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Disaster looms as oil slick reaches US coast

Kiss your cheap seafood goodbye. The Gulf supplies the majority of the nation's shrimp and other shellfish. Gulf fishing trawlers are out there right now, prematurely trawling for shrimp like it's the end of the world. Why? Because for that region it is.

The oil leak is not 5,000 barrels per day. It is more likely 25,000, with 9 Million barrels already swimming out and about.(WSJ)

Fishing industry - gone!
Tourism industry - gone!
Air quality - gone!
Real estate value - gone!

Not a disaster of monumental proportions? Think again. It always takes the people a month or three to wake up to reality. This time a month or three from now, the news headlines will be "Why didn't they warn us?", "Why didn't they tell us?", "Why didn't they do more?", "It's all Obama's fault!".

So, get to that cheap all you can eat shrimp and crab buffet this weekend and enjoy it one last time while you can afford it. Buy a few and freeze them even. Bring them out on the barbie this time next year. Your neighbours will think you're rich.


As for this being an environmentalist inside job, according to Drama Queen Limbaugh... LOL.

Gulf oil spill: The Halliburton connection
April 30, 2010 | 9:13 pm


Investigators delving into the possible cause of the massive gulf oil spill are focusing on the role of Houston-based Halliburton Co., the giant energy services company, which was responsible for cementing the drill into place below the water. The company acknowledged Friday that it had completed the final cementing of the oil well and pipe just 20 hours before the blowout last week.

In a letter to to Halliburton Chief Executive David J. Lesar on Friday, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, called on Halliburton officials to provide all documents relating to "the possibility or risk of an explosion or blowout at the Deepwater Horizon rig and the status, adequacy, quality, monitoring, and inspection of the cementing work" by May 7.

In a statement Friday, Halliburton said "it is premature and irresponsible to speculate on any specific causal issues." The company had four employees stationed on the rig at the time of the accident, all of whom were rescued by the Coast Guard. "Halliburton had completed the cementing of the final production casing string in accordance with the well design," it said. "The cement slurry design was consistent with that utilized in other similar applications. In accordance with accepted industry practice ... tests demonstrating the integrity of the production casing string were completed."

More than two dozen class action lawsuits have been filed after the explosion against BP PLC, the British company that leased the Deepwater Horizon rig, against the rig's owner, Transocean Ltd. and against Halliburton. BP is "taking full responsibility" for the spill and will pay for "legitimate claims" by affected parties, company spokeswoman Sheila Williams said.

Cement is used at two stages of the deep-water drilling process. It is used to fill gaps between the well pipe and the hole drilled into the seabed so as to prevent any seepage of oil and gas. And it is used to temporarily plug an exploration hole before production begins. At the time of the accident, the Halliburton statement said, "well operations had not yet reached the point requiring the placement of the final cement plug which would enable the planned temporary abandonment of the well."

Experts say cementing is a basic part of drilling, exploration and production of oil on the sea floor. Drill ships or rigs plant large pipes called "conductors" on the sea floor, and casings, or nested pipes, are placed inside of them. The pipes are fixed in place by cement, some hanging inside other pipes, and a drill string is run down a casing, and extended to the sea floor to bore holes.

Mud works its way back up the pipes and the “riser,” a pipe that connects the drill site to the ship or rig above. Or oil is brought up. Cement fixes the operations in place. Cement may also be used to plug a well, pumped down the string until it comes up on the sides, and stops the hole.

Cementing a deep-water drilling operation is a process fraught with danger. A 2007 study by the U.S. Minerals Management Service found that cementing was the single most important factor in 18 of 39 well blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico over a 14-year period -- more than equipment malfunction. Halliburton has been accused of a poor cement job in the case of a major blowout in the Timor Sea off Australia last August. An investigation is underway.

According to experts cited in Friday's Wall St. Journal, the timing of last week's cement job in relation to the explosion -- only 20 hours beforehand, and the history of cement problems in other blowouts "point to it as a possible culprit." Robert MacKenzie, managing director of energy and natural resources at FBR Capital Markets and a former cementing engineer, told the Journal, "The initial likely cause of gas coming to the surface had something to do with the cement."

In its statement, the company said, "Halliburton originated oilfield cementing and leads the world in effective, efficient delivery of zonal isolation and engineering for the life of the well, conducting thousands of successful well cementing jobs each year."

The company, which was once headed by former Vice President Dick Cheney, has been in the media spotlight before -- under under fire in recent years for its operations

LA Times

I wonder... does Limbaugh have any Halliburton in his portfolio? Everyone and his uncle will be blamed for this accident, though, and Halliburton will likely escape having to pay any damages. Win-win. Wait, we get the first "win" in that equation, but where did the second one come from?

Halliburton agrees to buy Boots & Coots
Fri Apr 9, 2010 9:29pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Halliburton (HAL.N) said on Friday it agreed to buy Boots & Coots (WEL.A), a company that provides pressure control services for oil and gas wells, in a stock and cash deal worth about $240 million.

Deals

Halliburton said Boots & Coots shareholders will receive about $3 for each share of Boots & Coots they hold. That $3 consists of $1.73 in cash and $1.27 in Halliburton stock, according to the statement from Halliburton.

Shares in Boots & Coots closed at $2.35, down about 1.3 percent. Halliburton shares closed at $31.57, down 9 cents or about 0.3 percent.

The deal will be accretive in the first full year of operation, Halliburton said.

The second largest oilfield services company will create a new product service line combining its existing coiled tubing and hydraulic workover operations with Boots & Coots' intervention services and its pressure control business.

Reuters

Boots & Coots, Inc. (NYSE: WEL) provides a suite of integrated pressure control services to onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration companies around the world.

Boots & Coots

Well, okay, there is no proof (yet) that Halliburton will actually be responsible for the fire capping contract on this one, but I thought I'dd add some oil into the fire nonetheless. :)

What do corporations do best? Own both sides of the equation. Create demand, then feed that demand. Monsanto, FDA, AMA, etc, etc, etc. Noooo, please tell us it isn't sooooo. lol

Get those all you can eat shrimp! Nom nom.
 
A lot US shrimp comes from the gulf coast
the rest comes from china, they said all US shrimp will be sold out in 2 days. prices already skyrocketing.

i like shrimp :(

and

Northern Bluefin Tuna have only two spawning areas in the world.

One spawning ground exists in the western Mediterranean, particularly in the area of the Balearic Islands. The other important spawning ground of the Atlantic bluefin is the Gulf of Mexico.

and i like bluefin Tuna too....

Oil slick in Gulf of Mexico is a financial and ecological time bomb....

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat..._is_a_financial_and_ecological_time_bomb.html
 
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Wow, SA, thanks for the perspective :(

I'll pray for LA and the Gulf, to whatever god will listen.
 
Oil rig fires are usually put out with explosives (the shock wave starves the fire of oxygen). Why they haven't tried that yet is beyond me...
 
What annoys me is the rapid media turnaround on this story; for days--from the explosion (still unsolved), to the sinking, and even the day after--it was more or less back-page news, even in Texas. I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I know oil rigs don't blow up and sink every goddamned day. Once it turns out that the leaking is much bigger than they expected, though, everyone wastes no time jumping on the "disaster" train. If people had pulled their heads out of their asses the minute it had happened the Gulf Coast might not be in quite the pickle it is now.

With that rant off my chest, I will say that my heart goes out to all those affected--I love the Gulf, warts and all--as well as hopes that the impact on wildlife won't match the worst-case scenario. In fact, we do have one thing in our favor compared to the Valdez disaster; the oil from this well is considerably thinner, which should make it easier to clean up, biodegrade, and evaporate off the more dangerous volatiles.

P.S.--Agree with Mehm; this couldn't have come at a worse time for Obama, not with the legislation for increased offshore drilling in the pipeline--pun intended.
 
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said Obama.

Yup. And your point is? (I mean other than scoring cheap political points on the back of the biggest environmental disaster in America's history? :\)

Did you write your government to stop allowing tankers to cross over the Great Barrier Reef yet?

Well, it DOESN'T allow it, so its a moot point, the Chinese tanker broke the law and took a shortcut and the Captain is being duly prosecuted. But, I'd quite happily take Australia to task when it does fucked up shit, in fact the Australian conservatives I argue with on other forums regularly call me a "self hating socialist" and the like because I stand up and criticise Australia. I'd happily see an end to Australian coal and oil imports, the sooner the better, we have ample renewable resources just waiting to be tapped and I see no reason to continue exporting death to the likes of China just to maintain Rio Tinto's share price.

Anyway, other than the US government caving into lobbying and allowing lax safety standards, this has little to do with America being the big, bad wolf, BP (British Petroleum, but otherwise a faceless multinational corporation) is the bad guy in this story. I don't know why people like you get so defensive at any suggestion that someone is criticisng your government, I'd be more concerned about the state of the Gulf myself. And from what I've been hearing, there may be no way of capping the million gallons of oil pumping into the ocean until the well runs dry, and nobody actually knows just when that might be.

So, score all the cheap political points you want, the joke is on you, it ain't my economy that is going to be suffering from this disaster. :\
 
From NASA's Earth Observatory

gulf_tmo_2010119_1.jpg


gulf_tmo_2010119_2.jpg
 
doesn't look good. My home break in central california sometimes has soap in the water and other questionable smells and appearances. It worse at the mouth of streams and water outlets. I wonder if this will be contained to the gulf or spread throughout the ocean. How fast will material like this degrade in the ocean? Maybe some of it will be randomly sucked back into the earths core and destroyed. Looks like we're in for a hell of a ride.
 
said Obama.

Didn't Palin say that first?


Mehm said:
How fast will material like this degrade in the ocean?

Never, oil floats. It will simply be diluted into the global water ecosystem, so we will feel this for probably a couple centuries to come.

Fucking epic disaster. There is no telling how this is going to affect extinction rates, and therefore, the whole fucking food chain. Fucked.

To live up to my reputation: Still believe it was truly an accident(but who knows), but I'm starting to think this was deliberately mismanaged now, am still looking into that.
 
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Didn't Palin say that first?

Definitely, it was her catchphrase, but Obama caved on the issue (or took a pragmatic approach to garner bipartisan support, depending on you pov) and agreed to off-shore drilling. The phrase 'drill, baby, drill' simply encapsulates the mindless stupidity of off shore drilling, which Obama ended up embracing, more fool him.
 
doesn't look good. My home break in central california sometimes has soap in the water and other questionable smells and appearances. It worse at the mouth of streams and water outlets. I wonder if this will be contained to the gulf or spread throughout the ocean. How fast will material like this degrade in the ocean? Maybe some of it will be randomly sucked back into the earths core and destroyed. Looks like we're in for a hell of a ride.

Nah, your break will be fine, different oceans and all, plus the ocean is very, very big, and a few hundred clicks is fuck all in the scheme of things. No, this will be a very localised catastrophe. Apparently though, the material is much lighter than what Exxon spilled back in the day (possibly due to its unrefined nature, not sure), so the eventual dispersal and evaporation will happen faster. The real worry as far as I can tell is the sheer volume, that is the real X factor in this case.
 
Definitely, it was her catchphrase, but Obama caved on the issue (or took a pragmatic approach to garner bipartisan support, depending on you pov) and agreed to off-shore drilling. The phrase 'drill, baby, drill' simply encapsulates the mindless stupidity of off shore drilling, which Obama ended up embracing, more fool him.

Agree totally, and think its a little of both. Obama caved so he could bring the paid off lobbied Republican hardliners on the other side of the aisle into his fold. When it comes right down to it though(just my opinion, no need to fly off any handle), no matter which party is in, they both do the same thing, only the rhetoric is different, so its a moot point altogether.

Anyway, I'm not ready to see what kind of shitstorm the political, economic, environmental, etc. fallout of this will be. It will be used as a talking point, so politicians can get elected, to just carry out whatever plan their "campaign contributors"(International Corporations) buy them to do.

As always, we will be told the solutions are great, when they're actually just handing over more power to unaccountable entities.
 
On the first page I pointed out that this oil well lacked a safety shut off valve that other countries require. Guess why the US doesn't require it? Because the Bush Administration thought the oil companies would regulate themselves:
"There was a big debate under the Bush administration whether or not to require additional oil drilling safeguards but [federal regulators] decided not to require any additional mandatory safeguards, believing the industry would be motivated to do it themselves," Carl Pope, Chairman of the Sierra Club told ABC News.
 
Apparently though, the material is much lighter than what Exxon spilled back in the day (possibly due to its unrefined nature, not sure), so the eventual dispersal and evaporation will happen faster.

No, both were crude oil spills; Valdez spilled a thicker, heavier variety of crude than the light sweet which is pouring out of the current site (incidentally, this later grade is much preferred for its purity and ease of refinement, IIRC).
 
yeah but the Valdez only carried so much crude oil.... this situation is like a sink left running... they still didn't stop it... the longer they wait... harder it will for subs or machine to go under and fix it.... if they can even stop it that is...


this whole situation is Waaay worse imo


" Efforts to stem the flow from the ruptured well on the sea floor and remove oil from the surface by skimming it, burning it or disperse it with chemicals continued with little success. Adding to the gloomy outlook were warnings from experts that an uncontrolled gusher could create a nightmare scenario if the Gulf Stream current carries it toward the Atlantic. "


Source:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gIXWYBTpLtSayJtg41LKXpxSxVPAD9FEM90G0
 
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