Slashdot Mirror
BP Claims Gulf Well Has Been Stopped
An anonymous reader writes with word that BP has announced the Gulf oil spill has been stopped.
Another reader adds more detail: "The last valve on the new cap has been closed, and the flow of oil and gas into the sea has stopped. That doesn't mean it's over. It is unclear whether the steel casing deep in the well can contain the pressure. The risk is that it could burst, which would eventually cause a rupture on the sea floor that would make things much messier to deal with. However, they're monitoring the pressure buildup carefully and if the pressure holds over the next 48 hours (indicating there is no leak below the sea floor), they'll assess what to do next. If it doesn't hold at the expected readings, then they'll re-attach the pipe used for producing to the surface and start collecting again. Regardless of what happens the relief well still has to be completed to permanently plug the well with cement, which could take a couple more weeks."
Picture or it didn't happen!
Help me fix my brother's injured butt!
Thank god they got it closed before it became an ecological disaster.
Oh wait...
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
All skepticism aside, this is f-ing great news.
Seriously.
I was getting rather used to it.
How long until Washington starts claiming credit for it?
Let's hope the fix holds.
Actually, this isn't meant as a permanent fix at all. This cap is a temporary solution to prevent excessive leakage in the event that a hurricane prevents them from collecting the oil that does escape. They are still going ahead with the relief valves which are intended to be the permanent solution. That said, I do hope the cap holds the oil for as long as necessary.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
They didn't fix it, the deposit just ran out.
BP must have stopped the leak, I'm at Wikileaks right now and I don't see any new info from whistle blowers. Must of been the WBOP.
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
and what should be said is not only no but HELL NO in fact both BP and the drilling company should be banned from US waters. (currently online rigs should be forfeited as part of the fines BP will be paying for the next hundred years)
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
It involved a Dutch boy in a wet suit.
Rubbish get it from the horse's mouth BPGlobalPR
Are we allowed to go there and take pictures now to be sure, or are we going to have to rely on BP's unbelievable honesty and trustworthiness for this statement?
I thought I read somewhere that it was an exploratory well that they were planning on abandoning. Just because oil is coming out doesn't mean that it is currently economical to collect it there. If oil exploration continues here, whoever does it would certainly just drill a new well anyway.
I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
Seeing is believing: http://mfile.akamai.com/97892/live/reflector:45683.asx?bkup=45684 Odds are the feed will cut out after a few seconds with how swamped it is now. Oh and if you're really interested here's one of the bottom of the BOP which is being watched so it doesn't explode. http://mfile.akamai.com/97892/live/reflector:31499.asx?bkup=31500
They could have used Mighty Puddy!
...my thoughts about BP.
Back to business as usual then. US government will make noises about it clearly being a British conspiracy to destroy America, demand BP gets sued for quadratrillions, gets banned from US trading, say it wouldn't have happened if it was a good ole US oil company from Texas. Local lawyers sue on behalf of local residents for quintillions, combined wealth of ten planet Earths etc. BP puts lawyers on to the case, forms holding company to take over US operations, carries on drilling, settles for a few million ten years from now. Local fishermen out of jobs, local environment messed up for the next 50 years, local lawyers get rich, politicians get promoted and oil companies carry on drilling and make substantial profits every year, held up by US government as fine examples of free market pioneers who are great examples for the world's entrepreneurs. Rinse and repeat.
Stock price rose 7.5% right after this was announced....
Great news!
It better not be some stupid PR trick. If these guys put a big camera 24/7 next to a gushing leek, so all the people out of work can watch it on 24hr news, could you put it past them
It's about time this idiotic saga ended, it is getting old hearing the same idiots who talk about how good natural food is and decrying everything 'artificial', stop condemning the leak of NATURAL OIL into the sea.
IT's NATURAL FOLKS, why should it cause any harm?
Pfffft.... Documentation means nothing. Just look at the amazing work done on the faked moon landing!
I still don't get why this is BP's fault and not the sub-contractor. As a software contractor I have a professional duty to deliver sound good quality code. If not I get sued. At what point is Halliburton or one of the other contractors involved not financially responsible for their poor work.
They weren't abandoning it, no producer in their right mind would abandon a well that can pump out 60,000+ barrels a day, that's a fucking gusher!
The accident actually occurred while they were capping it with cement - which is done when the exploratory drilling is finished and they want to bring in a production rig.
Granted, it's the exact same procedure to permanently abandon a well (because they never really abandon them permanently), but a well like that they definitely would produce. The average well in the gulf produces something like 1,800 barrels of oil a day, for a comparison.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
and what should be said is not only no but HELL NO in fact both BP and the drilling company should be banned from US waters. (currently online rigs should be forfeited as part of the fines BP will be paying for the next hundred years)
Why's that? So that the next Big Oil Co. that suffers a major leak just walks away from their disaster without even trying to fix it or clean up?
I can imagine the sentiment in the board meeting going something a little like this:
How can we justify spending any money on assets that we know will be confiscated? And what incentive do we have to clean up the resulting spill if we are no longer permitted to operate the well? We know it is spewing toxic muck into the sea, but if they're going to seize our wells in the end, they can have the lot now.
Ahh - My eye!
The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
Thanks for the info.
I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
I assume that the well went dry.
Why are you letting these clowns ruin our country?
Going by the pace at which the administration responded to the disaster in the first place, they'll be claiming credit sometime around Christmas.
Now the problem will be to make sure people remember that BP didn't solve a random problem. They solved a problem they created. It's a common cartoon plot; idiot causes problem, idiot finally fixes problem, idiot gets accolades and awards for solving problem because the common crowd have forgotten that the idiot caused the problem in the first place.
Let's not forget who the original idiots were in this and let them off the hook just because it looks like they've finally stopped the oil.
Now we can disperse the oil into the environment through car engines so we won't pollute so much ...
... oh wait
Well, according to one article, at least, we're all doomed. To extinction. By an eruption of methane gas that will generate "a towering supersonic tsunami annihilating everything along the coast and well inland".
I hesitate to even post the URL, but I'm sure the Slashdot folks will give this "ominous report" the debunking it so thoroughly needs:
Doomsday: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a 'world-killing' event
Perhaps I'm jaded... I grew up in Reagan's 1980s and never ONCE did I see the nuclear annihilation we were all expecting. Promises, promises... I'll believe it when I see the wall of water approaching Dallas.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
I wonder how many of you mouthpieces have done anything about your oil consumption? As customers of the industry we all bear some of the burden here.
And no, boycotting BP doesn't count. If you think it does you don't understand the oil industry.
* While I call them skeptics the fact is that most of them are outright trolls being modded up because partisan politics sell.
That's not really how it works. Yes, the well was 'exploratory' in that they were not sure they could get oil out of that particular place. But what they were doing before they fucked up big time was 'closing' the well: Sealing it off until they could bring out the production crews who would place pipelines to the feeder system (they have to collect it somehow and just spilling it into the ocean appears to have a bunch of problems associated with it) and the various bits and pieces that make up a production well.
But if the relief wells go as planned, they will pump mud down to stop the flow and then cement the thing closed. Theoretically, there isn't anything that would prevent BP (or somebody else) from drilling another well into the same formation and starting the process over, but that seems politically unwise.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Ok, they got the well capped, FINALLY! I guess that's one thing less to worry about, but there's still the clean up and the decades (if not centuries) of ecological and economical recovery. But, of course, the media will now pack up and move on to the next sensational story and the mess will be forgotten in two weeks, until they come back around a year later to do a follow up story. If they ever do...
now fix the other leaks in the gulf, cuz there isn't just this one, sole pipe that needed capping.
...
the costs this spill has generated (closing, fishing, environment) should be included in the costs of oil before concluding it is cheaper than other energy sources.
Any success that BP may or may not have in this endeavor does not change the fact that they should have had methods to cap a blowout ready before they started drilling. The fact that this well has been gushing for months is simply unacceptable. The keystone cops spectacle of Top-Hat, Hot-Tap, Junk Shot (tm) is strong evidence that BP didn't devote any significant resources to dealing with a deep water blowout. Strong regulation of these rogue corporations is needed. They should not be able to drill without having capping equipment and emergency tankers ready at dock.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
There are plenty of people who run small, unincorporated, business that show little empathy and even actively defraud people and shirk their responsibilities. Many of these individuals are far less responsible than "big corporations" -- mostly because they lack oversight by a BOD, by investors, by a multitude of people in the company, and by regulators.
I've known individuals who ran their own small, unincorporated, business that were the most amoral people I know.
If you've ever tried to collect money that you are legally owed, even with a judgment, you will probably know what I mean.
The notion that "corporations are bad" and that individuals are better (showing more empathy, morality, ethics etc.) is largely a fantasy IMHO.
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading
lol. That was an excellent parody of the environuts! You just forgot to suggest that we abandon all vehicles, install solar panels, start raising vegetables on our balconies, and legalize marijuana. Otherwise, PERFECT!
Why don't they have to have relief wells partially drilled before drilling the main well? It seems like if you could cut the work down from months to a week or so it would be a lot better (although a week of this thing gushing in the ocean would still a disaster...).
Anyway maybe people should bet on how long the cap will last before it starts leaking lower in the well, or something else happens... Call my bookie!!!!
...should be banned from US waters...
That's a contingency they did plan for...
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
After the public anger had died down I suspect the US gov will bury this. There is no longer very much "British" left in BP. US shareholders hold approximately 40odd% same as UK shareholders. They also have about twice as many US employees as UK. Basically what happened was BP took over a hoard of the old US oil companies (including some of the old standard oil spinoffs) using money from their old middle east operations. Voilla Instant US oil company.
Now all they need to do is stonewall claims until the claimants give up.
n/t
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Debunking requested? Sure! :)
Interesting link, albeit woefully flawed. The beginning, emphasis mine:
Here's a pic of the world's land masses around 255 mya, and another of around 237 mya. Here's a pic from close to the 55 million years later mentioned in the article above, around 195 mya.
In none of these scenarios is the current Gulf of Mexico a body of water. This would seem to rule out any sort of clathrate-based "sea fart", at least from that specific region.
Moreover, the two events the article mentions aren't quite right. The first is the Permian-Triassic extinction, indeed around 251 mya, but the cause is still debated, with one of the leading explanations being a combination of factors that include one or more impact events.
The second event is dated in the article at 55 million years after the Permian-Triassic extinction, or around 196 mya. However, the Paleocene didn't even begin until around 65 mya. What the article author was probably thinking about was the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, dated to around 55 mya. One of the theories for the cause of the PETM is indeed that methane clathrates may have destabilized, causing a runaway greenhouse effect, until the poles were warm enough for palm trees and sea turtles. However, the PETM isn't associated with any mass extinction -- the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction happened 65 mya when the geologic K-T boundary was laid down in the rock, and is again theorized to be due mainly to one or more impact events. Note in the pic here that the Gulf of Mexico is indeed a body of water by this time, but rather than being the source of any clathrate fart, it is instead noted as the location of the Chicxulub crater, theorized to be the kicker that killed the dinosaurs.
So basically, as disruptive as any sustained "sea fart" might be, the article you linked is full of bunkum and misinformation. And that's just in the intro.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Seriously, this isn't about whether big or small corporations are good or bad in the abstract. This is about a massive crime committed by a specific corporation who will by and large escape responsibility for their actions. If an individual made a mess like this they'd be in jail and they'd be disallowed from profiting even indirectly from their crimes. Limited liability means this will never happen here but I don't see why not. This is a huge ecological and economic disaster. If we had any sense we'd seize all of the company's assets in the Gulf and use those assets to deal with the disaster they caused. Any of the execs who wants to stay out of jail can do so by working full time to clean up the mess. Call me a fucking socialist if it makes you feel better but as far as I'm concerned this is exactly the kind of thing that we have eminent domain powers for. Don't like it? Don't drill holes in our ocean floor. I'm glad they're finally capping it after months of spewing oil into the gulf, but there's no reason it should have taken this long.
Wow, your questions are WEAK!
I do not drive a car to work. Rain or shine, I use my currently 12-year old bicycle.
I use reusable shopping bags (cotton, made in the USA).
I recycle. I probably miss a few things, but I try my best.
I do not have air conditioning. I suffer through 100+F some days of the year.
I still think the earth would be better off with me dead.
Your question should've been, "are you a human, alive and breathing?"
I know you won't let facts interfere with your words, but repeat after me:
"This was not a production well"
Repeat it like 500 times and see if that sinks in. The well that blew was an exploration well. Nobody was trying to suckle on it to sell the few barrels of oil they managed to capture. It wasn't the goal of BP, or anyone else.
BP are guilty of a lot of things in this mess: inadequate safety mechanisms, excessive micromanagement of the drilling team by corporate, ensuring poor oversight by the regulatory commission.
There's a lot you could talk about. There really is no need to invent more reason to hate "corporations". It just makes you look like a dumb disingenuous hippie.
[...] Sealing it off until they could bring out the production crews who would place pipelines to the feeder system (they have to collect it somehow and just spilling it into the ocean appears to have a bunch of problems associated with it) and the various bits and pieces that make up a production well.
I don't know if it's necessary, but to clarify: Deepwater Horizon is a drilling rig, not a production rig. Once the well was plugged, the rig would have moved on to another drilling location. A separate, production rig would have then been brought out to that location to reopen the well and begin collection.
People will pass up steak once a week, for crap every day.
Deepwater Horizon is a drilling rig [...]
Err... was. :o/
People will pass up steak once a week, for crap every day.
It has nothing to do with the oil companies. It's almost all tax.
Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom. This makes me very angry, very angry indeed.
If a corporation ever does a crime it never does the time.
It's the wost oil spill event in USA history/ chi flat iron , chi hair strighteners
chi hair straighteners , chi flat iron
chi nano ceramic flat iron , chi nano ceramic flat iron
[url=http://www.superflatiron.com]chi hair straighteners[/url] chi hair straighteners [url=http://www.superflatiron.com]chi flat iron[/url] chi flat iron
On the other hand, the barrier rock now has a bunch of pin pricks in it. If they drain the reservoir, there won't be any oil under those wells to spill....
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Wonderfull job BP Engineers!
Yet. If the pressure beneath the well-head exceeds the pressure by the Cap (75 Tonns), then she spews!
How much time before that?
Seems the current solution has bought some time ... but is this "time" enought? ... before the final solution, or extinction of Homo Sapians.
Follow the OTHER news story about BP. How they lobied to have the Lockebee bomber released so they could geta contract from Libie. How the doctor that diagnosed him now suddenly claims he made a "mistake".
Money talks. BP is run by greedy assholes and we are letting them get away with it.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
There are two ways to look at this spill. One. Selective pressure was put on the gulf's wildlife and the end result will be a more hardy set of lifeforms. Or Two, humanity has just fucked the shit out of another food resource so they in effect screwed themselves.
That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
Cheers Victor,
Your posts seem to imply that unless one can completely remove themselves from modern society and make it on their own without electricity or oil than they are some kind of enviromoral poseur and that small efforts or even idealogical positions towards sustainability are worthless .
It is obvious to all but the obtuse that we are and destroying webs of life that have arisen over extremely long cycles of time. You seem like a smart person - don't put your gifts to use HATING on individuals who are making efforts against what you know to be true but believe to be impossible.
Ascetics have already given their gifts to humanity (and will continue to in some regard). But, NOW is a time for integration and a radically new idea of co-operation. This could be 10, 20, 30, or 50 years (who really knows are capacity to change) but the efforts that will build momentum toward this point are already happening now - and yes, that includes using renewable shopping bags and recycling your waste while we wait for convenience to acquire its proper economic value.
The well must've run out of oil. Now all they had to do was just drop a cap on top of it. Easy peasy.
Heh, and you win the internets...
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
I heard that BP were looking at drilling another oil well, pretty damn close to the one they haven't even fixed just after they have 'repaired' it. Where will BP strike next?!
Not all taxes. California also has excessive regulation. There is a reason for the huge price drop when you cross state lines out of California.
Judging by the brown tint in air around LA (easily noticeable as you fly in) seems to me the price difference is not big enough.
Ominous reports are leaking past the BP Gulf salvage operation news blackout that the disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico may be about to reach biblical proportions.
http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doomsday-how-bp-gulf-disaster-may-have-triggered-a-world-killing-event
err... "N in their name"? bit clever for me this time in the morning.... Nepalese? Nigerians? people called Nigel? caNadiaNs?
nope, you'll have to tell me, I can't work it out....
How long before the concrete degrades?
Deepwater Horizon is a drilling rig, not a production rig. Once the well was plugged, the rig would have moved on to another drilling location. A separate, production rig would have then been brought out to that location to reopen the well and begin collection.
Correction - the DWH could have run the completion string and installed the sub sea well head. You don't necessarily need another rig to come along to do that job. As it was, the DWH was overdue to spud another well and had to move.
>If it doesn't hold at the expected readings, then they'll re-attach the pipe used for producing to the surface and start collecting again
Can anyone tell me why they are not leaving the pipe attached anyways to get oil out from the ground, sounds to me like they could use some money these days to pay for the mess they will have to clean up...
I also heard a story about having 27,000 similar wells abandoned in the golf of mexico (of which about 1000 belong to BP) can we force them to open them back up to get ALL the oil out, seems to me when you pop a pimple, you don't leave anything behind, is it not the same principle? What makes a well (like this one) supposedly not profitable to siphon when it is still spewing out oil, especially 100,000 barrels of oil per day......who is that stupid to think it was not good enough well???
There are ways to mitigate the diffused responsibility problem, but it usually takes some sort of "belief shift".
You have to be instilled, and in some cases absolutely brainwashed, into believing that "your the drop in the flood" or "you are your brother's keeper" or "you are personally responsible for your company's actions" regardless of how low your position. Unfortunately that can cause some dire consequences for the individual, anywhere from "getting into trouble" to getting blackballed to being killed because they often are surrounded with many others that take the implied license to not take any responsibility for the situation.
I believe these people would be considered whistle-blowers or heroes or "troublemakers". They are the ones that often suffer.
Why would it be politically unwise to drill the same formation again? We know there's oil down there, and we know it'll come out. Someone will drill there.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
Sorry, prices have NOT come down since the wars with Iraq and Afghanistan. Gas prices were about $2.00/gal around the 2001-2003 period, and now sit above $3.00. Crude prices were in the $20-$30 per barrel range, and now sit around $50-$60. What is your definition of "prices have come down"?
As for "oil flowing more freely": http://www.eia.doe.gov/aer/txt/ptb1105.html
Iraq hasn't really upped it's production in the last decade, and in fact has dropped from it's peek prior to the war.
I think you need to research your points, as you seem to just make assumptions based on no evidence.
And in other news BP reports that turtles, dolphins, and pelicans if left alive eat children.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/analysis_publications/primer_on_gasoline_prices/html/petbro.html
OPEC causes the global price to rise. It doesn't cause it to rise in Europe but not in the US. There is a global market for Oil.
The fact that oil is traded in dollars may effect a country that is importing oil but it won't cause the price of gasoline to be cheaper in the US than elsewhere. Currency is freely traded and Oil is as well. The difference in prices is taxes. Transportation, refining, blending, etc are all pretty insignificant when compared to the differences in taxes.
Aside from the US Govt's purchase of oil for the strategic petroleum reserver (I"m not sure but i think that it's filled now and they are no longer purchasing oil for it), what exactly are they doing to "Ensure that the government has as close to an endless supply as possible."? How exactly are they manipulating the oil market? You have been reading too much left wing propaganda. Certainly, there is speculation on the oil market, but it's by hedge funds and other large corporate investors, not the US Govt.
For all the lefties that keep talking about global oil conspiracies, take a look at the numbers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_tax Taxes on gas in the US are roughly 46 cents/gallon Taxes in the UK are around $3.49/(US)gallon Taxes in Germany are around $6.28/gallon No conspiracy, just taxes.