Big oil braced for safety overhaul after BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico

[TheSlamma]

It's such a shocker that stuff that works on the surface doesn't work in 5000ft of water. I mean really that's only what about 2200 PSI at that depth?? how could that be such a factor.

There is no such thing as God, but there is such thing as humans drilling where we shouldn't be and basically environmentally taking a sh!t in our own beds.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Shoddy work, poor maintanence, and people not doing their jobs.
They might as well be working on the Moon . . .

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/deepwater_horizon_glitches_pri.html

And Henry Waxman as 'BatBoy'
http://www.popmatters.com/books/reviews/b/images/bat-boy-lives.jpg

 

[novasatori]

I heard its now estimated to be like 40-100k barrels per day by more than a couple scientists who have studied the videos and other evidence.

Pretty scary, especially if the continue to have problems capping it, and the field is as big as listed on that website (25,000 sq mi. & trillion barrels+ of natural gas & crude)

 

[Rebel44]

New estimate: 70 000 barrels of oil per day (thats more oil in 5 days than total spil from Exxon Valdez).

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/05/14/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T2

 

[her209]

I heard its now estimated to be like 40-100k barrels per day by more than a couple scientists who have studied the videos and other evidence.

Pretty scary, especially if the continue to have problems capping it, and the field is as big as listed on that website (25,000 sq mi. & trillion barrels+ of natural gas & crude)

New estimate: 70 000 barrels of oil per day (thats more oil in 5 days than total spil from Exxon Valdez).

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/05/14/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T2

Would explain why there was delay in releasing the video. They didn't want their 5,000 gpd questioned.

 

[geecee]

One of my co-workers sent me this link about cleaning up the oil in the water and a search here didn't turn up anything. Is this for real?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5SxX2EntEo

If so, it's pretty cool. Although, you then have the problem of what to do with all the oil-soaked hay. The video talks about burning, but I'm assuming they might be able to figure out a way to actually recover the oil.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Pre-oiled shrimp, ready for cooking - they slide right out of the shell . . .

. . well, not really.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/fishing_closures_expanded_in_l.html

 

[PottedMeat]

Anyone watching this 60 minutes segment on the blowout?

Hmm.
The electronics tech said a few weeks before during a test of the rubber blowout preventer another tech hit a joystick. That compressed the rubber gasket around moving tool. They found chunks of rubber in the drilling fluid - so that let the methane shoot up?


edit:

he also said the diesel generators were sucking up the methane and speeding up -> then I assume that produced an overvoltage -> electrical equipment blowing up & lights getting brighter. I don't understand that part.
Wouldn't the generator see the increase in rpm, but no increase in load, so the generator tells the driving engine to slow down?

 

[werepossum]

Anyone watching this 60 minutes segment on the blowout?

Hmm.
The electronics tech said a few weeks before during a test of the rubber blowout preventer another tech hit a joystick. That compressed the rubber gasket around moving tool. They found chunks of rubber in the drilling fluid - so that let the methane shoot up?


edit:

he also said the diesel generators were sucking up the methane and speeding up -> then I assume that produced an overvoltage -> electrical equipment blowing up & lights getting brighter. I don't understand that part.
Wouldn't the generator see the increase in rpm, but no increase in load, so the generator tells the driving engine to slow down?

This last is difficult to believe. Commercial generators are governed to provide a constant, near-exact 60 Hz as well as the necessary voltage and power. Thus the generator's engine also runs at a near-constant speed, with its fuel/air mixture density and therefore vacuum adjusted to maintain that speed as load varies. A generator's engine sucking in methane with its combustion air should not speed up unless there is so much free methane that no fuel at all was needed. Long before that point any spark, even static electricity, would have caused a massive detonation. The only exception to that would be a generator which produces (or converts to) DC and then recreates AC; these are typically used either where the mechanical power source must vary in speed (such as a windmill) or where the load needs a variable frequency drive and the generator is dedicated to that load only.