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BP: Tube is siphoning oil from leak ['So far it's working extremely well,' VP says]
msnbc.com news services ^ | May 16, 2010 (38 min ago) | msnbc.com news services

Posted on 05/16/2010 12:35:58 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy

HOUSTON - Reporting its first success in containing the massive Gulf oil leak nearly a month after it started, BP on Sunday said oil and natural gas were flowing via a mile-long pipe to a ship at the surface.

"So far it's working extremely well," BP Senior Executive Vice President Kent Wells said of the strategy of inserting a 4-inch tube into the 21-inch riser, a pipe in the seafloor from where the largest leak is spewing.

"We're very slowly increasing the rate" to get more oil and natural gas up, he told reporters. "We will just learn as we go with this approach." Siphoning oil from a mile down had never before been successful.

It's not clear how much of the overall leak is being captured, Wells said, but that should be known in the next day or two.

In any case, the tube is only an interim strategy until the well head can be capped. That requires drilling a second well to relieve pressure on the leaking well — a process that has started but which is expected to take at least two months.

Glitch a day earlier

On Saturday, the technique was attempted for the first time. Natural gas was siphoned out and then burned off when it got to the surface. Oil also entered the tube but a glitch stopped the strategy before any oil could make it all the way to the surface.

The glitch happened when engineers, via the robotic submarines, tried to connect two pieces of equipment a mile below the water's surface.

BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said one piece of equipment, called the framework, had to be brought to the water's surface so that adjustments could be made to where it fits with the long tube that connects...

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Business/Economy; Government
KEYWORDS: bp; deephorz; deepwaterhorizon; energy; offshore; oil; oilspill
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To: elpadre

I am just back from the FL gulf coast. Tourism is down everywhere and was well before this spill started. The real costs of the spill should be reimbursed, but FL was not booming before this happened.

We need to be careful to separate the Leftist anti-growth rhetoric from reality. The beaches were beautiful and the fishing good in FL this last month.

We spent time with some marine biologists and oceanographers from the university down there and they were worried about the potential effects on the environment, but to a man had seen nothing on it yet.


101 posted on 05/17/2010 5:35:35 AM PDT by 1010RD (First Do No Harm)
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To: johncocktoasten

Correct. Think of all the blessings that come from this accident and all the knowledge gained that will make deep water drilling safer in the future.


102 posted on 05/17/2010 5:37:34 AM PDT by 1010RD (First Do No Harm)
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To: deport

Maybe instead of making this nifty graphic they should have been working on fixing it /sarc


103 posted on 05/17/2010 5:45:20 AM PDT by Scythian
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To: VictoryGal
Wow, if he does that I will buy you a beer, pal. No way is he this stupid (he’s evil, not stupid). BP is clearly in the wrong if you’re GOP or Dimocrat, Zer0’s got lots of sources for money other than BP, and demonizing BP will give him leverage on his cap and tax agenda.

You're probably right, but I would not bet on the No way is he this stupid statement. I really believe we give these idiots a lot more credit then they deserve.

104 posted on 05/17/2010 6:05:03 AM PDT by WesternPacific (Deafness has its Advantages)
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To: rogertarp

BP is limited to $75M in economic damage claims plus the entire cost of Physical Cleanup.

The limit is only to claims like shippers and fishermen whose business was restricted at this time.


105 posted on 05/17/2010 6:26:31 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: a real Sheila

It’ll justify draconian restrictions on off-shore drilling, and silence critics of those restrictions. Everyone who resents paying $6 a gallon at the pump just wants another BP disaster. So right now, it pays to pour a little oil on their Reichstag fire.


106 posted on 05/17/2010 6:33:49 AM PDT by Eleutheria5 ( Two-state solution: A bad idea whose time has gone.)
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To: Ready4Freddy

Do people still think that this event occurring a few hours before and just in time to be front page news on “Earth Day” is an accident?

Jeez Louise.. how naive can one get?

W


107 posted on 05/17/2010 7:00:32 AM PDT by WLR (Remember 911 Remember 91 Iran delinda est.)
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To: cicero2k
This is the oil industries’ “Three Mile Island”. Always said the Obama era would look like Jimmy Carter’s. Look for an Iranian flare up next, but spare me the disco music.

Too late. Lady GaGa and her disco crap has already topped the charts. Lets face it Jimmy Carter used TMI to destroy the nuclear industry. Obama will use this to destroy the oil industry. Coal is already on the ropes from the eco wack jobs. I hope everyone likes to live in a mud hut eating cold porridge because that is where we are going.
108 posted on 05/17/2010 7:07:22 AM PDT by GonzoGOP (There are millions of paranoid people in the world and they are all out to get me.)
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To: smokingfrog

>Halliburtion was responsible for cementing the well and Cameron International supplied the blowout preventer. I think those two might be more responsible than BP.<

smokingfrog tagged “armed with the truth”:

You need more than lite truth ... some depth. e.g. Please look into who was modifying, testing, maintaining the BOP for many years.


109 posted on 05/17/2010 7:17:52 AM PDT by gsan
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To: mvpel

Thanks for the links. And we think we have it bad here... (concerning this leak)


110 posted on 05/17/2010 9:19:37 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (Excusaholic: MeCain lost to Jr., RINO endorsements are flying, & you live at 2012 Denial Blvd.)
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To: calex59

“People like you are the reason we aren’t drilling for oil in more areas.”

For much of my life I have made my living on drilling rigs out in the Gulf and due to those moratoriums that have been in place since 1981, I often have to travel to dark corners of the earth in order to work.

“Take your hate of oil comapanies over to DU, I am sure they will agree with you. “

I do not hate my industry but when people in my industry make huge mistakes that lead to disaster, I expect the companies those people work for to take full financial responsibility for their actions.

But, I do understand that some people, I am not sure why they are on FR, expect the federal government to take financial responsibility for such disasters.


111 posted on 05/17/2010 12:53:11 PM PDT by trumandogz (The Democrats are driving us to Socialism at 100 MPH -The GOP is driving us to Socialism at 97.5 MPH)
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To: smokingfrog

BP called all the shots on that platform.


112 posted on 05/17/2010 12:53:42 PM PDT by trumandogz (The Democrats are driving us to Socialism at 100 MPH -The GOP is driving us to Socialism at 97.5 MPH)
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To: johncocktoasten

I understand the risks as I have worked on offshore platforms. However, when BP makes such an egregious mistake, we must call on BP to clean-up the mess and not rely on the Nanny State Federal Government to clean up the mess.


113 posted on 05/17/2010 12:57:17 PM PDT by trumandogz (The Democrats are driving us to Socialism at 100 MPH -The GOP is driving us to Socialism at 97.5 MPH)
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To: hinckley buzzard

Oh, I see, you want the American Taxpayer and not BP to take on the financial responsibility for this disaster.

I’m sorry but this is the fault and responsibility of BP and not your beloved Nanny State Federal Government.


114 posted on 05/17/2010 1:00:41 PM PDT by trumandogz (The Democrats are driving us to Socialism at 100 MPH -The GOP is driving us to Socialism at 97.5 MPH)
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