wing -- Very nice details. Exactly what the MMS needs to evaluate what happened. BTW - when I've had excessive cake from LCM I've run scrapers prior to running csg. Granted sorta messy if LC kicks back in.

Prior to running the long string, the wellbore was underreamed below the 9 5/8 liner. I don't recall the timeline but if it was just before running the long string wouldn't that take care of an excessive mud cake?

Seems to be securely on now. Leaking a lot more oil though.

There goes the bandwidth. Contribute, please.

I didn't get to see it yet--DVR'ed at home though. Can anyone speak to how "dougr"-ish it was?

(EDIT: here's the link to the discussion on Olbermann's show with Bob Kavnar (h/t bbfellow, thanks!): http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#37886739 )

So you're the lone viewer of K Olbermann. I knew he had a least one.

"Michael R. Bromwich, who was appointed director of the Minerals Management Service last week, said in testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee that the new investigations team would report directly to him and would work closely with the Interior Department’s inspector general’s office, which has issued several tough reports on misconduct at the minerals service in the last decade...."

So where has the Interior Department's inspector general's office been through all the MMS corruption that is common knowledge to many people?

A new group of lazy unaccountable bureaucrats alledgedly watching other lazy unaccountable bureaucrats. More political posturing. More taxpayer money wasted.

Everytime government screws up, government gets bigger. Nobody gets fired, more people get hired to watch the people who should have been fired.

Oh, I'm sticking around for this. :)
I have money (10 gal. of the Blue Bell flavor of your choice) on at least 50 inane questions.

It might be a good idea to put a link to the FAQ page in the repeated top comment post.

Not to dissuade you from donating (because who knows how long this increased traffic is going to last...which is a good thing as we get to educate, but tough because it didn't come gradually), but we don't get much of a bump out of TV show shout outs--at least not as much as you'd think. Think about it, how many times have you actually gotten up from watching a tv show, remembered a web address, and then gone to your computer and gone to that site without getting distracted by something else? :)

what will actually do it is if bloggers/websites watching KO write about it, then that will drive traffic. (that's why we try to (and ask you to as well) seed stuff on other web sites and such...much more chance of getting reciprocal traffic.)

Here is the link to the segment:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#37886739

It is a discussion of dougr post (with Olbermann reading quotes from the post).

It wouldn't be a shaped charge but a gas generator. It may be difficult to use propellant to generate high enough pressure to compete with hydraulics, which is the most space efficient way to create high levels of force at a distance.

It sounds like a doable idea and probably exhists already - a gas generator pressurizing a large cylinder which in terms runs a hydraulics system at much higher pressure. Perhaps the reason they don't use it is reliabiliy under water?

Unless you mean a shaped charge to cut the pipe?

If I understand the usage correctly, you could only use the charges on the actual shears. The blind rams and test rams will need to be actuated more than once.

The pipe is busted and they don't know where. Think rotten garden hose. If they stop the flow, it will just "flow" somewhere else - under the seabed(?)and out. So they want it to flow out of the BOP, until they drill down the relief wells and plug it at the bottom.

Rockman: I think I got this right.... LOL.. Ice cream anyone?

DBL

Robert, what you have to keep in mind is that the BOP's are often actuated. They are funtion and pressure tested and they are closed for multiple periodic operations except for the actual drilling process. In my view of your idea a shaped charged would force the ram closed, but what would open it? How would you recommend multiple closers and opennings with a system like this.

I'm thinking your view is that we only use the BOP for preventing blowouts, but it's a tool in the well drilling and completion process that actually gets used for many other operational purposes.

Earlier in the day ROV's were pulling off rubber rings that were held on metal ring. Looks like a piece of one still might be hanging. They may have been more trouble than they were worth.One had been torn before. Maybe it contributed to difficulty in getting cap level and caused the irregular leak pattern seen before.

That was were the rubber seal was.
They did not have BIG washers so the rubber pull through. :-)
jal

The feds held a conference/workshop event in N.O., run by Emory, yesterday and today to determine how best to address this issue. I posted a link to it. If it actually resulted in something with utility instead of simply generating more meetings, maybe something will come of it before it's too late.

Hey Red....Boots show up yet? He should have been knocking on your pearly gates a month or so ago. LOL.
Technically you correct but the scale is off the charts. I wouldn't even try to guess the millionth of a percent or so it might represent. But if you confine your thoughts to the csg environment then you've got some significant pressure changes. That's why there's concern about secondary csg and cmt failures.

I'll take a stab: The pressure goes into accelerating mass out of the reservoir; think of it as converting potential energy into kinetic energy. Eventually the reservoir pressure will come into equilibrium with the ambient pressure at the sea floor, but this could take months or years.

You forgot to mention my favorite: the Nanobots. "It'll work, dudes!"

You forgot sharks with laser beams on their fricken heads.

(necessary edit by PG)

You forgot to note the use of "gizintas."

Hey now, there's a lot of uninformed people out here. in your spare time that you have to complain about them make some concise (two or three sentance) answers to some of the dumb questions and post them to the FAQ board. This is how we educate people.

I still say the inflatable pickle idea would have worked...

Thank you, EL, for your really nice compliment. I enjoy your posts very much as well. As boring and ugly as law can be, it can also be very interesting to watch the raw battles between important competing socital interests play out ... with the winner declared according to the values and priorities reflected in our laws, which are passed by people we elect. Or so we're told. :~D

But i came here because i worked in the oil field for a spell, as a roughneck (chain hand)and on seismic crews in the mountain states, and Alaska, including up in the arctic and to prudho bay. I have also done some horizontal boring, under rivers and such. I really enjoy the technical side, but lack experience/education. So of course I love TOD.

According to Huffington Post, the gov't position is being narrowed. The gov't has been concerned about some areas where the pressures are not fully known. It is complicated by differences in areas of some fields. There will be more areas opened up shortly, but not all until the complicated answers to this problem are found.

"What would have happened if this well had not failed when it did? I mean .. with all the problems we now think we know about the well design and poor cementing on the lower plug.. what if it had held just long enough for them to put in a top plug and leave the well... What would have happened when they went back to it in the future to open it up to make it into a production well?? Could the failed lower plug then have caused a blowout at that point?
The reason I ask... could there be many other wells... now currently capped... that could potentially be disasters waiting to happen when they are re opened?"

Let me start with these questions first. Had the plan been for the rig to stay on location and complete the well it's very possible that enough hydrostatic pressure would have been exerted on the well to stil have well control through out the completion process. Maybe they would have performed the CBL and found a bad cement job and then they would have fixed that problem and nothing else would have happened. So just having the rig stay on location to complete the well and maybe this disaster doesn't happen.

When you say the "lower plug" I'm not certain what your taling about. Most people now think the the wells flow path for the blowout is in the annulus. Plugs are inside the casing the annulus is the outside of the production casing, so plugs are probably not in play in my view.

Had the Horizon got away from the location without the blowout happenig to them, it's possible that the well would have blown out while no rig was on location. If the other rig would have started work on the well it could have happened to them too, unless they were able to put heavy brine fluid in the well at the beginning of the completion process.

Had the well made it all the way through the completion process and the wellhead was attached, in my view as soon as the well was brought on line the annular pressure would have been an issue because the wellhead was attached there would not have been a blowout, unless the excessive pressure commuinicated among all the casing strings. That is the point where a underground blowout with a surface breach at the mud line could have destroyed the entire wellbore.

For the most part wells are completed once they get to this point they don't temporarily abandon them and come back later to be "re opened". Most of the companies I work with use the same rig to drill and complete. Wells that's already producing don't get reopened and most well in the GOM have multiple barriers unlike the BP Horizon well.

If your confused by my answers don't feel like the lone wolf because I just read it and now I'm even confused, so next time ask less questions! Ha!

They all will have a "Christmas Tree", which will have various valves and instruments. All production wells have a production choke. Most modern production wells have an automatic variable choke with hydraulic, electric, or pneumatic actuation although some still have a fixed choke or simply an orifice to restrict the flow.

Some subsea completions have a topsides choke only, some have a variable choke subsea, and some have a fixed choke subsea and a variable choke topsides, which is the arrangement favored by many Statoil rigs.

After the choke the fluid will go through a series of pressurized vessels known as separators. Gas will be pulled off the top of these vessels, oil from the middle and water from the bottom. Wells will have one, two or even three of these separators in descending pressure to separate and move the various hydrocarbons.

Gas will be dried to "pipeline grade", compressed and shipped off via pipeline spur if the quantity warrants. Otherwise, it will be flared. Oil will be shipped via pipeline spur or in the case of an FPSO it will be offloaded to tankers.

That's a grossly oversimplified description, but it's fairly accurate.

In the drilling industry it is called a packer and would work very well if you had anyway to get it through the BOP and into a well bore - but you can't get it through the BOP and if the well is leaking through the annulus as many believe it is then it wouldn't have any way to stop the flow if you could get through the BOP. Like plugging a small pipe inside a larger pipe when the flow is on the outside of the small pipe.

Suggest you review some of the previous threads and find a casing diagram. There are several around and a picture of the "plumbing" might show yopu why it wouldn't work.

You obviously never tried to stick a wet noodle up a wildcats arse.

Here's a longer (44 min) presentation by Jeremy Jackson:

Brave New Ocean

Around midnight, Discoverer Enterprise #1 was descending along the riser, and inspecting the flanges. I stopped watching before it got all the way down to the cap, don't know if it was related or not. But Enterprise 1 & 2 were the ones that put the cap back on, unassisted - maybe that was a case of 'you broke it, you get to fix it'?

The Myth of Sysiphus

This time of year that beach should be PACKED full of tourists. Do you know how much of an impact this disaster has had on the hotels and beachfront restaurants in lost revenue?

How many lifeboats did the Titanic have?

Thanks for reposting this, Mr. Fisherman Gobbet raised some important points. I hope some of the investigative reporters visiting TOD will follow up on this and dig in to contractor performance issues.

(EDIT) In reply to the beach-cleanup and BP's capacity. The thread was interrupted by a lot of talk about ice cream and dead bodies.)

The new rule of PR is, if it is impossible for a reporter to establish the facts to the contrary, it flies. In most cases, the industry itself is the best source.

Hello Old Fisherman,

In case you missed my answer to your post on skmmers yesterday:

Old Fisherman,

There are not 6 North Sea skimmer ships working in the Gulf.

The CG accepted 6 sweeping arms trough http://www.tandtmarine.com/.
The 6 arms are being deployed on vessels of opportunity with oil storage capacity. So that computes to 3 US skimming ships.

The skimming capacity of the sweeping arms are clear:
One ship with two skimmers can collect up to 250.000 liters of oil out of the water per hour. That is net oil, so without the water. Their water cut is aprox. 30% in this system.

So, 3 ships with these skimmers, each collecting 250.000 liter of oil per hour, is 750.000 liters times 24 equals 18.000.000 liters per day.
That is approx. 113.000 barrels of oil per day.

Of course is the actual collection rate proportional to the thickness of the oil layer on the water. Some have point out that it will not collect much on areas with oil-sheen only. True, but what other technique would? Yes, 6 arms deployed on 3 ships is of course nearly not enough for the entire spill. What you need is a strategy with all available techniques:

A complete strategy could be as follow:

1) Start building sand-dikes in front of specific areas you want to protect, such as marshes. It will take time, but this will give a superb defense.
2) Do not use dispersant at the well. Let the oil float to the surface.
3) Use planes to detect the oil that has surfaced. Focus on the coastlines.
4) Direct small oil tankers equipped with skimmers to the oil. Of course you need more as the spill grows.
5) As a last line of defense, use aerial dispersant nearer to the coast if you are to late to skim it up.
6) Use the small boats who are pulling booms, or with small skimmers, in the estuaries and canals when you are to late to stop it before it enters.
7) Manually suck up oil with specialized vacuums or Costner's devices.
8) In less sensitive areas (beaches) you can either scoop up the oil, or even use soil-washing. There is also an interesting technique being offered by the Swiss: http://www.physorg.com/news195831212.html this could be used on the beaches.
9) In sensitive areas, such as marches, preventing oil from coming in is paramount. Because you cannot clean marshes without destroying them. If the oil does come in, one should let nature bio degrade it. Experience shows that will take between 10 and 15 years.

This all will of course not magically save the Gulf. But it will minimize the impact on the sensitive areas.

It is a fact that a lot of oil is being dispersed in the water column: http://gulfblog.uga.edu/. Also measured oxygen depletion points in this direction. Although nobody knows how much oil is staying under the surface.

So either the ships are being deployed on the wrong areas (mainly oil sheen), or
most of the oil has not surfaced (yet).

Wetter this is caused by the huge usage of dispersant at the well (should BP stop this?), or it is because of the nature of the oil/gas mixture being released on great depths is unknown right now.

Fact is that skimming is the best way to clean up the oil. If you look at the amount of International help including skimmers that has been offered, the CG should accept all skimming devices immediately. Currently they are almost all still under consideration! http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.state.gov/documents/organiz...

Roger from the Netherlands.

From my reading of the various solutions being put forth, the problem seems to be the BOP is in the way of putting anything down the well bore. The ultimate solution is to pump mud at around 18,000 feet and overcome the pressure of the oil and gas. Which is exactly what the relief wells are intended to do.

Ok. Since our goal is to pump mud into the wellbore at depth, then the simpler solution is simply to remove the BOP. Yes, we will have a big increase in flow. But how long would it take for the drill-ship to run down 18,000 foot of drill pipe through the original hole and start pumping kill mud? From my limited experience in off-shore drilling some 30 years ago, tripping into the hole would take less than a day.

The only complication that I see with this plan would be the 3000 feet of drill pipe that was in the hole at the time of the blowout. Is it still hung up in the rams and hanging from them or has it been cut off and fallen to the bottom? If it is still attached to the BOP shear rams, the 3000 feet of drillpipe and BOP can be lifted off by crane and the new drill pipe can be run in and the mud can commence to be pumped in at the depth we want it at.

The Northern Bluefin Tuna fishery is a delicate and complicated issue.

No denying that this species has been over fished, and the explosion in popularity of sushi over the past 20 years certainly hasn't helped matters.

However, the reality is this, Northern Bluefin have a migratory pattern that takes them from the South Eastern US, up the coast to Nova Scotia and Nfld, over to Europe and the Med, then back across towards Florida, then north again.

Here in North America, we've actually managed the fishery quite well over the past 30+ years.
In fact, take Nova Scotia for example, the fishermen out of Halifax have a very small fishing season where they can only take 1 single fish per day, over a period of about 3 weeks, or until they catch a total weight of 3500 lbs. With their catch averaging 500-700 lbs, that's about 5 or fish in a single season per boat. There are not 1000's of boats fishing there, barely 100.

These are caught using hand lines with 100lb test. Only 2 or 3 guys per boat, it takes them 2-3 hours just to get the fish in and cooled down before hauling it aboard.

The Japanese buyers are waiting on shore, the Captains radio ahead that they'll be back in a couple hours with a 1000 pounder or whatever. The fishermen can get anywhere from $6000 to $300,000 for that single fish.

Across the pond, it's a wild west orgy that has not been properly regulated...boats using helicopters and spotter planes to locate the schools, the boats rush over with huge nets, encircle the schools and take every damn one.

As you can imagine, the North American fishermen don't feel they should be penalized for this horrible mis-management (and mostly, lack of enforcement) in the eastern Atlantic. Understandable since a single fish can be so lucrative.

If a complete moratorium were in place, our fishermen lose their livelihoods and the Europeans would ignore it and keep on fishing illegally.

That's why it's so complicated an issue. Only a full global enforced response will save this species.

Check this out...(Make sure to click on the Word Doc attachment 'Northern Bluefin Fishery'...that's where the embedded video clip is)
http://fohboh.com/forum/topics/1411008:Topic:85941

On the linked page, there's an embedded video clip of me in Halifax with a large bluefin on the dock that sold for $37,500. I had the luxury of carving a chunk off this baby and eating it right there on the dock...best sashimi I ever had. (LOL, probably cost the fisherman about $300 for the piece I ate)

Also, I wrote a blog post with a short story (satire/spoof) in the spirit of the BP Coffee Spill video, outlining how things would go down if BP owned a restaurant. I think it's pretty funny, perhaps you will too.

http://fohboh.com/profiles/blogs/floating-adrift-somewhere-in

GoRD

“What insurer is going to want to put out $1 billion worth of deepwater insurance and only get paid $5 to $10 million after this? They may as well write a few more hurricane-insurance contracts,” Eck said.

I thought all the big oil boys were self insured.

In BP's case the were also self 'ensured' it seems.

Yep. For this and Rockman's long term contract reason, I think deepwater drilling in the US is dead till way post peak. It's why I suggested BP should cut and run - there's nothing for them in staying there.

As regards elsewhere, I think cooler heads will prevail and minor mods to rules will suffice, enshrined in law. The insurance premiums there won't go through the roof.

If the GoM currently produces 1.3Mbpd of the US 5-6Mbpd production, and the lifetime of each well is low, you have to assume that total US production is going to take a permanent spike downwards. Far from energy independence, the order of the day is going to be big import problems, with Mexico, GoM & Alaska falling off and China able to outbid for closer shipment routes.

Look to an invasion of Venezuela within the foreseeable. It makes much more sense to secure that supply line than go for expeditionary Afghan wars.

Pressure (Pa) = head (m) x density (kg/m³) x gravity (9.81 m/s²)

You do not have to look far to see pictures of how bad things are. If you do a search for oil, you'll see plenty. The oil rains are pretty convincing too. Hurricane anybody?

Now, THAT'S alarming.

oh no. Has this ever happened before, anyone know? Could the use of dispersant cause this?

A - It certainly is an oil sheen.

B - It does not show any sign of weathering or emulsion. Any oil from the BP well that was expelled through a mile of water, then either evaporated and precipitated as rain, or picked up by a strong wind and then mixed into a rain cloud would show signs of weathering and emulsion.

C - It doesn't seem similar to any of the oil sheen from pictures of the BP spill. It does look exactly like the sheen you get from spilled motor oil.

I'm going to ring the BS gong on this one. Either it is a deliberate fake or the people taking the video were severely mislead.

oh FFS not here too! ugh

can this be in the giant screww/sharks with nukes book's appendix?

Sorry, but oil on top of running water is not a sign of the oil coming out of the sky.

Do you have any?

What utter nonsense.

I would believe this more if it wasn't water running along a road. Every road in the world has oil on it from vehicles, and it gets carried off every time it rains.

Let's see an isolated rainwater basin or rainfall measuring device with oil in it; this video isn't proof of anything.

Looks like rain run-off from a freshly paved parking lot/road to me...I've seen this many times before (worked on county road crews in my youth). Now if I saw a video of oily sheen on automobile windshields, concrete sidewalks, etc. then I'd be more receptive to the idea.

So, if the Toyota has braking issues, the govt will stop the importing of Toyotas and Nissans, but will still allow Hondas.

Well, at least they are trying to address and face up to the flaws in the proposed moratorium. Salzar is now going to consider a risk - criteria approach to lifting the moratorium in some areas:

_______

He suggested some drilling in proven oil fields might move
forward. That would be good news for companies like Petrobras
and Royal Dutch Shell, which were set to delay major projects
on fields that offer the best new source of domestic crude.

"It might be that there are demarcations that can be made
based on reservoirs where we actually do know the pressures and
the risks associated with that versus those reservoirs which
are exploratory in nature," Salazar said.

"We will in the weeks and months ahead take a look at how
it is that the moratorium in place might be refined," he said
[...]
Salazar would not say how the new moratorium would get
around the judge's ruling against a blanket ban, but Salazar's
move to include criteria for lifting the ban and possibly
allowing drilling for certain fields may be the answer.

The secretary would not commit to issuing the new drilling
moratorium this week.

"We're working out the specifics. I have a meeting this
afternoon on when we'll do it," he told reporters after the
hearing.
____________

Same link

I was trying to figure out why they keep putting together new commissions and teams, but then it dawned on me- it's the solution to the unemployment problem! Two birds, one stone ... or something.

Petey, I like that margin of error!

For the first weeks of the spill, ocean currents contained most of the oil offshore of Mississippi and Louisiana. With the Loop Current breaking up an forming a giant eddy, the oil has been able to spread more in the last couple weeks, and will likely hit more of Florida. The currents change a lot, so good luck extrapolating. You can look at the US Navy predictions to see how complex the near surface flows are:

http://www7320.nrlssc.navy.mil/GLBhycom1-12/navo/arc_list_glfmexspdcur.html

Yeah. What are we looking at?

Yes, Enterprise Rov2 shots are impressive right now.
Cap replaced and flow looking good.

But is that seemingly greatly reduced flow all being collected, or going out another vent somewhere ?

I understood the boost to 53,000bpd was not due till Tuesday ?

how much room is between the drill casing and the production casing

It amazes me how different the two different views look. Both in color and flow intensity.

I have 3 questions.

What is that non moving sludgesicle in front on the Skandi ROV 2?

Why would BP set up their streaming cams so that you can't do a video capture, only screen shots or recording your screen w a webcam? What's up with that?

And why is it that the ONLY webpage in the whole internet that constantly crashes my browser is the deppwaterbp.com website?

hmmm...if TinFoilHatGuy is really a TinFoilHatGuy, then he should probably know, right? Or at least have a theory?

GoRA

Well, the cap is level on the flange/stub; it's the top of the flex joint that's tilted. Just my intuition, but the cap looks to be seated better than it was before, and the flow from the bottom is a lot less than before they pulled it off. Don't know what's going on with the vents though, would be nice to get a look at that.

Yes unless the relief wells work, we have a even bigger problem.

How come they don't use a larger diameter riser
pipe to reduce pressure on the well and LMRP
connection, thus slowing the leaks, and getting
more product up instead of leaked. Also wouldn't
it stop the hydrates from plugging the riser.
It all looks like a mickey mouse operation.
Why couldn't they have hooked lines to the BOP
kill connections, etc, right away and moved in
seperators to get product used instead of leaking.Ed

I know how to fix it, but no one will listen to me! Here, I drew a picture to show how it works:

And if that won't work, maybe a really really complicated version of the same thing will work. Say, like take that same big valve and attach it to the top of a bank vault. Pump the bank vault full of concrete, and then turn off the big valve. After all, complicated solutions usually work better than simple ones. Right?

Yeah, well. That can be the effect of cleverly constructed disinformation.

We have been very clear from the beginning, as was Olbermann, that this was a pseudonymous commenter's post, not anyone affiliated with this website.

So, if we lost credibility because of hosting that comment, it is likely with someone not paying much attention, and therefore not all that great of a loss.

i wasn't bothered with replying to dougr's post when i read it and can't be bothered now ....but even a sophomore petroleum engineering student can poke enough holes in his post that the post would look like a slice of swiss cheese....

there are problems and there are outside possibilities with this well ....but when this guy suggests is ridiculous ....maybe the well will rupture open , the boogie monster will come out and fling boogers at the ROV's

Look up this thread for the yutub link for the same "rain" at http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6650#comment-658734

Jalopnik: It's Raining Oil In Louisiana? Louisiana residents 45 miles off the Gulf of Mexico claim to have videotaped an oily substance raining down.

(big snip)

Updated: According to a statement issued to Jalopnik from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "EPA has no data, information or scientific basis that suggests that oil mixed with dispersant could possibly evaporate from the Gulf into the water cycle."

The problem is not getting a solid seal at the BOP/LMRP, that could be done relatively easily (well - a few days work).

The problem is that if you were to make a solid connection with a new riser (actually an 8 inch pipe can handle all the flow), what you are doing is transferring a blowout from the seabed where it is relatively safe to the surface, including a 150 times expansion of the gas, and you now have an uncontrolled blowout at the surface which is exactly what caused the explosion, fire, fatalities and eventual sinking of the DWH.

If you you try to control the flow then you have the same situation as putting a second BOP on the top of the existing one and that was canceled due to fears of making the situation worse.

Try http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6558/640389

FYI - there as "a rat" in separate.

They can unbolt the stub now and bolt on a new riser.

With an underwater diverter valve.

If they chose to do it.

It's clear that our tax dollars were not at work in a way they should have been. An illuminating article, a clear picture of the bureaucratic misfeasance we've come to expect, this time tragic and with catastrophic long term consequences for an ecosystem and millions of people. The USG is on the hook and bureaucratic crap continues, with preventing residents from acting in their own interests as a priority.

However, BP's had 862 OSHA violations in the last 3 years with 760 classified as "egregious willful" in their refinery business and 15 people were killed at Texas City in 2005. Macondo killed 11, plus one more who shot himself. We've discovered fatal shortcuts, risk taking, oversights and mistakes that had nothing to do with MMS.

Neither the USG or BP should get a pass and both are on the hook. Potential penalties for BP are clear. But what the hell do we do about the USG?

I promise to tell an amusing story if somebody helps me figure this out.

LMAO

An adjustable wrench...hahahahahahaha

...and how exactly will the ROV adjust it?

I would cancel all skimmer ops immediately so they won't interfere with the experiment. Of course the wild card in this is the dispersant. We'd have to find a way to hold the Corexit constant statistically since BP doesn't appear to be willing to stop it and the USG must be backing them up. Then and only then could we determine with a reasonable degree of confidence which way it went.

" How did Louisiana get to be known as the most corrupt state? "

Better hope Alan doesn't see that!

Seriously, if you look at public and private corruption stats, there are plenty of states as bad as Louisiana, and a lot are worse. The only time we jump to the top of the charts is when you chart corruption convictions per capita. Smaller states with effective prosecutors always suffer in that comparison. Not sayin' we couldn't do better, but this is just one of the reputations Louisiana has got but don't deserve.

eye: You just might want to review syncro's explanation of Judge Feldman's decision on previous threads yesterday before you spew about him. There are links on previous threads to all the pertinent filings and the judge's decision. Most can be found through The Google and on Scrib.com. One of the discussions was about the "appearance of conflict." In addition, you just don't waltz into a federal judge's hearing with a charming smile on our face and say: "Hi! I'm Ken Salazar and, you know. I really, really be this ban. That's my case. Thanks for your cooperation, Judge." The Judge did not prohibit Salazar for trying again with a detailed presentation of sufficient of evidence to meet the long acknowledges legal requirements for a judge to uphold this order.

Good innuendoprop. Pick one possibly true fact about the judge, that he owns stock in one of these players, and base your predisposed judgement about his decision solely on that. OK, I grok your agenda.

Check out Gail's post above re: compliance with MMS regs.

I agree with you about USA Today.

The moratorium appears to be a political stunt designed to show the public Obama is taking action. Doing something. A bone to feed the environmentalists. However the reality of the first two months make me declare Obama to be a failure. Failure to recognize early how bold of a response was needed to contain this oil. Failure to realize how incompetent BP was and still is. In fact the government agencies seem to be teaming with BP now to cover up how bad it is and how lousy their response has been.

It's an oversimplification, but that's the jist of it.

Basically, you can put an electric charge on the outer wall of the existing well. I don't know how good your physics is, but just in case anyone reading isn't aware - any electrical charge creates a field effect - it's not quite the same as a magnetic field, but it's close enough that people often conflate the two.

Obviously, this won't be strong enough to pull the relief well, but from what I gather they're talking about using a probe on the relief well to take field measurements, which they can then use to steer the well as they dig it.

It's a similar concept to radio triangulation, and nowhere near as science-fiction as it might sound. The problem is that media will try to dumb things down for their readers - and often take it a little too far.

Edit : Apologies if you already understood that... I wasn't sure if the tone of the post was being used to attack the way the media dumbs things down (and yes, I'm aware that my post does this too - albeit to a lesser extent), or wether it was intended to attack the idea itself. :S

I think you might want to consider a little deeper research, yourself.

If you visit the National Hurricane Center's web site, you will learn that a three-color code is used for the systems depicted on the maps. The colors and keys are:

Yellow = Low (less than 30% chance of "tropical cyclone" formation within 48 hours)

Orange = Medium (30%-50% chance)

Red = High (>50% chance)

The system being discussed in the CNN piece you mocked is depicted on the map in orange, indicating a "medium" chance of cyclone formation, just as was reported (at the moment, the forecast says 40%).

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gtwo_atl.shtml

The quote by Feltgen refers to the possibility of the storm reaching "hurricane" strength. A hurricane is the most severe form of tropical cyclone in the Atlantic/Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico. Depending upon location and strength, tropical cyclones may be called hurricanes, typhoons, tropical storms, tropical depressions, etc.

That CNN piece deserves to be - uh - held up to gentle ridicule. Words have meaning, and within meteorology, "Tropical Storm" has a specific meaning.

The system being discussed (and being called a tropical storm by CNN) has not yet reached tropical depression status. It isn't being tracked by the National Hurricane Center, as they only track and issue advisories on actual storms, and the ability to predict where a hypothetical TS or hurricane will go is almost zero until the storm actually forms and its track can be extrapolated from its location at formation and the conditions around it.

CNN just fell into the trap of using "storm" in its popular sense. Actually, what rolled through Chicago yesterday probably rivaled what's going on in the Caribbean just now.

CB: I wonder whether the delay to that date has anything to do with the timing of the relief wells.

Just a type-in thing for the TOD Internet administrators.
As I write New York time is Thur June 24 05:34 The last post was June 24 19:19. Could you please fix, it is difficult to follow these re-initiated threads. Not complaining just advising. GreenAS.

"I don't try to describe the future. I try to prevent it."
--Ray Bradbury

The article repeats the following claim

Just hours before the disaster, Vidrine overruled objections from representatives of rig owner Transocean about how to complete the well, Douglas Brown, the chief mechanic on the vessel, told US Coast Guard and Interior Department investigators in May.

But does not state that both Transocean OIM Jimmy Harrel and Senior Toolpusher Miles Ezell (who were at the full meeting unlike Douglas Brown) both testified that Brown's version of the story wss incorrect. In fact they stated that BP accepted Harrel's plan to add a negative pressure test prior to the displacement.

Now Harrel and Ezell might both be lying under oath but they were very firm that BP did not over-rule them and if anything it was the other way round.

Deleted - posted in wrong thread.

The Macondo blowout looks set to curtail insurance coverage for offshore drilling, forcing companies to self-insure or exit deep-water fields.

Hmmm. The US media, Obama have had a GREAT time whining, screaming and shouting about this incident.

Maybe a more restrained - some might say, more adult - response would have been wiser.

The US, like all of us, needs crude oil.

Closing down your oil sources - and/or scaring off companies & staff who can work on them - may turn out to be a painful & expensive mistake longer term.

The US is not the only place in the world which can use oil field staff and equipment.