Thread: The gulf oil leak is being plugged

Originally Posted by BobMcGee123

this may be something that could break BP apart. I don't really see BP going away, but, we're BP's biggest market, and the the U.S. Government and Consumers are a tad bit irritated.

Oh Bob, you are young, naive, and idealistic I think. They may be irritated but when push comes to shove they will still be grateful for the gasoline they need and recognize it comes with a price, oh well.

And punishing BP would just be a petty gesture -- presumably this would strengthen (eg) Shell, who have spilled EVEN MORE oil in the Niger Delta than BP have in the Gulf, and made no effort to clean up -- nor does anyone care:

Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it | Environment | The Observer

they're "too big to fail."

That's more like it.

Originally Posted by BobMcGee123

That will eventually be able to kill the entire ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico, maybe more, and there's really no telling how long it would take nature to correct it.

Fortunately I think that is an exaggeration. Even if it kept spewing upward of a half million barrels a day for the summer, if that were evenly dispersed through-out the gulf it I think it would amount to less than one part per billion in the water (at least I heard some physicist claim this about relative volume, and no one contradicted his math) However, it's unlikely to do that, so it certainly will destroy some large regional ecosystems.

Anybody know how much oil is actually down in the reservoir?
This may be a problem that man just isn't capable of solving.
In which case, this oil will gush for years and ultimately turn
the entire ocean black (orange).

This is it guys. This is the beginning of the end.

Originally Posted by ethic

This is it guys. This is the beginning of the end.

Aw, c'mon now, Ethic, it ain't that bad - I never eat fish, anyway...

I'm wondering whether any similar oil leak might not occur "naturally" some time. Let's say through an underwater earthquake or platonic shift. In which case the oil would come up on its own.

Can anyone argue that the crude is man-made? No. It’s whatever it is – decayed dinosaurs or whatever. So when one natural substance encroaches on another (water, fish), then we should be able to have a fairly clear conscience about it. If nature didn’t want mass destruction, it shouldn’t have created substance A that is toxic to substance B.

Final thought… this disaster unwittingly shows how simple and cost-free oil extraction really is. Punch a hole in the ocean floor and wait with open arms (or barrels). It’s “free”, it’s automatic. In fact, it’s difficult to NOT have oil delivered from the depths.

Perhaps as consumers we should instead be charged for the difficult job of keeping the oil underneath the sea floor… which seems to be the more complex problem. For every subsequent barrel of oil we consume, the job of keeping it buried is reduced. In the end, the more we drive our cars, the lower our cost would get. If we drive with sufficient reckless abandon, we'd make money as the oil-containment-problem reduces to zero.

So I wonder now how oil companies are justified in charging for this free resource per gallon?

Originally Posted by sean

Thinking in terms of volume might be irrelevant. Practically all of the oil is going to be on or near the surface, and that is arguably the most important volume of water for the health of the ecosystem.

bit of a glitch there. I guess physicists aren't biologists and I was a bit silly to trust this one.

Oh well, the entire Gulf could end up a wasteland then. This might not matter so much tho. I've heard a bunch of idle fisherman there saying that even though this would mean a loss of income for them (and perhaps a career change, as happened in Prince William Sound), the oil industry is worth way, way more to Louisiana than either fishing or tourism. So while this is an unfortunate consequence, it is still one they are willing to live with.

Oh Bob, you are young, naive, and idealistic I think.

Haha, okay.

I'm wondering whether any similar oil leak might not occur "naturally" some time. Let's say through an underwater earthquake or platonic shift. In which case the oil would come up on its own.

Not wells like this, they had to get through 18,000 feet of rock to tap the well

Practically all of the oil is going to be on or near the surface

From what I am reading the consensus is that much of the oil is *not* reaching the surface, instead becoming emulsified.

check out dis computer model of what could happen over
the next couple months

YouTube - Ocean currents likely to carry oil to Atlantic

looks like it could reach our UK brothers one day!

http://news.discovery.com/earth/comp...-and-fast.html

Okay geniuses! BP is actively soliciting possible solutions to this problem from the public:

Suggestions

The phone line is no longer available, you have to follow the link to the form.

My suggestion was that we stuff Massey CEO Don Blankenship into the top of the pipe with a funnel in his mouth and a very long enema tube on the other end to help lead the excess crude to the surface. If Don cannot get the job done properly then we may need to short list other leading figures in the energy field to help out.

Well, no point sitting on my arse having fun at BP misery. Besides, more than BP, there's other people being very affected by this crisis; their whole lifestyle and their entire communities in dire straits. I can only imagine what these people are going through.

I just have to be on their side (BP) in this moment and leave criticism for later.

But I'm not a technical person. So here's my mickey mouse suggestion to them. If it's stupid, maybe it can instead inspire them to do something else.

Collect the oil closer to the source of the spill. Implement a tube-like device that redirects the oil flow underwater towards a collection point. Control pressure with a grid that allows some oil to escape. (see attachment). This can reduce greatly the amount of oil at the surface that needs to be collected.

And this is the diagram:

Attachment 9828

Caught in the oil - The Big Picture - Boston.com

I think this is the best solution ( Virtual Shackles - What They Do Best )