The BP Oil Cap Is Actually Working - Imagine Their Surprise!

Here's one for the "Are you kidding me" file - the new cap on the leaky Gulf oil well is actually working, but now British Petroleum is collecting so much oil they cannot process it.  From the NY Times:

After two days of trying to gradually close the four vents on the capping device, engineers on Sunday decided to keep some open when they realized that more oil was being captured than could be processed on a drill ship floating in the gulf above. In a statement late Sunday, the company said it “may leave some” of the valves open “to ensure system stability.”

Engineers had feared that the volume and velocity of oil escaping might create so much friction on the new pipe that it might force it entirely off the cap. All day Saturday they worked to shut two of the vents, and they spent the afternoon measuring the results, mindful that if they closed the vents too quickly, water could rush in and form the kind of icy hydrates that doomed a previous containment effort.

But while the cap remained snugly in place and there were no signs of significant hydrate formation, by nightfall Saturday the engineers suddenly were forced to deal with another problem: the Discoverer Enterprise drill ship can only handle 15,000 barrels a day, and the capping device was trapping almost that amount without the vents shut.

“We’re maxed out,” said the technician, who is working on the operation and spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. He said the capping device was capturing 10,000 to 15,000 barrels a day.

“There is no chance to close the vents when you are at maximum production,” he said. “You wish desperately you could capture it all, but it depends on the volume coming out of well. And you know how people are arguing about that.”

The problem may be only a temporary one. The limitations of the Discoverer Enterprise to handle oil are mainly due to the size and capacity of the machines it has on board to separate the oil, gas and water for storage. The ship has the capacity to store 139,000 barrels of oil, a quantity that may be reached in a matter of days. Shuttle barges carry oil from the ship to storage tanks on shore.

Not to sit here and take cheap shots from thousands of miles away, but surely it dawned on the BP executives and the bright lights in the Administration that (a) this new cap might actually work and (b) there was tremendous uncertainty about the volume of oil being leaked.  One wonders whether this additional processing and storage capacity could have been put into place during the period when the riser pipe was being cut, the diamond saw was jamming, and so on.

Oh, well - I will leave the head-banging and forehead-slapping to our First Emoter.  The live feed of the BP Spill Cam is pretty cool.  To my untrained eye there seems to be less leaking than a few days ago but what do I know?

Comments

[Rob Crawford]

Not to sit here and take cheap shots from thousands of miles away...

And yet you did.

This kind of problem is what's known as "reality". Not everything is perfect, and even when things go right, you don't always have all the resources on hand to deal with it.

[narciso]

This may be more of Maguire's rhetorical gambit, are we sure he wasn't a lawyer

[I Won]

I told BP to plug the damned hole, not to capture the oil. BP is to blame.

[Danube of Thought]

There is only one thing certain to result from all of this, and that is a series of very unwise policy decisions concerning the production of energy.

[Clarice]

Let's take a flotilla there to capture it.

In other news my B-I-L on a Wisconsin phenomenon:The Teat Party.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/opinion/07feldman.html?ref=opinion>Teat party

[centralcal]

I'm about to leave for work, but NRO is saying that per a Fox News interview with the Rabbi, there is more video coming of Helen Thomas.

Hhhmmm.

[Rob Crawford]

I'm about to leave for work, but NRO is saying that per a Fox News interview with the Rabbi, there is more video coming of Helen Thomas.

Bad news -- it's a sex tape.

[Jack is Back!]

Sitting in hotel room in Brooklyn getting ready to taxi to Red Hook and board the QM2 for Southampton. Just read where they are speculating the oil slick reaching New York by July once it takes the straits current and starts moving up the east coast. For us on the First Coast the current is 80 miles east but that still won't keep us safe. No telling what happens once a 'cane hits the gulf and whips that spill up into a nasty wind and rain propelled potion of goop.

And Rob Crawford - you win the "snark of the day" award for that image.

[Mike Giles]

Why don't the simply tell any tanker that happens to be near - and empty - "feel free to drop by and pick up a free cargo of crude".

[gmax]

Foresight? TM, seriously dude. I cant tell if you are making a joke or if the caffeine has not yet kicked in for the week. From this bunch, you expected Foresight? How many things have had the law of unintended consequences raise up its ugly head in the last 18 months. It seems to be stumble and stagger, lurching from one crisis to another with lots of rock star parties sprinkled in for good measure.

[Ted]

It's not like you can "run down to Wal-Mart" & just pick up a separator that can handle the volumn. Most, if not all of this equipment has to be custom designed & fabricated as it is needed. Now that they know the cap is functioning, logistics are being determined to process every ounce ASAP. BP & all concerned parties WANT to $ELL every drop of it they can!

[rse]

I knew it had to be working yesterday when the daily update on NOAA's deepwater horizon site had added the words "under the supervision of the federal government" to talking about the cap.

No blame;just credit.

Not as OT as it might seem, Kim, Chaco, or anyone else working on ClimateGate-

Have you looked into the Education for Sustainable Devt UNESCO program being pushed in K-12 in England and other countries?

I Miss PUK after this morning's reading. I know how he would react the accepted idea ofEnglish primary schoolkids as "agents of change" so their "fear can turn to hope".

[rse]

Contrary to press hysteria, Panhandle beaches remain lovely with the exception of seaweed that came in last week.

[narciso]

Once you say "Education for Sustainable Development" you don't need to say anymore,
rse, it's not going to a good place

[Rob Crawford]

BP & all concerned parties WANT to $ELL every drop of it they can!

Precisely. The people acting as if this is what BP wanted to happen need to grow up and let go of their Hollywood-generated fantasies.

Have you looked into the Education for Sustainable Devt UNESCO program being pushed in K-12 in England and other countries?

"Sustainable" is the left's new buzzword. It means "a return to feudalism", with most of the world mired in poverty and oppression and the leftist elite living rich and lording over us all.

[cathyf]

Well if I were the CEO of a company that had a drilling ship nearby that could help out, I'd be sizing up the risks... Suppose we send our ship over, and at the same time something goes wrong that has nothing to do with us. How much time taken, how many reputations destroyed, how much money will be spent answering to Eric Holder's storm troopers?

If it were me, I'm afraid that the answer would be "never mind."

[narciso]

This is distressing enough as it, rse, the details don't really matter after this

[Soylent Obamacare]

Bad news -- it's a sex tape.

Ahhhh! AHHHHHH! My mind's eye! Poke it out! POKE IT OUT!

Just read where they are speculating the oil slick reaching New York by July once it takes the straits current and starts moving up the east coast.

Wouldn't it be great if the slick stalled out and washed into the Potomac? A big, nasty, brown-goopy reminder of the competence of this car-full of clowns, right on their doorstep.

[PDinDetroit]

Wouldn't it be great if the slick stalled out and washed into the Potomac?

We're sorry, but Slick is no longer welcome anywhere near DC.

[Old Lurker]

"but Slick is no longer welcome anywhere near DC."

No problem.

Hillary lives there.

[Danube of Thought]

Jeffrey Sachs and Donny Deutch bemoan the Messiah's failure of leadership.

Theyah dyin' down theah.

[dk70]

"Bad news -- it's a sex tape."

Damn you Rob. What a way to ruin someone's day.

[narciso]

When you're in a hole, first rule is 'stop digging' now Deutsch is so clearly clueless, but Sachs used to have a pretense of competence

[Clarice]

·Helen Thomas is retiring - Fox News(per Lucianne) Would that Pat Buchanan followed her lead.
·

[lyle]

Helen Thomas is still alive??

She looks like she died years ago.

[Rob Crawford]

Damn you Rob. What a way to ruin someone's day.

I apologize to those who read that during lunch.

[PDinDetroit]

There's just some serious stuff going on now. And you, you don't feel the leadership.

Oh yes we "feel the leadership", like lambs to the slaughter.

How clueless can one be? Could they not see this coming from a man who has never lead a useful life, let alone a business or a country!

[Melinda Romanoff]

No, narciso, Sachs just has pretentions.

[Ranger]

Well, according to http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=N2U4MzU3NDc3MzJhYWU4ZTllZjBjMDVhYWEzM2YxZmY=>Gibbs, Helen Thomas isn't the only one in the White House press corps who holds those views:

"Those remarks were offensive and reprehensible," Gibbs said, noting that Thomas has apologized. Her sentiments "do not reflect certainly most of the people here and certainly not those of the administration."

Only most of the people in the White House press room disagree?

Given that this was a somewhat prepared statement, it is interesting that Gibbs couldn't bring himself to say all in that sentence. I'd like to know who the ones that agree with her are.

[Ann]

LOL

Twitter:

Whoever takes Helen Thomas' spot should show up to work wearing ruby slippers.

[Janet]

Helen Thomas is Retiring...a headline that should have been written at least 20yrs. ago.

[PDinDetroit]

I miss her already. She's been a wonderful embarrassment for the media for so long, I'm not sure who can replace her.

Best comment over at Politico...

[Dave (in MA)]

Helen Thomas is Retiring...a headline that should have been written at least 20yrs. ago.

20? 30 at least.

Good riddance to bad trash.

[Pofarmer]

I'd cut BP a little slack, considering they did something that's never been done before, and nobody knew the extent of what was going on down there. OTOH, this is kind of a "dog catches car" moment.

[PJ]

"It's not like you can "run down to Wal-Mart" & just pick up a separator that can handle the volumn. "

Correct. That's what EBay's for.

" "Sustainable" is the left's new buzzword. It means "a return to feudalism" "

Memo to lefties: Use "sustainable" and "$1.5 trillion budget deficit" in the same sentence, see what you come up with. The one thing their ideas lack is ECONOMIC sustainability.

[centralcal]

With Newsweek on the chopping block, looks like one rat was able to successfully jump ship, per Politico:

Michael Isikoff is joining NBC News as National Investigative Correspondent.

Betcha we don't see any investigative reports by Isikoff on the corrupt Obama administration.

[Janet]

LUN Inbreeding between the Dems & MSM.
Pictures of Emanuel, Biden, and Wolf Blitzer at super soaker party.

[hit and run]

Bad news -- it's a sex tape.

...with Yassir.

[Jane]

Ya know I was just listening to the Sachs segment over at Hot Air and it made me wonder if the administration planned to destroy the country in 18 months or thought it would take longer.

[daddy]

This China Daily story lets us know that the Chinese are paying attention to BP's problem in the Gulf. Chinese">http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2010-06/07/content_9940198.htm">Chinese oil giant learns BP spill lesson

They are working on procedures to avoid a BP type leak problem, but are intent are continuing to do very deep ocean drilling, because thats where the gas is:

"Development of deepwater oil and gas, which means drilling wells deeper than 300 m under the sea, is still at an early age in China, said Zhou with CNOOC.

However, the sector is essential to China's energy security. In the past decade, 60 to 70 percent of oil discoveries with a capacity of more than 100 million tons are at sea, and among them over a half were in deepwater zones, said Zhou."

[Danube of Thought]

Elle est l'histoire. Goody.

[Appalled]

h & r:

In purgatory, you will be watching that particular tape in continuous loop for at least a century. Simply because of the pain and ugliness you inflicted with that image...

[Danube of Thought]

Worse than Katrina:

"A month and a half after the spill began, 69 percent in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll rate the federal response negatively. That compares with a 62 negative rating for the response to Katrina two weeks after the August 2005 hurricane."

[daddy]

FWIW,

Karl Rove on FOX with the very pretty Megan Kelly, just said that the brilliant Chu was in some BP control center when the latest cap was placed on the leaking pipe. Says that when the cap went on the brilliant Chu, watching the underwater camera feeds, immediately complained "It's still leaking", at which point the technicians had to educate him "Of course it's still leaking---it has these vents on the sides that we well gradually try to close, but if we didn't have those vents, or if we immediately closed them, the pressure of the leaking oil would blow the cap off immediately and we'd have accomplished nothing."

Rove's point was that if they are so in control and briefed up on the particulars, how could they be so fundamentally ignorant of what the heck BP was trying to do?

If true, a decent point.

[Antimedia]

Whatever else you can say about BP, you have to admit they can find oil. Knowing what to do with it....well.....

[Clarice]

Gee, DoT and that's w/o Geraldo, Shep and "cannibalism"

[rse]

Has anyone heard of the Teresa Heinz/John Kerry charity they established after their marriage?

Its sole purpose apparently is to convince college and university presidents to sign up their schools to push sustainable development throughout the higher ed curriculum.

Over 650 presidents have signed up.

Won't that go well with student loan repayments capped at 10% of income and then forgiven after 10 years if you are not employed in the private sector.

[Rob Crawford]

Rove's point was that if they are so in control and briefed up on the particulars, how could they be so fundamentally ignorant of what the heck BP was trying to do?

I'll give "the brilliant" Chu a pass on this, unless there was an earlier briefing that included the information on the vents. At least he didn't go monkey-poo over the vents.

Or complain about BP not immediately having the capacity to deal with every drop of oil.

[Jane]

I'll give "the brilliant" Chu a pass on this

Not me since he is running the show and should actually know what he has approved.

[Rob Crawford]

Not me since he is running the show and should actually know what he has approved.

I don't expect management types to have even the slightest grasp of the technology involved. The result of nearly two decades in IT.

[fdcol63]

I wonder how many Obama voters are now wishing they'd supported Hillary?

But considering how much Hillary has aged as SecState in less than 2 years, she'd be looking like Helen Thomas now. LOL

[rse]

LUN is the link to the March special issue of Academic Questions with numerous articles critical of this emphasis and fixation on Sustainabilty.

Just what we need:

-pushes intl resolutions
-climate change
-social justice
-bogus 21st century learning
-the direness of population growth and worldwide wealth inequality
-species elimination
- and diversity

all in one "interconnected" theory.

[fdcol63]

The author of this site has been warning about the real agenda behind the UN's "Sustainable Development" crap for quite a while:

Sustainable Development – A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

http://www.green-agenda.com/sustainabledevelopment.html

[rse]

I forgot the goal of "community cohesion".

As in "Global learning can help schools promote community cohesion and so counteract extreme political voices at a time when they are getting louder".

Not only do we have through 2014 for the ESD intl decade to run but the man who instituted it in the UK for Tony Blair has now opened an American office to spread the good word.

Just in time to take advantage of those coerced national K-12 standards.

[Clarice]

I understand Hillary's on her way to Ecuador to suck up to the commie there.

Tell me this is just one long bad dream.

[Cecil Turner]

I don't expect management types to have even the slightest grasp of the technology involved.

I'm with Jane. What's the point of sitting in the control center watching a procedure you don't know enough about to know if it was a success? Even if he's just showing the flag, the impact of letting everyone know the oversight folks are eyerollingly ignorant can't be good.

[Rob Crawford]

Cecil -- I'm not saying it's good. I'm just saying it's a fact of life.

[jimmyk]

Its sole purpose apparently is to convince college and university presidents to sign up their schools to push sustainable development throughout the higher ed curriculum.

Over 650 presidents have signed up.

Like taking candy from a baby. I see these universities struggling with budget cuts and imploded endowments, yet they have their "Sustainability Office" with high salary employees, and waste millions on "going green."

They also want to indoctrinate students. I responded to a broad request to develop a course on "Sustainability" with a willingness to do so from the economics perspective (which would have been oriented around Julian Simon's ideas, though I didn't say so). It was met with deafening silence.

[Eschar]

Rove is a fucking liar.

How have you idiots not yet incorporated that fact?

[Eschar]

Since Chu already gave BP the idea (since implemented) to image the BOP with gamma rays, and would certainly have known about the vents beforehand, Rove's seconhand anecdote is complete bullshit.

[Eschar]

Of course, you people specialize in swallowing it whole, I know, still, get a grip.

[Rob Crawford]

No one's listening to you, "Eschar".

[fdcol63]

The only name that draws trolls faster than flies on poop is .... Palin.

[Rob Crawford]

"eschar: A hard crust or scab. In scrub typhus, an eschar forms over the initial sore from the chigger bite"

Fitting.

[Cecil Turner]

I'm just saying it's a fact of life.

Yeah, I know it is. But it's still his job to be somewhat informed on things he's overseeing (or at least to avoid public displays of ignorance).

And I'd note Rove's famed mind rays are so powerful, they're making the NYTimes repeat his "lie":

The technician said that shortly after the cap was successfully placed, Dr. Chu wondered aloud why oil was still spewing from around the bottom. Engineers had to tell him that the leaks were expected, at least initially. [emphasis added]

The Force is strong with this one.

[Jane]

DFTT Day 4 -

But it's still his job to be somewhat informed on things he's overseeing

I'd be happy with teh administration admitting they do not have a clue.

[Clarice]

Cecil. never underestimate the force power of the bald man's mind rays. never.

[Melinda Romanoff]

You'll be proud of me Jane, I'm not even using sticks to poke in cages.

[Jane]

Keep it up Mel, and become a watchdog like me.

[narciso]

He didn't know oil and gas was in his department's purview so it doesn't surprise
me, he would not be aware of these things

[Ignatz]

--And I'd note Rove's famed mind rays are so powerful, they're making the NYTimes repeat his "lie"--

Over to you, eschar.

[Janet]

good link fdcol63...thanks.

[hit and run]

Cecil:
And I'd note Rove's famed mind rays are so powerful, they're making the NYTimes repeat his "lie"

Hmmmm,I have it on good authority that though his name is not listed as a contributor to that NYT article,Lark Evor was heavily involved in its writing:

http://www.moonbattery.com/Lark_Evor.png>

[Clarice]

Heh

XOXO

[Eschar]

Oh sweet allah on a stick!

The story is in the New York Times!?

Quotiing a BP "technician"?

Ok, I guess this is where Rove got the story. Fuck him anyway, he's still a worthless asshole.

Meanwhile, if you need me to catalogue the 100% wrong bullshit that has been printed in the New York Times relying on BP sources or the complete lies that have been spewed by BP reps since this fuckup started, well I don't have the time.

It didn't fucking happen. Leave it at that.

[Dave (in MA)]

Eschew Eschar.

[Jane says obamasucks]

DFTT - no matter how easy it is.

[Itch that scab.]

Oh, sure, leave it at that. Actually, amazingly, I'm interested in your take on the affair. We've had a nice little morality play. What did you see?
===================

[hit and run]

Helen Thomas' WH seat going to ... http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/west_wing_reportage/whca_turns_attention_to_filling_thomas_seat__163834.asp>Fox?!!??!

Muwahaahahaaahaha!

[Old Lurker]

Rob, maybe in things as opaque as IT you might have a point. But placing this cap in place is pretty simple to understand (though difficult to accomplish), and anyone who has ever, say, tried to screw a nozzle on the end of a running hose without opening the spray to let the water through, would understand the concept instantly. Management or not...

Plus, on what planet are ANY of Obama's folks "Management" in the traditional sense of the word as, for example, having Managed Something (Anything).

[Old Lurker]

And yes, Mel has been good about DFTT. Threatening to take that stick away from him did the trick.

[Clarice]

Hit, what a delightful outcome that is.. C

[lyle]

Bad news -- it's a sex tape.

...with Yassir.

Great. Sex between the dead and the undead.

[Melinda Romanoff]

I still have a hay fork and a manure fork.

But those are specialized tools.

I prefer the hay fork for enthusiastic questioning over other forms of encouragement.

[Cecil Turner]

Rob, maybe in things as opaque as IT you might have a point.

Yeah but IME, the fault is at least partially with the IT guys. Amusing anecdote: back in the day, I was the ops guy responsible for J6 liaison. In a flag-level meeting, the comm guy gets out one of those interminable stoplight charts and starts in on every system in theater, with special emphasis on a database replication problem in the deployment part. As he droned, I told my boss: "the [deployment system] is broke." As he went on, a clarification: "bad broke, down for three weeks." My buddy, who was sitting behind us and overheard me, said later: "at first, I thought you were joking . . . then I realized you weren't." The Col from J6 never did figure out his 20-minute presentation could be boiled down to ten words.

[Threadkiller]

Meanwhile, if you need me to catalogue the 100% wrong bullshit that has been printed in the New York Times relying on BP sources or the complete lies that have been spewed by BP reps since this fuckup started, well I don't have the time.

It is indeed tough to believe all that BP has to say.

Since Obama was born a British subject; BP must stand for "British President", doesn't it??

”Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.‘s children”.

[bgates]

There are so many things to like about Karl Rove. My favorite is the effect he has on America's enemies.

[Ignatz]

--Plus, on what planet are ANY of Obama's folks "Management" in the traditional sense of the word as, for example, having Managed Something (Anything).--

OL,
They're all "management" in the sense that they managed to acquire a tidy some sucking at the public teat.

[Eschar]

Like causing them to be elected to the Presidency b/c he fucked up so bad?

[lyle]

Like causing them to be elected to the Presidency b/c he fucked up so bad?

Man, that's some fine mangled syntax you got goin' there, dude.

[Now, there's a situation calling for deep research.]

So, you've got time enough to be incoherent? Damn, I had my hopes that you knew whereof ye speak.
==============

[Captain Hate]

I guess I'm the only person here who agrees with Eschar on Rove. I understand people liking him who have met him and I enjoyed how he made the donks more unhinged than usual; but as a strategist for the long haul he was a nightmare and deserves a large share of the blame for Bush's low approval ratings.

[Ignatz]

--I had my hopes that you knew whereof ye speak.--

kim,
About half of what scab says is "f%*#ed up" so I have no doubt he's spent a good portion of his life whereof he speaks.

[(Another) Barbara]

Maybe it's just a personal quirk, but if someone uses "fuck" every sentence or two I sense they're coming from a position of utter weakness.

[Porchlight]

as a strategist for the long haul he was a nightmare and deserves a large share of the blame for Bush's low approval ratings.

The executive sets the tone and calls the shots. Rove may have given some bad advice but only Bush can be held ultimately responsible for making the decisions. Same goes for any executive and his people.

Rove got Bush re-elected and that means, among other things, that we didn't have President Kerry. So Karl's A-OK by me.

[Do you miss him, yet?]

CH, the so-called free press we have is responsible for the low ratings Bush had. Those were the good old days, you know. He wasn't perfect, but he was a magnificent executive.
============

[Captain Hate]

Rove may have given some bad advice but only Bush can be held ultimately responsible for making the decisions.

Absolutely Bush is ultimately responsible for what he did, but Rove needed to impress on him the importance of keeping the nation informed on the progress of the war by regularly addressing it on television. I'm sure Bush was extremely uncomfortable doing that but damnit, it's part of the job and to which he gave short shrift. Maybe Rove banged on him to do it; but if he did, he didn't do it hard enough.

Look, it's great that Bush got 2 terms and we didn't get shackled with an effete gasbag like Lurch, and I'll give Rove some of the credit for that. But Terrrrreeezzza's long-faced cabana boy was an extremely unlikeable and off-putting candidate and Bush captured over 50% of the popular vote, something political "genius" Slick never managed.

[Captain Hate]

Kim et al: I know that my opinion of Rove isn't shared by many here. But I don't have any reason to show fealty to anybody associated with an administration that came into power with their party controlling all elected branches of the government and left controlling none of them. That was the same situation that Slick and his crew went through and I laughed heartily at a party that genuflected to Clenis and his band of idiots. I'm just applying the same standard to Rove. He may have associated with Atwater but Lee was a superior strategist imo.

[narciso]

Well there is certainly a degree of that, then again the administration was dealing with
a clique of dunces, who never were enchanted
and always were looking for what's that phrase
daddy uses, and not really interested in the
answers.

[boris]

"the importance of keeping the nation informed on the progress ..."

That wasn't the problem. There just wasn't enough good war news until the surge turned things around and by then the damage was done.

Kerry would have won if not for a few bloggers who busted the TANG memo fraud and the swiftboat vets. That kind of assault can't be beaten from the inside, it requires outside defenders and IMO that's what faded after 2006.