The oil leak in the gulf reminds us how dependent we all are on oil and its byproducts. What concerns me the most about it is how clued out the mainstream public is about the issues. Nobody is asking the serious questions, its like people don't really care. The losses in that region will have a huge impact on how business is done in America. There is going to be a massive workforce of equipment assembled in an attempt to control shore pollution. Any thoughts or concerns? Does oil like that automactically rise to the surface? ALL of it? How much pressure at a depth like that is comming out of that pipe per minute? second?
I don't know a lot about it, but i read that down a mile you are nearly 2400 psi. Also, as little as 2% actually makes it to the surface. The rest kinda lingers at depth, settling on the sea floor or drifting to rise or settle elsewhere. Its the stuff that stays at depth that is the real damage, with no way to know where it ends up, and no way to collect it. I have been privy to some oil industry news, and there were many indications this blowout was likely. All fingers are pointing at BP, both on the rig and on land, for pushing to continue operations in the face of obvious safety threats. Sadly, that is the way the world works.
The strangest thing about this is why did they let BP drill off shore with their bad safety record.
Because they won't let them drill elsewhere. http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/daily-news-article/us-policies-put-most-us-oil-off-limits-to-drilling/
Why cant they just drill down a section of pipe with a hydrant type shutoff/breakoff system. I know its more complicated then this but we are talking the oil industry that should have some pretty decent margins to absorb additional costs. Its pretty sad the lack on deepwater retreival devices they had at hand when you can flip a channel and watch people pickup china inside the titanic.
They already have these and used one (called a BOP or Blow Out Preventor) but for whatever reason it failed to work.
I might be wrong if they had it in before hand but does ever deepwater rig have the Blow out Preventer?
In a conversation with one of the Phillips and Jordan construction supts, they are all being asked to take HAZWOPER training and many of them will be sent to that region. P&J already have a sizeable amount of people and equipment there already on Levee rebuilds.
The biggest problem they have is it's a MILE down there.... i never worked on a Sub, but a mile down must be hard to do i think...
Oil spill During WWll there were over a hundred oil and gasoline tankers were sunk by German U Boats in the Gulf and the eastern seaboard where is that oil 60+ years later ? and what was the damage?
3 years later they couldn't find any traces of oil where the Exxon Valdez hit. If you check you will find that everyday many more barrels of oil are released naturally into the ocean than this.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/q20234262411099l/ Just one citation of the phenomenon, if you look you will find many more.
All the oil from those tankers was nothing compared to the size of this spill. Most of that oil burned up when the ships got hit. And the oil in a tanker is divided up into different compartments, unless every compartment is ruptured not all the oil escapes. An oil well may produce hundreds or thousands of tanker loads. If this well doesn't get capped it will keep gushing for years.
The oil has made it to Orange Beach, AL and into the Intercoastal Waterway . This oil slick is very bad and it's getting much worse. Here is a video of one of my friends giving a BP exec some hell - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#37602609
Heck not just a bad safety record but by far the worst. They had like 265 safety violations and the next closest had 6. They also had recently the highest fine ever for violations, but it would seem to them it was a cost of doing buseness. But I would imagine they will rethink that policy after this 11 billion and counting. Yea they do all wells have blowout preventers. The problem is this one failed. What pisses me of is the lack of a plan b. Knowing the difficuly of fixing something at those depts you would think that redundency would be the best policy. Now from what I understand once the explosion happend control of the blowout preventer was lost and they could shut it down once tthe hydro line was severd. Also would seem to me that those would work on the same princable as air brakes, no air lockup so no hydro lockup.
Oil floats I don't see how the oil doesn't make it to the surface, it's lighter than water. Or, is it because it's salt water and that has a lighter weight than fresh water?
What I'd like to know is, why aren't we paying 5 bucks a gallon for gas right now? Every other time something happens in the oil industry that worries investors, (The toilet in the executive washroom is backed up!! Raise gas prices!) speculators in the market, we are told, cause the price of gas to jump. Why not now? Idle speculation: They, whoever they are, have always had a whole lot better control over prices then they are willing to admit, and they know there'd be a whole lot of backlash if prices went up because of this.
Gas prices should be going up because of "summer blends" but around here in NJ there going down. Two weeks ago it was $2.75 a gal now i see it at $2.40-$2.50 a gal... and dropping... i don't get it... oh well atleast the prices are going down....
I think its pretty simple the economy is in the crapper so people just arent using much. They've most likely planned out the gas inventory a year ago. We really should be pissed when we see short gas hikes that "caused" by a dumb plant malfunction across country that doesnt reflect regional gas supply.
I can't answer your question though I suspect it's a combination of currents and temperature layers. I do know salt water is heavier than fresh.
Picking up china is easier than plugging a 10" pipe with 6800 PSI
If you watch the videos you will see they are injecting dispersants in right at the the top of the pipe where the oil is exiting. The dispersants are making the oil invisible to the naked eye and it is floating all through the water. Bateria eats the oil and at higher temps than Alaska they should eat it faster. Some company have tons of bacteria to disperse to accomplish this faster. They are now saying it is 40,000 barrels a day leaking and they are 40 gallons per barrel. Only 3% of all the oil in the US is from deep water drilling. The economic impact will be huge . The amount of oil lost here is small in the total market so it will not impact prices much. Oil is not expected to go over 75 per barrel with the economy.
Boats and tankers back then were very small compared to today's fleets.
The US military has huge contracts with BP to supply fuel in Iran and Iraq. I think they supply 90% of the fuel for the wars.
i heard that the there was rubber chunks showing up in the mudd shaker and the consultion of the rig told them to keep drilling, so they knew something was wrong yet they kept on drilling
One of the news programs i was watching earlier this week said that BP was ordered to stop using dispersants and stop burning the oil where the rig used to be. Anybody know if this is true? National Geographic said there were rubber chunks found in the mud and they kept drilling. The well was supposed to take 21 days to drill, they were on the 6th week when the rig burned. I guess someone moved the drill pipe up 3' will the BOP was engaged and it tore up the gasket. The damaged seal would also cause a false positive on all pressure tests conducted on the well.
Most of the violations occured on dry land. http://www.ec2.newsweek.com/2010/06/08/new-report-reveals-bp-s-long-history-of-safety-problems.html Maybe if we had built at least one refinery in the last 34 years, it might have taken the preasure off the existing ones.
Here's a thought on the price of gas.. The whole oil industry right now is in self-protect mode..Theres a disaster..people are to a large extent worldwide concerned and generally cheesed off.. These oil tycoon's are not stupid ..gas price hike would turn ugly and sport the stench of bad PR..obviuosly not every-ones oil is leaking..why is everybody jacking the price?..they aint stupid .. But what everyone needs to watch is motor oil,lubricants,plastic's ,polymer's roofing material ,Bunker C(tar)..thats where the price is going to go up MHO.. Gasoline is really just a useless byproduct of the refinement..Its the other stuff that really make a barrel of oil worth what it is ..and thats everything from plastic's to makeup..and yes food additives..
2010 oilwell blowout compared to Ixtoc blowout in 1979. YouTube - Maddow- That Was Then This Is Then, 1979 & 2010 Oil Disaster Similarities
All i can say in response to that video is that there is something seriously wrong with the way the oil industry is run and hopefully this will be a wake up call or we will be doomed to repeat history for a third time. My 0.02 cents