Gulf of Mexico oil spill

[bi0boy]

Louisiana has declared a state of emergency as the oil slick is expected to reach the shore within 24 hours.

It's the size of Jamaica ffs!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8652686.stm

 

[povmcdov]

Only going to get bigger unless they manage to cap the well too. Supposedly the automatic anti-blowout device failed and they are having huge problems using ROVs to trigger it manually.

Bloody lucky the rig didn't land on top of the wellhead though!

What depth is this in? I'm sure I heard 5000 feet, but that seems excessive..

 

[dilute micro]

If urban development or hurricanes aren't enough to kill the La. wetland creatures...

 

[dilute micro]

Under US law, BP will be expected to meet all the costs of the spill clean-up operation.

Oh this is going to be good. The media focuses on damages associated with money like fish and shrimp but when this hits the coast and all the marshes it's going to be like a nuclear bomb to wetland ecosystems. Big fish out at sea start their lives in the sounds which are nurseries for baby money fish and other things. There's just no way BP is going to pay to fix so mind boggling hard to clean up and I'm not sure that even accounts for damages. It's going to be impossible to clean this up. I wonder if the states involved can sue.

 

[bi0boy]

A telling quote from a NOAA official:

"It is of grave concern," said David Kennedy, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling."

 

[elbows]

Its very depressing. Surprised it hasnt been talked about on these forums more, the ramifications are huge.

 

[Y_I_Otter]

The prevailing attitude when the Exxon Valdez spill occurred back in '89 was that the effects on wildlife would present in the first or second generation thereafter and end there. Scientists are still finding it in seabirds today some two decades later. And this spill makes the Exxon Valdez look like a puddle under a car in the driveway. If BP ponies up to the consequences of this disaster (highly unlikely) they'll be bankrupt this time next week and there'll still be a shitload of oil all over the northern Gulf coast.

I don't think people understand how life is for the shrimpers there. They get no income until the harvest is in, but they've got everything they own already in hock to pay for the outfitting of their boats for this year's harvest. The regulations allow them to get out there now, earlier than the season usually opens, in order to get something before the shit hits the fan, but the shrimp aren't ready. It's too early. And consumer confidence in Gulf shrimp is bound to decline sharply.

An interview I watched tonight broke my heart. This young shrimper guy was saying he'd already lost his house in Katrina, but this was way worse because now he was on the hook not only for the loan he'd taken out to replace his house, and the loan he took out to get his boat ready, but now with the spill he had no way to make the payments on either one. He has three kids under five years old.

 

[dilute micro]

Even if the materials, called dispersants, are effective, BP has already bought up more than a third of the world’s supply. If the leak from 5,000 feet beneath the surface continues for weeks, or months, that stockpile could run out.


Dispersing the oil is considered one of the best ways to protect birds and keep the slick from making landfall. But the dispersants contain harmful toxins of their own and can concentrate leftover oil toxins in the water, where they can kill fish and migrate great distances.



“Right now there is a headlong rush to get this oil out of sight out of mind,” Charter said. “You can throw every resource we have at this spill. You can call out the Marine Corps and the National Guard. This is so big that it is unlikely that any amount of response is going to make much of a dent in the impacts. It’s going to be mostly watching it happen.”

http://www.propublica.org/article/bp-gulf-oil-spill-dispersants-0430

 

[weltweit]

I heard that BP's share price had fallen by about £15billion on Friday.

 

[spacemonkey]

What plans are being made to plug the leak?

It's just going to get worse and worse....

 

[weltweit]

There are plans to get guided vehicles down to the point of the leak to ty to seal it, but apparently that is going to take weeks or even months.

 

[Diamond]

BP doesn't have insurance

 

[dilute micro]

I'm going to hate seeing the pics of birds covered in oil. That always gets me.

 

[alfajobrob]

It's atrocious.....I just hope a few BP staff feel the urge to commit suicide over it......especially that fucker who gave me king instead of slim rizla the other night.........cunt!

 

[Stanley Edwards]

WTF does 'national significance' mean

Sort of makes Amoco Cadiz look like spilt milk.

 

[krtek a houby]

It's awful - another blow to the precious, fragile Earth

 

[elbows]

WTF does 'national significance' mean

Its a legislation/legal thing that enables the US government to draw on resources from around the nation.

 

[weltweit]

BP doesn't have insurance

And you know that how?

 

[weltweit]

Assuming BP do have insurance, I would expect there could be a few names at Lloyds feeling a bit vulnerable about now.

 

[magneze]

So as I understand it, this oil is not coming from some tanker, but right out of the planet into the sea. Will it ever stop?

 

[weltweit]

So as I understand it, this oil is not coming from some tanker, but right out of the planet into the sea. Will it ever stop?

As far as I understand it, you understand it correctly.

It will only stop if someone puts a plug in it, or if the oil in that particular reservoir runs out.

 

[magneze]

That is nuts. Has this sort of thing ever happened before?

 

[weltweit]

That is nuts. Has this sort of thing ever happened before?

Yes, everywhere, it is how we get oil out of the ground.

The underground pressure is what causes the oil to come up the drilled hole.

 

[magneze]

 

[existentialist]

Just doing a bit of reading about it, and it looks like they really do go to extravagant lengths to get blowout preventers, with multiple redundancy, onto the well heads. They have clever ones that will even chop off drills if they're activated.

But I don't quite get how they're actuated. I'd assume (or hope) that they were failsafe, but I guess that they need quite a lot of power to operate, and if the rig supplying the power's just gone "bang", then maybe that's a lot to expect.

I imagine this will probably prompt some quite significant changes in the design of future wells, but that's a bit late for Louisana et al.

 

[weltweit]

Yes, and I think explosions, of the kind that completely destroy the rig, are pretty rare also. As I understand it 11 people were killed in the blast. It must have been a pretty massive explosion.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I predict that they will be bailed out and excused.

 

[bi0boy]

I predict that they will be bailed out and excused.

Of course we will need to bail them out, otherwise how will we drive to work?

 

[existentialist]

I predict that they will be bailed out and excused.

I think you're probably right. Given the importance of oil companies to the continued operation of the world economy, they really are, actually, above the law. Perhaps there will be a few hundred million dollar fine, and lots of very televised fingerwagging, but it'll be a tap on the wrist with a feather, and "make sure you don't do it again".

TBF, it is so often the case when disasters like this happen - and they are rare enough - that it takes the safety technology another big step on, thus reducing future risk elsewhere. The same goes for airliners, trains, buildings in earthquake zones, etc...

Or maybe that's just me being Pollyanna

What we really need here now is...

 

[weltweit]

They were burning the oil slick at sea.

I wonder how that is going?