Why the Transocean Deep Horizon BP Oil Rig had to drill for oil at 5000 feet

Comment: Worthwhile

BP's gusher of oil and Obama's sea of red ink

Where Is BP Headed: $70 or $0?

Excerpts:

.... 536 engineers working on this problem are likely to achieve better results in solving the problem than 536 politicians only interested in being photographed picking up tar balls ...

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You think BP’s spill is big? BP is a drop in the bucket compared to the gusher of borrowed money the US has squandered while looking for love (or campaign contributions which, to a politician, amounts to the same thing.) The trillions our nation has borrowed simply cannot be repaid merely from increased productivity any more. So our government will depreciate our currency via inflation.

...

Comment: Interesting read. I'm not likely to buy BP stock, but this analyst sees a future for it!

Into the Atlantic?

Even More Bad News About the Oil Spill: Slick to Travel Up the Atlantic Coast

Excerpt:

Using computer models of ocean currents, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, part of the Commerce Department, conclude that once the oil in the uppermost ocean has been picked up by the Gulf of Mexico's energetic Loop Current, it is likely to reach Florida's Atlantic coast within weeks. It can then spread north with the Gulf Stream as far as Cape Hatteras, N.C., and then turn east into the open ocean.

Comment: "an envelope of possible scenarios," NCAR explains

Future unknown for Gulf ecosystem

Gauging Harm to Ecosystem Could Take Years

Excerpt:

Globs of thick, gooey petroleum have washed ashore along the south Louisiana coast over the past week, landing on beaches and washing into marsh reeds. Oiled birds have been collected and dolphins and sea turtles have been found dead, though officials cautioned they were still conducting tests to determine whether the deaths resulted from the spill.

But the environmental impact that most worries experts along the coast is the kind they can't see. Some birds and sea mammals affected by the spill are likely to die far offshore and never be detected, scientists say. Oil from the mile-deep well may be collecting in underwater clouds, potentially endangering a cornucopia of life from the sea floor to the surface, preliminary sampling by university researchers suggests.

And more than 800,000 gallons of chemical "dispersants" sprayed onto the oil in a frantic attempt to keep the bulk of it offshore pose little-understood risks to organisms in the Gulf's depths, scientists and government officials say.

The dispersant that has been used in the largest amounts on this spill, Corexit 9500, is among the most toxic to certain organisms of all those approved by the Environmental Protection Agency for use in oil spills, according to EPA tests.

The big question is which poses a greater environmental risk: oil washing ashore, or a mixture of oil and dispersant at sea. "This is a Hobson's choice," said Steve Murawski, chief science adviser for NOAA's fisheries unit and one of the officials working to assess the spill's environmental damage. "We're in uncharted territory."

A research ship from the University of South Florida this week found what researchers believe is a plume of oil concentrated about 1,300 feet below the surface, said David Naar, an oceanographer at the university. Researchers are awaiting lab tests to confirm that what they saw in the water is oil, he said, but "indirect evidence suggests that that's the case." The suspected oil particles are invisible to the naked eye, which is worrisome, Mr. Naar said. "In other words, they have become dissolved in the water."

Comment: I won't be eating seafood for a long long time!

Obama needs Truman's desk sign

BP Resumes Effort to Seal Oil Well After Daylong Halt

Excerpt:

Mr. Obama said at a news conference in Washington that he was angry and frustrated about the catastrophe, and he shouldered much of the responsibility for the continuing crisis.

“Those who think we were either slow on the response or lacked urgency, don’t know the facts,” Mr. Obama said. “This has been our highest priority.”

But he also blamed BP, which owns the stricken well, and the Bush administration, which he said had fostered a “cozy and sometimes corrupt” relationship between oil companies and regulators at the Minerals Management Service.

Comment: "The Buck Stops Here" Desk Sign

Excerpt: Obama's hobby .... passing the buck!

Unparalleled ecological disaster

Scientists Find Giant Plumes of Oil Forming Under the Gulf

Excerpt:

Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick.

Comment: Hard to imagine.

A giant underwater funnel

Giant Dome for Gulf Oil Leak

Excerpt:

Crews for contractor Wild Well Control were putting the finishing touches Tuesday on the 100-ton containment dome. A barge at about midday would haul the contraption to the spot 50 miles offshore where a mile-deep gusher from a blown-out undersea well has been spewing at least 210,000 gallons of crude a day into the Gulf for two weeks. BP spokesman John Curry said it would be deployed on the seabed by Thursday.

It's the latest idea that engineers from oil giant BP PLC were trying since an oil rig the company was operating exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers. It sank two days later, when the oil started pouring into the Gulf. BP is in charge of the cleanup and President Barack Obama and many others say the company also is responsible for the costs.

BP capped one of three leaks at the well Tuesday night, a step that will not cut the flow of oil but that BP has said will make it easier to plug the gusher.

''It doesn't lessen the flow, it just simplifies the number of leak points they have to address,'' Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class David Mosley said.

Comment: Photo here (right side of the page). If I understand this correctly (layman's terms): they will place this dome over the top of one of the leaks and then have a giant pipe convey the oil to a surface collection point.

Gulf oil spill: The mile deep challenge

Safety Device Questioned in '04

Excerpt:

The shear rams are an integral part of the giant blowout preventer, which sits on the sea floor, 5,000 feet below the surface. R. Scott Amann, a spokesman for the sheer ram manufacturer, Cameron International Corp., said he did not know exactly what happened.

"We remind you that our devices have never been involved in an accident like this," he said.

The cause of the oil well blow-out remains unclear. Petroleum engineers say it was probably related to the cementing process, which is supposed to secure the well and prevent oil and natural gas from escaping by filling in the space around the pipe and plugging the well.

But once workers lost control of the well, which was spewing a flammable mixture of crude oil and natural gas, the blowout preventer became the only option for stopping the flow.

Investigators are expected to focus on whether the blowout preventer received a signal from workers on the rig. The Deepwater Horizon wasn't equipped with a backup remote trigger that is a common drill-rig requirement in other oil-producing nations, but not the U.S.

If the blowout preventer did receive the signal, experts say, a critical question is why the rams didn't seal off the well.

Some newer rigs have blowout preventers with two separate pairs of shear rams—providing an added safeguard in case one shear malfunctions or hits an obstruction in the pipe. The Deepwater Horizon had a single pair of shear rams.

Comment: The WSJ article has a helpful graphic. Click through to view! A detailed drawing of a blowout preventer is here.