The Great Gulf of Mexico Oil Spewage Thread

According to Christian Science Monitor, there are five decision by British Petroleum that may have lead to the oil spewage. And why do people think that corporations can be trusted to police themselves? Obviously, not by results.

Quote:

The five important decisions made by BP that lawmakers are investigating are:

1. Well design

On April 19, BP installed the final steel tubing in the well, according to House investigators. They chose a cheaper approach which involved dropping in a full string of casing that lined the well from top to bottom. A BP plan review in mid-April had recommended a more involved approach that would have installed the casing in sections and used “tiebacks” to help prevent gas from seeping up around the steel tubes.

2. Insufficient 'centralizers'

When installing the final steel casing, it is important to run the tube down the center of the wellbore hole, to ensure ease of sealing the casing around its entire diameter. BP used only six centralizers to accomplish this task, as opposed to the 21 recommended by subcontractor Halliburton, according to the House letter to Hayward.

3. Failure to run a key test

BP did not run a nine- to 12-hour procedure called a “cement bond log” to assess the integrity of the cement seal around the well casing, according to the House panel, despite a Halliburton prediction of severe gas flow problems. A crew from subcontractor Schlumberger was on the Deepwater Horizon rig on the morning of April 20 to carry out this test, but they left after BP officials told them they were not needed.

4. Improper mud circulation

Wells are generally filled with weighted mud during drilling. According to the House, the American Petroleum Institute recommends that oil firms fully circulate the mud from the bottom of the well to the top prior to beginning the process of cementing the tube. This allows the testing of the mud for gas influxes and debris removal. BP conducted only a partial circulation of the drilling mud, according to the House Energy panel.

5. Failure to secure wellhead

The wellhead on the sea floor was the last barrier to a dangerous upward-rising flow of gas. BP did not secure the wellhead with a lockdown sleeve that would have prevented it from being blown out by pressure from below, according to the House.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0617/Five-crucial-moves-by-BP-Did-they-lead-to-Gulf-oil-spill-disaster

1 Reply

@Theaetetus,

And all of those decisions boil down to one key decision:

Failure to give a damn (about anything besides profit).

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Capitalism is such a wonderful machine. I have just looked up the oil spills in Africa, they dwarf Americas horrendous spill. All the oil companies are the same not one of them take their responsibilities seriously. Americas oil companies have been spilling oil in Nigeria with no action to stop it or recompense those who have suffered. At least this incident should bring the oil companies into public scrutiny.

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@xris,

xris wrote:

Capitalism is such a wonderful machine.

I don't want to take this thread in another direction, but there's good capitalism and bad capitalism. You can have a capitalist economy that values individual economic freedom without valuing excess greed. The United States has a form of capitalism that values excess greed, where corporate monopolies are the highest aspiration for the entrepreneur.

1 Reply

@Pangloss,

And I can show you monopolies that I suffer from...This problem is because the oil companies have us by the balls. It is capitalism at work and it shows it at its ugliest. Just look at its history, its only concern is the profit for its share holders. The weak and undefended are mere obstacles, to be brushed aside. It only acts with moral pretence when forced to do so. This is against any capitalist ideology, to control the freedom to exploit and abuse its monopoly, its not part of the plan. BUT how many capitalist are now demanding more regulations to stop these oil companies abuses?

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i'm waiting for the Firecaines, hurricanes that pick up oil, which in turn gets ignited by lightening

not sure if it's possible, but it would make for some fine tv viewing

1 Reply

@djjd62,

Ouch! Probably not picked up and ignited, but picked up and dropped elsewhere doesn't seem at all unlikely. Hurricanes are usually lousy with tornados.

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http://www.saharareporters.com/real-news/sr-headlines/6244-exxonmobil-oil-spill-in-niger-delta-exposes-nigerians-to-poisoned-fish.html

So is America going to insist American companies compensate the Nigerians? This should make us all question the actions of its oil companies, where the individual has no rights. Corruption in Nigeria and the oil companies cavalier activities destroy thousands of African lives and their communities.

1 Reply

@xris,

xris wrote:

http://www.saharareporters.com/real-news/sr-headlines/6244-exxonmobil-oil-spill-in-niger-delta-exposes-nigerians-to-poisoned-fish.html

So is America going to insist American companies compensate the Nigerians? This should make us all question the actions of its oil companies, where the individual has no rights. Corruption in Nigeria and the oil companies cavalier activities destroy thousands of African lives and their communities.

I doubt that it will xris, but you're right, it should. Companies are responsible for the neighborhood effects of their operations. All too often, it seems that most Americans just say "not in my backyard" and leave it at that. As long as we can get our cheap oil, and the spills happen "somewhere else", then it's not an issue.

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@xris,

Quote:

I have just looked up the oil spills in Africa, they dwarf Americas horrendous spill.

Prove it or shut up.

1 Reply

@electronicmail,

You don't know how to count, do you? Got some real bad news for you, neither do your sources. Click on "thumbs down" for posts, hand gestures is all you'll ever manage to understand, if that Very Happy

1 Reply

@electronicmail,

http://allafrica.com/stories/201006210097.html read that you silly little man...

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@xris,

Wow. You don't know how to READ (your link has only "one source", anonymous) and you also don't know how to COUNT. Your iffy source cites numbers that the producing companies in the Gulf of Guinea deny categorically. What nobody can deny is that the local guerillas in Nigeria have been sabotaging oil terminals and that other local inhabitants have been making holes into the pipelines in order to fill jerrycans with oil. Usually they end up getting burned to death, you'd think the others would learn but nope. That's where these Nigerian oil spills come from, not from deepwater well blowouts. And that's not all, every so often the oil companies have paid into a fund to restore environmental health to the Niger Delta and the whole fund has vanished into the deep pockets of Nigerian politicians. Lagos isn't called scam capital of the world for nothing. Even our Louisiana politicians are honest in comparison. Do yourself a favor and stop posting until you learn to read and count then maybe come up with some actual facts.

1 Reply

@electronicmail,

So whats your point? first you deny its happening then you have to accept it, without any signs of sorrow, then you tell me its got nothing to do with the oil companies..You are a silly boy ...Just do some research yourself . Try green peace and report back, quick as you can now.

1 Reply

@xris,

What language are you translating from? What you write isn't English. I answered you out of politeness but teaching you is an obvious waste of time as I already told you once before http://able2know.org/topic/153013-4#post-4179683 Don't bother addressing any more idiotic posts to me, see if you can find someone at your own rock-bottom level of the 3Rs to talk to.

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@electronicmail,

Go feed your ignorance with the usual crap you subscribe to. I give you a simple task to improve your knowledge and you whimper like a child.

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@electronicmail,

Do you believe the NY Times, or is that a bad source as well? Maybe you're the one who needs to learn how to utilize Google, or how to read...

"Perhaps no place on earth has been as battered by oil, experts say, leaving residents here astonished at the nonstop attention paid to the gusher half a world away in the Gulf of Mexico. It was only a few weeks ago, they say, that a burst pipe belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the mangroves was finally shut after flowing for two months: now nothing living moves in a black-and-brown world once teeming with shrimp and crab.

Not far away, there is still black crude on Gio Creek from an April spill, and just across the state line in Akwa Ibom the fishermen curse their oil-blackened nets, doubly useless in a barren sea buffeted by a spill from an offshore Exxon Mobil pipe in May that lasted for weeks.

...

With new estimates that as many as 2.5 million gallons of oil could be spilling into the Gulf of Mexico each day, the Niger Delta has suddenly become a cautionary tale for the United States.

As many as 546 million gallons of oil spilled into the Niger Delta over the last five decades, or nearly 11 million gallons a year, a team of experts for the Nigerian government and international and local environmental groups concluded in a 2006 report. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 dumped an estimated 10.8 million gallons of oil into the waters off Alaska. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/world/africa/17nigeria.html

1 Reply

@Pangloss,

Quote:

nearly 11 million gallons a year, a team of experts for the Nigerian government and international and local environmental groups concluded in a 2006 report

Unlike you the NYT cites its source. The Nigerians say so, not the NYT. Did the Nigerians also say WHO spilled all that oil and HOW? Yes they did, but the NYT didn't bother to include that

Quote:

With the black market in stolen fuel and petrol booming, gangs of armed youths are increasingly targeting the 3,000-mile network of pipelines which criss-cross the oil-producing areas. The illegal traders have even started driving road tankers to collection points.

"The tanker drivers puncture the pipeline and pump gasoline into their vehicles and then drive off, leaving fuel gushing out. Villagers then come in with their buckets and jerry cans," one official said yesterday.

Xris is an elderly demented hospital patient with severe neurological impairments, I'm not a psychiatrist so I'm not answering his ravings any longer, but what's YOUR excuse? Would a picture help?

http://www.huliq.com/files/imagecache/article_main/Lagos%20pipeline%20blast%202006.jpg

3 Replies

@electronicmail,

You wont answer because you cant, nothing to do with personalities. The oil companies politically or materialistically are held responsible for the disasters in Nigeria. The people only revolt because they are being abused by foreign oil companies or the gangsters that the oil companies support. Your ignorance on the subject is astounding and self imposed. The BP oil spill is just the visible decadence of the capacity of capitalism to exploit.

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@electronicmail,

Why do you have to act like such an ass in your conversations?

Cycloptichorn

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The Great Gulf of Mexico Oil Spewage Thread

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