Posted on 03/03/2011 12:00:14 PM PST by Nachum
For 48 days and nights, the Deepwater Horizon well spewed oil into the Gulf of Mexico, when it could have been shut down. We now know this:
It is very likely that if the top kill had been designed to deliver more than 109 bpm of 16.4 ppg drilling fluid below the BOP stack for a sustained period, the Macondo blowout could have been stopped between May 26-28, 2010. Given that the well was successfully shut-in with the capping stack in July, and that the subsequent bullhead (static) kill was successful, certainly a higher rate top kill would have been successful at that time.
That is the pull quote from a research paper submitted to the President's Oil Spill Commission by Dr. Mayank Tyagi et al. of LSU. The Commission's Chief Counsel's Report 2011 puts the onus on BP for discontinuing the top kill attempt. Dr. Tyagi uses a New York Times illustration as his figure 2, indicating some faith in their reporting. The New York Times reported that Energy Secretary Steven Chu was responsible for stopping the effort against BP's wishes.
His role gradually deepened as he assembled a team of scientists from the Department of Energy laboratories, universities and other government agencies. By late May, his confidence had grown and he was giving orders to BP officials, including his demand to stop the top kill effort even though some BP engineers believed it could still succeed.
"A lot of us said ‘don't start it,' and he was the one who said ‘stop,' " said a BP technician who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the company. "But having done all we had already done, I thought we should have completed the final two operations. He was not keen to listen. BP people said, ‘Let's try these last two steps,' but he said, ‘No, stop.' "
We know from the factual record that the last joint National Incident Command - BP press conference was held on May 27. The next press event by the NIC did not occur until June 1 and BP was not invited. Somebody has some explaining to do!
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Zer0’s fault.
This was done on purpose and by design, in my opinion.
....and BP is the only company who got a permit since the moratorium was lifted.....just saying, ya know
**This was done on purpose and by design, in my opinion.**
Actor Kevin Costner has a machine that separated oil from the spill, and put water back 95% Pure... EPA Refused it, as the water coming out wasn’t Pure ENOUGH!!!
Just reminding, just sayin’
There’s question that’s been bugging me since the event began. I live in the Northeast, so what do I know about drilling. However, that rig was essentially a boat, a floating vessel. Why haven’t the boneheads who poured millions of gallons of water into the rig, causing it to sink and breaking the standpipe, not been targeted for some blame? Who authorized that “slick” move? sd
And when they came in some of us left not wanting to participate in a doomed project.
Yup, could have been stopped much sooner and flow rate could have been determined much sooner and much more accurately.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu probaly wanted them to paint the Gulf waters white to stop global warming.
On purpose and it’s not just opinion.
I was in the southern parrishes in Louisiana when the oil starting to get into the marsh. The local sherriffs were beyond livid. The state of Louisiana environmental folks were going postal. NONE of that made national news.
Jindal was put in a position of either standing down and let the oil continue to spoil the marshland, or violate federal laws. The ripple effect on the LA economy was immediate and very visable.
And obama played golf.
Yea this was purposeful.
They used the BP explosion to shut down all new drilling in the Gulf and to punish the State of Louisiana.
Had Jindal been an obama buddy, the story would have been a lot different.
obama punishes his political enemies and rewards his political friends.
This was a semi-submersible rig. The rig floated due to the buoyancy of the pontoons. Those pontoons are underwater. Pouring water on the surface equipment that doesn't hold water did not make it sink.
Had Jindal been an obama buddy, the story would have been a lot different.
^^^^^
Absolutely correct. No coincidence that all of the Gulf governors are Republicans.
Obama’s answer to the crippled economy: Let them collect unemployment checks and beg BP for handouts.
What do you think? I have heard that they almost had a McChrystal situation at the incident command center, everyone was so fed up with Obama and his interference.
I’m afraid that the whole country is going to pay the price for Obama’s treatment of BP. Everyone is so concerned that BP owns 50% of the new well that recently received permission to drill, but BP is selling off most of it’s US holdings, either to China or Petrobas. No one seems to know which. Neither one will be very good for the US.
That the top kill might have worked if it had been tried longer?
Perhaps, but the problem was overcoming the massive flow prior to getting a column of mud deep enough into the casing to gain enough weight to stabilize the pressure.
It took a much deeper point of intersection that resulted in a much heaver, longer column of mud prior to penetrating casing nearer the field depth.
With the information I have seen, I doubt the top kill would have eventually worked, but it was possible and certainly was worth trying.
Well, much of what was tried down there was a long shot and it worked. No one was betting on that dispersant working as well as it did.
They’d have had to drag Barack off the golf course to do that. Inconvenient.
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