil.
Starving the terrorists and drop energy prices would
be a boon to the US. Ed
BP lacked well control six weeks before blowout:
CEO statement while at the same time they quit using the dispersants...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100530/ap_on_sc/us_gulf_oil_spill_plumes
An oli company cannot get thhe environmental pemit to drill in a workable area because it is in view of humans or "endangers" some precious species.
Oil exploration is limited to deep water insanity by the envirowackos and this is the likely result
the environmentalists caused this disaster
Not if you look at their P&L. The ROI is quite low. You are listening to that idiot O’Really. Another fact: This is the first instance of a blowout. Sure the damage is horrendous but had the safety measures been followed, it would not have happened (at least that is my understanding). Why put all oil companies out of business because of the stupidity of one? Of course, you are merely voicing the lies of the left. To them, all businesses have waaaay more $ than is fair & proper.
“A relief well is a well, so by that logic before drilling a relief well you’d first need to drill a relief well for the relief well, and so on.”
Applying logic would show that each would serve as the relief well for the other.
“Deeper drilling = increased risks.”
So we should only drill on land up to 100’ (safe diving depth). Works for me and there is no doubt it is safer.
“Not with where the oil price will go. All this Green crap will not replace oil in 50 years. IT IS lIBERAL PSYCHOBABBLE.”
The libs insist on going green but they cannot say what will replace dirty old oil. Scare all the way and their tactics are only set to drive our economy down to 1920 levels.
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