Posted on 05/29/2010 12:57:00 PM PDT by Steelfish
Day 40: BP 'Top Kill' Still Not Stopping Flow
Outside expert: Pressure from well is stronger than heavy mud
ROBERT, La. - BP said Saturday that its latest bid to plug the worst oil spill in U.S. history still hadn't worked and outside experts suggested any progress was incremental at best. BP PLC chief operating officer Doug Suttles told reporters in Grand Isle, Louisiana, that the effort known as a "top kill" has not stopped the flow of oil, and that he doesn't know if the risky maneuver will succeed. He said the company was already preparing its next option to cap the well.
A live feed of the leak showed preparations Saturday morning for BP's next step. An underwater robot gripped a saw near the bent and leaking pipe atop a failed blowout preventer, where BP aims to slice off the pipe and place a cap and seal over the opening.
That operation is known as the lower marine riser package cap, and Suttles confirmed that BP had been preparing for that step "all along." "If we have to go to it, we can do it as quickly as possible," he said. BP has said previously the company was "planning in parallel," or getting ready for other options while working on the top kill — the injection of heavy fluid and materials to plug the well.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Last night on C-Span I saw members of the Coast Guard and some politicians interrogating an engineer from BP. It was embarrassing because the examiners only exposed their total ignorance of the high technology and the dynamics involved in deep sea drilling. I mention this not to exculpate BP from any blame they might have but simply to point out that the interrogators were so without any specialized expertise that they couldn’t even frame intelligent questions. And obviously what the engineer told them was completely beyond their capacity to understand. IMHO, what we need to have is a group of experts with the technological knowledge to objectively find out what really happened so we learn to prevent such a catastrophe in the future - not a bunch of grandstanding people and politicians who don’t know what they’re talking about.
So he truly feels that because it’s BP’s fault, he doesn’t have to get the military involved? There would seem to many people in the world who might have dealt with this before who could have helped. Regardless if it’s BP’s fault, his ‘studying the situation’ as opposed to action is forcing the rest of us to pay the price.
It’s too bad MMS gave Deepwater Horizon all that praise, and especially all those waivers right before the explosion. I bet right about now they are trying to destroy the records, the shredders are buzzing, like busy little bees.
The ones who were supposed to save us with their gigantic lumbering, porn watching, bureaucracy has failed us all again. The 1990 OPA which was designed to “never let this happen again” has failed us once more, and it has happened again. When will we learn.
Just like Katrina and the dikes, just like with Fannie and Freddie and the federal cash gusher for loans that could never be repaid, the saviors have sunk the ship again. Tell me why we believe their siren song.
And now we find the safety regs that should have been enforced, were handed out as waivers for campaign cash. Well maybe we don’t know the last, yet, but give it time.
What suckers we are.
Time to hit those golf links.
One of these days, we'll probably hear that he's fled and is living in Saudi Arabia...
“But why the silence from Vitter?”
Because Vitter is a milksop.
Just the loss of tourism this summer season alone all along the gulf coast will be tremendous. That will prevent a lot of folks who are barely hanging on to fold come winter.
They should quit foolin’ around, and pump in the Silly Putty!
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Nah, they need to send ten thousand rail cars to DC to haul back one day’s worth of the BS coming from this “administration” and that would plug every oil leak on the planet.
Yesterday, th’ bama took ownership of this disaster “from day one”, obviously thinking the plug would work. Now he’s got to live with his big mouth, although we can expect the MSM to go into hyperdrive on damage control, mainly finger pointing.
hope nobama brought his fiddle to Chicago.
The only panel that would make sense, was a peer panel from the other offshore companies. I have to admit, that even though I have been in the business for 35 years, I have only had about 5 years in the offshore, and that was a long time ago. I certainly could outdo a bunch of stupid congressmen, but I am no match for the current engineers in the gulf. Therefore, a Peer Panel Inquiry from qualified offshore operators would be very helpful. My experience has been that even though people in our industry are competitors, that they go above and beyond to help.
Time for King Baraq to put his boot back on BP’s neck.
Obama is pulling a Stalin. Geographic holocaust with BP doing the dirty work. Obama must kill the economies of the Gulf Coast red states.
Early on I heard some discussion about retrofitting a new BOP (blow-out preventer) on to the existing BOP. It seems that maybe the only real solution. Unfortunately it would require cutting off the damaged riser, and allowing maximum flow from the stub until the new BOP could be placed on top of the failed BOP.
The other solution which is on going, is to do directional drilling and intercept the current well head far beneath the sea floor. BP currently has two drill rigs doing precisely that. They started those drilling operations within a few days of the original accident. Unfortunately it would take 2 or 3 months to complete that drilling.
The Gulf died while Bammy Golfed!!
BP thinks this well will produce 100 million barrels.
And then they start thinking about pumping in seawater ...
They can stop it. It will be stopped. They have two more plans in progress that they are very confident of being successful. Number 1 backup plan is the relief wells. They are down to more than 8000 feet below the ocean bottom as we post.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.