BP Inserts Siphon Into Oil Leak, Washington Warns BP; Slick New Videos; Tracking the Spill; Will BP Survive?
by ilene - May 17th, 2010 1:04 am
BP Inserts Siphon Into Oil Leak, Washington Warns BP; Slick New Videos; Tracking the Spill; Will BP Survive?
Courtesy of Mish
In what everyone hopes will be the start of sealing the leak, on its second attempt BP Inserts Siphon Into Oil Leak.
BP PLC successfully inserted a tube into the broken pipe leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico early Sunday, a person close to the containment operation said, increasing the chances that the company will be able to siphon off much of the oil now gushing into the sea.
The tube is designed to capture a large part of the oil spewing from the pipe and direct it securely to a ship on the surface.
Earlier efforts to contain the spill ran into a series of setbacks. BP made a first attempt to insert the tube late Saturday, but it fell out following a collision between two subsea robots. Before that, a huge dome that was to be lowered onto the leak got clogged up with gas crystals or hydrates.
It’s still unclear whether the new siphoning operation will work. Even in the best-case scenario, the tube won’t capture all the leaking oil.
Video of Gushing Leak
4 Ways Considered To Stop The Spill
The Wall Street Journal has graphics showing 4 Ways Considered To Stop The Spill
1. Drilling Relief Wells
2. Treading the Needle, inserting a 6-inch vacuum tube inside the riser to suck up oil
3. Junk Shot, placing golf balls and other junk into the bottom of the blowout preventer before cement is injected into the top
4. Top Hat shown below
In regards to "Junk Shot", it seems to me that golf balls are relatively light as are broken pieces of rubber tires that have also been mentioned. If you are going to try this, why not lead balls?
Right now the focus is on threading the needle
Letter from Secretary of Interior to CEO of BP
Inquiring minds are reading the letter from Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, to Dr. Anthony Hayward, Group Chief Executive BP.
The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill may prove to be one of the most devastating environmental disasters this nation has ever faced. As one of the responsible parties for this event, BP is accountable to the American public for the full clean up
David Kotok: $12.5 Billion Is Just The Start Of The Oil Cleanup Costs, And A Double-Dip Is Now Way More Likely
by ilene - May 2nd, 2010 4:01 pm
David Kotok: $12.5 Billion Is Just The Start Of The Oil Cleanup Costs, And A Double-Dip Is Now Way More Likely
Courtesy of Joe Weisenthal at Clusterstock
David Kotok of Cumberland Advisors is out with some very gloomy comments about the economic ramifications of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and what it will cost. First he notes the ugliest case scenario:
This spew stoppage takes longer to reach a full closure; the subsequent cleanup may take a decade. The Gulf becomes a damaged sea for a generation. The oil slick leaks beyond the western Florida coast, enters the Gulfstream and reaches the eastern coast of the United States and beyond. Use your imagination for the rest of the damage. Monetary cost is now measured in the many hundreds of billions of dollars.
As for numbers:
Usually, the first estimates in any crises are too low. That is true here. 1000 barrels a day is now 5000, and some estimates of spillage are trending higher. No one knows exactly. The containment and boom mechanism is subject to weather cooperation as we can see this weekend. Soon we are entering the hurricane season. The thoughts of a storm stirring up the Gulf, hampering any cleanup or remediation drilling effort and creating a huge 10,000 square mile black stew is frightening to every professional in the business.
This will be a financial calamity for many firms, not just BP and its partners and service providers. Their liabilities are immense and must not be underestimated. The first estimate of $12.5 billion is only a starter.
As for the economy beyond BP…
Thousands of small and independent businesses as well as larger public companies in tourism are hurt here. This is not just about the source of half the nation’s shrimp. That is already a casualty. It’s also about the bank loans for the $200,000 shrimp boat and the house the boat owner and/or his employees live in and the fact that this shock piles on a fragile financial system that is trying to recover from a three-year financial crisis. Case study, my fishing guide in the Everglades splits his time between Florida and Louisiana. His May bookings in LA have cancelled. His colleagues lost theirs and their lodge will be empty. They are busy trying to find work in the clean up. For him, his wife