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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mac Con Ulaidh who wrote (76629)	5/29/2010 5:36:54 PM
From: SiouxPal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 149317

BP Says So Far, Gulf Well Plug Isn't Working COVINGTON, La. ? A risky procedure is failing to stop the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, and BP said Saturday it is considering scrapping it in favor of yet another method to contain the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The comments from BP PLC chief operating officer Doug Suttles came amid increasing skepticism that the "top kill" operation ? which involves pumping heavy drilling mud into a crippled well 5,000 feet underwater ? would halt the leak. It's the latest in a series of proposed solutions BP has tried ? including a gigantic box placed over the leak and a tube inserted to siphon the oil away. Both of those ultimately failed. The top kill began Wednesday, and "to date it hasn't yet stopped the flow," Suttles told reporters at Port Fourchon. "What I don't know is whether it ultimately will or not." If the top kill fails, BP would cut off the damaged riser from which the oil is leaking and cap it with a containment valve that's already resting on the seafloor. BP is already preparing for that operation, Suttles said. Since the top kill began Wednesday, BP has pumped huge amounts mud into the well at a rate of up to 2,700 gallons per minute, but it's unclear how much is staying there. A robotic camera on the seafloor appeared to show mud escaping at various times during the operation. On Saturday, the substance spewing from the well appeared to be oil, experts said. BP has also tried several times to shoot assorted junk into the well's crippled blowout preventer to clog it up and force the mud down the well bore. That, too, has met with limited success. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, addressing reporters after he spoke at a high school graduation ceremony in Denver, echoed what Suttles said and said officials were evaluating the next step. He said the relief well was the ultimate solution, but said something was needed to stop the spill until then. "We're doing everything with the best minds in the world to make sure that happens," he said. The oil spill began after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in April, killing 11 people. It's the worst spill in U.S. history – exceeding even the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 off the Alaska coast – dumping between 18 million and 40 million gallons into the Gulf, according to government estimates. Experts and other observers were growing increasingly skeptical that BP would be able to plug the well. Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute, said Saturday that the top kill appeared headed for failure. "They warned us not to draw too many conclusions from the effluent, but ... it doesn't look like it's working," he said. BP had pegged the top kill's chances of success at 60 to 70 percent. The company says the best way to stop the flow of oil is by drilling relief wells, but those won't be completed until August. Chris Roberts, a councilman in Louisiana's Jefferson Parish, said he was frustrated by BP's failures and perceived lack of transparency. "We're wondering whether or not they're attempting to give everybody false hope in order to drag out the time until the ultimate resolution to it" – the completion of the relief wells, Roberts said. Meanwhile, Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service officials heard a sixth day of testimony during hearings into the disaster in Kenner. David Sims, BP's drilling operations manager for exploration and appraisal in the Gulf of Mexico, testified he was aware of well problems experienced by the Deepwater Horizon's drilling crew in the weeks and months leading up to the explosion. He said there were no serious problems the day the rig exploded. huffingtonpost.com

To: Mac Con Ulaidh who wrote (76629)	5/29/2010 6:31:27 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

Fractured Fairy Tales... Here's where the the rhetoric of da slogans meets the fierce urgency of now , or If drilling kills the gulf and the gulf is dead, why stop drilling? Th DOD sez the world will be 10MBPD short in 2015 (no projected increase in demand :>) Make that 10.5. We are screwed. Spill may cut world oil supply 500,000 bpd-report HOUSTON 12:00am PDT HOUSTON May 28 (Reuters) - A one-year delay on new deepwater projects stemming from the Gulf of Mexico well rupture could cut world oil supply by 500,000 barrels per day between 2013 to 2017, Bernstein Research said in a note to clients on Friday. "Although this may seem small in a global context, such a situation would decrease OPEC spare capacity, especially in the second half of the decade, which would lead to an increase in the oil price," the firm wrote. Still, it is unclear if this is a likely scenario, Bernstein wrote. The world consumes more than 80 million barrels per day of crude oil. On Thursday, the U.S. government extended a moratorium on new deepwater drilling permits to six months and announced a safety crackdown that includes the temporary suspension of exploratory drilling on 33 rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. [ID:nLDE64R00P] Bernstein said delays and new regulatory costs could boost the marginal costs of new deepwater production by about 10 percent. The moratorium extension will have "a huge near term negative impact to the Gulf Coast deepwater oil service industry," Bernstein said. The drilling ban was put in place after a BP Plc (BP.L) (BP.N) well ruptured in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20. The accident sank the Deepwater Horizon rig, killed 11 workers and is estimated to be the largest oil spill in U.S. history. New deepwater regulations are likely and the hit from the U.S. drilling moratorium will affect drilling worldwide, Bernstein said. It is "highly likely" that deepwater rigs will have to adopt global standards to work in basins around the world, the firm said. (Reporting by Anna Driver in Houston; editing by Jim Marshall) reuters.com