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  #21  
Old 05-27-2010, 12:08 PM
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"‘Top Kill’ Effort Seems to Be Working, U.S. Says Cautiously
HOUSTON — The latest effort to plug a gushing underwater oil well in the Gulf of Mexico appeared to be working, officials and engineers said on Thursday morning, though definitive word on its success was still hours away."



Image of Top Kill gear in place by the blowout
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...l-bp-oil-spill


"Early indications on Thursday were positive for the well-plugging measure, known as a top kill. Crews were injecting heavy drilling fluid deep into the well in hopes of stemming the relentless flow of gas and oil, which has devastated commercial fishing in the Gulf for five weeks, fouled miles of coastline and put the company and federal regulators at the center of a political firestorm. Several previous attempts to stop the leak had failed.

BP warned that success for the top kill was not guaranteed and that it could still fail at any moment. But engineers and geologists following the effort said the likelihood of success was growing with each passing hour."
Continued at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/us/28spill.html



Top Kill diagram
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/


NEW Oil Release estimates:


"Flow Rate Group Provides Preliminary Best Estimate Of Oil Flowing from BP Oil Well
WASHINGTON - USGS Director Dr. Marcia McNutt today announced that the National Incident Command’s Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG) has developed an independent, preliminary estimate of the amount of oil flowing from BP’s leaking oil well.

In making the announcement, Dr. McNutt, who is the chair of the FRTG, established by Admiral Thad Allen, the National Incident Commander, emphasized that since day one, the Administration’s deployments of resources and tactics in response to the BP oil spill have been based on a worst-case, catastrophic scenario, and have not been contained by flow rate estimates.

Based on three separate methodologies, outlined below, the independent analysis of the Flow Rate Technical Group has determined that the overall best initial estimate for the lower and upper boundaries of flow rates of oil is in the range of 12,000 and 19,000 barrels per day.

The FRTG used three separate methodologies to calculate their initial estimate, which they deemed the most scientifically-sound approach, because measurement of the flow of oil is extremely challenging, given the environment, unique nature of the flow, limited visibility, and lack of human access to BP’s leaking oil well. "

"Based on observations on May 17th, and accounting for thin oil not sensed by the AVIRIS sensor, the FRTG estimated that between 130,000 and 270,000 barrels of oil are on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico."
Complete article at: http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse....c/2931/569235/


With that, here's a joyful article ...

"Estimates Suggest Spill Is Biggest in U.S. History
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
NEW ORLEANS — A federal team created to produce a more precise estimate of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico has determined that the rate is at least twice what was previously acknowledged and possibly five times as much, officials said on Thursday."
Continued at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/us/28flow.html

and on a lighter note, eels consider diet change?


Sea life checks out discharge 5000 ft. deep

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Last edited by ricki; 05-27-2010 at 12:29 PM.
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  #22  
Old 05-27-2010, 04:12 PM
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This mess just keeps evolving in bad directions. Sink your problems and they'll go away? Doesn't look like it.

"NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Marine scientists have discovered a massive new plume of what they believe to be oil deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico, stretching 22 miles (35 kilometers) from the leaking wellhead northeast toward Mobile Bay, Alabama.

The discovery by researchers on the University of South Florida College of Marine Science's Weatherbird II vessel is the second significant undersea plume recorded since the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20.

The thick plume was detected just beneath the surface down to about 3,300 feet (1,000 meters), and is more than 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) wide, said David Hollander, associate professor of chemical oceanography at the school.

Hollander said the team detected the thickest amount of hydrocarbons, likely from the oil spewing from the blown out well, at about 1,300 feet (nearly 400 meters) in the same spot on two separate days this week.

The discovery was important, he said, because it confirmed that the substance found in the water was not naturally occurring and that the plume was at its highest concentration in deeper waters. The researchers will use further testing to determine whether the hydrocarbons they found are the result of dispersants or the emulsification of oil as it traveled away from the well.

The first such plume detected by scientists stretched from the well southwest toward the open sea, but this new undersea oil cloud is headed miles inland into shallower waters where many fish and other species reproduce.

The researchers say they are worried these undersea plumes may be the result of the unprecedented use of chemical dispersants to break up the oil a mile undersea at the site of the leak.

Hollander said the oil they detected has dissolved into the water, and is no longer visible, leading to fears from researchers that the toxicity from the oil and dispersants could pose a big danger to fish larvae and creatures that filter the waters for food.

"There are two elements to it," Hollander said. "The plume reaching waters on the continental shelf could have a toxic effect on fish larvae, and we also may see a long term response as it cascades up the food web."

Dispersants contain surfactants, which are similar to dishwashing soap.

A Louisiana State University researcher who has studied their effects on marine life said that by breaking oil into small particles, surfactants make it easier for fish and other animals to soak up the oil's toxic chemicals. That can impair the animals' immune systems and cause reproductive problems.

"The oil's not at the surface, so it doesn't look so bad, but you have a situation where it's more available to fish," said Kevin Kleinow, a professor in LSU's school of veterinary medicine."

From: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nat...,4289082.story
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  #23  
Old 05-30-2010, 03:39 PM
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The Top Kill attempt to stop the release failed. More at:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/us/30spill.html

...


http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/6-23-2006-100288.asp

What about hurricanes and the spill? Lots of unknowns and speculation, NOAA prepared the following:

"What will happen to a hurricane that runs through
this oil slick?

• Most hurricanes span an enormous area of the
ocean (200-300 miles) — far wider than the
current size of the spill.
• If the slick remains small in comparison to a
typical hurricane’s general environment and size,
the anticipated impact on the hurricane would
be minimal.
• The oil is not expected to appreciably affect either
the intensity or the track of a fully developed
tropical storm or hurricane.
• The oil slick would have little effect on the storm
surge or near-shore wave heights.
What will the hurricane do to the oil slick in
the Gulf?
• The high winds and seas will mix and “weather”
the oil which can help accelerate the
biodegradation process.
• The high winds may distribute oil over a wider
area, but it is difficult to model exactly where the
oil may be transported.
• Movement of oil would depend greatly on the
track of the hurricane.
• Storms’ surges may carry oil into the coastline
and inland as far as the surge reaches. Debris
resulting from the hurricane may be contaminated
by oil from the Deepwater Horizon incident, but
also from other oil releases that may occur during
the storm.
• A hurricane’s winds rotate counter-clockwise.
Thus, in VERY GENERAL TERMS:
o A hurricane passing to the west of the oil slick
could drive oil to the coast.
o A hurricane passing to the east of the slick
could drive the oil away from the coast.
o However, the details of the evolution of the
storm, the track, the wind speed, the size, the
forward motion and the intensity are all
unknowns at this point and may alter this
general statement.

Will the oil slick help or hurt a storm from
developing in the Gulf?
• Evaporation from the sea surface fuels tropical
storms and hurricanes. Over relatively calm water
(such as for a developing tropical depression or
disturbance), in theory, an oil slick could suppress
evaporation if the layer is thick enough, by not
allowing contact of the water to the air.
• With less evaporation one might assume there
would be less moisture available to fuel the
hurricane and thus reduce its strength.
• However, except for immediately near the source,
the slick is very patchy. At moderate wind speeds,
such as those found in approaching tropical
storms and hurricanes, a thin layer of oil such as
is the case with the current slick (except in very
limited areas near the well) would likely break into
pools on the surface or mix as drops in the upper
layers of the ocean. (The heaviest surface slicks,
however, could re-coalesce at the surface after the
storm passes.)
• This would allow much of the water to remain in
touch with the overlying air and greatly reduce
any effect the oil may have on evaporation.
• Therefore, the oil slick is not likely to have a
significant impact on the hurricane.
Will the hurricane pull up
the oil that is below the
surface of the Gulf?
• All of the sampling to date
shows that except near
the leaking well, the
subsurface dispersed oil is in
parts per million levels or less. The hurricane will
mix the waters of the Gulf and disperse the oil
even further.
Have we had experience in the past with
hurricanes and oil spills?
• Yes, but our experience has been primarily with oil
spills that occurred because of the storm, not
from an existing oil slick and an ongoing release
of oil from the seafloor.
• The experience from hurricanes Katrina and Rita
(2005) was that oil released during the storms
became very widely dispersed.
• Dozens of significant spills and hundreds of
smaller spills occurred from offshore facilities,
shoreside facilities, vessel sinkings, etc.
Will there be oil in the rain related to
a hurricane?
• No. Hurricanes draw water vapor from a large
area, much larger than the area covered by oil,
and rain is produced in clouds circulating
the hurricane.
Learn more about NOAA’s response to the BP oil
spill at http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/
deepwaterhorizon.
To learn more about NOAA, visit
http://www.noaa.gov.
May 27, 2010 "
http://ht.ly/1RQDV

...

CNN looks at hurricane question including video:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/27/hur...ies/index.html
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  #24  
Old 05-31-2010, 02:41 AM
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Default Gulf Coast warned oil may leak until August

Gulf Coast warned oil may leak until August

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100531/...YtZ3VsZmNvYXN0
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Old 06-01-2010, 04:11 AM
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After several failures trying to stop a release far deeper than ever attempted before, BP tries another approach. This time it involves cutting off a 21 inch diameter riser and placing a containment over the release. The volume of the release will be increased by this action 20% by current estimates. They will attempt to control the formation of hydrides that caused two other similar attempts (Dome Part I and Top Hat) to fail through the injection of heated seawater and antifreeze into the containment. A strong tropical system would apparently leave this increased release untended as the vessels would be forced to go off station. A large gyre has developed related to the Loop Current impeding transport of the spill eastward towards the Straits of Florida for now.

"SPILL CONTAINMENT EFFORTS
* After BP Plc (BP.L) said the complex "top kill" maneuver to plug its Gulf of Mexico oil well had failed on Saturday, it is moving to the next option -- the lower marine riser package cap, which will capture oil from the well rather than plug it.
* The company will know by the end of the week whether the new containment effort has worked, BP Managing Director Robert Dudley said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
* Government scientists estimated that cutting the riser pipe coming out of the blowout preventer to prepare for the next containment option could result in a temporary oil flow increase of up to 20 percent.
* The ultimate solution may be the drilling of two relief wells began in May and to be completed in August, an expensive but more reliable way to intercept and cap the leaking well.

OIL SLICK THREAT
* The huge oil slick from the gushing well could threaten the Mississippi and Alabama coasts this week, driven by moderate southerly and southwesterly winds, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
* Louisiana's wetlands and fishing grounds have been the worst hit so far by the spill, while Mississippi and Alabama have escaped lightly so far, with only scattered tar balls and oil debris reaching its coasts.
* The NOAA forecast was a sober reminder that oil from the unchecked spill, broken up and carried by winds and ocean currents, could threaten a vast area of the U.S. Gulf Coast, including tourism mecca Florida, as well as Cuba and Mexico."
Continued at:http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN3019706620100601


and from the NY Times:

"BP Tries Again to Divert Oil Leak With Dome
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
HOUSTON — Unable for six weeks to plug the gushing oil well beneath the Gulf of Mexico, BP renewed an effort Monday to use a dome to funnel some of the leaking crude to a tanker on the surface. A similar attempt failed three weeks ago, but officials said they had resolved some of the technical problems that forced them to abort last time.
If successful — and after the string of failures so far, there is no guarantee it will be — the containment dome may be able to capture most of the oil, but it would not plug the leak. Its failure would mean continued environmental and economic damage to the gulf region, as well as greater public pressure on BP and the Obama administration, with few options remaining for trying to contain the spill any time soon."

"A lasting solution for the leak may be months away, after engineers complete the drilling of a relief well, which would allow them to plug the leaking well with cement. On Monday, engineers positioned submarine robots that will try to shear off a collapsed 21-inch riser pipe with a razorlike wire studded with bits of industrial diamonds. If that is achieved, officials will need at least a couple of days to position a domelike cap over the blowout preventer, which failed to shut off the well when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers. The trapped oil would then be funneled through a hose to ships floating near the well.

But, like all of BP’s efforts so far, this method had never been tried at such depths before this spill. Moreover, if kinks in the riser are now reducing the amount of oil escaping, cutting the riser could unleash a greater flow. And the greatest worry of all may be the potential arrival of hurricanes in the gulf; hurricane season officially begins on Tuesday.
Engineers and technicians working on the response said that an active hurricane season, which is predicted by meteorologists, could not only push more oil ashore, but also cause weeks of delays in efforts to contain the spill.

Once a hurricane appears to be heading for the gulf, officials will have to disconnect the hose from the container on top of the well and retreat to port, leaving an unabated flow of oil into the water. “Safety first,” said Andrew Gowers, a BP spokesman. “We build in hurricane preparedness in operations, and that requires us to take the necessary precautions.” Such precautions may stall the drilling of relief wells for weeks or more if a hurricane threatens. “Will hurricanes trump the capping procedures or even the whole operation?” said Donald Van Nieuwenhuise, director of petroleum geoscience programs at the University of Houston. “That’s the wild card.”"
Continued at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/us...&sq=oil&st=cse


and the latest from Roff's. Dr. Roff was the first one to note entrainment of the spill by the Loop Current by several weeks.


http://www.roffs.com/deepwaterhorizon.html


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Last edited by ricki; 06-01-2010 at 04:31 AM.
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  #26  
Old 06-02-2010, 08:29 AM
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On the old news front, we all knew this, uh right?!

"BP oil leak: Fallen Deepwater Horizon was tapping second largest oil deposit in the world

If there is a single aspect to the dangers of the BP oil leak, it lies in the question CEO Tony Hayward and other BP executives have been avoiding since the first drop of oil went rogue: How much oil is leaking? The real answer is - more than anyone wants to admit, because the well holds enough oil to make Saudi Arabian drillers jealous.

The oil field the Deepwater Horizon had tapped is said to be the second largest deposit in the world. Viewzone.com reports, “The site covers an estimated 25,000 square miles, extending from the inlands of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Texas. “ The oil deposit is so large, it could produce 500,000 barrels of a day for more than a decade.

Part of the reason the well exploded is because the site also contains large deposits of natural gas. Speculation as to why BP has tried to hide the amount of oil spilling may be two-fold. There are legal issues and lawsuits in the works. The less said by BP now, the better it may play out for them in the future. The other, more alarming aspect, is the event of total wellhead failure before relief wells are completed in August.

Considering the size of the deposit, if BP loses control of the flow completely, the scope of the disaster would be unfathomable. The New York Times has reported that scientists suspect the leak is thousands of times larger than what BP has been reporting. Some estimates are as high as one million gallons a day."
Continued at: http://www.examiner.com/x-33986-Poli...t-in-the-world

...

Hope they come up with something before the following to cap the release of oil. As awful a prospect of waiting until August (longer?) for the intercept wells, I sure hope those work.


http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nat...358101.graphic

...

"Day 43 of Gulf Oil Spill: Countdown to Pipe Cutting, New Dome
On First Day of Hurricane Season BP Prepares to Cut the Pipe, Move in New Dome
As early as today a scalpel-sharp saw studded with industrial diamonds will be lowered to a 22-inch riser in an attempt to slice off the main oil pipe so engineers can lower a dome over the spewing oil in the Gulf of Mexico . It's plan seven in BP's growing list of strategies to stop the leak, already the worst ever in the U.S.

Latest plan will temporarily increase the flow of gushing oil before capping it.
A squad of underwater robots are sawing, hacking and grappling in a pre-op for the complex underwater surgery.

Once the pipe has been cut the oil will spew into the Gulf of Mexico unobstructed, enough to fill an average swimming pool every hour.

Then engineers will then lower a dome—the third to be tried at the site of the collapsed rig—over the geyser in an effort to contain and siphon the oil to the surface."
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/bp-gulf-oi...ry?id=10793342
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Old 06-08-2010, 11:17 AM
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News about an underwater plume associated with the oil release.

"WASHINGTON (AP) — The government says water tests have confirmed underwater oil plumes as far as 142 miles from the BP oil spill, but that concentrations are "very low."
NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenko said that the tests conducted at three sites by a University of South Florida research vessel confirmed oil as far as 3,300 feet below the surface 42 miles northeast of the well site and also oil below-surface oil 142 miles southeast.

Lubchenko said the analysis "indicate there is definitely oil sub surface. It's in very low concentrations" of 0.5 parts per million. BP had questioned whether oil actually was forming below water."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap//us_gulf_oil_spill_plumes

Depending on what petroleum contaminants they are talking about in specific, 0.5 ppm may not be that much or actually a fairly high concentration. More details would be helpful.

NOAA's conclusions seem to be related to the following, "Scientists with the University of South Florida say they've found a second oil plume"



The second video shows a test tank and the formation of an underwater plume from a submerged release.


More on CNN:

"The University of South Florida recently discovered a second oil plume in the northeastern Gulf. The first plume was found by Mississippi universities in early May.
USF has concluded microscopic oil droplets are forming deep water oil plumes. After a weeklong analysis of water samples, USF scientists found more oil in deeper water.
"These hydrocarbons are from depth and not associated with sinking degraded oil but associated with the source of the Deep Horizon well head," said USF Chemical Oceanographer David Hollander.
Through isotopic or microscopic fingerprinting, Hollander and his USF crew were able to show the oil in the plume came from BP's blown-out oil well. The surface oil's so-called fingerprint matched the tiny underwater droplet's fingerprint."
Continued at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/07/gul...ume/index.html


and related information from Ecorigs:

" EcoRigs can arrange to collect samples of surface and subsurface oil to those interested in analysis. We can also provide other offshore environmental and biological services. Please contact at ecorigs@hotmail.com for more information.

Report June 6th, 2010

For five days, from May 27th till June 2nd , subsurface oil globules the size of quarters and 50 cent pieces were observed consistently throughout the day. They occupied the area between 60 -120 feet below the surface and moved in a horizontal direction with the current. The site was 200 miles due west of the source of the spill in 200 feet of water and over eighty miles south of Vemilion Parish. The balls of oil appeared to be covered with growth (presumably bacteria). When the balls of oil were poked with a finger, they dissipated into small particles that either dissolved or were too small to see. The observers described the event like popping a bubble. The seas were calm and no sign of oil was seen on the surface during the entire five day period. These subsurface oil globules were also observed on May 19th. "
http://www.ecorigs.org/EcoRigsOilSpill.html
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Old 06-09-2010, 02:27 PM
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"Scientists Find Signs of Dead Zones in Sea
By ROBERT LEE HOTZ
A research team said it had found evidence of dead zones being drained of life-giving oxygen deep in the Gulf of Mexico, as scientists on Tuesday reported new details of vast submerged clouds of oil and natural gas billowing from a well on the sea floor."

"Samantha Joye, a senior marine scientist at the University of Georgia who just completed a two-week research expedition through the spill zone, said Tuesday that her instrument readings revealed levels of methane gas dissolved in deep seawater that were between 100 times and 10,000 times higher than normally found in the Gulf waters. Such unusually high levels of methane may be spurring the growth of microbes that, in turn, deplete the oxygen on which fish and other marine organisms depend, she said.

"I've never seen concentrations of methane this high anywhere," said Dr. Joye, who analyzed samples from a submerged oil plume that she said was 15 miles long, five miles wide and 300 feet thick. "The whole water column has less oxygen than it normally does.""
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...DDLETopStories

...

"Oil Spill Could Worsen Dead Zone
Written by Joshua S Hill - Published on June 8th, 2010

The disastrous and tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico might enhance the regions already environmentally threatening dead zone. According to researchers who just happened to have been in the area when the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig blew out and sank on April 20, the oil spill could worsen and expand the dead zone in the Gulf.

A dead zone is a hypoxic (low-oxygen) area of water that as a result of its low and sometimes non-existent levels of oxygen are unable to support life. One of the most well-known dead zones is in the Gulf of Mexico where runoff from the Mississippi River carries urban runoff and nitrogen-based fertilizers from the farmland farther up the river into the ocean. “At the moment, we are seeing some indication that the oil spill is enhancing hypoxia,” said Michigan State University professor Nathaniel Ostrom. “It’s a good hint that we’re on the right track, and it’s just another insult to the ecosystem – people have been worried about the size of the hypoxic zone for many years.”

Ostrom and collaborator Zhanfei Liu from the University of Texas at Austin had been out at sea when the rig blew, and quickly landed federal support to expand their area of enquiry to include the oil spill area. Along with two undergraduate researchers, they collected water samples and will be conducting numerous tests on them over the next few weeks to determine the effect the oil spill will have on the dead zone. The dead zones spring from algae blooms that are nourished by the runoff from the Mississippi River but quickly die and sink. They are then eaten by bacteria that consume more oxygen. While these bacteria might in fact be eating the oil itself they will be removing oxygen as they go, further increasing the dead zone.

On top of that, Ostrom believes that there are other effects the oil spill might be causing, including the possibility that the oil slick and chemical dispersants might be reducing the flow of oxygen from the atmosphere to the ocean, and the possibility that the slick might be reducing the sunlight reaching into the water to nourish the oxygen-producing marine plant life."
http://planetsave.com/blog/2010/06/0...one/#more-6784

...



An AP video of underwater scenes around an oil rig within the oil spill plume.

Still more video clips within the last month within the plume underwater at:
http://ecorigs.com/

A prospectus on use of rigs as artificial reefs from ecorigs:
http://www.ecorigs.org/mariculture_r...nal_lo_res.pdf
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Old 06-11-2010, 06:15 PM
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"New oil spill estimates means crude likely to harm more wildlife, damage BP's finances
BRIAN SKOLOFF, HARRY R. WEBER
Associated Press Writers - 6:59 p.m. EDT, June 11, 2010

GRAND ISLE, La. (AP) — The astonishing news that the oil leak at the bottom of the sea may be twice as big as previously thought could have major repercussions for both the environment and BP's financial health, killing more marine life and dramatically increasing the amount the company must pay in fines and damages.

Scientists now say the blown-out well could have been spewing as much as 2 million gallons of crude before a cut-and-cap maneuver started capturing some of the flow, meaning more than 100 million gallons may have leaked into the Gulf of Mexico since the start of the disaster in April. That is more than nine times the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, previously the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

The larger estimates, while still preliminary and considered a worst-case scenario, could contribute to breathtaking liabilities against BP. Penalties can be levied against the company under a variety of environmental protection laws, including fines of up to $1,100 under the Clean Water Act for each barrel of oil spilled.

Based on the maximum amount of oil possibly spilled to date, that would translate to a potential civil fine for simple discharge alone of $2.8 billion. If BP were found to have committed gross negligence or willful misconduct, the civil fine could be up to $4,300 per barrel, or up to $11.1 billion.

"It's going to blow the record books up," said Eric Schaeffer, who led the Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement office from 1997 to 2002.

A larger spill also could lead to increased environmental hazards, with shrimp, crabs and fish such as marlin and swordfish especially hard hit."
Continued at: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/flo...,7641682.story

...

"New Estimates Double Rate of Oil Flowing Into Gulf
By JUSTIN GILLIS and HENRY FOUNTAIN Published: June 10, 2010
A government panel on Thursday essentially doubled its estimate of how much oil has been spewing from the out-of-control BP well, with the new calculation suggesting that an amount equivalent to the Exxon Valdez disaster could be flowing into the Gulf of Mexico every 8 to 10 days.

The new estimate is 25,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil a day. That range, still preliminary, is far above the previous estimate of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day.

These new calculations came as the public wrangling between BP and the White House was reaching new heights, with President Obama asking for a meeting with BP executives next week and his Congressional allies intensifying their pressure on the oil giant to withhold dividend payments to shareholders until it makes clear it can and will pay all its obligations from the spill."
"Credit Suisse estimates the cleanup costs could end up at $15 billion to $23 billion, plus an additional $14 billion of claims. But analysts make much of BP’s financial flexibility: it had net profit of $17 billion last year alone.

Mr. Gowers said the company did not have an estimate of what its potential liability costs would be. But he said that as of Thursday morning, the company had already spent $1.43 billion, including claims payments, the costs of trying to plug and cap the leak, and payments of block grants to gulf states.

On the new estimates of the flow rate, Marcia McNutt, director of the United States Geological Survey and chairwoman of the technical panel, said the new figures were based on a more detailed analysis of information like video of the gushing well. The new range was also based on the first direct measurement of the flow rate, using sonar equipment lowered to the ocean floor.

Two scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Richard Camilli and Andy Bowen, made that measurement on May 31, Mr. Bowen said.

As with the government’s previous estimate, Dr. McNutt said subgroups of the panel applied various analytical techniques to come up with estimates. The best overlap among the techniques was the range of 25,000 to 30,000 barrels a day, she said, and that became the new official estimate."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/us...&sq=oil&st=cse

...

Just saw this.



We're attacking BP for poor, ill advised, even stupid behavior. A journalist volunteering for a bath and hair set in crude is incredibly inane and undermines what fragmentary credibility he might have. This stuff is toxic, enough dead and dying life establishes that. It is like the guys on the Weather Channel walking around on camera in hurricane force winds with no eye protection. Do they think we are moronic kids to be entertained by stuff like this? Guys dive free petroleum product at times, this is far from how it is done.

More about the photo and story at:
http://www.ap.org/oil_spill/
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Last edited by admin; 06-12-2010 at 07:56 AM.
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Old 06-14-2010, 04:39 PM
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