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BP's Final "Top Kill" Procedure For Gulf Oil Spill
eldavojohn writes "So far every attempted fix has resulted in failure to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil spill with the exception of the riser insertion method that appears to be little more than a mile-long tube sucking up oil. After attempting many options to allow the continued collection of crude oil, BP is finally considering a 'top kill' option that will kill the well. A vessel at the surface will use 30,000 horsepower pumps to slam kill mud and clay into the well's bent riser, allowing them to cap the well off with two relief wells (which won't be ready for several months). If that fails, the vessel will move on to a 'junk shot' that involves spewing larger debris like shredded rubber and golf balls into the lines to gum up the flow and stop it. Government officials acknowledge that while this may provide a solution, it may also worsen the situation if the resulting pressure causes the lines to blow or fail at other points. While this is likely one of the worst environmental disasters to hit the gulf, BP's debacle has caused Shell to pre-build cofferdams into seven wells that it is currently drilling in the gulf. These would drop into place in the event of such a catastrophic failure of a riser under the well."
Accidents are rarely accidents, someone fucked up.
Human beings aren't perfect.
I sure blame the person who backed into my last car. Guess what she did not even come close to risking death zones in the gulf.
The scale of the accident doesn't change the ethics. If you say killing one person in self-defense is right, then at what point does it become wrong? Five people? Ten? Fifty? How many people have to die before it becomes unethical? Likewise -- if you spill a quart of oil down the drain, by scale you've done what BP just did -- it's just that BP employs a lot more people and pumps a lot more oil, but reduced to your personal scale of living, it's the same.
Her insurance paid the for everything and got me a rental while my car was fixed. That is all we ask here, they fix their mess.
They've promised to do more than she did: Not only will the insurance pay for it, but BP has promised to pay for all costs above and beyond that. They are fixing their mess, using the best methods available to them. But the engineering task before them is daunting, and many of these solutions have never been tested before. They don't have a laboratory to test these things out in -- it's happening now.
These assholes cut corners, you can read all about on the news sites.
These "assholes" haven't been charged with any violation of federal or state law, and right now Congress is taking notice of this and changing the laws, issuing temporary bans on drilling, etc., because of exactly that fact. They didn't cut corners -- they appear to have followed the then-current industry regulations.
That said... The investigation isn't complete. We don't know all the facts. We won't know for a long time yet, and everything the news is reporting is largely speculation. A battery was low on power, that must mean negligence! Or it could be that a battery that's several thousand feet below sea level might have sprung a leak during a massive explosion near it. We. Just. Don't. Know.
Wait. That's all we can do right now. The facts will eventually reveal themselves -- but allowing ourselves to have contempt prior to investigation is the surest way to keep our society in everlasting ignorance. And I, for one, believe we need to know the facts and find out what really did go wrong -- so it never happens again. That's a purpose independent of the political agenda currently playing out here and elsewhere, and the more important one in my opinion.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
What I don't like from the president's administration is this sort of, 'I'll put my boot heel on the throat of BP.' I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business.
When did they promise to clean up every drop of oil?
They have made sure via bribery oh excuse me lobbying they will never be charged with anything.
They cut corners, the BOP seal was ruined and they knew it.
I can't believe you people. You whine about the economy, and then the entire gulf coast gets flooded with millions of gallons of free oil, and you complain about that too. What does it take to satisfy you anyway? You losers want to ignore this manna from heaven, that's fine by me. I'm gathering up all the containers I can find and going to collect - big time!
"And now, Frank N. Furter, your time has come. Say 'goodbye' to all of this, and 'hello'... to oblivion!"
this spill doesn't even rank in the top 50 oil spills in history.
That's what truly amazes me : this oil "disaster" is actually a relatively minor one. Perhaps it's Obambi's Alynsky "never let a good crisis go to waste" policy in action ?
We all know he needs people's attention away from healthcare.