BP Resumes Gulf Spill Top Kill After 18-Hour Delay

I believe this has already evolved into the world's largest eco-disaster that is still causally being ignored by both the white-house and all the major mining corporations.

What is less than comforting that this gushing is still raging and nobody knows the true scale of its damage on th environment until it is all over.

However, this environmental cataclysm could trigger the greatest upheaval against the industry itself and the monetary system that was vastly created and nourished by black-gold.

Yes, the system that was funded by the oil industry had ruined billions of peoples' lives and helped to bring our world to an ecological disaster, on such a scale, that scientist so far were unable to come to an agreement weather it is created by man or nature is going through a metamorphosis.

The financial system that has started out in the name of 'progress' and now it is simply called PROFIT, is likely to meet its own demise by the same industry that had created it due to overdrive.

"I believe this has already evolved into the world's largest eco-disaster..."

Really? Just why do you believe that? How deceitful is the news you are reading.

I think we are currently talking about 40 million gallons (if you believe the high government estimate) right now.

That is dwarfed by an order of magnitude when Saddam's merry men released almost 400 million gallons of oil into the Arabian Gulf.

There are other examples of bigger spills, including our friend Mexico about 30 or so years ago.

It is true this is the worst US spill, but we have a looonnnggg way to go before we catch up with the rest of the world.

Not that this isn't very serious, but you (and a few others) need to take a reality pill here.

Beyond the estimation issues, I have hesitated to address the potential harm that still lingers between my thoughts. Isn't June the start of hurricane season? At or near shoreline any future attempts to contain this spill may soon be little to too late of an attempt to stop the infiltration of oil accrosss the gulf of mexico or worse yet far upstream into the mississippi delta where storm surge dynamics will be altered possibly affecting flood stages and further compromise the army corp of engineers historical work on this site. Even if we make it through this season the potential to kill off the salt water marches that act like a sponge to dampen storm surges... well lets just say the Big Easy may just spill a little more mud on our culture ritch city in the deep south.

It's a serious problem. I keep hoping for the best while many good minds are doing their best.

However, the sky hasn't fallen and I find it a little disconcerting that so many people are so easily led on by the doom and gloom that is force fed on the masses by the media with no regard to perspective.

You would expect a little more cynical (or more precisely, critical) thought from a forum full of engineers, whose nature should be a little more fact based than emotionally driven.

I like the way you compare the quantities of oil released by Saddam into their Gulf that has a less precious marine environment than the Gulf of Mexico. And lot of the oil in Quait was stock, stored in tanks, as opposed to yours in the Gulf of Mexico.

You have a lot more to worry about both ecologically as well as quantity wise than Quait did at the time, regardless wether it started intentionally or not.

A non BP study has revealed already that SPILL is more like a GUSH and instead of <800m3 a day, according to an initial BP's estimate, could be now up to 16,000.00m3 a day and much of it stays under water in plumes. And the GUSH (Not spill!!!)has not been stopped yet, that has now been going for about 40 days as opposed to Saddam's will full spill for about 30days. (Remember also the wells Saddam set on fire were put out in about only 2weeks, after the Hungarian army engineers brought in some jet driven water cannons installed on an army tank.)

As the other poster pointed it out to you the hurricane season is yet to come and heaven forbid but the damage bill could become a lot more than you, or anyone, can even comprehend.

I'm not a scare-crow or anything as this could affect you a lot more than me due to my geographically proximity, however it is still something those over ambitious members of your white-house should take more seriously.

It is just a few months ago when those ambitious characters were holding some Toyota executives to the grinding-stone over some alleged incidents, apparently caused by some faulty accelerator pedals by some Toyota cars (which all seemed to started and happened in the US anyway) yet now a much bigger picture is getting over looked and hardly talked about.

It looks to me the world's biggest power rapidly becoming a headless chicken and some smart Alec commentators, like David Letterman, failed to pick on this issue yet.

I am not against the American nation only its administration and its ambitious staff who are trying to make the population believe 'what they see is not too bad just looking at it from the wrong angle'.

"...however it is still something those over ambitious members of your white-house should take more seriously."

Frankly, I am hoping they continue to do nothing, because their medicine has a track record that has proved to be more poison than cure.

"I am not against the American nation only its administration and its ambitious staff who are trying to make the population believe 'what they see is not too bad just looking at it from the wrong angle'."

I believe that someone in that administration was quoted as saying. "Never waste a good crises." I suspect that they are just waiting for it to get worse before they start a push for more legislation and finger pointing. If it doesn't get worse, they will hail it as their victory.

Personally I refuse to treat as informed or accurate any post that is not signed. If you have hard heldbeliefs, front up and claim them.

20 years in the drilling game and I believe that this is a very serious SPILL (industry term mate - sorry if it's not dramatic enough for you) and will lead to long reaching consequences for the enviroment and for the oil and gas business in the US.

Increasing the hydrostatic in order to control the blowout is the only relatively quick method of getting this well back under control (although I might have advocated using some kind of packer - I guess BP contacted TAM and those guys to look into that). Whether top kill with an open annulus wll work is up to be proven.

Best of luck to all those working to solve the problem - remember they are working stiffs who had nothing to do with the cause of this problem, they only strive to solve it.

I second your good wishes to those who are working to stop the spill by any means. I hope they are never demoralized by failures. No one anticipated the problems with methane ice - it's an all new situation at that depth, and trial and error is the way forward here, perseverance will ultimately triumph over the obstacles.

You said "Increasing the hydrostatic in order to control the blowout is the only relatively quick method of getting this well back under control.." Please explain the method you're talking about, I'd like to be better informed. Thank you.

In the baldest terms the "top kill" method works by pumping a high weight drilling fluid (mud) into the hole in order to attempt to hold down the escaping hydrocarbons.

During the drilling process it is generally taken as normal procesures to maintain a hydrostatic pressure greater than formation pressure so as to prevent an influx (kick or blowout)

It appears that this process of dumping high weight fluid into the well has not worked (I gave it about a 30/% chance myself) and the installation of a riser cap to facilitate and control this process more effectively. Top kill was worth trying so as potentially solve the issue while manufacturing the equipment to use in the event that it was required.

As to the point of the accumulation of methane hydrates - it didn't come as a surprise to me. While not actually expected, at this depths it can certainly be anticipated that this might occur.

Contrary to the feelings of some enviromentalists, the oil and gas industry has some of the best and brightest people in engineering. Money talks I'm afraid and the oil industry has it. This will be solved, not by hand wringing by politicians but by folks getting their hands dirty and applying themselves to the solution, not blamestorming.

"Contrary to the feelings of some enviromentalists, the oil and gas industry has some of the best and brightest people in engineering. Money talks I'm afraid and the oil industry has it."

It is not the Engineers to blame but rather the ones with their stinking money behind it who made their fortunes over many decades by slashing, cutting, overrunning a lot more righteous establishments with much cleaner concepts and ideas for energy.

Some of this marvelous industry's efforts included the stifling of the battery Industry efforts to develop better cells then BPs pretentious embracing of the 'Going Solar' movement during the 90s and the list could go on.

Naturally, since you work for the 'oil cartel', I don't expect you to know much about these facts as it would go against your religion (belief) as long as you're part of them. Nonetheless, you might recall a posting here by bcmarsall 'Hydrothermal Energy is Now a Reality' 02/18/2009 11:46 PM

The energies lie on the ocean floors can easily eclipse a nuke or a thermal power station for that matter and should anything go wrong at least there'd be no harm to the environment.

In any case the Oil Industry was brought about by the worlds first billionaire family the, the Rockefeller's, in the 19th century in a less than admirable way. (BTW you can look this up in Wikipedia!) Not to mention how this dis-respectful family later got firmly involved in fuelling WW1 & WW2 and how they financially benefited from them immensely. Sadly this madness still continues in Iraq as we speak in quest for oil (not Democracy) and in other parts of the world.

So please, do not try to defend anything about this stinking rotten Industry that is only there to help its owners to further their profits!

Yesterday and today I saw people in tears on the news who are nearby residents whose livelihood depends on the Gulf of Mexico. And the sad news is there is no good news in succeeding to stop the GUSH. (Let's be honest, I do not care about your industry's term, you were so eager to defend, because even on the news, for days now, they mainly refer to it the Oil 'GUSH' in the Gulf of Mexico.)

Your comment here is nothing short of a shear ignorance on this issue and an utter disrespect for the environment. Has BP ask all its employees to act as moderators on the internet since they cannot censorship it like the other medias? Anyhow, give BP my regards and tell them not to give up until the GUSH is stopped but rather carry on as it is their moral obligation now, if they have any. And then get out of this dirty business along with all their accomplices once the GUSH is stopped.

Tell Ronald (Romsfeld?) stop being so greedy and pull out of Iraq in the name of democracy so the people of Iraq can decide what they wanna do with their oil reserve rather than leave it in the hands of a few Old Farts/Looters who obviously do not have respect for earth and any living beings on it including you, mark me!

Tell them there's no point going against all of this because the Mars mission is scraped the zeitguistmovement is getting stronger. So we are bound to live on earth and look after it much better from now on!!! rgds

"The energies lie on the ocean floors can easily eclipse a nuke or a thermal power station for that matter and should anything go wrong at least there'd be no harm to the environment."

Just what boundless energy lies down there miles below the surface at sub-freezing temperatures?

Sounds like boundless profits, too. I can see why BP and others would be hiding that.

If you are going to raise what appears to be a number of conspiracy theories about 'Big Oil', you should cite your references. That would be the intellectually enlightened way to make an argument.

Also, before you start picking apart everyones' ignorance (in particular, Philo), at least have the courage and conviction to register so as to not hide behind the veil of 'Guest'.

CR4 formally used the words 'Anonymous Coward' before they conceded to politically correct 'Guest'. In my opinion the former was a better term.

"And then get out of this dirty business..."

And here is a question for you. With just over 50% of the oil being used for transportation, what, in your mind, should industry, medicine, etc. do without oil? The alternative would throw everyone back to the Middle Ages. Are you suggesting that as an alternative?

Speaking of ignorance, it would be folly to think that "Alternative Energy" can replace everything oil is used for. It is not even possible to replace a significant portion of that without economic collapse. That doesn't seem grounded in reality, but perhaps you could enlighten us.

It looks to me the boundless energy he is referring is the superheated Geothermal Water Energy that was posted here once.

I just went back to check it out and I doubt if you did it! This forum looks like was the longest ever going on CR4, so far it has 120 postings as it stands, have you checked it?

The economic collapse might be more imminent anyway as BP in Britain for example is pushing up gas bills, especially in last winter, and they can afford it too because the entire economy is built on gas & oil. Meaning they can screw the whole world and bring its entire economy to its knees, simple.

These Gas & Oil giants can sooner or later make the whole financial world collapse and then we will be pushed back even beyond the dark ages anyway. I agree with many of his views, probably not entirely, but it makes a lot of sense what he's saying.

When he brought in Iraq for the sake of argument he might be from that region and have the impression he knows what he is talking about too. Things we do not even know or just simply do not want to know due to our democratic attitude of ignorance and so forth.....

I guess sometimes we think ignorance is the best medicine for a problem solution, but it's not.

These days when I go out in the streets I constantly keep bumping into charity people collecting for the third world. In all honesty, it is useless when often these gas & oil giants are the ones who f...up those third world peoples' lives that the charity organizations trying to help.

Where's the logic in it all have you ever thought about it yourself? Sometimes you should look at these less obvious facts also mate, before you're talking through your arse!

The one fact that keeps me from getting on the bandwagon with the rest of the theorists is the oil company stock.

These companies are publicly traded companies and if they were really raking in that much money, their stock would be going through the roof and everybody and their mother would be investing.

Obviously, that isn't even close. Typical return on investment is mediocre, at best. The best thing they have going is they are fairly stable returns. Good for IRA incomes and your companies' retirement funds.

If you want to get on the greed bandwagon, then buy Apple stock.

The same argument goes with Big Pharmaceutical and Big Insurance. You hear the politicians scream about how much money they make on the poor guy's back, but their profit margins are pretty abysmal compared to most companies. It's the same old class warfare card over and over again.

I am piqued at the thought of geothermal, but the real obstacle to harvesting energy in abundance is not Big Oil, but Big Government.

I just saw some footage of this disaster on CNN and they talking about suggestions of 'boycotting' BP fuel stations.

I've been thinking what happened to the Green parties around the world today? Don't they wanna know about protecting the environment anymore?

What I'm on about is none other than back in the 90s how the Greene's vehemently called for a world wide boycott against Shell when they made an announcement about to scuttle one of their decommissioned Rig in the North-Sea and cost Shell immediately millions in revenue.

What a hypocritical bull.....t!!!

I mean, what did BP do better than Shell to get away with this much or is the world really putting Profit before everything else that benefit the Greene's also?

Please evaluate this concept for stopping the eruption of oil from the Deepwater Horizon well.

"Top Kill" did not work. I surmise that the drilling mud ("density approximately twice that of seawater") was not "heavy" enough to counteract the pressure of the "gusher" so the mud was blown out along with the oil & gas.

PLAN X:

1. Create a denser plugging medium by adding ferro-magnetic steel ball bearing (density approz 7.7 gm/cc) to drilling mud. Make a saturated slurry of appropriate size bearing in mud and force into well head. Size should be small enough to easily pass along with the mud.

Some of the bearing slury will enter well casing and restrict oil flow. As the flow pressure is reduced, mixed size bearing are added to the mud. Sizes of the bearing to be calculated to close pack in the diameter of the well casing.

Some of the bearing slurry will be pushed out with the oil flow. This condition leads to the next part of the proposal.

2. Strategically position SUPER MAGNETS on the outside of the blowout prevention valve along the flow path so as to capture the ferro-magnetic portion of the flow. The ultimate position of the magnets should be "upstream" of or at the join of the riser pipe so as to not promote rupture of the riser pipe..

The build up of captured bearings-- like plaque and platelets in a blood vessel-- will further reduce the flow. This reduced flow pessure will facilitate more slurry down the well bore to further reduce flow, usw.

3. Once flow has been stopped, apply long term solution to permanently seal the well.

I think that it is very difficult to do what you are saying, because the pressure of oil is very very high and perhaps the same well head is nomore easy to find.

I suggest, instead, to create on the seafloor a room around the head, in which the oil pressure could lower enogh to be stopped just with the normal pressure of the water: nothing else! I think that creating a simple room will not be that tremendous hazard, like all the solutions took in place till now.

How can this work? As the oil escapes the casing it drops in pressure yet the water pressure at depth has already shown itself inadequate to "kill" the flow. Containing the plume within a larger open topped containment device (or room) would make no difference.

Dressing off the top of the damaged casing and inserting a packing device attached to a submarine riser has the best chance of success - kind of like the current plan from BP.

Personally I think the "top kill" attempt was done to buy time and be seen to be doing something while this was prepared (and of course you never know; it might have worked).

Problems surrounding this.

1. Can the ROV's dress the stump effectively enough?

2. Can the packer hold the pressure and seal effectively (BP already seem to think not). Perhaps an electro magnetic / inflatable / swelling combination packer would have an increased chance of success. Of course there is no such beast waiting on the sidelines and it'd take time to assemble one.

3. Once in place and producing oil will the surface vessel be able to remain on site long enough to kil the well before hurricane season arrives and we have a possible weather related complication.

Long term it begins to look as though only the relief well scenario is going to work. At the sort of depth it'll have to go to to work (another 6000 ft I believe) that'll take time too.

Hi boys, please do not fight! It's not your fault and we can debate it in cooler manner however, I need to attach this link because it is getting serious.

I wanna remind you this is not you fault and should no longer fight over it but rather try to get some level of understanding about the severity of the problem. Undoubtedly, this is getting crazy and I must say politicians are definitely more useless than ever. They're nowhere to be found when there's a problem and they do not have a clue what to do other than blame or take the acknowledging reward/s for other peoples hard-work. If anything the current US government should resign.

It seem obvious that:

'BP either made a serious error in judgement or failed to to follow protocol and created a disaster in the Gulf.

BP is doing everything in its power to contain and fix the problem to the best of their ability. They know they are on the hook and they are trying their damnedest to fix the problem. They also appear to be trying to do their best at PR control, which is a little unnerving. I think people want straight up answers, even if the news is not good.

It is clear that the Federal Government is both powerless and clueless to assist. However, the Federal government seems to be going out of their way to insure the people that they are not only taking responsibility, but they are in control. Both of which is blatantly untrue and impossible. Nevertheless, the Federal Government continues to try to convince people that they are going to fix this by fear and intimidation. This in the hallmark of good leadership.

You may not believe this but, as one 'Guest' pointed it out already, despite we live in the freedom of speech society often political correctness prevents us from being able to tell the truth or facts.

The following is a cut and paste which is a brief compilation of one of my experiences at work occurred to me a year earlier before I've got finally booted out due to similar reasons from my job as a QA Engineer.

"As a QA engineer in July, 2006, I had repaired a brand new Fire-Alarm for BP that was to be used on their North-Sea oil rig. The Fire-Alarm had just been installed when BP engineers detected it had a 'Ground-short' and was promptly returned to us for repair.
The alarm manufacturer's management became so worried they immediately called for a workshop floor meeting and told their production staff off, interestingly enough in the wrong department too.(I must point out the manufacturer's management was, and still is, a bunch of incompetent oldies. Had the final test not been skipped the Fire-Alarm never would have left the factory with a fault like that.)
As the management explained to their production staff, if the alarm had caused an explosion on BP's oil-rig due to an electrical fault caused by their fire-alarm, they would have been up against to pay a full compensation to BP at their own expense. They claimed their insurance policy would not have covered such incident caused by their faulty product.
I wonder why BP is considering now to shun the Gulf of Mexico spill (gush) liability?
It seems obvious, BP is vehemently trying to protect its financial interests above everything else. As no insurer would pay for damages on such scale, especially as I understand BP did not even have deep-sea mining license, did it?
I believe sooner or later BP will argue that they are responsible at all saying, they're creating jobs and serving communities by producing gas & oil for them.
So, it'll be the consumer to blame not BP and it will be the community that has to pick up the bits and pieces."

I tried to submit this to an independent newspaper website comment section after I read their article about the spill and how BP tried to avoid their financial responsibility for the clean up, but to no avail.

You know this is the smartest suggestion anyone could come up with as long as there's such a thing available.

And I see on the link you've provided, it shows quite a good range of inflatables plugs to choose from. And I'm sure even some of the manufacturers could be consulted for further help.

What if they wanna shut it off so that they could continue milking (tapping) the damn thing in order to help BP to compensate for most of its financial losses from this well alone. This is purely a theory but it is only to show how much good will could be in their efforts.

While I cannot see how much length they have managed to save from the riser pipe after cutting it, but if it is a foot then should even be able to clamp some valve on it on the out side with some rubber seal and then obviously seal the whole damn lot with concrete.

Has it been fixed yet?