Posted on 06/14/2010 7:20:31 PM PDT by PennsylvaniaMom
Could the reason for the 'hide behind the Jones Act' strategy of Duh Won be not one of Union appeasement (hardline adherence to the the Jones Act--waived by GWB in Katrina) or not even Greenie homage...could it be that the lack of media access, the stoppage of all flyovers, be due to the Horizon Deep Water leak being much, much more profound than originally reported?
The Boyz at HillBuzz pose the question, via an article posted by The Oil Drum (link to TOD also attached).
Not for oil look it up it is 42 gallons.
A barrel is 42, a drum is 55.
Sorry pal, that,s a drum. A barrel is now and forever was 42 gallons.
You say tomato, I say potato! ;)
we already know they couldn’t kill the well from the top down.
I think I’ve read enough of this article and enough of the BP relief well plan to conclude the article is exaggerated at best, BS at worst.
Her is a key line from the article:
“They have shifted from stopping or restricting the gusher to opening it up and catching it. This only makes sense if they want to relieve pressure at the leak hidden down below the seabed.....”
No, having failed to stop the well from the top down, they are “catching” the oil now in order to keep it out of the environment until such time as they can kill the well from the bottom via the relief wells.
Attempting to recover the gushing oil in the meantime makes absolute sense and it is not true that this can only be taking place because “they want to relieve pressure at the leak hidden down below the seabed.....”
The article is BS.
That is what I read as well.
And the collection mechanism that now sits on top of the well is going to slowly push down on the whole thing, and when the BOP fails, that’s all she wrote. One hurricane could trigger this as well.
They mentioned the worse is not even yet to come under that scenario because even if they get relief wells start working, that deposit could be a network of 4 total resevoirs that are estimated at anywhere from 1 to 3 billion barrels. That’s not gallons, but barrels.
And they were also talking about the scenario of if enough oil is expelled at the current rate, a major portion of the sea floor could actually collapse which could trigger an oil release so massive, its beyond your worse nightmare.
The only way I can see to cap this well is to drill 4 wells
around the blowout well,,,maybe 6 or 8,,,or ?,,,
What ever it takes,,,
They can lay another undersea pipeline to Port Fourchon,,,
Nobody wants to do this because it would kill the price of
oil on the world market for a time,,,
BP is burning the oil at sea and that should prove my point.
Only about 50 miles from Port Fourchon where the oil/gas
can be piped to every refinery in the area...
Very interesting article, and links. Thanks for posting.
The link at Oil Drum is very depressing information. What a nightmare we are in for.
Praying that God will protect our country
I believe they have already done that via what is essentially a giant funnel apparatus and are recovering some portion of the oil.
The sea bed is badly damaged....that’s the problem...the oil is bleeding out and can’t be stopped. The fear is the sea bed will completely collapse.
I hear ya, but they could just refill our strategic reserves or perhaps pump the oil to safer old reservoirs on land. The affect on the price of oil really not be a significant factor. They can always shut down other non-leaking BP wells. At any rate, might be a good idea to at least inspect everything BP has been doing or getting away with.
Collapse around the well head. Would look like this after collapse.
_________ ____________ seafloor
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\___/ perhaps collapse a few dozen feet
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Oil
The lost art of ASCII graphics!
Sorry Whitebread, but guitarplayer is correct - 42 gallons of crude in a barrel. That is the standard measure for crude.
Could the Deepwater Horizon disaster become the “Titanic” of the 21st century?
An unforseen incident that forces man to reassess his limitations?
Remember the Titanic was _more than_ “just another ship”. It represented (and was so stated to be) “unsinkable”. It was touted to be a pinnacle of technological progress, certainly symbolic of man’s [at the time] achievment. The designer of the ship actually told a passenger on board that “God himself could not sink this ship”.
And what happened next?
It was almost as if Divine Providence had intervened to put Man back into his place, to humble him before God and Nature.
And so it goes with the Deepwater Horizon.
Again, an outward symbol of progress and achievement. The hubris that we could drill a mile down, and control events as easily as on a Texas or Saudi plain. All the safety equipment was in place, along with the confidence that it would protect us if needed. And then.....?
We have no idea when this can be stopped with certainty, or, even HOW to stop it. Up to this point, all the logical avenues of action have not only failed, but failed miserably. Currently the only [seemingly] workable option is to limit the ongoing damage.
Say what you will about the sense or nonsense of the Obama administration halting all deepwater exploration, but the events speak for themselves.
Who’s willing to risk ANOTHER Deepwater Horizon?
Looks like it’s back to the drawing boards as far as energy exploration goes.
Perhaps it’s time for a true national discussion as to why we at once obstruct the extraction of “easy energy” at home, while tempting fate offshore.
Looks like fate has the edge, so far!
My guess is that over the long run it could collapse down to where the hard salts and limestone are located. If that happened, maybe they could just pump cement down into the pit, but the entire seabed near the pit walls might be unstable. Definitely a job for robots.
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