1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Outlook Dims on Efforts to Stanch Gulf Oil Spill

Discussion in 'News & Current Events' started by Crabtownboy, May 1, 2010.

  1. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2008
    Messages:
    18,441
    Likes Received:
    259
    Faith:
    Baptist
    This may be a bad time to try to expand off shore drilling. It appears this is going to be one huge environmental disaster.


     
  2. targus

    targus New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2008
    Messages:
    8,459
    Likes Received:
    0
    I am wondering if it isn't left wing eco-terrorism.

    The timing of the explosion is quite suspicious.
     
  3. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2008
    Messages:
    18,441
    Likes Received:
    259
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Good grief, what a ridiculous comment. It is a leak not an exploded pipe. Haven't you looked at any of the undersea photos. Of course you have to find some way to blame the left or Obama. ROFL

    It is a huge disaster and no one knows how of a coastal area is going to be affected.
     
  4. targus

    targus New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2008
    Messages:
    8,459
    Likes Received:
    0
    Do you ever bother to learn the facts before inserting your foot into your mouth?

    http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/may2010/oilr-m01.shtml

    "The Times of London published Friday the first complete list of the oil workers missing— and most likely dead—as a result of the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the coast of Louisiana."

    http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0...ter-Horizon-oil-rig-explosion-shows-new-risks

    "Major mishaps aboard oil rigs are rare. But accidents like the Transocean Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion show the risks as companies explore farther and drill deeper."

    http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0...news-from-Deepwater-Horizon-oil-rig-explosion

    "Gulf towns pray for news from Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion
    Roughneck towns along the Gulf coast are waiting for news from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion."

    Good grief is right.

    Are you still ROFL ?
     
  5. billwald

    billwald New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 28, 2000
    Messages:
    11,414
    Likes Received:
    2
    http://heraldnet.com/article/201005....offshore.rigs&#146.blowout.preventers.common

    "WASHINGTON — A 1999 report commissioned by the federal agency that "oversees offshore drilling suggests failures of underwater blowout preventers designed to stop oil spills like the massive one threatening the Gulf Coast were far from unknown, the chairwoman of a key Senate panel said Friday.

    "Citing a Minerals Management Service report, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said there were 117 failures of blowout preventers during a two-year period in the late 1990s on the outer continental shelf of the United States.

    " “To find out the ultimate fail-safe weapon doesn’t work is surprising,” said Cantwell, who as chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee’s oceans, atmosphere, fisheries and Coast Guard subcommittee will play a role in any congressional investigation of the Gulf oil spill and the drilling rig explosion that caused it.

    "The unclassified version of the 1999 report said the failures involved 83 wells drilled by 26 rigs in depths from 1,300 feet to 6,560 feet.

    "A similar report released by the agency in 1997 found that between 1992 and 1996 there were 138 failures of blowout preventers on underwater wells being drilled off Brazil, Norway, Italy and Albania."
     
  6. targus

    targus New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2008
    Messages:
    8,459
    Likes Received:
    0
    This article isn't giving us much information.

    How many times did the blowout preventers work during that period?

    Since there are as many as four redundant blowout preventers on any given well - how many of the cited failures actually resulted in spillage?

    When spillage resulted as a result of blowout preventer failure how much spillage was there?

    And are you just trying to bail out Crabby for his lack of knowledge about the discussion that he started?

    Are you Crabby's blowout preventer? :laugh:
     
  7. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2008
    Messages:
    18,441
    Likes Received:
    259
    Faith:
    Baptist

    There is nothing in anything you cite suggesting that left-wing eco-terrorists caused the problem. Now you are attempting to blow smoke over your silly post.

     
  8. targus

    targus New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2008
    Messages:
    8,459
    Likes Received:
    0
    How about just a little honesty, Crabby?

    I provided those links in response to your statement that it was a pipe leak - not an explosion.

    I proved to you that it was an explosion so now you need to misdirect.

    I did not say that it was an act of eco-terrorism as a fact - I stated that I am wondering if it was.

    You should probably do what you usually do when you put your foot in your mouth - just drop out of the discussion and pretend that it didn't happen.
     
  9. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2008
    Messages:
    18,441
    Likes Received:
    259
    Faith:
    Baptist
    And was it a left-wing eco-terrorist who caused the explosion?
     
  10. targus

    targus New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2008
    Messages:
    8,459
    Likes Received:
    0
    You really need to read with a little more care.

    As I said in posts 2 and 8... I wonder if.
     
  11. targus

    targus New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2008
    Messages:
    8,459
    Likes Received:
    0
  12. billwald

    billwald New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 28, 2000
    Messages:
    11,414
    Likes Received:
    2
  13. targus

    targus New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2008
    Messages:
    8,459
    Likes Received:
    0
    From the OP article...

    "Whether that had any bearing on the cause to the most recent blowout and looming ecological disaster, one can only speculate"
     
  14. billwald

    billwald New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 28, 2000
    Messages:
    11,414
    Likes Received:
    2
    Some wish it to be an act of the taliban and not oil company negligence.

    All these cyclones hitting our mid west . . . . What if the funny looking steeples on mosques are really transmitter towers in a world wide Arab HAARP project?
     
  15. windcatcher

    windcatcher New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2007
    Messages:
    2,764
    Likes Received:
    0
    Just wondering: Thinking 'out loud'

    With all the talk of the life forms which this spill may impact..... why isn't there more mention of the human lives this has already affected.... Those killed in this disaster and those left behind?:tear:






    What I don't understand.... is how, with all the technology available, there isn't already a technology in place for just such a time as this to contain and recover oil from a spill such as this before weeks (nearly 2 already) go by?

    Let's see: They know how to drill the earth to tap oil. They know how to pump water into a field to force oil out. They know how to drill in water and also deep water to get oil. They even know how to run a side ways drill into an oil field to tap oil which may or may not 'belong' to the company who taps it. (Off topic, but related to various discoveries of minerals, water, oil, earthquakes, fault lines in the earth's crusts, etc., is the study and use of seismology.)

    Doesn't the coast guard have boats which pump up ocean waters to put out fires at sea? If my thinking is correct.... isn't there some way that they or similar vessels could be used in a mop up.... perhaps in concert with other vessels equipped to extract or separate the oil from the water and secure the oil in storage barges?

    They have extraction methods already developed to recover oil from various mixed mediums. Although this spill is massive.... isn't there a way to recover it.... provided containment was possible?

    With satellite imaging and advances in various types of photography, thermal imaging, etc., isn't there a way with satellites, etc., for the government to know, first hand, whether the oil company (BP) is telling the truth in its reports of the amount of spill occurring or sudden changes in the amounts?

    What's all this talk about adding dispersion chemicals to the oil slick? What chemicals are used for this and is it really an advantage in the long run for oil and water to be mixed with..... say..... something that acts like surfactants...... which thins it (oil) out further....or emulsifiers ....which helps it(oil) to mix more thoroughly with water and becomes part of the environment consumed by the lower food chain... either to poison it or to be assimilated and unable to properly metabolize storage in living organisms like fish and crustecea or bivalves etc.?

    What about the fishing industry..... and the fishermen in the local area who are already familiar with the seasons, the currents in that area, and the tides? Don't they have a wealth of practical (experiential) and common sense knowledge which could be valuable to the 'experts' if taken in consultation? The local job centers already are posting openings for 'clean up'.... some say as high pay as $18/hour for those hired.... but shouldn't those 'industries' (like the fishermen) which will be first hurt by this SNAFU be the first to be offered these jobs? (Perhaps they might have a litigants chance in the courts for some recovery?) ......Not trying to take sides here nor ready to weigh out the pros or cons.... the right or wrong of the matter.... just thinking and wondering ..... and scattering it here for the thoughts and ideas and input of those who may know more than I do.







    Still, I say, don't let this be the 'end all' to drilling. Instead, let this serve to develop better back-up systems and improving the way we extract the crude from the earth to supply our need for energy.
     
  16. billwald

    billwald New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 28, 2000
    Messages:
    11,414
    Likes Received:
    2
    Sunday I googled blowout preventer and

    http://halfempth.blogspot.com/2010/05/on-using-faulty-blowout-preventer-in.html

    was on the first screen. This morning I couldn't find it on the first 6 screens. Censorship?

    from http://www.blowout-preventers.com/

    "Blowout preventers (BOPs) are used to control blowout. The crew usually install several blowout preventers (BOP stack) on top of the well, with an annular blowout preventer at the top and at least one pipe ram and one blind ram blowout preventer below. Also, some well control techniques require both the annular and the ram blowout preventers."

    So far every story I have read on the current disaster uses "blowout preventer," in the singular. google bop stack an one will find

    "http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/Display.cfm?Term=BOP%20stack

    Schlumberger has an international reputation.

    1. n. [Drilling] ID: 1227

    A set of two or more BOPs used to ensure pressure control of a well. A typical stack might consist of one to six ram-type preventers and, optionally, one or two annular-type preventers. A typical stack configuration has the ram preventers on the bottom and the annular preventers at the top. The configuration of the stack preventers is optimized to provide maximum pressure integrity, safety and flexibility in the event of a well control incident. For example, in a multiple ram configuration, one set of rams might be fitted to close on 5-in. diameter drillpipe, another set configured for 4 1/2-in. drillpipe, a third fitted with blind rams to close on the openhole and a fourth fitted with a shear ram that can cut and hang-off the drillpipe as a last resort. It is common to have an annular preventer or two on the top of the stack since annulars can be closed over a wide range of tubular sizes and the openhole, but are typically not rated for pressures as high as ram preventers. The BOP stack also includes various spools, adapters and piping outlets to permit the circulation of wellbore fluids under pressure in the event of a well control incident."
     
Loading...