Posted on 07/13/2010 10:44:36 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
BP and US Coast Guard officials said further analysis was needed before pressure testing could begin.
If it proves successful, the well will be kept "shut in" and the leak halted until relief wells plug it entirely.
The blown-out well has been spewing oil into Gulf waters since April. The US administration has sent BP and other parties a new bill for the clean-up.
The administration says the latest bill is for $99.7m (£65.8m).
The oil giant has already fully paid the last three bills totalling $122.2m (£80.6m) for costs related to response and clean-up of the spill, according to the Obama administration.'No promises'
The test in the Gulf of Mexico, which was supposed to begin on Tuesday, will determine whether BP's new cap can contain the oil.
Coast Guard chief Admiral Thad Allen said the extra analysis would continue into Wednesday.
This latest move to stop the oil comes a day after the containment cap was placed on the leaking well.
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The sealing cap system never before has been deployed at these depths or under these conditions”
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Work on the permanent relief well solution continues.
BP Vice-President Kent Wells said no promises could be made about whether the new cap would work.
"It's not simple stuff. What we don't want to do is speculate around it," he said.
Shutting in the well would provide a temporary solution to the leaking oil. BP is continuing work on the relief well that is expected permanently to stop the oil.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
I don’t know why they’re even bothering to worry about cutting it off for now. Just keep gulping down as much as they can hold until the relief well is done. The relief well is the fix. The cap is damage and political mitigation.
So now they are worried about pollution ? You think they would have been worried about that more then 50 days ago. Right now it is all about Risk Management. Something that a Kenyan Marxist has no clue about. Have a good night.
There may be fractures in some of the rock up to the surface, but there’s three miles of rock. It’s not all going to fracture as if a cave in or so. They’ll plug it near the deposit.
what agency is receiving the payments and where is the audit trail for disbursement of these funds?
Why stop with BP? ALL oil company assets need to be seized, real quick.
Oil and gas seep through the sea floor everyday and have for millions of years. Is this a bigger than “normal” crack? Probably. But this is a huge field and there is room for several more relief wells, which will take the pressure off of that crack. The nuclear option is ridiculous. It would be just like Obama to set one off in the GOM and not in Iran.
Very interesting information. Would you happen to have a link to the officials admitting the seafloor is leaking from this reservoir now ?
I read it today (technically that would be yesterday!) so I have to go back through and see if I can find the article with the BP communication containing that unhappy news. Maybe I will do that for you tomorrow. Also I will try to find you a screen shot of an opening in the sea floor. Although it looks different than the hole I saw, you will be able to see it is definently a fissure leaking gas and oil in the sea bed.
It would be just like Obama to set one off in the GOM and not in Iran.
No rush. I have a feeling we will be conversing about this calamity for years. Just considering the cleanup efforts alone. No need for images of Oil leaking from cracks. Already saw that myself. Both times live on an ROV feed.
This video is what I saw! Look at around 1:14. The camera shows the sea bed erupting and then quickly moves away. :(
Here is a video showing the cracks in the sea bed. These cracks are not as wide as the ones I saw more recently but I can not find that video for the life of me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2RxIQP0IBU
> NO MATTER WHAT THE GOVERNMENT SAYS. They already told people to swim in the poluted waters that EPA said were dangerous to human life! Michelle just visited and called for everyone to come on down and swim!<
I want to see pictures .. VIDEO - of Obama his wife and children swimming in that water first.
>I read it today (technically that would be yesterday!) so I have to go back through and see if I can find the article with the BP communication containing that unhappy news. Maybe I will do that for you tomorrow. Also I will try to find you a screen shot of an opening in the sea floor. Although it looks different than the hole I saw, you will be able to see it is definently a fissure leaking gas and oil in the sea bed.<
If you manage to dig that up, can you please ping me on that as well? many thanks in advance.
(if you don’t have time, no problem)
I have nothing against nuking if it would work. But it would have to be in the right kind of rock. A nuke set off (lets say) 8000 ft below the ocean floor will make a cavern with walls of fused material that is not that thick. A nuke down there will not create a massive blob of fused material that will act to block the oil flow upward
With one exception.... I heard Richard Hoagland say a very high radiation nuke would have to be used. One that had less explosive ability but put out a lot more radiation that would fuse materials down there. The explosive ability just creates caverns which you want less of or none of
If you look at footage of the old underground nuclear tests..... They would cave in on themselves. Because the explosion created a cavern that then caved in
Then you get to having to redesign a water and pressure resistant, enhanced radiation nuclear weapon that will fit to go down a 9 or 10 inch borehole. All this can be done but it takes a few months. The military should be working on this right now in case the relief wells fail....But I doubt they are because 0bama is too gay to order it.
That's one of the discussions over at the Oil Drum site.
The purpose of the new cap is NOT to shut in the well. It's to capture all the oil, take it to the top; essential turn it into a producing well. If they are successful in cutting off the flow, the intent is to turn it back on.
So, some say cutting it off - and risking the pressure making the well go pop somewhere else is reckless.
The counter argument is that if there's a problem at the top - a hurricane for example - they'll have tested shutting it off down below.
You do not want to get any of the oil products on your skin. They will have very high bacterial densities. The oil is a food source for bacteria. The bacterial densities in the water near the oil products could also be high. These high bacterial densities are usually not good for most of the higher order animals. They can however increase the available food to the food chain over time. Assuming of course that the food chain can survive the oil products.
Sounds alot like the original JAWS Theme...
No threatening Tropical Storms in the Atlantic right now. A lot of dry air and dust blew in from the Sahara. Should reach Florida by the Weekend according to Accuweather. We are free and clear for at least 10 days.
Notice that Obama’s team has delayed the test AFTER THE OLD CAP WAS REMOVED in order to do “analysis”. Why was this analysis not done before the old cap was removed? Were they too busy shutting down skimmers from other countries? Meanwhile 50,000 barrels a day, which could have been contained, flows freely into the Gulf. Thanks Team Obama! Great Response! If this were Katrina would they would have been playing golf.
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