"... The leak that’s been stopped is upstream from the primary leak at the end of the broken drill pipe, Blackwell said. BP and the Coast Guard have said there’s potential for greater leakage from the well because something has kept it from flowing at a full rate. Cause of the constriction may be a partially closed valve or a kink in the pipe, Suttles has said. The leak could surge to 60,000 barrels a day {vs. current 5000} if plans to cap it with a containment dome fail, Representative Edward Markey said yesterday after meeting with industry executives. " From: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJapB0w4MHYI&pos=9
“…Daniel Becnel, the lawyer who called the meeting, {yesterday of ~200 suing attorneys } has asked a federal judicial panel in Washington to combine thousands of claims by commercial fishermen, shrimpers, property owners, seafood processors and tourism-related businesses into a single multidistrict case before one judge in New Orleans. That could keep the lawsuits from dragging on for years and would get badly needed cash into victims’ hands, Becnel said. “We’re not going to have a long march to trial,” Becnel said yesterday in an interview before the meeting. “This could all be over in 90 days.*” … defendants in most of the suits are: Transocean Ltd., which owned the rig; Cameron International Corp., which supplied the blowout prevention equipment on the well; and Halliburton Energy Services Inc., which was providing cementing services to the well. None of the companies has accepted liability for the accident**….” From: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a94k.gB66rOg ----------- *Not if the damage is still mounting after 90 days, as it surely will. ** BP is accepting ONLY responsibility for the clean up costs, not for the accident caused losses to businesses. They only leased the well and owned the oil extracted. If you rent a house and a tree in yard falls, smashing the neighbor's home the owner, not you, must pay. As I stated earlier, BP has more money and lawyers than Transocean, who may go bankrupt before this is over if oil keeps leaking. To complete this analogy, if you raise corn in the back yard of the rented house, you own it, can sell it, etc. _______________________________________ “ Under federal law, BP (BP) and its minority partners in the well, Anadarko (APC, Fortune 500) and Mitsui, have to cover all the cleanup costs. BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward has pledged several times to honor that commitment. … A BP spokesman said the company would cover all "legitimate claims," …” From: http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/06/news/economy/BP_liability/index.htm In less polite terms BP is saying: "Screw you Transocean.”
The "1990 Oil Pollution Act" has the current law that largely controls who will pay what for liability for this disaster. Pelosi may be trying to get the law changed to make BP pay more. BP may try to get the law changed to make Transocean pay more. If I am to believe some sources Transocean's contract with BP sticks BP with all Liability. The 1990 oil pollution act sticks BP with all the liability for clean up but limits their liability for damages to people like fishermen.
To find BP "grossly negligent" IMHO will be impossible. AFAIK they were not even near the site when the accident occurred. An example of gross negligence by BP would be if they were pumping oil into one of their tankers and it was running out of the other side. The market cap of BP has taken a huge hit, perhaps deserved when "good will" is considered, but way out of proportion to what they will end up paying, I think. I think the 75 million limit will hold as in the "president" case of cleaning up of old toxic waste dumps, when it did not there was no law on the books, AFAIK. For BP to be retroactively held to a newly created higher limit, the Congress would be saying the existing laws are not valid.
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Note some oil is now south of the well. - Not all headed to US. Good work Sandy! At least you are off setting Ben Laden's prayers now. Hope conflicting prayers are not too stressful on God. With a little stronger effort, perhaps you can send it to Castro, if not all the way to Chavez. It looks like you have broken off a big piece and two little ones that may be headed that way. Congratulations!
“…The {recently discovered "Tiber"} field is almost six miles (9.6 kilometers) beneath the Gulf of Mexico’s floor, in a spot where the water is almost one mile deep, reports Bloomberg BusinessWeek in its May 10 issue. To access it, the British oil company and its drilling contractor, Transocean Ltd., sank the deepest oil well ever. The $365 million rig that accomplished this feat was called the Deepwater Horizon, a floating thicket of machinery the size of two football fields, which held a crew of 130 and cost {BP} more than $500,000 a day to rent from Transocean. The Deepwater Horizon, as a drilling rig, didn’t hang around to pump Tiber’s crude. The self-propelled behemoth motored to the site of its next exploration. Today, the Deepwater Horizon lies upside down at the bottom of the Gulf under one mile of seawater in a place called Mississippi Canyon Block 252. …” Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Cover & text from: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aHElyJ.bKpsw&pos=10
"... BP’s latest effort to prevent oil leaks from damaging wildlife and tourism on the U.S. coast has been stymied as cold and pressure a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico formed ice that clogged a containment device. The device, a 40-foot-tall steel chamber BP hoped would capture the oil gushing from a damaged offshore well and funnel it to a ship at the surface, was blocked by an icy mixture of gas and water near the seafloor, the company said. ..." Above quote from: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=au70oUht5TqM&pos=4 ... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! ... Methane hydrate ice burning The methane hydrate ice shown in the photo was probably made in the lab as most of the natural stuff on the ocean floor is dirty looking. (Has mud etc. in it too.) Billy T comment: That "icy mixture of gas and water" is no doubt methane hydrate - something I have been concerned about for many years as it MAY have the potential to kill ALL LIFE on earth. I. e. cause earth to switch to its hot stable state as Venus did a long time ago. In that hot stable state, the atmosphere is much thicker so that IR which now escapes from the surface into space cannot. Thus the earth surface is very much hotter, the top layers of the oceans are boiling, and above the land the "air" is mainly extremely hot, high-pressure, superheated steam. Earth is completely sterile as Venus is. Note that much of the ocean floor is covered with mix of soil and methane hydrate ice. There is more carbon stored down there than in all the coal and petroleum known to exist, or to ever have existed, on earth. If the CH4 stored down there comes up too quickly, earth will switch to the hot stable state. Because of unprecedented RATE of CO2 induced global warming some CH4 is already starting to bubble up in the now ice free coastal water of the Arctic Ocean. Read more as to why this may happen (perhaps already is too far into the process to stop) at: http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=2514302&postcount=92 and many later posts in exchanges with Trippy, mainly. For a few exchanges with Electric fetus, see: http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=2530418&postcount=50 then post 53, and then others still later by ElectricFetus and me in this thread.
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Sandy must be sleeping. The oil is again only on the US side of the leak location and headed to where it will do the most damage. Does'nt Bin Laden ever sleep too? - Or does he just keep praying 24/7 for more damage to US? BP & Transocean are both conducting independent investigations as to the cause. Each will obviously conclude it was the other's fault.* Neither will even suggest that this simultaneous failure of many separate devices was due to Bin Laden's "praying skills." (Developed over many years of experience - Bin started praying alone as teenager, spending weeks in the desert fasting without food, only praying, etc.) The reason neither can admit this obvious truth is that some one must pay for the damage done and it is impossible to collect from Bin, even though he is quite rich, as we can't even find him. ----------------- * "... Transocean's chief executive Steven Newman is expected to point the finger at BP. {but as this is hard to make stick when BP had no one even near the well at time of accident and only owns the oil, - none of the equipment} ... Mr Newman is expected to say BP's contractor Halliburton was responsible for encasing the well in cement before it was plugged and for ensuring the cement's integrity. Halliburton executive Tim Probert is expected to argue that his firm followed all rules and guidelines, and that pressure tests proved the integrity of the work. ..." From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8674073.stm Where you can read more about the current legal manuevers. BTW, the 5 puts I bought early on (see post 100) when I concluded that Transocean's ownership of the well, lower market cap and lesser legal staff etc. would in the end pay for the damage to sea food and hotel industry yesterday went from an open at double what I paid to more than tripling in value by CoB. I.e. others are joining me in concluding Transocean, RIG, is going to be seriously damaged, perhaps even bankrupted.
"... BP Plc faces the risk of an even bigger oil spill as it attempts to drill two so-called relief wells to plug a leak on the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico that’s gushing 5,000 barrels a day into the ocean. The relief wells will pump cement into the leak to seal it. To do that, BP will need to first drill into the same deposit of oil and gas that caused a pressure surge known as a blowout at the original well, igniting an explosion that killed 11 workers and sank a $365 million drilling rig. In a regulatory filing BP made to drill the relief wells it estimates another blowout could release as much as 240,000 barrels of oil a day into the ocean. That’s almost 50 percent more than the company’s worst-case estimate for the first well and equivalent to two-thirds of supply pumped daily from Prudhoe Bay, the largest U.S. oil field. ..." From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8674073.stm Billy T comment: I sure hope Bin Laden does not read the BBC news site. He will pray for this extra disaster and I don't think, based on her recent performance, Sandy is his equal in praying.
I don't think the relief wells pose much of a risk for making the oil leak worse. BP instructed Transocean and Halliburton that they wanted the riser fluid (aka drilling fluid, aka heavy mud) removed prior to the placing of the plug on the well. This saves time and money but increases than chance of blowouts at this late post cementing phase of the operation. BP says they did not know that there had been any problems or kicks at this well. The drill rig survivors dispute that. If a well kicks (surges of pressure) and therefore shows potential for blowouts that well is not a good candidate for saving money buy replacing the heavy mud drilling fluid with lighter sea water prior to setting the cement plug. The fact that the well had so much methane pressure at that post cementing phase does indicate that Halliburton's cementing probably failed. BP has paid a lot of money in advertising trying to improve their image over the years. Even if BP takes total responsibility legally and financially for this blowout I think they still would like to shift the public opinion blame onto other companies. Transocean owned the Cameron BOP that failed. A functioning BOP should have shut down that well in 40 seconds. Shutting the well in 40 seconds would probably have been too slow to stop the initial explosions but would have prevented the ongoing oil leak disaster. The 1990s post EXON Valdez law and Transocean's contract with BP both leave BP (and it's minority partner) responsible for everything by themselves unless they can show gross negligence by Transocean or Halliburton. There is talk about Transocean modifying the BOP but I don't know if that is true and whether that is routine or matters. They still don't know why the BOP failed. All of the procedure used were probably legal and routine but they obviously were inadequate and undersea drilling apparently needs to be more regulated. I can't really say stop drilling because I like the energy consumptive lifestyle. I hope solar, wind and tidal get cheaper as they are utilized more.
to nirkar: You seem to know something about all this. I only know what I read. Can you explain more about this "cement plug." I understand that during drilling there is the heaver drilling "mud" in the pipes going down which hopefully has more pressure at the bottom than the oil / methane so contains them. How in the world can a cement plug do that? Does it go down thru the pipes? Is wet cement when applied, or pre-shaped to fit somewhere? If wet and going down thru the pipe, why does it not plug them when it sets? Educate me a little if you can. Are there two cemented areas? I have read Transocean accused Halliburton of not doing the "cement wall" correctly. Halliburton said Yes they did it correctly and even pressure tested it 20 days before the accident. Things may be looking better for Transocean than I thought from what you are saying and also from fact the value of their stock did recover some today, especially late in the day after some of the testimony before Congress may have leaked out. The value of my puts fell back to only double what I paid. Who do you think will end up paying for the larger losses (lost income of sea food and hotel etc. industry)?
I am not promising accuracy. The cement plug is wet when applied and goes through the pipes. They use a circular loop of liquids. They send liquids down the drill pipe and then suck them back up in the space they call the annulus between the drill pipe and casing pipe. They send the cement down the drill pipe to where they want the plug and the flush the drill pipe clean with other fluids. Or something like that. Cement plug: They were going to set a "balanced plug" which probably should have been done with the hydrostatic pressure of the heavy mud still in place. We are familiar with plywood forms into which cement is poured while making buildings. Instead of plywood in the well they use "preflush fluid" below the cement to support the cement before it sets and "spacer fluid" above the cement to hold it in place. http://www.shoxee.com/2009/11/cement-plugs-balanced-plug-technique.html There are more than two cemented areas: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6427 The methane came from somewhere and if Halliburton did cementing correctly you would think the methane would be trapped in the surrounding rocks until BP choose to blow holes through the production liner to start production at a later date when they have their production platform in place, At those depths and pressures can easily stay in it's ice form and can be in sediment layers as methane hydrate ice. But when cement cures it makes heat. The cement curing heat melts the surrounding methane hydrate ice which expands as a gas and creates channels through the cement. The cementing of the production liner was completed 20 hours before the accident. Sometime after that it passed a pressure test. I don't know why it passed the pressure test. With the heavy mud being replaced by seawater something must have given way. I don't think gross negligence will be proven against Halliburton or Transocean but fear and short sellers shoul depress Transocean stock for months or years. Transocean will have legal expense even if they win. BP may sue Transocean just for PR purposes so that BP can not be blamed by the public. Three or more things failed to make this accident. The accident is no really one company's fault but rather is the fault of a system that was not prepared for three things to fail even though things fail often enough in drilling that having three failures at once should have been expected and prepared for. For the cost to fishing and tourism and health problems of people: BP and Anadarko each or together pays 75 million, the oil spill liability trust fund pays 1.6 billion. After that money runs out the people who are hurt are just out of luck if the State and Federal governments don't help them. I think the 75 million dollar damages cap and the other laws will stand up in court. BP and Anadarko have to pay for the clean up. I don't know who gets to say what clean enough is. Transocean has to pay up to their 100 million dollar deductible for their dead employees. Transocean has a deductible before their insurance on their rig kicks in. Can congress change the rules for BP after the fact and would a majority of congress want to. I don't see the threat by a few congress people to make BP pay more than 75 million to fishermen as being likely to happen. Can lawyers get juries to ignore the laws and award damages in a many that seems to be out of compliance with federal law? Maybe they can. Would such awards be overturned by appellate courts? Probably. I think Appellate judges favor corporations. You can find enough contradiction in US laws and legal precedents so that a lawyer could make a case for anything and no outcome is guaranteed.
Thanks. That was helpful, especially your second link to the oildrum - I had forgotten to check them.
Canada is not booming. The country has basically been slowly shutting down for the past twenty years.
They buy a very expensive BOP from Cameron then they partially disable the BOP on purpose so that the tests to see if the BOP is functioning won't take so long. BP and other clients don't want to take the time to remove the drill pipe (AKA Drill string) from the well to test the BOP because the Transocean drill rig rents for a half million dollars a day so time is money. Transocean should buy still yet more expensive BOPs that have an additional test ram before they go partially disabling their BOP. Really from now on their needs two Blow Out Preventers with separate power supplies and separate hydraulic systems at each well. Maybe I should buy Cameron stock. Penny Pinching is often stupid and in a situation like undersea drilling penny pinching should probably be illegal. I hate the modern corporate culture. MBAs look good when they pinch pennies and favor the short term profits over the long term profits. Who looks after the long term, Risk management? The results of excessive penny pinching are not so dramatic in businesses other than under sea drilling but excessive penny pinching to some degree screws up everything it touches. Regulation also screws up everything it touches but we have no choice but to regulate if corporations are going to take their penny pinching to far.
I bet they did the re-assembly on Monday morning and the mechanic was still hung over. Probably he dropped a bolt inside that is now holding the piston back. PS He really can't be blamed. Ben Laden was praying for something like that. Alcohol is evil you know, so it was easy for Ben to get God on his side.
More on legal questions / developments: "... Transocean's legal team today filed a request under the federal Limitation of Liability Act in an attempt to reduce the company's financial responsibility for the explosion. Transocean's legal filing also could put the onus on injured victims to file legal claims before a yet-to-be-determined deadline. ... "Transocean has compounded this terrible tragedy with a shameful legal filing that is intended solely to protect the company's interests," says Mr. Arnold {of}... Arnold & Itkin represents several plaintiffs with claims related to what experts say may be the worst environmental disaster in history. The firm's clients include several workers from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which is owned by Transocean and operated by UK*-based BP ... About Arnold & Itkin LLP: The lawyers at Arnold & Itkin LLP, a personal injury law firm based in Houston, Texas, understand the complexities and legalities of maritime law and have a successful track record of verdicts and settlements. The firm provides legal guidance on all aspects of maritime law and the benefits offshore workers are entitled to under the Jones Act, the Death on the High Seas Act, the principle of maintenance and cure, or the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act. The firm handles maritime claims at port cities along the Gulf Coast in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. ..." From today's information sheet at TD AmTrade under RIG. -------------- *As accident happened well outside US's 12 mile limit and BP is British can they be tried in US courts? Probably yes, but why not in Brazilian courts, etc.
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Way to go Sandy! Your prayers have move a lot of oil south of leak. :bravo: Ben Laden must finally be sleeping. :bravo: Don't clap Sandy - you may wake him.
I have seen heavy equipment leaking hydraulic fluid but still usable. BOPs should be maintained to a higher standard than backhoes. What is being said about the BOP makes Transocean look very bad but these stories may be originating from BP. I expect that we will learn that Transocean has done the same bad modification to all BOPs leased to BP or similarly minded companies when they operate in low regulation nations like the USA or Mexico. If the acoustic controls represent a trend then Brazil is less corrupt or more sophisticated than the USA which is really sad news for Americans.
