sotb, there is no nuclear option. <Nuclear option is being considered, but worry is it may create
more leaks and multiply the amount of oil being release > It seems to be a common idea that problems can be solved by blowing something or somebody up. When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
I was discussing it with an oil drilling friend [who runs the whole show, not a roughneck]. He says that the solution is the new well into the leaking well and filling them with mud and sealing them up, abandoning them.
He explained that there are hundreds of metres of goop at the bottom by the well. The pressure can just push through it.
If an explosion was made at the well, all that would happen is that the oil and gas would push through the debris and instead of a neat little pipe coming out of the ground, there would be leaking everywhere. There would be no oil being caught in a cap with a pipe to the surface.
He said that in training people, it's hard to get them to hit the panic button and shut the whole $billion system down. There is an element of doubt and people are reluctant to see the arriving evidence and understand it for what it is. They assume the happier idea - such as "Oh, the gauge must be wrong".
Most likely it was a series of such mistakes. The blow out preventer being damaged [or badly designed or assembled]. The concreting by Halliburton being defective. Removing the mud too soon. Delay in hitting the shutdown button. Poor evacuation [some left on the platform I guess].
I know the feeling. I had the BP supply department tell me, "We have a problem, the ship full of petrol is off spec. Should we accept it" [being loaded at an overseas refinery]. My choice was "No thanks" and we'd be out of stock with no fuel for vehicles in Wellington or "OK, we'll take it" and have slightly reduced vehicle performance. My argument was that they had to get incentives right - include in supply agreements performance bonds "$1 million per day penalty while you get the specification correct". Shutting down a city's cars, or a $1 billion well is not something to be taken lightly.
But the alternative is unattractive too.
Think Buridan's Ass [starved to death stuck between choosing which pile of hay to eat].
Mqurice
PS: Of course it's a false flag operation: <says the blowout is not related to a deliberate false flag event. > It's the Jews. Jews conspiring again. They destroyed the Twin Towers too don't forget. They are roaming the seas attacking ships, killing people and holding the survivors for ransom just like the Somali pirates. |
