• BP's attempt to stem oil leak with giant dome a failure
    59 replies, posted
[url]http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/05/20105933123168789.html[/url] [release]The energy company BP has said that its efforts to contain an oil spill from a broken well deep in the Gulf of Mexico using a 100-tonne steel-and-concrete box have not succeeded so far. Ice-like crystals encrusted the walls of the box on Saturday, forcing crews to repeal their attempts to stop the leak, BP said. Workers who had carefully lowered the massive box over the leak, nearly 1.6km below the surface of the water, had to lift it and move it to the side. "The build-up of the crystals in the box made it too buoyant and clogged it up," Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, said. "I wouldn't say it's failed yet - what I would say is what we attempted to do last night didn't work," Suttles said. He said BP had anticipated encountering difficulties with the box, but had not expected them to be as significant as a problem. The containment box had been considered the best hope of stemming the flow in the short term. [B]Teams evaluating [/B] Teams were evaluating whether the issue could be overcome by providing heat, methanol or other methods. The dome had been expected to be operational on Monday and to collect about 85 per cent of the leaking crude by funnelling it up to a barge on the surface. Suttles said BP was also considering other methods to capture the flow. About 400 metres away is the wreckage of the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, which BP was leasing when it exploded on April 20, blowing open the well and triggering a major environmental crisis. Eleven workers were killed in the accident at the platform, which sank two days later. [B]Methane gas factor [/B] An estimated 800,000 litres of oil have been spewing daily ever since, in the biggest oil spill in the US since the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska in 1989. The blowout was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before exploding, according to interviews with rig workers conducted during BP's internal investigation. While the precise cause is still under investigation, the sequence of events described in the interviews provides the most detailed account of the blast that has poured more than 11 million litres of crude into the Gulf. According to one interview transcript, a gas cloud covered the rig, causing giant engines on the drill floor to run too fast and explode. The engines blew off the rig and set "everything on fire", the account said. John Curry, a BP spokesman, would not comment on Friday night on whether methane gas or the series of events described in the internal documents caused the accident. "Clearly, what happened on the Deepwater Horizon was a tragic accident. We anticipate all the facts will come out in a full investigation," he said. [B]Other options [/B] Among the options being considered was to plug the leak by injecting ground-up material in a "junk shot". "It has certain issues and challenges and risks with it, and that's why we haven't actually progressed up to this point," Suttles, the BP executive, said. "But we will look and continue to see whether that's a viable option. "It's all to do with we're working in 5,000 feet of water in a very difficult, challenging environment." Public concern about the oil spill has been focused on the potential environmental and economic damage. Workers have also sprayed dispersants over the slick to break it up and deployed hundreds of thousands of feet of boom to contain the spreading oil. But environmentalists have warned that dispersants like Corexit were also dangerous to sea life. "Those products don't make the oil go away," Joe Griffitt, a marine biologist at Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, said. "It just falls to the sea bottom. That's where you'll find the sediments and the larvae. So the toxic effect is double."[/release] FUCK.
can we just try the russian nuke thing? it said it worked for them.
This is the best solution we could come up with? It's the 21st century, we need something flying and with lasers cleaning the oil up.
No. Giant domes fix everything. I don't give a fuck what your article says. Go check it again. It's working. It's a giant dome. It has to work.
Fuck. This is not good.
This is why you don't leave it to oil companies to fix the environment. :downs:
The only other option besides putting a giant dome over it that I will accept is a nuclear bomb. :colbert:
Its basically a top with a pump. How the hell do they fuck that up?
Why can't they just block it? Haven't been keeping up with this. I assume since they can lower a giant dome thing onto it they can lower something to block it.
Why don't they just politely ask it to stop?
We should try clogging the hole with Dave mustain and axle roses egos.
No, we should clog it with Kirk Hammet's gayness. :colbert:
[QUOTE=Triumph Forks;21828369]Why don't they just politely ask it to stop?[/QUOTE] Maybe if it was a Canadian oil leak. [editline]12:49AM[/editline] [QUOTE=Reaver1991;21828388]No, we should clog it with Kirk Hammet's gayness. :colbert:[/QUOTE] The bus should have landed on Hetfield.
Whatever happened to that bacteria that they modified to eat oil?
Fucking retards
[QUOTE=Keeshond v2;21828372]We should try clogging the hole with Dave mustain and axle roses egos.[/QUOTE] You don't even need Dave Mustaine. Axle Rose could fill the hole by himself. And then have enough to still be a douche.
David mustains hair soaks up oil much better than axle roses though
Their attempt was [i]domed[/i] from the start.
If there's a bustle in your hedgerow...
[QUOTE=Keeshond v2;21828616]David mustains hair soaks up oil much better than axle roses though[/QUOTE] Yeah, but Axle moans and blubbers enough, there's more than enough room for all that oil.
What a colossal fuckup of a failure. Feds should sue everyone involved in this out of existence. [B][I]Out of existence.[/I][/B] :colbert:
[QUOTE=Xera;21828367]Why can't they just block it? Haven't been keeping up with this. I assume since they can lower a giant dome thing onto it they can lower something to block it.[/QUOTE] because it's a mile below, the dome didn't work because it got ice crystals on it and started to float upwards. [editline]01:26AM[/editline] the dome was the attempt to "block it"
[QUOTE=Reaver1991;21828388]No, we should clog it with Kirk Hammet's gayness. :colbert:[/QUOTE] No
where is Vince when you need him
Could we just lay something really heavy on top? Take an old decommissioned ship, remove the deck, capsize it, cut hole for pump, and sink it right over the hole. Or skip the pumping part, and drill next to the ship.
[QUOTE=Reaver1991;21828388]No, we should clog it with Lars Ulrich's asshole. :colbert:[/QUOTE] Fix'd
Someone should write that leak a stern letter.
I can't believe Obama is doing this...
[QUOTE=johnlukeg;21829545]I can't believe Obama is doing this...[/QUOTE] Please tell me what Obama has to do with this containment device. :allears:
Did anyone try flicking a match in
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.