GOM Oil Spill - BP Stops Oil Leak

[SaskatchewanScreamer]

I may be wrong and will research this further tomorrow but my understanding of Canada's laws re relief wells was that any well that was drilled in our offshore waters *HAD* to have a relief well drilled in that same season. After reading people's posts above I did a quick search and found a couple of articles that backed what I had read before ie: http://killfile.newsvine.com/_news/2010 ... on-dropped

In fact prior to what happened in the Gulf of Mexico our news (Canadian) was filled with stories about how the oil companies were fighting this *and our present Government* was close to giving in to them. Won't say any more.

[CajunMama]

I believe BP's assets should be seized and the company completely shut down by multiple entities. Normally I wouldn't believe in that but something this extreme might just call for it. Along with this, throw the morons who skipped out on safety and other safeguards in prison. After all, 11 people died by that rig explosion due to BP's crock of crap. Doing all of this should scare the heck out of other oil companies thinking of cutting corners and skipping on safety checks and the like. Use the money that BP has to fund all of the costs of this disaster (all ripple effects included) and for all the people out of work after BP is shut down (the innocent), give them a large sum each to help them along.

BP is a global company with approximately 100,000 employees operating in over 100 countries. Not only that but what happens to the service companies they hire? The manufacturers who produce their platforms? Build their gas stations? You shut them down do you realize what is going to happen to the worlds economy? Where are they going to work? eat? live?

I have family (brother and nephew) that work offshore. They're mud engineers whose company is hired by BP. They know the risks of working on an offshore rig but that's their job and they do it. My husbands best friend from high school has worked for BP since 1980.

[SaskatchewanScreamer]

From the Council of Canadians website.
NEWS: Concerns grow about the safety of Arctic drilling

Saturday, May 15th, 2010
The Canwest News Service reports that BP Canada president Anne Drinkwater could offer no assurance to the House of Commons Natural Resources committee this past Thursday that her company would be able to clean up an oil spill off Canada’s Arctic Coast.

Drinkwater could only say, “I’m not an expert in oil spill techniques in an Arctic environment so I would have to defer to other experts on that.”

This is unacceptable given BP obviously has its eyes on some of the 90 billion barrels of oil estimated to be in the Arctic region.

In 2008, BP acquired three licenses for exploration rights in a 6,000 square kilometre area about 180 kilometres off the coast of the Northwest Territories in the Beaufort Sea. Drilling could begin as soon as 2014.

CANADIAN VS U.S. DRILLING REGULATIONS
Drinkwater also told committee members that it would be “inappropriate” for her to comment on differences between Canadian and U.S. regulations governing offshore drilling because she hadn’t “carried out a detailed evaluation of the… two regulatory regimes.”

But here are at least a few points of concern and comparison to consider.

CANADA
Required equipment
The Canwest News Service reported earlier this week that, “(Prior to changes made in December 2009), companies were required to install specific kinds of equipment, such as safety valves and blowout preventers. The old regulations outlined everything from how companies should cement the casing on an oil well, to how they should conduct pressure tests.”

“(But under) new regulations, well operators must (only) set environmental-protection goals, list the equipment they will use to achieve those goals and disclose their plans for inspecting, testing and maintaining such gear. They are not required to install any specific equipment.”

Relief well rule
Reuters reports that, “BP and other oil companies have urged Canadian regulators to drop a requirement stipulating that companies in the Arctic have to drill relief wells in the same season as the primary well.”

The Globe and Mail reports that, “Oil companies say they will not be able to drill in Arctic deep waters unless the National Energy Board drops (this) provision…”

“BP’s disaster in the Gulf has already forced the federal regulator to reverse itself on a planned review of its relief well rules, and the prospect of a blowout spewing crude under the sea ice for two or three years will make it difficult for the NEB to give the companies the latitude they are asking.”

NEB review
The Canwest article about the hearing notes, “This week, the NEB launched a public review of its safety and environmental standards.”

That said, Gaetan Caron, the head of the National Energy Board, told committee members that, “No safety regulator can possibly say than an accident will never happen.”

And the earlier Canwest News Service article had reported that, “Canadian regulators relaxed offshore drilling regulations (in December 2009), giving the energy industry more flexibility when putting in place safeguards against oil spills.”

So the same regulatory body that relaxed regulations just five months ago is now launching a public review while acknowledging an oil spill accident could happen in the Arctic.

Self-regulation
New Democrat Natural Resources critic Nathan Cullen says, “This (testimony) is coming from an industry that is claiming we can trust it to self regulate. If they refuse to give straight answers to Parliamentarians, I don’t know how the NEB believes these companies can oversee their own safety. Today’s hearings made me more concerned about the risks and impacts of a major oil spill in Canada.”

THE UNITED STATES
Required equipment
The Canwest News Service reports that, unlike the new Canadian regulations, U.S. “drilling regulations enforced by the MMS lay out detailed requirements for what equipment operators must use.”

Violations, few fines
An article in the Houston Chronicle reports, “In a review of Mineral Management Service accident and inspection records, the Chronicle found that the service’s investigators red-flagged potential violations of government safety standards in five out of 20 accident investigations it completed at BP offshore operations since 2005, including rigs and platforms. But only one incident resulted so far in a fine, the records show.”

Required drawings
Federal law in the United States also requires that companies keep complete, up-to-date “as-built” drawings (which show how generic parts are modified when assembled) of their rigs and platforms.

But as noted on their website, “Last year, Food and Water Watch learned from a whistleblower that, as a contractor for BP, he discovered the Atlantis platform (124 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico) was operating without the proper safety documentation.” More than 95 per cent of the welds on subsea components and 85 per cent of the piping and instrument diagrams had no final engineer approval.

Safety responsibility shifted to companies The Canwest News Service also notes, “In a recent investigation, the Wall Street Journal found that the U.S. (Department of the Interior’s) Minerals Management Service (MMS), which regulates offshore drilling south of the border, has been gradually shifting safety responsibility to the oil industry.”

‘Cozy relationship’
And yesterday, U.S. President Barack Obama said, “For too long… there has been a cozy relationship between the industry and the (regulators) that permit them to drill. That cannot and will not happen any more.”

OUR DEMAND
On March 25, the Council of Canadians, the Indigenous Environmental Network and the REDOIL Network issued an open letter to the foreign ministers of Canada, the United States, Denmark, Norway and Russia just prior to their Arctic Summit in Chelsea, Quebec.

That letter urged them to pursue a moratorium on all new exploration for fossil fuel resources in the Arctic region.

OUR MESSAGE
MPs must understand that environmental destruction is likely to occur with oil and gas drilling in the Arctic.

To date we have seen corporate pressure to weaken safety regulations.

MPs should support a moratorium and the government should be promoting the transition away from fossil fuels to publicly-owned renewable energy.

Given the imperative to reduce the world’s carbon emissions, we should not allow BP and other corporations to extract carbon-emitting oil and gas from the Arctic.

Our message is clear - leave it in the ground.

Campaign Blog (RSS).

[somethingfunny]

Can't go forward with any deepsea drilling until assurances can be made that a future accident can be handled. That does NOT mean stop shallow drilling.

There's two disasters here...the explosion, which could have been and should have been prevented with more careful oversight, was not indicative of a systemic danger in oil drilling. Then there's the failure to control the leak, which is a result of overly optimistic and untested disaster plans, and does indicate a systemic danger in other drilling operations because it's not human error but rather a lack of technology that has caused it.

The whole industry is going to change drastically because of this.

CajunMama, I understand where you're coming from, and I don't think BP should be completely destroyed....but we can't limit a corporation's liability just because many people depend on it. We don't give lenient sentences to criminals just because they have children who depend on them...and we can't let BP be immune from the full consequences provided by the law just because they are an integral part of the global economy. Or so I would hope...I know BP will only end up paying a fraction of its' annual operating cost in the end though.

I see all of these people demanding corporate liability, but how many convictions have we gotten so far from the collapse of Wall Street's House of Cards? Not just none...most of those people are still richer than sin. Didn't just get away with it but profited too.

[Aquawind]

Even if releif wells are not technically required they are addressed in Canada and it seems the releif wells are the ultimate backup proceedure for deepwater. I guess the GOM is not considered enviromentaly sensative..another crock of crap..go to the GOM and tell me the enviroment isn't ruined, sensative or not.

Actually BP's response more than meets both the letter and the spirit of the Canadian regulations. BP was drilling the first relief well within days. The other efforts were going on in parallel with the relief wells.

The letter and the spirit huh.. Sounds like a lawyer or lobbiest view. From the more credible articles presented by our Canadian friend it looks like they are fighting tooth n nail not to drill the releif wells. They are sending alot of spirited letters in opposition alright.

[Aquawind]

They are starting to speakout against the hand that feeds them.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/06/03/gu ... tml?hpt=C1

For several weeks, she hesitated to talk publicly about it. Like many fishermen who can no longer fish in the Gulf, her husband has signed a contract to work with BP to clean up the oil, and she doesn't want to bite the hand that puts food on her family's table.

It's only just begun..heck the oil is not going to stop flowing for awhile.

[coriolis]

I appreciate this thread. I've been searching the news outlets and have been disappointed in the information that is available.

[Skyhawk]

The letter and the spirit huh.. Sounds like a lawyer or lobbiest view. From the more credible articles presented by our Canadian friend it looks like they are fighting tooth n nail not to drill the releif wells. They are sending alot of spirited letters in opposition alright.

I'm neither a lawyer or lobbiest, rather a scientist and engineer with a PhD in theorectical physics and effectively a second PhD in chemical engineering. I've earned my living for the past 29 years as a fluid flow modeller. I've also been an adjunct instructor in the chemical engineering departments at two large state universities where I received very high ratings for my courses. I've also taught by request an inhouse course on modelling and numerical methods at a national lab.

The Canadian law does not require the drilling of a relief well while the main well is being drilled. What it requires is the capability to drill a relief well during the same season if a blowout occurs . Note here that because of the harsh weather condition drilling can only occur during a 3 or 4 month season.

As one who seeks to reason logically and act fairly based on the facts, I am appalled by much of what I read in this thread.

[Aquawind]

As one who seeks to reason logically and act fairly based on the facts, I am appalled by much of what I read in this thread.

We do appreciate your input! It's pretty clear the general public knows little about the science of this issue. As a scientist and engineer this must be frustrating. Were are not blaming the science but, question why the oil industry seems rather unprepared for the obvious possibilty. Amongst other oil industry bashing.. Everyone is pissed and fingers are pointed logical or not..that's human nature.

[Skyhawk]

Here's a link to an NPR article. Is that a credible source?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =127381814

June 3, 2010
Energy giant BP told Canadian regulators that relief wells are an "after-the-fact tactic" in controlling oil well blowouts in March, less than a month before the catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico — which the company hopes to stop by drilling two relief wells.

A relief well is the oil industry's gold standard for killing a blowout. In the Gulf, BP's drillers are guiding the two wells to intersect the 7-inch well pipe of the uncontrolled well; the pipe could then be plugged with cement.

"This is the long-term definite solution to closing off this well," BP spokesman Jason French told reporters last month. "We're applying all the necessary resources, from a personnel standpoint, from the equipment standpoint."

But the first rig wasn't able to set its drill bit into the mud until 13 days after the April 20 blowout on the Deepwater Horizon; the second rig, 28 days after the accident. French said it would take an additional 90 to 120 days to reach the damaged well pipe.

That means months of gushing oil that BP never contemplated in the exploration plan that it submitted to the federal Minerals Management Service. The plan merely affirmed that BP could pay for a relief well. MMS approved the plan in April 2009.

The Canadian Policy

Yet earlier this year, BP told the Canada's National Energy Board, which regulates offshore oil drilling in the country, that it should repeal a 34-year-old policy on relief wells. The company said relief wells can be superseded by the technology and sophistication of modern drilling rigs.

The policy applies to the Beaufort Sea, stretching across the top of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon next to Alaska. The drilling season there is cut short by ice. The policy isn't even all that strict.

"An operator needs to demonstrate that there is a viable system that can be deployed to drill a well, a relief well, in the same season as the original well, should the original well go out of control," said Bharat Dixit, leader of the NEB conservation-of-resources team.

In fact, the policy is called "same-season relief well capability," making clear that a company doesn't actually have to drill the relief well unless there's a blowout; it just has to be prepared.

As recently as March, the oil industry said even that isn't necessary.

"What operators are proposing is that their methodologies, their additional training, their new tools provide for a similar degree of comfort," Dixit said.

In its submission to the energy board, dated March 22, BP said that if one of the Beaufort wells went out of control, there probably wouldn't be enough time to drill a relief well before the ice came in. It called relief wells an "after-the-fact tactic."

Questions After Gulf Disaster

Instead, BP emphasized preventive technology and practices, many of which have now been called into question because of the catastrophe in the Gulf.

Most notably, the company said it has a "rigid policy requirement," calling for two barriers to hold down the surging oil and gas in a well: heavy drilling mud in the pipe, and a blowout preventer at the wellhead.

The drilling mud was intentionally removed on the Deepwater Horizon rig before a cement plug was installed. The blowout preventer then failed.

Dixit says the incident will change the National Energy Board's approach to the same-season relief well question.


A spokeswoman for BP Canada didn't respond to an interview request.

Meanwhile, in the Gulf, anxiety continues to rise as BP's relief wells are months away and other fixes have failed.

Marine conservation consultant Rick Steiner, a board member of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility — which is critical of the way Washington oversees oil drilling on federal property offshore — argues that relief wells should be drilled simultaneously with production wells.

If that had happened, he says, the situation would be different now.

"They would've been weeks away from a kill of the well blowout, rather than months," Steiner says.

Instead, the relief wells should be finished in August, if all goes as planned.

[Skyhawk]

Oh! I might add that I am a native Houstonian, and I love the Gulf of Mexico.

My wife and I just returned from a 7 day, 8 night vacation in Gulf Shores, Al. We loved it and thankfully saw no oil just dolphins. Last year we vacationed just down the beach in Orange Beach.

[Aquawind]

As recently as March, the oil industry said even that isn't necessary.

I understand it's just a be prepared to drill and they don't even want to do that. I don't think that's asking to much in any enviroment they are drilling in if relief wells are so successful. Unfortunately we evidently haven't developed some chemical product to help seal these deepwater leaks. I am not sure the public has fully understood the importance of this issue and the difficulty in such enviroments until now.

[Nate-Gillson]

Just wondering, is the oil thats coming for florida the heavy oil thats impacting the marshlands of Louisiana or just sheen? I just hope none of the species that are affected by this go extinct.

[angelwing]

Didn't see this link posted:

http://www.deepwaterbp.com/m_3.asp

12 views of the spill....warning, bandwidth hog!

[WeatherLovingDoc]

Skyhawk, I'm sorry you're disappointed with the quality of this thread. My posts are certainly amateurish, as I am no geologist or oil expert and never pretended to be. As this is a weather site, it just seemed important to keep us up to date on the BP GOM spill in general given the season and impact.

Several links were provided a couple of times by different people on hard hitting serious blogs on the BP GOM spill: The Oil Drum, Upstream, BP, and more (see page 17 and prior on this thread).The Oil Drum is full of people such as yourself seeking in depth detail discussion of the daily BP action by oil men, rig workers, engineers, geologists, etc. Heck here not many of us are versed well enough in this to begin to discuss at their level. But we can and do read...

As weather watchers, we try to follow along which is what the gist of the BP updates offers on the various sites. Now with hurricane season here, it will get real interesting to see where Storm 2K commentary goes on the spill and the GOM and Atlantic storms.

I would ask you a question about the Canadian relief wells issue that I though of after reading your posts. How many Canadian oil wells have been drilled a mile under see level, or 5000 feet? Do they have lots of experience with a mile under, or are the bulk of their wells more shallow to this particular BP GOM well. I would wager a guess that Canada too is reviewing their standards for contemporaneous relief wells, given the enormity of impact the BP GOM blow out is having.

My take is we do try to research our posts before posting to a reasonable extent, but are not experts on this oil spill. We're weather friends, trying to share what we're concerned about with this spill, and share impressions on what may play out. We quote the experts, not pretending to be so ourselves, save the Storm 2K Weather Experts.

I hope everyone has a good night and that BP is successful tomorrow or soon after. What a relief that would be to us all.

WLD

[Dionne]

It has reached the point that I don't even look at the dying wildlife. I saw it in Alaska and now in the Gulf of Mexico.

I've worked in the places where small spills are covered in washed gravel and never reported. It's really simple. If you work with oil......any kind of oil.....you will spill some. From sewing machine oil to crude. Does it matter anymore?

Last I heard 74% of the GOM was still open........Damn we're doing a good job. HA!

[IvanSurvivor]

Don't know who took this photo, but it was posted on weartv.com in the photo gallery.

[IvanSurvivor]

Pic from weartv.com in the photo gallery.

[WeatherLovingDoc]

It's Show Time Folks:

http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=2

[WeatherLovingDoc]

"To anyone who can't see: the ROV grabbed the cap and wrestled it on top of the riser. It's holding it there right now. Oil is billowing everywhere - there is definitely no seal right now between the riser and LMRP." (Current commentary, The Oil Drum).

http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=2