Jaxbar

The oil is heading in this direction and may be here by Monday. Our lovely white beaches are in danger. Groups of volunteers are already being mobilzed to prepare for the clean up.

Is anyone else being affected?

Bob

Petrol and oil prices have conveniently been going up even more...

Bluegrass Lass

Good luck, BL. This is a horrible situation. I wish you all the best of luck down there. I can't imagine what the beaches down there in Pensacola and Destin will look like after this. And people still want to drill more after this!?!

lapin_windstar

http://twitter.com/billmaher/status/13089003490

Jaxbar

Just watching Bill now. The beaches have just about recovered from Ivan, really hope this isnt as bad as they are saying.

Brit3964

Hear hear! They say this might be the biggest ever spill. Bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill.

Sally Redux

How awful and very sad.

lofty79

How awful and very sad for the families of the missing workers too. Unfortunately they appear to have been largely forgotten about amongst all the finger pointing and the blame games.

Michael

When I originally heard that the wellhead didn't have a backup capability (acoustic switch) to engage the blowout preventer, I assumed that the acoustic switch would have prevented the massive oil spill.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...417936798.html

However after investigating it further, it doesn't appear that the acoustic switch would likely have made any difference. According to what I could figure out, the wellhead has at least 3 different blowout preventers.

The first line of defense is called the "annular" which is like a giant innertube that when engaged will seal the wellhead. If the drill pipe is in the wellhead (shouldn't have been in the shaft since they were preparing for a cementing operation to cement the final section), it will seal tightly around the drill pipe.

Secondly there are the "variable bore rams" or VBR’s which are able to seal around various sizes of drill pipe that pass through the well head.

There are also “blind shear rams” or BSR wich are able to cut through drill pipe and seal off the well. Blind shear rams can cut through most drill pipe although not all.

Even if the operators did not have time to enable the blowout preventers, the blowout preventers should have engaged when the electrical cables to the wellhead was severed or power was lost (deadman switch).

Finally BP sent its ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) to try to enable the blowout preventers manually (which didn't work). Therefore if the manual controls on the wellhead didn't work, it is highly unlikely that an acoustic switch would have worked either.

http://www.treesfullofmoney.com/?p=1610

According to a worker on the platform, they were testing the blowout preventers prior to performing the final cementing operation. When they disengaged the blowout preventer after the test, it appears that massive pressure built up in the well causing the "Marine Riser" (casing from the wellhead to the platform as well as tensions equipment to keep the pipe stable in choppy seas) to be thrown upward onto the drilling platform. It is likely that at this time the wellhead was also damaged not allowing the blowout preventers to work. The following is that interview.

http://www.drillingahead.com/video/t...ivor-interview

Therefore I'm not sure that they is anyway with current technology to prevent such an oil spill under all conditions.

Jaxbar

That was very technical but I guess it means that the only hope we have is that the wind blows it back the other way.

Michael

That and hopefully the dome will work otherwise it will likely keep spilling oil for at least another two months until they can drill the relief well and plug the leak. If the spill can be kept in the ocean long enough, it will disappear.

The chairman of oil giant BP says a dome might be placed over a gushing oil well beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Lamar McKay tells ABC's "This Week" that it will be six to eight days before it's deployed.

In 1979 there was a blowout on a well drilled by Petróleos Mexicanos in the gulf that lasted 9 months before they were able to stop the leak. The spill was estimated to be about 12x larger than Exxon Valdez oil spill and spewed oil about 5x faster than the current spill but it was about 60 miles off of the Mexican coast where currents were carrying it toward the Texas coast (2 months away). The US put up booms to mostly stop the remaining spill from reaching land before it dissipated in the ocean.

Michael

BP indicated that they may try to cut the riser away from the wellhead and try to bolt a second blowout protector to the wellhead. If that can be done, they would just activate the second blowout protector to stop the oil flow.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/us/03spill.html

Apparently the biggest problem is whether they can fit the second blowout protector in place with the violence of the oil gushing out.

It seems that they really need a speciality blowout protector that comes in two pieces that would be slightly larger in diameter than the riser and would be placed around the riser and bolted together as well as to the wellhead. Since the oil is gushing out of the end of the riser, the placement of the speciality blowout protector would be fairly easy since the movement of the water near the well head is fairly calm.

Then the blowout protector would cut the riser away (new feature) and then be activated to stop the leak.

Tarkak9

Only in friggin' Boulder.... when in doubt - Meditate

http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_150168...#axzz0n5v8EtHE

Englishtart

bless.

scrubbedexpat091

Oil has apparently dropped in price.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/05/markets/oil/

"Crude for June delivery fell $2.77, or 3.3%, to settle at $79.97 a barrel. This is the first day oil has settled below $80 since March 15."