Visualizing the BP Oil Spill Disaster

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hvacmach

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Visualizing the BP Oil Spill Disaster

You can move the spill over your town to get a better idea of the size. I really don't understand why no one is going to jail, instead of just talking money.

http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/

Shows what happens when BIG Government gets mixed with water
 
It is covering an estimated 750 square miles.
Could be more, there is a lot of emulsion that is suspended below the surface that we
cannot see.
 
quote:
Originally posted by hvacmach

...Shows what happens when BIG Government gets mixed with water..

Click to expand...

Huh!?!?

Shows what happens when big business takes unnecessary risks to attain higher profits.

How do you propose preventing this in the future?

Do you think that there will be more oil spills or less oil spills if the oil industry was allowed to regulate itself?

It is clear that the current system failed. I'm leaning toward no offshore drilling because it doesn't require any government oversight. Smaller government and smaller environmental risk. Realistically, we can't stop all offshore drilling, but there needs to be controls put in place that will prevent this from happening again.

I personally, would rather become a sailboater with fuel at $10/gal than use a powerboat in an oil slick with fuel at $3/gal. There is a very real possibility that this will happen very soon in most of Florida and possibly along the entire Atlantic coast. The further away from the source, the less impact there will be.
 
Mark,
If the Mocha Messiah gets his way you will gwet your chance to become a blow boater with $10.00 gas and NO drilling, that should make you happy..
 
Just think about it. No oil, no rubber, no plastics, no FRP to build your blow boat, no diesel/gas to run it on.
I'm just glad you are not running the country. It's bad enough with what we got running it.

You cannot fix human error. The accident was preventable. The accident was fixable, but human error again made it unfixable. There were several things that were overlooked for 5 or 6 days straight. It will all come out in the final report. The unfortunate family of the dead workers on the Horizon will never have to work again.

I have worked offshore in the oilfield for 26 years and I have never seen so much neglegence as I have with this whole thing. Even 26 years ago.
 
quote:
Originally posted by rduhon

...I have worked offshore in the oilfield for 26 years and I have never seen so much neglegence as I have with this whole thing. Even 26 years ago.

Click to expand...
What would you propose needs to change to prevent this from happening again?
 
I know little about getting oil out of the ground other than it's expenisve and involves risk. From what I have read however, the oil companies can barely fart without permission from a government oversight person. Somewhere in all this I feel money changed hands or the oversight person was a mental midget. Congress needs to look into whatever agency was in charge of seeing to it that the companies were compliant with regulations.
 
Minerals Management Service is over oil and gas in the US.
They approved several not so good things, but the BP rep on the rig didn't follow good
drilling protocol and procedures.
BP didn't have a good deepwater well design either. It was a cheaper, faster design.
Those rigs cost at least $1M/day to run when drilling. Cut corners, cut days, cut lives and
employment, cut reputation...

This incident will prevent a lot of that in the future. Laws will change, procedures will change,
contingency plans will change, well design will change.
The problem with the MMS is it's employees are mostly old drilling and production hands. They only
know what they know when they worked in the oilfield 20 years ago.
The oil companies have technology that is far ahead of what these inspectors and engineers know about.
They will have to be taught and tutored by the oil industry in order to catch up with the times.
Colleges and universities do not teach this type of technology. Each oil company has their own
research and developement centers that help develop new technology for their company only.
The MMS goes to the training center that my company operates. They have the inside scoop on
how we operate, drill and the technology we use to get where we want to be. Not all companies
do this.
Our training center is where the main incident command center for the BP blow out was located
until today.
It has a drilling simulator and a well simulator, meeting rooms, everything needed for this type
of issue.
All of our platforms and rigs can be monitored from our offices in Houston, New Orleans and
the training center in Robert, La.
 
quote:
Originally posted by rduhon

....The problem with the MMS is it's employees are mostly old drilling and production hands. They only know what they know when they worked in the oilfield 20 years ago.
The oil companies have technology that is far ahead of what these inspectors and engineers know about.
They will have to be taught and tutored by the oil industry in order to catch up with the times....

Click to expand...
Sounds like experienced oilmen are being used as regulators (which IHMO is good) but they are then trained by the company they regulate on new proprietary equipment and techniques.

It seems to me that there needs to be some type of review process that requires several people to make the same mistake for something to go wrong. Procedures need to be made, reviewed, then followed. It sounds like your company does this, but BP did not. Perhaps only minor changes need to be made in the regulation of offshore drilling to make it as safe as it needs to be.
 
quote:
Originally posted by rduhon

Just think about it. No oil, no rubber, no plastics, no FRP to build your blow boat, no diesel/gas to run it on.

Click to expand...
You and I are alike in someways. I look at things in the extreme. My extreme was "no offshore drilling". Your extreme was "no oil". You just took it a little further.
quote:
Originally posted by rduhon

I'm just glad you are not running the country. It's bad enough with what we got running it.
...
Click to expand...
Don't worry, I'm not planning on running for president anytime soon.
 
Zero's moratorium on offshore drilling is going to correct all short comings and deficiencies. Nothing but clear skies and calm seas when he's done. Yeah, buddy!!!!
 
No one in his administration knows squat about deepwater development.
It is going to take a lot longer than 6 months to school the whole MMS what it took
the oil companies 20 years to develop.
 
No drilling means a natural decline in the GOM to no oil in the GOM.

The US GOM is the best bet we have to reduce our dependence on forien oil.
Why buy it and ship it if we already have it.
Why stop drilling because of one big disaster caused by a few bad decisions.
When the ragheads flew those planes into the WTC, why didn't we stop flying planes in America?
 
BP oil spill shows what happens when corporations control regulatory agencies.

It's just best to let big business protect the environment and everyone on the Gulf Coast, right?

The six-month deep well drilling moratorium makes sense. BP agreed to pay lost earnings for these Gulf Coast oil workers. Restructure MMS so it functions as a real regulatory agency and not as a sockpuppet for the oil companies. Oil companies should prove they have responsible means to drill deep wells off the US coast. BP is obviously lacking in this respect.

Multinational and US oil companies will continue to produce and sell oil from wherever they can for the highest profit possible. If a deep well works, they will drill one wherever they can. If they can ship quality OPEC oil around the world cheaper than they can process low-grade California offshore oil, then the oil companies will do that. They don't drill in the US just because they think it's good for the country. They drill here when the money is right. If you don't believe this ask yourself why only one CA offshore oil lease was sold after CA lifted it's moratorium. Oil companies can import oil or produce medium crude from the Gulf for a higher profit.

Hope nobody bought a load of BP stock earlier this year.
 
"BP oil spill shows what happens when corporations control regulatory agencies. It's just best to let big business protect the environment and everyone on the Gulf Coast, right? ""

And the poor reaction and lack of leadership from Zero shows what happens when politicians are in charge. Either way, we're screwed!
 
quote:
Originally posted by manticore999

"BP oil spill shows what happens when corporations control regulatory agencies. It's just best to let big business protect the environment and everyone on the Gulf Coast, right? ""

And the poor reaction and lack of leadership from Zero shows what happens when politicians are in charge. Either way, we're screwed!

Click to expand...

So if you were POTUS, what would you have done differently?
 
quote:
Originally posted by rduhon

...When the ragheads flew those planes into the WTC, why didn't we stop flying planes in America?
Click to expand...

I seem to recall that planes did stop flying until the security could be "corrected" to reduce the possibility of another incident. I recall this was about a week. I have friends that rented cars to drive half way across the country to get home.
 
quote:
Originally posted by rduhon

No one in his administration knows squat about deepwater development.
It is going to take a lot longer than 6 months to school the whole MMS what it took
the oil companies 20 years to develop.

Click to expand...

You previously posted that the MMS is staffed with oilmen with 20 years experience. That the oil companies have been training the MMS all along. Why will it take longer than 6 months?

If the Deepwater Horizon was an isolated incident of negligence, then a quick review will show no other issues on other rigs. Heck, the administration could hire YOU since you have the experience AND you saw the issues.

There must be others in the oilfield that can spot the issues that you saw. Are there oilmen willing to serve the country and the industry to get this fixed?
 
quote:
Originally posted by yzer

quote:
Originally posted by manticore999

"BP oil spill shows what happens when corporations control regulatory agencies. It's just best to let big business protect the environment and everyone on the Gulf Coast, right? ""

And the poor reaction and lack of leadership from Zero shows what happens when politicians are in charge. Either way, we're screwed!

Click to expand...

So if you were POTUS, what would you have done differently?

Click to expand...


Simple- enforce regulations that are already in place.
No surprise here as to yzer's suck up, kiss ass, government knows best attitude.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Harlan

Simple- enforce regulations that are already in place.
No surprise here as to yzer's suck up, kiss ass, government knows best attitude.

Click to expand...
I believe that is what is being done. Verify that all the current regulations are being followed. Until that can happen, stop drilling.

I find it interesting that some people can discuss issues WITHOUT name calling and others can't. Does your point of view lack merit such that you must punctuate it with an insult? Solutions to problems are found by free discussion. Insults and name calling are a poor attempt to end the discussion.
 
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