Oil rig sinks after explosion off the Louisiana coast

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

It sickens me to no end-- a quick-and-dirty reduction of the flow by even 50% would be a desirable thing, IMO.

And, the below-ground pool is bigger than all that, in a few years, they could simply re-drill nearby to tap into it-- these things are typically miles in extent.

I think the ~#)%*^ simply don't want to spend any money they are not forced to spend...

... capitalism.

Just a fancy $64 word for "greed".

<gag>

-----------------

And in complete disclosure and honesty, I am forced to admit that I drive a petrol fueled car....

And no, the irony is not lost on me either...

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Was discussing this on site today; the best option we could come up with was to run a larger casing down over top of the wellhead and up to surface, which would not stop the flow but at least allow it to be mostly captured (in tankers, etc).

To my knowledge that is pretty much what they're trying to do and claim that it could be there sometime next week.

[ivor]

All the need is a sonic screwdriver.

[Aggie]

It sickens me to no end-- a quick-and-dirty reduction of the flow by even 50% would be a desirable thing, IMO.

To be fair, the relief well is NOT a cheap option, and between the lost production and clean up costs I think they'd be looking for any quick and dirty method available.

Not defending the blaggards, but even cheap-arse midsize companies in the patch will throw quite a few dollars at a spill up front, especially if it's getting any degree of publicity (day-to-day operations and constant small losses are a different story,  mind).  BP would probably like this to stop any way possible, ASAP.

[Opsa]

They should not have been drilling way out there where they could not control a spill, anyway. They were very irresponsible.

President Obama said this today:

"For too long, for a decade or more, there has been a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill. It seems as if permits were too often issued based on little more than assurances of safety from the oil companies. That cannot and will not happen anymore."

It is too bad it took an environmental disaster for this to be brought up, but here it is. We can't let them forget this.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

They should not have been drilling way out there where they could not control a spill, anyway. They were very irresponsible.

President Obama said this today:

"For too long, for a decade or more, there has been a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill. It seems as if permits were too often issued based on little more than assurances of safety from the oil companies. That cannot and will not happen anymore."

It is too bad it took an environmental disaster for this to be brought up, but here it is. We can't let them forget this.

It is my fondest wish that the President was not making political hay with this statement, and will put into place stringent executive orders enforcing it.   It is within his area of control after all; there are plenty of laws he could utilize in extending the police powers of the executive branch to do exactly what he promised.

I agree, it's tragic:  but alas, such is human nature that we do not put up the stoplight at the dangerous intersection until after someone is killed....

... the vast majority of government is reactive.

[Aphos]

Watching the Rachael Maddow Show (TRMS) the other night, they said that under current US law, BP can not be held liable for more than $75 million.  That is on top of the cost of clean up, which is a separate deal.

So all the damage, physical and economic, won't cost BP more than that, which is a drop in the bucket for them.  TRMS pointed out that BP's profits for the first quarter this year were over $5 billion.

Some congresscritter was wanting to up the liability cap to $10 billion, but I don't see how that can be grandfathered to cover this disaster.

The local fishing industry alone is going to suffer billions in losses over this, and it looks like they are just going to have to suck it up.

[Swatopluk]

If I got that correctly the move already failed. Congressbeings, esp. senators, are corporatists first and foremost.
The most laughable argument against it was: That could hurt small companies! ("all those poor mom&pop rigs out there" to channel Keith Olbermann)
And a new law will on the one hand give states veto power for drilling off their coast but one the other give large tax credits to companies that want to drill where not vetoed.

[beagle]

BP aren't trying to use the $75M limit, but maybe Transocean are.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Poor poor BP:

Yet while lambasting BP for even seeking to defend its reputation, Mr Obama has showed no apparent interest in directing similar wrath at Transocean - fuelling suggestions that as a foreign company, BP is simply a convenient whipping boy and a politically easier target.

Halliburton is also less vilified although considering that BP was responsible of cancelling a safety test by Schlumberger a few hours before the spill and that they have 700+ safety incidents in their refineries (as opposed to 1-5 from Exxon, Sunoco and Valero in the same period), plus two large incidents in refineries in recent times, it is perfectly clear that safety has never been a priority in their American operation.

Incredibly they seemed to be serious about safety in their Colombian operation while I worked there 15 years ago, but then again I wasn't in the wells and the safety hazards were/are more political than technical.

The article made me wonder if the Torygraph shareholders are BP shareholders too, not that think Transocean or Halliburton are free of blame, but the orders were coming from BP.

[beagle]

Pretty much everyone in the UK is a BP shareholder (at least everyone with some sort of pension), They account for a significant part of the FTSE 100, and similarly of companies which pay dividends.

I think the Torygraph's gripe is that when the American Occidental's Piper Alpha rig blew up in the North Sea here (killing 167) there wasn't the political grandstanding that we're seeing now, but that may be more that Mrs T was less into emotional reactions than is expected of politicians these days.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Different times, different incident, those were still Cold War days so politically there would have been pressure not to raise too much noise, and despite a higher body count, the incident didn't provoke an environmental disaster that could potentially be the 3rd largest spill today and on it's way to the first position (BP has systematically understated the rate of the spill [read: lied]).

Also consider the nationalistic and reactionary movements in the past years, and blaming a "foreign" company becomes far easier.

In any case, at this point there are very few excuses for BP and their operation. If it were up to me the three companies (BP, Halliburton and Transocean) should be banned from further exploration and exploitation of oil in the US, and subjected to a very detailed and aggressive auditory on their remaining operations with the option of closing or reassigning them, and the execs that allowed or authorized the mismanagement should be criminally charged and imprisoned.

After that unicorns would fly towards the rainbow while herding pigs in the sky...

[Sibling DavidH]

Here is the whole story, filmed by a mole on the inside.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Loved the 1^st comment:

This video is so fake. Theres no way BP tried that hard to fix it.

[Opsa]

Apparently they're going to kill the well tonight.