GOM Oil Spill - BP Stops Oil Leak

[Hurricane Andrew]

WARNING
On optimum online, i heard the worst. A robot knocked the cap, and it had to be taken off.

The GOM is doomed.

[angelwing]

I tried to find this, the only story I saw was one from June 24 when the robot knocked it off then. I can't find anything else

[gtalum]

WARNING
On optimum online, i heard the worst. A robot knocked the cap, and it had to be taken off.

The GOM is doomed.

That's an old story from last month, when an ROV bumped the first LMRP cap.

[Stephanie]

WARNING
On optimum online, i heard the worst. A robot knocked the cap, and it had to be taken off.

The GOM is doomed.

Do you have a link?

[WeatherLovingDoc]

Whoa! Methane leaking from/around BP well site?

NEW ORLEANS (Associated Press))- A federal official said Sunday that scientists are concerned about a seep and possible methane seen near BP's busted oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Both could be signs there are leaks in the well that's been capped off for three days.

The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Sunday because an announcement about the next steps had not yet been made.

The official is familiar with the spill oversight but would not clarify what is seeping near the well. The official said BP is not complying with the government's demand for more monitoring. BP spokesman Mark Salt declined to comment on the allegation, but said "we continue to work very closely with all government scientists on this."

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen will make the final decisions on the next step. The official said Allen would issue a letter to BP shortly allowing testing to proceed in 24-hour increments, but also requiring more analysis of the seep and the possible observation of methane over the well.

If Allen doesn't get the response he wants, the testing could stop, the official said.

The custom-built cap that finally cut off the oil flowing from BP's broken well three days ago was holding steady Sunday.

A BP official said the company hoped to leave the cap in place until crews can permanently kill the leak.

That differs from the plan the federal government laid out a day earlier, in which millions more gallons of oil could be released before the cap is connected to tankers at the surface and oil is sent to be collected through a mile of pipes.

Federal officials wary of making the well unstable have said that plan would relieve pressure on the cap and may be the safer option, but it would mean three days of oil flowing into the Gulf before the collection begins.

[KWT]

Yeah sounds like there could be a leak somewhere else close by...

[gtalum]

A new message issued this morning from Adm. Allen already discounts the theory that the seep is connected to Macondo. He jumped the gun in talking about it.

The GoM is full of oil seeps. The presence of one doesn't indicate a connection to the well bore.

[Category 5]

A new message issued this morning from Adm. Allen already discounts the theory that the seep is connected to Macondo. He jumped the gun in talking about it.

The GoM is full of oil seeps. The presence of one doesn't indicate a connection to the well bore.

This is a great point that I don't see alot of people making, theres oil all over the GOM, sometimes it comes up naturally on its own.

[gtalum]

This is a great point that I don't see alot of people making, theres oil all over the GOM, sometimes it comes up naturally on its own.

I read a fascinating article about the many oil seeps in the GoM. Apparently the leading theory is that it's due to the massive asteroid strike that created the Gulf, and the fracturing of the crust that occurred with that strike. Many thousands of barrels of oil seep up naturally every year in the GoM.

[Category 5]

This is a great point that I don't see alot of people making, theres oil all over the GOM, sometimes it comes up naturally on its own.

I read a fascinating article about the many oil seeps in the GoM. Apparently the leading theory is that it's due to the massive asteroid strike that created the Gulf, and the fracturing of the crust that occurred with that strike. Many thousands of barrels of oil seep up naturally every year in the GoM.

I read this somewhere as well, the astroid is what created the BOC directly, IIRC they HAVE found space rocks.

[WeatherLovingDoc]

Oil Cap Leaking: Seepage Detected Two Miles From Wellhead 7/19/10

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The federal government Monday allowed BP to keep the cap shut tight on its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well for another day despite news the well is leaking at the top and something is seeping from the sea floor nearby.

The Obama administration's point man for the spill, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said early Monday that the company promised to watch closely for signs of new leaks around the mile-deep well, which has stopped gushing oil into the water since the experimental cap was closed Thursday.

Late Sunday, Allen said something was detected seeping near the broken oil well and demanded in a sharply worded letter that BP step up monitoring of the ocean floor. Allen didn't say what was seeping. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday afternoon the seepage was about two miles from the well head. He also said the well head is leaking.

The concern all along - since pressure readings on the cap weren't as high as expected - was a leak elsewhere in the well bore, meaning the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix. An underground leak could let oil and gas escape uncontrolled through bedrock and mud.

"When seeps are detected, you are directed to marshal resources, quickly investigate, and report findings to the government in no more than four hours. I direct you to provide me a written procedure for opening the choke valve as quickly as possible without damaging the well should hydrocarbon seepage near the well head be confirmed," Allen said in a letter to BP Managing Director Bob Dudley.

When asked about the seepage and the monitoring, BP spokesman Mark Salt would only say that "we continue to work very closely with all government scientists on this."

[gtalum]

As I noted, Allen has already backed off his implication that the "seep" was connected to Macondo.

[Ivanhater]

Visit Pensacola BP commercial. Bp paid for it and aired on NBC nightly news.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcrvJAK-0As

[Ptarmigan]

This is a great point that I don't see alot of people making, theres oil all over the GOM, sometimes it comes up naturally on its own.

I read a fascinating article about the many oil seeps in the GoM. Apparently the leading theory is that it's due to the massive asteroid strike that created the Gulf, and the fracturing of the crust that occurred with that strike. Many thousands of barrels of oil seep up naturally every year in the GoM.

That's also what contributed to the downfall of dinosaurs.

[CajunMama]

There is a rally today in Lafayette opposing the moratorium. If you are interested in viewing it, it begins at 11 with 15-20,000 people expected to attend. I'm not posting it to be political so let's please keep politics out of this.

Rally For Economic Survival Live Feed

[HurricaneBill]

This photo from 2006 shows natural oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico.

[tronbunny]

There have ALWAYS been tar balls washing up on Gulf shores.
While I did not witness them in pre-drilling days, references go way back.
I am NOT equating this disaster to what nature has on her own. I do believe that the environment in the Gulf will return to a 'more natural' state sooner than the doomsayers hype.

Perhaps the storms will actually help that process.

(call me an optimist, if you will)

[SaskatchewanScreamer]

Deepwater Horizon alarms were switched off 'to help workers sleep'Alarms and safety mechanisms on gulf disaster oil rig were disabled, chief technician at Transocean reveals
(522)Tweet this (480)Ed Pilkington in New York guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 July 2010 19.54 BST Article history
Transocean is under scrutiny after it emerged that Deepwater Horizon’s safety systems were off when it exploded. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

Vital warning systems on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig were switched off at the time of the explosion in order to spare workers being woken by false alarms, a federal investigation has heard.

The revelation that alarm systems on the rig at the centre of the disaster were disabled – and that key safety mechanisms had also consciously been switched off – came in testimony by a chief technician working for Transocean, the drilling company that owned the rig.

Mike Williams, who was in charge of maintaining the rig's electronic systems, was giving evidence to the federal panel in New Orleans that is investigating the cause of the disaster on 20 April, which killed 11 people.

Williams told the hearing today that no alarms went off on the day of the explosion because they had been "inhibited". Sensors monitoring conditions on the rig and in the Macondo oil well beneath it were still working, but the computer had been instructed not to trigger any alarms in case of adverse readings.

Both visual and sound alarms should have gone off in the case of sensors detecting fire or dangerous levels of combustible or toxic gases.

The evidence of deliberate dilution of the rig's safety mechanisms is likely to have wide ramifications for BP and Transocean, the world's largest offshore drilling company. It switches the spotlight of blame away from BP and towards the subcontractor which took the decisions. Of the 126 crew on board the rig on 20 April, seven worked for BP and 79 for Transocean.

Williams said he discovered that the physical alarm system had been disabled a full year before the disaster. When he asked why, he said he was told that the view from even the most senior Transocean official on the rig had been that "they did not want people woken up at three o'clock in the morning due to false alarms".

Williams' testimony will raise questions about whether lives could have been saved had the alarms been properly set and the disaster mitigated.

He also revealed that a crucial safety device, designed to shut down the drill shack in the case of dangerous gas levels being detected, had been disabled, or bypassed as it is called.

When he saw that the system had been bypassed, Williams protested to a Transocean supervisor, Mark Hay, who dismissed his concerns. Hay responded: "Damn thing been in bypass for five years. Matter of fact, the entire [Transocean] fleet runs them in bypass."

In a third significant disclosure, Williams also revealed that a computer system used to monitor the drill shack was constantly freezing up, and on one occasion even produced wrong information. The system failed to indicate that a vital valve inside the blowout preventer, the device designed to shut down the well in case of problems, had been damaged.

Pressure is now likely to mount on Transocean to explain the discrepancies.

The New York Times reported earlier this week that a survey of workers carried out by Transocean shortly before the blast suggested key safety practices had not been followed.

Workers said that, while they were aware of unsafe practices on the rig, they were afraid to report mistakes for fear of reprisals.

A BP spokesman said last night: "The investigations continue to demonstrate that a range of things went wrong and that responsibility lies with a whole load of different companies."

[Stephanie]

Workers said that, while they were aware of unsafe practices on the rig, they were afraid to report mistakes for fear of reprisals.

Unfrotunately, the ultimate reprisal was 11 dead.

[Category 5]

Workers said that, while they were aware of unsafe practices on the rig, they were afraid to report mistakes for fear of reprisals.

Unfrotunately, the ultimate reprisal was 11 dead.

The worst part is, we have bigger problems than 11 bodies because of it. The people who didn't report these practices are partially responsible for 11 deaths and the destruction of an ecosystem.