gulf spill

[dnf777]

Yep, we are all living in squalar down here The enviromental impact has been blown out of proportion but that is what Pravda does in America.

Godspeed to the Horizon

Lake Charles was the "big city" to us, when we lived in Beauregard Parish! Heck, you guys even have a Barnes & Noble last time I checked.

[duk4me]

IMO---This is not a political topic.
I have cleaned up more than one spill.
It is tragic.

Good luck to the USCG and all the others involved in the clean up, it is a daunting task!!



rk

Sorry RK since you are the self appointed POTUS police and kindergarden cop maybe you should move it like the moderators do.

[dnf777]

IMO---This is not a political topic.
I have cleaned up more than one spill.
It is tragic.

Good luck to the USCG and all the others involved in the clean up, it is a daunting task!!

rk

I agree that the current tragedy and the call to action is NOT political. Time to drop the nametags and all help clean this mess up!

I respectfully disagree that the discussion that will ensue regarding "drill, baby drill" is not political. It is 100% political in regards to how much new drilling should be started...what safety and industry regulation (if any at all) should be in place....who should pay for future cleanups....

We all know that more drilling will occur. Even Obama is in that camp. Where disagreement will occur is how much industry regulation is in order, in part to hold those with the drills responsible for safe, clean drilling.

[Franco]

We all know that more drilling will occur. Even Obama is in that camp. Where disagreement will occur is how much industry regulation is in order, in part to hold those with the drills responsible for safe, clean drilling.

I hate to think of the money BP is losing with this accident. I know they spends 10's of millions on saftey and responsible drilling. It is much cheaper for them to have all the latest saftey equipment and training than take the financial beating they will take for this spill. If it really gets bad, other industiries could suffer too like fishing, recreation and tourism all along the mid-gulf coast.

The business of oil field saftey is paramont, including using the best and latest drilling techniques. Even with all the latest technology, shit happens. Attorneys are hoovering over the 11 families that lost loved ones in the explosion. Everyone involved knows that it is better to prevent than deal with the aftermath.

The last thing we need is for Obama to lecture on drilling responsibility! If he knows a safer way to drill at 5,000 feet below sea level, then let him present his equipment and technology.

[dnf777]

I'm no petroleum engineer, but wouldn't it make sense to engineer a deliberate weak point near the well insertion point into the ground (break-away point) with a dead-man valve immediately below, so any mishap like this would 1) break at a predictable point in a controlled fashion, and 2) automatically close the well-head?

[Mark Littlejohn]

I'm no petroleum engineer, but wouldn't it make sense to engineer a deliberate weak point near the well insertion point into the ground (break-away point) with a dead-man valve immediately below, so any mishap like this would 1) break at a predictable point in a controlled fashion, and 2) automatically close the well-head?

You've just described a subsea blowout preventer (BOP).
Here's a pic of one; note the scale.
This is what their ROVs have been working 24x7 to close manually.

[Henry V]

I hate to think of the money BP is losing with this accident. I know they spends 10's of millions on saftey and responsible drilling. It is much cheaper for them to have all the latest saftey equipment and training than take the financial beating they will take for this spill. If it really gets bad, other industiries could suffer too like fishing, recreation and tourism all along the mid-gulf coast.

The business of oil field saftey is paramont, including using the best and latest drilling techniques. Even with all the latest technology, shit happens. ......

Yes, poor BP. I sure hope the government sends them the bill for all the clean-up costs. No reason that the taxpayers should be paying for clean-up needed because of a private company accident, particularly when the company made 10s of billions in net profits a couple years ago. If other industries are damaged by the spill they should recover losses too.

[dnf777]

You've just described a subsea blowout preventer (BOP).
Here's a pic of one; note the scale.
This is what their ROVs have been working 24x7 to close manually.

I guess I forgot point #3-- that the above described device will work as advertised in the event of an actual emergency!

Hey, that valve wasn't designed by Toyota, was it?

[Hew]

A hopefully-not-too-boring-aside...

The Coast Guard are the mack daddies of emergency response/hazmat clean-up. They're so good that the EPA sometimes uses them on non-waterway projects, too. We were working on train derailment in Alabama about 75 miles from the Gulf. It was a particularly tricky/dangerous job and after multiple, national hazmat companies couldn't get the job done after 3 days of trying the Coast Guards HazMat team was called in. Dudes rolled in like the A-Team and got the job licked. There were more than a 100 contractor personnel and emergency workers on the job and when the Coasties packed up to leave they all gave them an ovation.

[Buzz]

A hopefully-not-too-boring-aside...

The Coast Guard are the mack daddies of emergency response/hazmat clean-up. They're so good that the EPA sometimes uses them on non-waterway projects, too. We were working on train derailment in Alabama about 75 miles from the Gulf. It was a particularly tricky/dangerous job and after multiple, national hazmat companies couldn't get the job done after 3 days of trying the Coast Guards HazMat team was called in. Dudes rolled in like the A-Team and got the job licked. There were more than a 100 contractor personnel and emergency workers on the job and when the Coasties packed up to leave they all gave them an ovation.

It's nice to know that the gooberment is capable of getting something right.