Posted on 05/02/2010 10:12:14 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
The leak, which began April 20, is threatening the Louisiana shoreline and experts say it could endanger the coast from Louisiana to Florida. Some experts say the leak, the Gulf Stream and the approaching hurricane season could combine to send a slick down Florida's Gulf Coast, around the tip of the state, up the Atlantic Coast and beyond.
The leak has become so extensive that U.S. officials on Sunday banned commercial and commercial and recreational fishing in areas from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.
BP America Inc. Chairman Lamar McKay, appearing on ABC's "This Week" program, said fail-safe mechanisms on the rig that were designed to prevent an oil spill had not worked as predicted and that a "failed piece of equipment" was to blame for the spill, according to the New York Times and other media outlets.
BP spokesman Bill Salvin said McKay was talking about the blowout preventer as the failed equipment that caused the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 people. The blowout preventer typically activates after a blast or other event to cut off any oil that may spill.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
fyi
I don’t know who supplied the BOP for BP, but China has become a major supplier of oil field equipment. They often steal the foreign designs. If the equipment did come from China..good..they have deep pockets to pay for the liability.
China doesn’t design anything. They wait for others to do it and then steal it.
You know this equipment worked last time their was a hurricane scare in the Gulf, because they have to evacuate the oil rigs and shut them down in case the derrick sinks and these valves have to work!!!!!
It is doubtful the shut off equipment could have withstood the explosion.
The additional fault lies with Janet Incompetana who stated she didn’t know the DOD had equipment that could have helped following the initial failure.
Check the comments at the article....there was one down a bit in the stack...that seemed to talk about a particular sequence of commands that might have been incorrectly done.
“If it can be reactivated in the next few days the total volume of oil released by the Deepwater Horizon well will still be a fraction of the 30 million litres (6.5 million gallons) spilled in the Gulf after Hurricane Katrina.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7114487.ece
“ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2000) - Twice an Exxon Valdez spill worth of oil seeps into the Gulf of Mexico every year, according to a new study that will be presented January 27 at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Antonio, Texas
But the oil isn’t destroying habitats or wiping out ocean life. The ooze is a natural phenomena that’s been going on for many thousands of years, according to Roger Mitchell, Vice President of Program Development at the Earth Satellite Corporation (EarthSat) in Rockville Md. “The wildlife have adapted and evolved and have no problem dealing with the oil,” he said.”
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-40428
Ok...So I was wondering for anyone who might know. Why can’t they send down a huge vice grip type of device that is controlled by Hydraulics or an electric motor. They can use the ROV to position it around the pipe. Then they can just clamp it to shut off the flow by crushing the pipe.
Another way is to drop a huge and very heavy bowl on top of the well head with a pipe on top that is much larger than the well pipe and channel the oil and its pressure to the surface where tanker after tanker can line up to collect the oil. Use explosives to sever the pipe near the well head if necessary. Heck...maybe we can shut down the middle east oil business...LOL
‘The additional fault lies with Janet Incompetana who stated she didn’t know the DOD had equipment that could have helped following the initial failure.’
BP should have been squared away. Now people want more Gov’t. Joy.
The pipe is not strong enough to contain the oil. Informed people say that the pipe can hold something like 500 psi, but the oil is coming out at 3,500 psi... that's what I recall after reading a very detailed technical summary.
With regard to your other proposal, I read that they are going to do that.
The BOP in question came from Cameron Inernational here in Houston -
Of course the BOP “failure to operate” did not “Cause” the event -
....more likely it was a failure of the well casing cement that had just been placed (properly or improperly??) my the dreaded and evil Halliburton (Dick Cheney)
The cause of the blast remains undetermined, and Salvin said, “We’re not ruling anything out.”
Why equipment failed, how they will cap it, etc. are priority focus right now.
The not having the cause of the blast...is worrisome.
The focus on equipment failures and very little discussion as to the cause of the blast is being glossed over by the media, why?
Right now it appears as a blast strong enough to cause equipment failure.
Either this was a very unique set of accident circumstances or it was a very well planned act of sabotage. Experience has taught me several things regarding the really bad accidents. Either the business is really, really sloppy or there is some other motivating factor.
The cause of the blast remains undetermined, and Salvin said, “We’re not ruling anything out.”
BOP and Storm Choke not the same.
The Hurricane was a surface disturbance...
i know it is not the same but they have to shut the valves in case of Hurricane failure of derrick?
When I worked in that same area offshore, we would set storm chokes inside the production pipe to shut-off during a storm incase something like a barge knocks into or over the production platform.
stands to reason, is that the same shutoff valve at the sea floor?
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