Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster

TheDude

TheDude

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I didn't see a thread for this so if there is one you can donkey punch my dog. Everyone has heard of this spill by now. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...243494620.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEADNewsCollection


I work for an oil company now and within the industry, we are seeing that this might be the end for offshore oil drilling in the gulf as we know it. Now we have to learn from this failure and find a way to move beyond this disgusting form of energy. So what do you guys think? Is this the shot heard round the world for oil? Is the event that alternative energy needs to finally take off? Discuss.
 
nuclear energy or lets acelerate that hadron collider
 
Plug the leak, no matter what it takes. I'm not an engineer, but they have to think outside the box.

*Pump tons of clean water near the emergency shut off valve (to push the dirty oil water away) so that they can see what they are doing?

* Open a forum or email or other means for people to contribute ideas.


Trapping the oil is a band aid on a missing head.


There's already a thread on this.
 
It's a good thing those trained professionals have have an internet to let them know what to do.
 
Some of the means being considered are: using cannons to scare away birds from the slick if it reaches shore (seriously) and using shrimping boats to scoop up as much of the oily sludge as they can.
 
The marsh lands it threatens are very fragile as well. Also, this is a central flyway for seasonal migratory birds. The real question i have though is what's this gonna do to BP? With a disaster of this magnitude, they have unlimited liability and will probably have to be bailed out by government. Would you support your tax dollars going toward an oil company to bail them out of their errors? **** no.
 
Eejit said:
It's a good thing those trained professionals have have an internet to let them know what to do.
Click to expand...

They've said they don't know what to do and have asked for help. There's never been an oil leak like this before.

"We'll take help from anyone," BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said.

Officials had estimated about 42,000 gallons of oil a day was leaking into the Gulf from the blown-out well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. That would be closer to 210,000 gallons a day with the new estimates.
Click to expand...

210,000 gallons a day and their untested 'solution' (a giant upside down funnel) could take 3 months to build.
 
Uh-huh, but I imagine they were thinking about help from other trained engineers rather than internet armchair generals.
 
My idea: Build a whole lot of makeshift generators, put them on ships, burn all the oil, and feed the generated power into the grid. About the air pollution, well, it's not like we have a clean atmosphere right now... when we learn how to scrub our skies the problem will disappear!
 
There are engineers around the world that could help, is my point. Obviously my idea was thought up in seconds. But anyway.

I remember when the US president asked for ideas about the economy on the internet.
 
TheDude said:
The marsh lands it threatens are very fragile as well. Also, this is a central flyway for seasonal migratory birds. The real question i have though is what's this gonna do to BP? With a disaster of this magnitude, they have unlimited liability and will probably have to be bailed out by government. Would you support your tax dollars going toward an oil company to bail them out of their errors? **** no.
Click to expand...

Well, Exxon got away with not having to pay for the Exxon Valdez spill for over ten years. And BP has already had problems with oil leaks in their Alaska pipelines which apparently didn't hurt them that much. Chevron has totally screwed over parts of South America. Unfortunately, the liability system is totally botched up when it comes to oil companies and environmental disasters.

And now that the oil has reached the Mississippi, they'll probably have to worry about human health as well, seeing as oil is full of carcinogens.
 
lol, I made a thread about this but I forgot the name

anyway this shit went from bad to worse lately
 
bzj89.jpg
 
I saw a thing on CNN Where the'yre going to basically drop a big metal box on it and start sucking the oil from the pip again. Hope it works cause it's already ****ed.
 
yeah this is like the mother of all oil spills. this could be as devastating as Katrina was to the area in terms of loss of employment and people moving away.
 
Warped said:
yeah this is like the mother of all oil spills. this could be as devastating as Katrina was to the area in terms of loss of employment and people moving away.
Click to expand...

It's not as big as the exxon-valdez but it's in a much more life-rich and sensitive location... not to mention if it's not fixed it could meet and ultimately exceed exxonvaldez spill.
 
I saw another representation of the general size on the news and it was much smaller than that picture I posted so I have no idea how big it is.
 
Tyguy said:
I saw another representation of the general size on the news and it was much smaller than that picture I posted so I have no idea how big it is.
Click to expand...
Right now it's not that bad, but unlike Exxon-Valdez this pipeline is just going to keep spewing oil until it pretty much floods the gulf with oil-water slush and kills hundreds of thousands of birds, marine mammals and fish. Moreover, due to the depth of this leak it is much harder to contain than anything we have ever faced before, and it is estimated that it could take weeks to months before BP can contain it.

Thirdly, while Exxon-Valdez was closer to the coast, this could potentially be more damaging because if the marshlands near New Orleans get saturated with this slime, it will be infinitely harder to clean than rocky/sandy beaches.
 
I think your picture was a forecast of the spread of the oil due to current and winds.
 
Makes sense, everyone knows god loves causing "natural" disasters. My all-time favourite has to be him turning people into pillars of salt though, that's just hardcore.
 
oil prices are actually plummeting right now though because of Greek's struggling economy and shit. look at how much the dow lost today: -225pts!
 
I heard about that too Warped. I probably should have waited to see if the gas prices drop. I filled up my gas tank today. Shit was like, more than it ever cost ever. And it was only half full.

I prepaid and gave the clerk $40, expecting a fill up and some change.
 
It's almost as funny as that Iranian cleric saying women who dress immodestly leads astray men which in turn increases the frequency of earthquakes.

I just could not stop loling when I heard that.
 
Tyguy said:
I saw another representation of the general size on the news and it was much smaller than that picture I posted so I have no idea how big it is.
Click to expand...

I think I read that it's started reaching the Mississippi River, which is already really far :(. Hope they plug that bastard soon. Also hope they shut down those plans for offshore drilling off Florida. To go ahead with that plan amidst this oil spill would just seem wrong.

Also, Rick Perry is a total asshat. They need to get him out of office, but seeing as it's Texas, probably everyone will vote for him again. Wish they would put a limit on how long someone can be governor there (or a shorter limit if one's already in place, or at least a limit on how long idiots can be in office). Let's just say Texas was run by Bush for 5 years, and now Perry for 10. Ughhhh.
 
dfc05 said:
Also hope they shut down those plans for offshore drilling off Florida. To go ahead with that plan amidst this oil spill would just seem wrong.
Click to expand...

They already did. All of the coastal drilling has been canceled for some amount of time no one specified.
 
man, rick is like texas incarnate. just a couple weeks ago he was jogging with his dog and shot/killed a coyote. there's no way he won't win the next election.
 
StarBob said:
They already did. All of the coastal drilling has been canceled for some amount of time no one specified.
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks for the good news. Too bad they didn't specify "forever" as a time.

Heard about the Rick Perry coyote shooting thing too, as I still read Austin news (way more interesting than Pittsburgh news, haha). Wish I still lived in Texas, so I could put in a vote against Rick. Bleh. For a while I contemplated pretending to turning in a vote as an "absentee" since I still have a Texas driver's license and I think my voter registration card isn't expired yet, but that would probably be illegal.
 
BP Says One Oil Leak of Three Is Shut Off

Submersible robots, controlled remotely from a ship on the surface, were able to place a specially designed valve over the end of a leaking drill pipe lying on the sea floor in water about 5,000 feet deep, and stop oil from escaping at that point /

With one valve shut, BP is now turning its attention to capping the worst of the leaks. Crews have loaded a 98-ton, four-story structure called a containment dome onto a barge, and are expected to tow it at midday Wednesday to the site of the spill, a 12-hour trip.

The plan is to lower the dome to the sea floor and place it over the leak, capturing the gushing oil and funneling it up to a rig waiting at the surface. That is expected to be operational by the end of the week, BP officials said.
Click to expand...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/us/06spill.html
 
this tech is really cool that we're using. i bet in 30 years it'll probably be automated with little human oversight
 
They fixed one leak but, from what I heard, the same amount of oil is still escaping. Just more pressure.
 
Not really a surprise to hear that, Tyguy. I wonder if sealing the second leak will increase the pressure enough to make the third leak much worse.
 
You all fail! Where was the "it's the only way to be sure"?
 
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