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BP Robot Seriously Hampers Oil Spill Containment
ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes
"A high-tech effort by BP to slow the oil gushing from its ruptured well head led to a large accident yesterday that forced the company to remove a vital containment cap for 10 hours. Robots, known as remote operated vehicles, were performing multiple operations at the disaster site when one bumped into the 'top hat' cap and damaged one of the vents that removes excess fluid, according to the US Coast Guard. The robots weigh around four tons, and are controlled from vessels on the surface using advanced IT systems with both manual and automated functions. BP removed the cap for nearly 10 hours ... in order to assess it after a discharge of liquids was noted from a key valve. The cap's removal left the oil gushing out of the wellhead, largely uninterrupted. Admiral Thad Allen, US National Incident Commander for the response, told the media that part of the problem was the number of robots conducting simultaneous operations at an immense depth. A dozen robots are circulating the wellhead."
Another factor that may hinder containment even more is the increasing potential for tropical storms in that area of the Gulf.
What would a robot's ideal soup be? Hot soup would interfere with the cooling systems, so it would have to be cold, it's a robot, so obviously petroleum would be a must, and needs a good amount of salt. Oh, hey, robot soup is oil in ocean water.
This whole mess is probably caused by robots trying to get delicious, delicious robot soup.
I hear a lot of people saying that. I hear very few people offering suggestions of companies who already have this sort of equipment ready. Any suggestions?
This disaster is horrible, but on the other hand we have several 4 ton robots circling a well a mile beneath the water.
Humans are awesome.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Hm. 1+ mile underwater welding. That sounds ... um, rather difficult.
They had a hard enough time dropping a giant cap and not having it pop off due to the pressure...
What was that robot thinking?
Clearly this idea was rejected because it is far too simple.
Very few things are easy when you're 5000 feet below sea level and dealing with pressures of 2k psi.
According to the National Hurricane Center (sorry, .PDF), hurricanes themselves won't affect the spill much one way or another. But they will seriously interrupt the recovery process, such as it is.
"The key to great robot cooking is to start with a good oil... and eat it" - Bender
The chief concern I've heard is that the hurricanes might drive the oil deeper into the wetlands, doing harm to one of the critical ecosystems in the area.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I hate to tell you this, but BP has more incentive than anyone to actually fix the problem, since they are going to be paying for the damages for the next 20 years.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
This reminds me of all the accidents caused by SUVs. With nary a mention of the driver.
How about Bad Robot Driver!!
How many hours was that guy on shift without a rest? How long ago did he have soup? Coffee?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
And then the pressure builds up behind the top of the wellhead, forcing oil through the porous sandstone compromising the integrity of the sea bed possibly causing a complete rupture of the ocean floor leading to the entire contents of the oil deposit rushing into the gulf. There's a reason they quit trying to top kill it. There's a reason they removed the broken pipe at the wellhead allowing more oil to flow into the gulf. This is bad, but the alternative is far worse.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
You have two problems at work here: you have to do this under a shitton of water, and you are trying to cap a pipe with a shitton of pressure behind it. If it were as simple as "simply clamping/bolting a cap on it", then I suspect it would be done by now.
Or hey, maybe I'm wrong and you should be busy sending your resume to BP right away instead of posting on slashdot. ;)
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
I know that BP has a worse safety record than other drillers, but that doesn't mean their ROV operators are less skilled. I'd like to see you (or anyone else) pull something like this off without making at least a couple mistakes.
The problem is pressure. There isn't a pumpjack on the sea floor using suction to draw the petroleum out of the well. It is coming out by itself, and under very high pressure.
You could weld a valve onto the top, but if you try to close it, the pressure will seek relief elsewhere. If you get really, really lucky, it just blows out the weld and rejects the valve. Much more likely, however, it would split the pipe under the sea floor where we don't have access. The only hope of capturing anything is if the breech remains above the surface.
One day in July or August BP will suddenly get shit under control and the leak will stop over night. That will be the day the two relief wells come online and provide means to reduce the well pressure. BP started drilling these relief wells in April, and they take a few months to come online. Everything else is window dressing.
See that "Preview" button?
Every time one of their fixes fails, and I'm tempted to say things like "those guys are idiots!", people like you come along to demonstrate what true idiocy looks like.
Thanks for puttin' it in perspective.
The enemies of Democracy are
If BP is seized it will quit laying golden eggs.
I don't think people are too happy with the "golden eggs" that BP is laying.
so damaging the shareholder value does _nothing_ against the employees who screwed up.
The first problem is identifying who actually screwed up. Was it some worker who made a mistake and hit the wrong button or something? Or was it his manager who asked him to bypass some safety measure? Or perhaps the manager's manager who asked for unrealistic metrics while looking the other way on ethical violations? Or was it the manager's manager's manager who knew all this was going on and just didn't do anything?
How do you assign blame, and how do you prove it? Once you've figured that out, how do you punish them? Do you throw them in jail? I'm not opposed to it, but it doesn't help clean up the oil spill. You could fine them billions of dollars, but I don't think the individual employees have that money.
And here's the thing: when you get down to it, the shareholders invested in a company that was behaving unethically. It's the shareholder's investment that allows BP to function this way. When CEOs act unethically, they do it in the name of serving the shareholders. Don't the shareholders bear some responsibility? Isn't part of the problem that the "owners" of the company failed to ensure that their company was "doing the right thing?" I'm not sure that we should be seeking to punish shareholders, but I also don't see why they should take a pass.
As I see it, we have a systemic responsibility/blame problem. We love to blame people, but our system is explicitly set up to limit liability of anyone with wealth or power so that entrepreneurs won't be too risk-averse to build new business ventures. However, I think we've gone too far. The problems of the last decade have not been because people are not risk-averse enough.
People aren't investing their money, they're gambling it. Corporations cut corners and endanger lives to save a few bucks, creating situations where serious accidents become likely. When accidents occur, we let them off the hook. We say, "we shouldn't punish these corporations, because that will just hurt share holders!" and so not only do we not punish them, but we bail them out. I bet if we do go looking for an individual to blame, we'll get fed some low-level middle-management-type who was just passing along orders. Nothing will happen. Nothing will change.
The well casing is ruptured below the sea floor. If they cap it, oil will begin leaking below the surface. This will cause extensive erosion leading to the collapse of the blow out preventor. This erosion will continue and leakage rates will continue to increase until the whole oil field depressurizes. In other words: The very best anybody will ever do is to leave this pipe wide open. It will only get worse from here, and substantially faster if they do cap it. Our only hope is with other means to depressurize this (relief wells).