new stuff in this introductory comment, 23 JUN 10.

A continued humble and sincere thank you to all who have donated thus far. It will help us pay for the fourth server we brought online to accommodate the increased traffic. (See point 3 below.)

1. The Oil Drum is a special place. We strive to maintain a high signal to noise ratio in our comment threads. Short, unengaging comments, or comments that are off topic, are likely to be deleted without notice. (to be clear--engaging, on point humor and levity, more than welcome.)

We are trying to perform a service to the public here to coordinate smart people who know their stuff with other people who want to learn about what's going on. Promotion of that ideal will be the criteria by which we make our decisions about what stays and what goes.

Flame wars, polemic exchanges, and other content deleterious to the community will be removed, either by an editor or by the community through its moderation process.

2. If you see a problematic comment USE THE COMMENT MODERATION SYSTEM--see the "Flag as inappropriate" and (?) beside it? Learn more there. If you see comments that are questionable after you've done that (that aren't being removed), let us know at the eds email address.

It is up to this community to enforce the norms we have established here (a high signal to noise ratio), keep. it. up.

Our guide to commenting at TOD can be found here: http://www.theoildrum.com/special/guidelines . Please check it out if you are unfamiliar with it, but it is essentially 1) citations welcome (if not necessary), 2) be kind to others, and 3) be nice to the furniture.

3. We have gotten a lot of queries whether this bump in traffic is adding costs to keep the site functioning. Truth is, yes, we are incurring added expenses from these events. It is also true that we try not to beg from you very often as we are not the types to bother you with constant queries.

That being said, if you are inclined to help out, your support is always welcome and very much appreciated. To those who have already given, thank you very much.

You can find the donate button in the top left hand corner of the main page.

4. If you have come here to vet your plan to kill the well, understand that you will be queried on whether or not you have read all the other previous comment threads and all the myriad plans that have already been run by the kind folks in this room; if you have actually read all the comment threads and still think your plan has legs, well, then maybe yours really is the one that will save the Gulf of Mexico.

This is not to say that well considered questions about current attempts and modifications to those attempts are not welcome; they are. But try to place them in context and in what's actually going on, as opposed to your MacGyver dream solution where you have a 10 megaton bomb, an ice pick, and Commander Spock at your side.

5. If you would like to catch up with what's been going on in the last few days, our IRC channel has been maintaining a FAQ, which is an open source log full of information, links, and such. Check it out.

6. Also, if you're looking for live chat to talk about the ROV/LMRP video, etc., and are IRC capable, go to freenode, the channel is #theoildrum

(google MIRC and download it; Hit the lightening bolt and fill in your info; select the server as "freenode" (it is in the server list), hit connect; when connected type /join #theoildrum)

or you can get there just via a browser: http://webchat.freenode.net / Just enter a nickname and #theoildrum in the boxes; then when connected type /join #theoildrum)

7. Don't be afraid to go back and read the last couple of open threads yesterday and today before you start on this thread. They are really good, and will likely catch you up if you have been out of the loop for a while. We shut down threads when we get to 300-400 comments, as it's really unmanageable. Lots of good stuff in there though.

8. Yes, HO and others have put up many counterarguments to the "DougR" comment. There are many many links, but the first one was here: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6609. If you ask in the thread nicely, they will also point you to others.

Gulf Shores here. We got hit bad today. Worst one yet. The smell was strong. I was in it for 2 hours and I now have a headache. The were oil waves breaking. There were workers there in yellow Hazmat suits, but no respirators. I will let the pictures say the rest.

From my bucket: http://s892.photobucket.com/albums/ac126/tinfoilhatguy/Gulf%20Shores%206...

The issue goes beyond methane, but the formation of large amounts of methane hydrates that precipitate out.

Fund to provide respirators.

http://www.onearth.org/node/2224

Repost – apologies to those who have already read it.

This (overlong) comment is basically a discussion of the (in)famous DougR posting.

First, I will say that in one area we are in complete agreement. BP and the USCG have been less than forth coming and in doing so have hurt both themselves and the general public as all kinds of wild rumors and technical misinformation abound. Some of this misinformation results in harm to individuals and businesses as people suffer increased stress and tourists cancel vacations.

In this information vacuum it is easy to make wrong assumptions that lead to mistaken conclusions. It can be made worse if you have some degree of technical knowledge and verbiage and use that to make a case for a scenario that doesn’t pass muster with actual engineering analysis but sounds highly authoritative to many people, some TV commentators and various politicians.

What eventually will happen is that the blow out preventer will literally tip over

DougR has made a case that he expects the BOP to tip over. He seems to base this on the following information.

1 – The well is leaking into the sediment below the mudline and that is undermining the foundation holding the BOP upright.

2 – In support of that theory he cites that BP cut off the broken riser to relieve pressure on the well.

3 – Currents are pushing on the BOP stack.

4 – He seems to believe the inclination or tilt of the BOP is increasing.

5 – The BOP, riser and well casing are eroding from the inside due to sand erosion further weakening the structure.

He weaves a visual picture of a 450 ton BOP waving around a hundred feet high supported by a thin piece of liner or well casing. Given that description it is understandable that people will believe the BOP is in immediate danger of collapse.

Looking at this from an engineering view point and using real data instead of conjecture and hyperbole I come to a much different conclusion.

The BOP is not in danger of tipping over.

Let look at each of his points.

1 – His theory seems to be that the well is blowing out the side about 1,000 feet below the mudline. I can understand, given the sparse and misleading information from BP and the USCG, how you could come to that conclusion. But let’s look at the actual make-up of the casing that supports the wellhead and the BOP. Here is the data:

http://www.energy.gov/open/documents/3.1_Item_2_Macondo_Well_07_Jun_1900...

First a 36” casing, up to 2” thick was put down. It extends from the mud line to 255 feet down, as tall as a 25 story building.

Next a 28” casing was run from the mudline to 1,150 feet down, almost the height of the Empire State building.

This was followed by a 22” casing from the mudline 2,870 feet down, twice as deep as the World Trade Center was high.

All three of these casings were completely cemented together and they form a very solid base which is what supports the BOP. I won’t detail the casing string below the 22” but is in the above pdf.

It is hard to envision any way the well would be able to leak out in the sediment between the mudline and the end of the 22” casing which is over a half mile down and well into formations below the mudline. At 1,000 feet there is a 1” thick pipe (the 22” casing) which is 100% cemented to another thick pipe (the 28” casing) which in turn is 100% cemented to the formation. Not much of a leak path there.

The immediate (first 1,000 feet) of well structure that remains is now also undoubtedly compromised.

There is no evidence that the foundation holding the BOP is being undermined or the upper portion of the casing (first 2,870 feet) is damaged. If you watch the leakage from under the LMRP cap you can see the oil and gas immediately start rising up at a pretty good velocity. If there were any oil or gas leaks anywhere near the BOP it would be very obvious as the leaks would look very much like the leakage from the cap and they would be quite visible as they flowed up around the BOP.

There are also occasional video shots of the lower part of the BOP and there is no sign of any seabed disturbance or subsidence. It looks pretty much like the earliest photos BP released.

The well pipes below the sea floor are broken and leaking

What may be helping to confuse the situation is that there are two more concentric “pipes” that run from the wellhead area down into the well.

A 16” casing string is suspended about 160 feet below the mudline and runs down to over a mile below the mudline. This piece of casing is also sealed to the 22” casing and hangs down from there. The “annular” space is inside the 16” casing between it and the liner.

A 9-7/8” liner was installed from the mudline to the bottom of the well. This liner reduces down to 7” before it reaches the bottom. It was through this liner that the well was expected to produce oil and gas.

The 16” casing has three rupture/burst disks subs installed and one of those is at about 980 feet down. It was this “disk” that Admiral Allen was referring to when he said it “failed”. This would indicate the “well pipes below the sea floor are broken and leaking”. But a rupture of that disk does NOT leak directly into the mud. It leaks inside the well casing.

The leak would have to migrate down to the bottom of the 18” casing - 3,902 feet below the mudline before it left the well. I expect that BP thinks they may have underground blowout at that level, which would leak into another formation, not up to the surface unless the cement jobs at the 18” casing or the 22” casing were also bad and those were fully tested and used.

DougR also supports his theory of downhole leaks by stating:

80 Barrels per minute is over 200,000 gallons per hour, over 115,000 barrels per day...did we seen an increase over and above what was already leaking out of 115k bpd?....we did not...it would have been a massive increase in order of multiples and this did not happen.

But three paragraphs above he contradicts himself stating:

Early that afternoon we saw a massive flow burst out of the riser "plume" area

and

Later on same day we saw a greatly increased flow out of the kink leaks

2 – DougR says BP cut off the riser to relieve the pressure but the timeline of the events indicates otherwise. BP had released the design of the LMRP cap well before they started the Top Kill.

If BP had thought they had a leakage problem requiring a pressure reduction they would never have attempted a top kill. So the that claim they cut the riser to relieve the pressure doesn’t fit the facts, it fits the already announced plan to cut the riser and install the LMRP cap.

3 – There is very little current at 5,000 feet. There may be other forces acting on the BOP, like gravity, but the currents are minimal. It is easy to verify this just by watching the video of the oil leakage.

4 – DougR’s claim is that the inclination of the BOP is increasing. There is no evidence of this.

Early discussions on TOD when BP released the first pictures talked about the fact that the BOP to well head connection appeared bent and the BOP looked tilted. The pictures at that time (very bad quality) seem to show a bend between the base of the wellhead and the bottom of the BOP. I haven’t seen any evidence that this tilt has increased over time or that there is any less mud at the wellhead.

There is a good reason why the BOP wellhead connection could be bent and weakened. For over a day the DWH was without power and the 50,000 ton rig was anchored to the wellhead. The movements of the rig in the surface currents would have put a huge strain on the BOP stack.

Also, when the rig sank and the riser bent over it would also have put stress on the BOP. But the riser doesn’t weigh as much as most people would think as it has floatation on it.

It would be a reasonably easy exercise, if you have all the data, to calculate the force that bending the riser would impart to the BOP and the well head. I’m sure that BP did that calculation and it didn’t deter them from proceeding with the Top Kill.

The LMRP has a flexjoint where it connects to the BOP. I believe that flexjoint is designed to tip up to 7.5 or 10 degrees. Normally the LMRP is under some tension from the riser which tends to hold it straight. Without this support from the riser it will always tip to one side. So the LMRP will always have a substantial inclination, by design.

you may have noticed that some of the ROVs are using an inclinometer...and inclinometer is an instrument that measures "Incline" or tilt. The BOP is not supposed to be tilting...and after the riser clip off operation it has begun to...

The ROVs have been checking the bullseyes regularly, before and after the riser was cut. The box that DougR thinks is an inclinometer is likely some other instrument, probably ultrasonic. That would be backed up by another poster’s observation that they had been cleaning the area where the box was being used. They could be checking the wall thickness at that point or trying to determine fluid flow. Both are more likely that an inclinometer reading.

5 - Erosion

I am convinced the erosion and compromising of the entire system is accelerating and attacking more key structural areas of the well, the blow out preventer and surrounding strata holding it all up and together.

I‘m not sure if DougR is referring to internal pipeline erosion or external foundation erosion and I may be doing him a disservice but there has been enough other discussion about internal erosion to try to correct some misconceptions.

When we have been talking about erosion we are talking about small restrictions that have been eroded where the oil flow has to pass small spaces. The most dramatic example was the increase in the leaks at the riser kink. They started at almost nothing and grew dramatically over time. A similar process was occurring inside the BOP.

There are a lot of variables that effect erosion but the biggest is velocity. The only place that there is erosion in this well is where there are tight restrictions which have high velocity and large pressure reductions. These seem to be inside the BOP and the riser kink when it was still there. The original cross section of the leak path was probably less than 0.20 sq in. With the very high velocity this restriction would have eroded very quickly. The five fold increase in the flow estimate in the first few days of the spill would be consistent with this theory as is the continuing increase in flow estimates. As the restriction enlarges the pressure drops and the erosion slows down. This is also consistent with various pressure readings at the bottom of the BOP, dropping from the “8,000 to 9,000 psi” to 4,400 psi on May 25.

The velocity inside the casing, liner, body of the BOP and the riser is relatively low. I doubt that it would be possible to detect the erosion on the casing or riser with the naked eye. It would take years of flow before there would be enough structural damage from internal erosion to cause any problems.

This is especially true for vertical or near vertical piping. In a horizontal pipe sediment can drop to the bottom and over time wear a groove on the bottom of the pipe, which is not the case here.

All of these things lead to only one place, a fully wide open well bore directly to the oil deposit...after that, it goes into the realm of "the worst things you can think of" The well may come completely apart as the inner liners fail. There is still a very long drill string in the well, that could literally come flying out...as I said...all the worst things you can think of are a possibility, but the very least damaging outcome as bad as it is, is that we are stuck with a wide open gusher blowing out 150,000 barrels a day of raw oil or more.

This statement brings together all DougR’s suppositions. I’m not sure if he is actually that frightened himself or if he just enjoys scaring others, but his conclusions come pretty close to fear mongering.

Besides painting a picture of a completely out of control blowout (which is a true worst case), in his “very least damaging outcome” he pretty much doubles the amount of maximum flow that this well could produce according to analysis that has been presented on TOD by well experts.

BP’s FIASCO - lack of information.

If BP and the USG were more inclined to transparency a lot of this aggravation could be avoided. You will never convince the conspiracy theorists, it is a life style they enjoy. But the MSM would not be quite as far out there if they were presented factual information, even if they couldn’t understand it.

Just doing a quick review of this long post I came up with this list of questions BP or the USG could answer that would indicate some transparency.

Have you found any seabed leaks of oil and gas?

Edit – Evidently this was answered by USCG at a press conference with an emphatic “No”. No seabed leak, no washing away of the well head foundation, no traction for the DougR theory.

Do you believe there are any leaks from the well into other formations?, which ones?

Has the inclination of the BOP changed?, By how much?

Describe the “disk failure” at 1,000 feet.

Are you concerned about the structural integrity of the BOP?, wellhead?, the LMRP?, the casing?

Describe the formation levels.

What are the current pressure readings inside the BOP?, the historical readings?

Is there any indication of seabed movement at the base of the BOP?

What are the ROVs doing when they are looking at the seabed?

What is the little black box the ROVs place on the riser?

I could go on for pages. I understand that BP has legal reasons why they won’t comment on the flow rates or what happened to cause the blowout. But there are reams of information that they could be providing the public.

tollertwins posted on the previous closed thread:

Great post, Shelburn! I think one reason that people freak easily is that nobody that isn't in the awl bidness understands the scale of what is happening down there.

This isn't helped by the fact that nobody can produce a readable to-scale drawing of the well and fit it on a single page. So everything looks more 'fragile' than it really is.

Somebody over on drillingproboards made a comment that if you made the borehole 4" wide like people do in whiteboard drawings, that depicting it propertly would take a roll of paper almost 700 feet long.

I grabbed this from an earlier post; sorry but don't know who put it up but it's supposed to be to scale. It's the Enterprise connect to the top of the well, 5000 feet of sea. Now add another two and a half plus lengths for the well itself to get to the total 18K run:

http://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x145/brityank/?action=view&current=bi...

Cheers.

As posted above some of the large mats of oil have hit the beaches of NW Florida real hard. There was a little euphoria as it looked like the next high tide had removed a lot of the oil on the beach. That was well and good until a professor from South Florida came along and dug a 10" deep trench normal to the tide line and Gulf. Every time he dug a trench it exposed a layer of oil approximately 1" thick at 6" deep. This oil will sit there until we get a higher energy event high the normal high tide. This is a beach bomb.
There were several of us old timers that tried to tell the people in charge that it would be inadvisable to leave any oil on the beach. We told them that even the quarter size tar balls needed to be remover ASAP or they would get buried. The general response we received was don't worry about it, it's under control of our experts.

From previous thread:

All track projections run into the Yucatan. There has been a trend westward over the last few days. Projections seem to aim it more at Mexico/Texas side.

Three models (out of six reported) still have it going north (GFS, GFDL, HWRF).

But "A likely landfall location is impossible to speculate on reliably at this point, and the storm could hit virtually anywhere along the Gulf of Mexico coast given the current uncertainty in its development." - Jeff Masters (weather underground)

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html

quizmasterchris--from the last post

:) ...not everyone on a rig earns 1500 bucks a day...in fact i was specifically talking about the top dawgs on a rig.....i was just trying to make a point that people are starting to feel enough heat that the top dawgs on rigs are willing to work as the lowest plebs on rigs right now.....and yes the trickle down economic effect of people who work on rigs is of big economic importance to a state like LA.....LA has ONLY two major industries....fishing and offshore oil and gas.....most businesses are directly or indirectly liked to either or both.....and now LA has neither...(i suppose an argument could be made for a third imp industry i.e. tourism but that too wont work in the current environment)

IMHO the idea that this is a 6 month stoppage is wrong .....like i say the rigs are moving ...6 have been contracted ...another 3 are in the process of being contracted.....they will move to brazil or africa or somewhere....now a DW rig is like a small city block on a boat....it takes a firm commitment and a lot of money to move a DW rig that kind of distances.....i would imagine upwards of 25 million all things considered just to move this monster to somewhere like brazil .....and before a drilling contractor will make a move...they will need firm commitment form operators in brazil for atleast 2-3 years of work to justify their move.....so once a rig is gone we can kiss it goodbye for a good amount of time.....this means repair yards....service companies .....logistics ...workshops....marine mechanics....helicopter outfits involved in transporting crews on and off rigs...all will just have to close shop .....so i don't understand how the govt is thinking its a 6 month moratorium and at the first week after 6 months all thing will suddenly be rosey again just like that....just my humble opinion....i never said my point of view was not biased....i am after all one of the "dirty lying oil men" the MSM warns ya'll about :)

wildbourgman -- (from last post)

then i shot form the hip and will ask that you accept my apology ....i must've been talking about some other poster ....cuz the person I was directing my post towards had said this about BOP testing in DW ops ...

These folks were not even Level D hazmat. They were not donning eye protection. It looked like prisoners picking up trash in the rain.

Does this look ok to you? I was a safety engineer for a phone company for a while, the OSHA man would have made sure I got fired if I ran my crews like that.

I am curious about BP's collection rates for the last period. Either they have dramatically improved their rates over past performance, or the overall blow out rate has decreased considerably. I have never seen this little outflow from their "cap" as being observed for the last couple of hours.

Reply to windward from last closed post:

Mr. windward, you said:
"While I'm at it, lawyers are members of the judiciary branch of government. That is the source of their power. They violate the separation of powers - the fundamental principle of our federal and state constitutions which lawyers swear to uphold - when they hold legislative or executive office."

Correctomundo, Mr. windward. Old Abe Lincoln should not have been President. Always knew it. Just another sneaky lawyer who violated his oath to fraudulently and surreptitiously usurp power. I never thought he was very honest anyway. All PR for the North. Now you've convinced me. Evil man. Take his name off the monument immediately. Or better yet. Remove it, take it out to Deep Water Horizon, turn it upside down, and jam in that leak to stop it.

"I was blind but now I see." — Amazing Grace

"18 casing - 3,902 feet below the mudline before it left the well. I expect that BP thinks they may have underground blowout at that level, which would leak into another formation",
*******
Assuming that there is a blowout at ~4,000 feet (Is this where the 30-50,000 barrels of mud went with "top kill"?) is the remaining, hopefully intact pipe, long enough for the "bottom kill" mud column to stop oil/gas flow? What is the minimal length of intact pipe needed to stop the flow?

Bedtime thought:

"I don't care if a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice." — Deng Xiaoping.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-24/bp-s-demise-over-spill-would-th...

BP Demise Would Threaten U.S. Energy Security, Industry
By Stanley Reed - Jun 24, 2010

BP is starting to identify the $10 billion or more in assets it might sell to fund the costs of the Gulf spill, says Managing Director Robert Dudley.

June 23 (Bloomberg) -- Rachel Ziemba, a senior analyst at Roubini Global Economics LLC, talks about the possibility BP Plc will sell some of its Russian assets as costs related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico mount....

Oil spill aside, U.S. energy security will suffer if BP Plc goes under or is significantly reduced in size.

With public anger off the charts over BP’s role in the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, there’s not much sympathy about the financial burden the London-based company faces from future legal claims and cleanup costs. BP says it’s considering asset sales to help cover the cost of a $20 billion escrow fund President Barack Obama demanded the oil producer set up to handle U.S. claims.

The company’s survival may also be in doubt if the financial hit from the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion approaches $100 billion, as some analysts suggest is possible.

Such a scenario would have implications for U.S. energy policy at home and abroad -- and mostly bad ones, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its June 28 issue.

Methane has the same effect as caffeine.
It keeps me awake at night.

My understanding is that there are two earths.
One that we know and love and the previous anoxic place that the archaea call home.

If the methanes are reduced by archaea using oxygen the oceans will become eutrophic.

In which case large clouds of Hydrogen sulphide may be released, killing all.

There are fossilised forests off the coast of Spain that are thought to have been killed and washed into the sea by such an event in the past. (reference needed)

Is there a source of sulphur in the oil?
I suspect there is, as the oils are thought to be products of an anaerobic ocean.

ZCZC MIATWOAT ALL
TTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM
TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
200 AM EDT FRI JUN 25 2010

FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...

1. A BROAD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE IS CENTERED ABOUT 150 MILES
EAST-NORTHEAST OF CABO GRACIAS A DIOS ON THE HONDURAS-NICARAGUA
BORDER. THIS SYSTEM HAS CHANGED LITTLE IN ORGANIZATION DURING THE
PAST SEVERAL HOURS. HOWEVER...UPPER-LEVEL WINDS ARE GRADUALLY
BECOMING MORE CONDUCIVE FOR DEVELOPMENT AS THE LOW DRIFTS SLOWLY
NORTHWESTWARD...AND THE SYSTEM COULD BECOME A TROPICAL DEPRESSION
BEFORE IT REACHES THE YUCATAN PENINSULA IN A COUPLE OF DAYS. THERE
IS A HIGH CHANCE...60 PERCENT...OF THIS SYSTEM BECOMING A TROPICAL
CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

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

E L: I grew up reading Walt Kelly. God, how I miss him. He'd have explained this whole spill thing mess by now. Where did you find the illustration? Google images is a garble to search. [I always knew you were OK, lotus.]

Backatcha, good E L. My daddy taught me to read on Pogo -- thus, my worldview.

Yes, we need Walt desperately, don't we? Oh, to see his Tony and Svanberg (not to mention dougr)!

I pecked around in Google Images, looking for Pogo, Albert, Churchy, and Howland (at least) in a johnboat. Figured the one I found would do nicely, though I'd have liked to have Pogo and Grundoon

in the chorale too . . . oh well.

In other news, Bob Dudley has called in James Lee Witt (Bill Clinton's competent FEMA director) to sharpen up BP's response. We could wish that Thud had grabbed him first, but I'll take it as a good sign from Dudley. (Now watch him go for Artur Davis, hm?)

Anyhoo, E L, hit mought be that ol' Walt did foresee 2010 . . .

This tidbit of information concerning the Deep Water Royalty Relief ACT was put forward in the letters to the editor of the Pens News Journal. The letter states the royalty is normally 16%

http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/offshore/royrelef.html

I posted a reference several days ago on the litigation of BP under the RICO Act. This approach is being headed by the Law Firm of David Levin in Pensacola, Fla. David Levin was the architect of the lawsuit against big tobacco that cost them dearly and of course made him a few ducats.

dfs

Tin Foil Hat Guy, this is worth reading.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/37918179/

British Firm Aims to Rescue Gulf of Mexico

BP, OIL SPILL, OIL SLICK, ULTRA GREEN, CLEAN UP, GULF OF MEXICO, BEACHES, FLORIDA, LOUISIANA
Posted By: Patrick Allen | CNBC Senior News Editor
CNBC.com
| 25 Jun 2010 | 06:32 AM ET

With US/UK relations under strain because of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a group of Brits intends to try and give a helping hand.

Ultra Green, a British-based environmental research and development company, is launching an initiative which it hopes will clean up the oil slick and fund itself by selling the oil it captures.

The company believes it can combine innovative technology with grass roots action to clean up the gulf and provide work for fisherman in the region.

“The plan will provide work for local fishermen and harnessing the enthusiasm and knowledge of the frustrated local community, whose offers of help to BP have so far been largely ignored,” Ultra Green executive chairman told CNBC.

Ultra Green has pooled its resources with its USA science partner Algaeventure Systems (http://www.algaevs.com/), which has an established relationship with the US military and the US Department of Energy, to provide a rapid and scalable method of clearing up and the oil spill and deploying barriers to protect beaches.

Rapid response:
I am a retired Oilwell drilling and production engineer.
Regarding an oil spill of the magnitude of the current Deep Well Blowout in the Gulf I would like someone to discuss response readiness and current regulations. I am specifically interested in the legal responsibility of the Oil Company/Operator of the drilling of an exploratory well under license from the authority whether such authority be State or federal or both. The subject is specifically their response readiness . What is there declared and approved preparedness and readiness to drill a relief well should they lose control at the well head as in this case.
While the well is blowing they have been drilling two potential relief wells and according to the Globe and Mail, Toronto of Saturday they are 60 metres from their target with one of them and well ahead of schedule thankfully.
In Canada, where I live, there is currently an exploratory well in 7000 ft of water being drilled by the operator Chevron off Newfoundland.They have declared their readiness is that they have two floating semi submersible drilling rigs rigs on call from the Gulf Coast . Once called one or both would be two weeks sailing time away from the location, WEATHER PERMITTING!
For the Gulf well the authorities insisted they drill two relief wells, not one. Why? Is this like trying to close the barn door much too long after the horse has escaped.
Why don’t we demand a pilot relief well be drilled to a designed depth and would be cased and cemented prior to starting the licensed exploratory well .This relief well could be set up with a Blow Out Preventer and simply ready for riser hook up and bit reentry for deepening should it be needed.
BONUS!
If not needed as a relief well then this second well could be completed like the first. Thus is would be an economic bonus producing from the same oil/gas bearing formation formation as the discovery well.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-bankrupt-bp-worse-financial-...

Submitted by Jim Sinclair from www.jsmineset.com

A Bankrupt BP - Worse For The Financial World Than Lehman Brothers?

excerpts:

The BP crisis in the Gulf of Mexico has rightfully been analysed (mostly) from the ecological perspective. People’s lives and livelihoods are in grave danger. But that focus has equally masked something very serious from a financial perspective, in my opinion, that could lead to an acceleration of the crisis brought about by the Lehman implosion.

People are seriously underestimating how much liquidity in the global financial world is dependent on a solvent BP. BP extends credit – through trading and finance. They extend the amounts, quality and duration of credit a bank could only dream of. The Gold community should think about the financial muscle behind a company with 100+ years of proven oil and gas reserves. Think about that in comparison with what a bank, with few tangible assets, (truly, not allegedly) possesses (no wonder they all started trading for a living!). Then think about what happens if BP goes under. This is no bank. With proven reserves and wells in the ground, equity in fields all over the planet, in terms of credit quality and credit provision – nothing can match an oil major. God only knows how many assets around the planet are dependent on credit and finance extended from BP. It is likely to dwarf any banking entity in multiples.

The price tag and resultant knock-on effects of a BP failure could easily be equal to that of a Lehman, if not more. It is surely, at the very least, Enron x10.

My comment: Under the Obama/Geithner/Bernanke regime, BP's survival must be protected. At all costs. Including keeping reporters off the beach, not allowing workers to wear masks, dripping out partial payments to victims, etc. As far as saving BP goes, it doesn't matter that governments' true balance sheets are toast. We have Keynes. Get ready for another taxpayer funded bailout, but I'd be surprised if BP's name is attached to it.

From Greg Sargent's morning political update:

* Missed this yesterday, but that NBC/WSJ poll found that a plurality is unhappy with the idea of continuing offshore drilling. Not increased drilling; merely continuing with it. Drilling = political loser.

* More: A new Pew poll finds a majority now opposes increased drilling. Drilling = political loser.

It appears one of the liquid lines has been removed from the BOP. Boa 2 is watching it. Any idea which line it is and what they're doing with it?

Is debt to GDP a factor in future economic stability. Should we be worried about Japan instead of the UK? Why is their terrible debt-GDP get very little press? Maybe because then we must acknowledge our own problems? Why does Russia have no debt? Is it because no one would loan them money at a decent rate?