Muddying the Oil

Maybe BP can stuff a copy of the Senate HCR bill down the pipe. Jay, can YOU buy your parents’ pad? Do a land contract; skip and screw the banks and pay Mom and Dad directly. Does it share a beach so you can sunbathe? Great view / weather, no doubt, except for the oil and those pesky hurricanes. Think inviting friends and colleagues down for parties. Bring KT down also for a mini-vacay to catch some rays.
.
Okay, serious q.: any word on short / long-term fallout from this re: oil supplies? Meaning: more on-shore drilling, importing (hope not), or accelerating non-crude options (biofuels, etc.)? Or are supplies locked up by gasoline suppliers for now that there’s time to work it out?. I asked over at Curious Cap. blog but they didn’t answer. (Now I’m done and out for day, to send resumes for those who want paper instead of email. They’ll get ‘em. Thanks for your thoughts, Jay)

New Orleans (New Oileans?) will be interesting to visit on Saturday.
.
I’m looking forward to talking with the locals.

J, be fair now – to date no oil has washed up on Florida beaches.

IIRC, this was an exploration well so no one was in a position to assume it added to the existing supply pool so I doubt there is a direct impact on supply/demand/cost curves. Outside of the (probably global) freeze on off-shore drilling, I’m not sure if anyone has spent a notable amount of time analyzing the long term impact this has on the market.

Has anyone figured out how to sell derivatives of mud stocks? I mean, some mud is being lost into a hole so the prices and demand have got to be going up. Of course the traders that got into the mud market early are going to make a killing if top kill fails and they sell short.
-
That ain’t me so I’m making mud pies as fast as I can and wishing on a mud bubble.

Yet…
.
The ESA (European Space Agency) was saying last week that the southern tip of the oil spill was coming up to a strong eastern current that could potentially carry the oil straight past the Florida Keys and out into the Atlantic (and maybe a bit up the coast, though I somewhat doubt that it’ll make it to anywhere in significant quantities before the water dilutes it enough for it to be “safe”)
.
Looking at aquatic behavior, coupled with the floating factor, I have a hard time believing that anything between that current and the coast that has direct line of sight of the platform will be spared in the long run. I recall a commercial the other year that indicated that oil was capable of polluting 10,000 (IIRC) fold the relative volume of water….

It just may happen as you say, FL; I was simply pointing out that we haven’t gotten the brunt of it like Louisiana has.
Plus, everyone’s seeing the surface oil but seem to have clean forgotten about the stuff thousands of feet below that’s killing the plankton and, with time, the rest of the food chain.
Better hope this “top kill” does what it’s supposed to do or we’ll soon be calling it the Ditch of Mexico.

Speaking of muddy.
.
A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans are displeased with President Obama’s handling of the BP oil spill.
.
According to the poll, 53% rated Obama’s response as “poor” or “very poor,” and 43% said he’s doing well.

.
But he’s still doing better than the federal government at large and British Petroleum in the eyes of the public: 73% said BP is doing a bad job and 60% said the government is doing poorly.
.
However, more than two thirds of respondents think BP should stay in charge of the cleanup rather than turn over the reins to the government. And some 52% still support increasing offshore drilling in the U.S.
.
The poll was taken May 24 and 25 among 1,049 adults. There is a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.
.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/05/poll-majority-give-obama-feds-failing-grade-on-oil-spill-response-/1

Big Story
Big Story
Go Away
Come Again Another Day
When There Is Something
New To Say
.
Media Big Stories Always Offer More Than I Want. Stop Please.

I can’t get an answer on this. If the administration takes control of stopping the gusher, will this limit BPs liability from the time they take over? It may be irrelevant, since the Reps aren’t willing to vote for increasing the liability cap.

“Officials are looking at how much they can recoop from BP — looks like it’s as much as $4,300 per barrel leaked — which means they need to actually figure out how many barrels were leaked. Good luck with that.”

The current estimate is 84,000 barrels a day. We know the day it started. We will know the day it ends.

I don’t see the problem.

Something to consider here. With the main stream media’s obsession with the White House’s response to this mess. The main culprit (BP) is going to get away with a lot.
.
There are so many levels of failure here and its complicated. However, the main stream media is not up to the task. Whatever, Obama and his administration could have or should have done better in missed grand standing opportunities misses completely the fact that this is disaster that could have been avoided in the first place if not for incompetence both in federal oversight, graft and corporate malfeasance and greed.
.
This disaster didn’t really happen last month. It was years in the making. Just like our finanical disaster was. But to be fair to the media. The American public wouldn’t have cared even if they had sounded the alarm.

Republicans have blamed Obama’s lax record on regulatory enforcement.

Do Republicans ever make any attempt to hold an internally consistent world view?

All of us have to respect the see (and the earth). We are undoubtely on the wrong road (Way). There is something that human being has to revise (review?),
otherwise we’ll do the end of Etruskan civilization, Romans, Egiptions, ecc. ecc. “SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI” Il always valid (Excuse my bad english)
Culturamugellana (Italy)

Important reading:
.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/05/critical_perspective.php#more?ref=fpblg

Very good piece. Thanks, Paul.

I’ve always wanted to win the lottery so I couldI spend most of the money helping save the manatees. This is very painful.

Obama may have handled this well or poorly, but his administration has handled the pr war over this very badly. And the lack of understanding among those complaining has been impressive. Last week Tweetie wanted to know why they didn’t send frogmen down there to fix it. It was Sylvia Earl he was asking this of, and she was commendably calm as she explained there are only 4 manned submersibles capable of going down there to do something, and none of these is in this country. Matthews seemingly didn’t understand that you just couldn’t go out of the sub at 5,000 feet below the surface.

A lot of the complaining sounds to me like saying we ought to send a helicopter up to fix the space shuttle.

And as for the things we can do with the spill: a hundred tankers in a space the size of Connecticut aren’t going to make a significant dent.

I don’t know what’s more bizarre about this — the laughable idea that Republicans are chiding any president for being too lax in regulating private industry, or that they’re levying this charge at Obama, when strengthening the regulatory agencies has been one of his clearest successes so far.
.

In a burst of rule-making, federal agencies have toughened or proposed new standards to protect Americans from tainted eggs, safeguard construction workers from crane accidents, prevent injuries from baby walkers and even protect polar bears from extinction.
.
Over the last year, the Obama administration has pressed forward on hundreds of new mandates, while also stepping up enforcement of rules by increasing the ranks of inspectors and imposing higher fines for violations.
…
Still, the new aggressiveness reflects the new cops on the beat, and the contrast with the Bush administration is an intentionally sharp one. While the Bush administration mostly favored voluntary compliance by industry, senior Obama administration officials argue that carefully crafted regulation can be a positive force.

.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/us/politics/13rules.html

How about a timeline of events, swampland bias reporters? Show on a timeline exactly what has been done to date. Wouldn’t that clear some of the questions up in people’s minds?
.
4/20/10 – Oil explosion, 11 workers killed, hundreds escape.
.
4/21/10 and 4/22/10 – Oil well fire, search and rescue, and Coast Guard called in to help.
.
4/23/10 – Coast Guard on scene investigation says “well platform collasped into the Gulf, the oil does not appear to be leaking into the Gulf”.
.
4/24/10 – Oops. Underwater cameras reveal there is a leak, estimates of how much oil is being released are being estimated.
.
4/25/10 – Coast Guard now changes it’s mind. Stated oil leak is “very serious”, and they are concerned about oil spill reaching the surface.
.
4/26/10 – Oil spill now size of the State of Rhode Island, over 1800 square miles. (Any word from the Obama Administration as of yet?? NOPE).
.
4/27/10 – “Here we come to save the day!!!” Interior Secretary, now 7 days into the impending disaster launches a “joint investigation” with the Coast Guard. Imagine that!!
.
4/28/10 – Coast Guard says “5000 barrels a day is leaking from the well, we will try a burn”.
.
4/29/10 – President Obama FINALLY comes out of the White House to give a presser. Obama says “BP is responsible”. Pointing fingers it seems is the way to solve the huge oil slick which is now the size of Texas. Wildlife and natural preserves are looking at death in the eye. Lousiana now calls for a State of Emergency, reports that Jindal has been asking for help from the Federal Government for days past. Asking for the Shrimpers and other Fishermen to be hired to help in the cleanup.
.
4/30/10 – Obama announces a “freeze” on any NEW oil exploration. Isn’t that great?? Now we can sleep tight in our beds knowing that no NEW oil exploration will happen. Great job Mr President. That is taking the bull by the horn.
.
5/1/10 – Lousianna shuts down all fishing in Gulf waters. Impact estimated to be in the billions in dollars lost to the economy.
.
5/2/10 – Obama goes to the Gulf. Stated “this could be massive and unprecedented”. He ordered all fishing in Federal waters be suspended for 10 days. No plans as of yet, but deferring to BP as “the responsible party in all of this”. Coast Guard is given the official authority to oversee BP’s operations.
.
5/3/10 – Finally the boom laying off coastal shores has begun. Jindal demands that locals be used in the cleanup operations and putting out the boom barriers to keep oil from coming on shore.
.
5/5/10 – One leak plugged says BP. Now they are working on the more severe leak. A “Top Hat” container box process is being considered. Oil has not as of yet reached the shoreline, but is expected.
.
5/6/10 – Top hat is lowered to the leak. Not successful. Dispersents stopped. “Could be more harmful”. No new Government involvement. President is playing golf.
.
5/9/10 – Tar balls reach Alabama coast. Barrier islands are now full of oil killing the reeds which are all over these islands. Still no Government involvement. Dispersents resumed. LA National Guard ordered by Jindal to put out huge sand bags in hopes of blocking oil from reaching further into the LA coastline.
.
5/11/10 – Oil Execs “grilled” by Congress. Oil Execs pointing fingers at each other and not taking blame. Obama points finger at all three accused perpetrators, but still no other actions taken by the Federal Government as of yet.
.
5/13/10 – First video of the actual spill released to the public. Looks like over 200,000 gallons of oil per day estimated by the Coast Guard.
.
5/14/10 – Obama makes a statement he’s “deeply frustrated”.
.
5/16/10 – A siphoning tube is inserted into the oil well. Seems to be slowing the 200,000 gallon per day spill.
.
5/17/10 – President Obama appoints a “blue ribbon panel” of experts. (now isn’t that special!!).
.
5/20/10 – As predicted oil reaches the very sensitive marshes. Plants dying. Birds spotted covered in oil. Jindal asks for more Government help and assistance. Wants permits issued so they can build a barrier of sand to stop anymore oil from reaching coastline. Slick is moving to the “Loop Current” which is predicted to move faster and out into the Atlantic, up the East coast.
.
5/22/10 – Lousianna citizens outraged at the lack of Federal response. People begin to speak out and protest. Protests fall on deaf ears from Obama Administration.
.
5/24/10 – “Top Hat” gives way to “Top Kill”. BP hopeful that this process will stop the leak with mud and then cement. Fingers are all crossed in the White House. Administration officials are all now hitting the air waves of all news agencies trying to stem the spill of negative press which is now hitting the Administration. Obama goes to California to give a speech for $34,000 per couple campaign contribs for Barbara Boxer.
.
5/26/10 – “Top Kill” underway. Oil still spewing into the Gulf.
.
4/27/10 – Gov Jindal is very frustrated speaking out against Federal Govt refusal to issue permits so they can go to work to save what they can. Obama announces another trip to the Gulf. (does he have his boots with him and a rake to help with the cleanup?). So far no real Federal Government involvement in over 30 days into this disaster. And Democrats / Liberals finally begin to speak out and question Obama on his lack of involvement. Carville goes nuts on network TV. Calls on President to “git down here now”.
.
And they call Katrina Bush’s failure. I do hope you all can compare the response to Katrina to the response of Obama on this little mishap.

Um, Jay, if it’s not too late … We all know you’re spelling challenged (nothing wrong with that; lots of very smart people are), but sometimes you outdo yourself. So I am given to wonder whether, in writing “recoop,” you had in the back of your mind those chickens that are going to be paid in barter for medical services.
.
Not that this matters now, but it should be “recoup.”

4/26/10 – Oil spill now size of the State of Rhode Island, over 1800 square miles. (Any word from the Obama Administration as of yet?? NOPE).
.
Once again, Rusty, you demonstrate that you don’t have the slightest command of the facts.
.
Within 24 hours of the spill, the Deputy Secretary of the Interior was inspecting the site and the Coast Guard had been dispatched there, even though BP kept insisting it didn’t need any federal help.
.
And the White House addressed the spill on 4/22:
.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-press-secretary-presidents-oval-office-meeting-discuss-situation-gulf-mex

BP’s internal investigation into the cause of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill focuses largely on equipment failures and work done by other companies, with little indication it is looking at its own internal decision-making, according to a number of industry experts.
.
Four of the seven items BP told federal officials this week it is concentrating on involve failures of the blowout preventer, the massive collection of valves that sits on the seafloor and is supposed to stop the flow of oil and gas in an emergency. That equipment is made by Houston-based Cameron International and owned by the rig owner, Transocean.
.
Two other items deal with pressure tests of the well and the cement work used to hold well pipes in place, done by Halliburton.
.
All these issues have been discussed widely in congressional hearings, so there are few surprises, said David Pursell, an analyst with Houston-based energy research and investment firm Tudor Pickering Holt & Co.
.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/7022327.html

And they call Katrina Bush’s failure. I do hope you all can compare the response to Katrina to the response of Obama on this little mishap.
.
Sure.
.
Bush had several days advance warning that a Category 5 hurricane was heading to the Gulf Coast. Obama did not have advance notice that the rig was going to explode.
.
According to law, Bush’s government declared a federal emergency days before landfall and invested FEMA and DHS with full responsibility for the recovery; and yet it took days to get those resources into place. According to law, BP maintains primary responsibility for the cleanup here.
.
As Bush’s team dropped the ball, tens of thousands of Americans lacked food, water, and shelter; countless dead bodies floated in the streets of New Orleans, as Bush’s administration remained sidelined doing nothing. Aside from the 11 workers killed in the immediate blast, no one has died from the oil spill.
.
So, yeah, we can compare the two events and see that they have absolutely nothing in common.

Well I happen to believe that a press release online is a little less “official” and news worthy than when the President actually comes out of the White House to speak about any problems, kevin. Plus anyone can create an internet site posting and date it for any date they choose so it LOOKS like something was being done. Right?
.
This administration has boggled this from the start, and still do not have a clue as to what to do now more than 34 days into this disaster. Go play someplace else, your defense of Obamao falls on deaf ears.
.
This IS and will go down in the history books as “Obama’s Katrina”. So much for putting all of our marbles in the hands of the incompetent Federal Government.

You really are a piece of work Rusty.

Plus anyone can create an internet site posting and date it for any date they choose so it LOOKS like something was being done. Right?
.
I’m sorry — are you charging the White House with retroactively putting a false document on their website? Really?
.
This administration has boggled this from the start, and still do not have a clue as to what to do now more than 34 days into this disaster.
.
Tell me: What exactly should they have done? Do you think the Obama administration has a submersible that could have reached the hole? Do you think the Navy or Coast Guard has the men and material capable of shutting off the leak? What should they have done?
.
Go play someplace else, your defense of Obamao falls on deaf ears.
.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. You refuse to listen to facts or reason.
.
This IS and will go down in the history books as “Obama’s Katrina”.
.
Funny, I just saw historian Douglas Brinkley on CNN ridiculing the idea that this was “Obama’s Katrina.” Maybe you should go lecture the professional historians and give them your unique perspective.
.
Oh, and be sure to tell them those White House documents are forgeries.

what happened here was devastating and it’s funny how everyone is trying to assign blame, when they could be working to find out what happened and try to help in any way. who cares whose fault it is – what happened happened. and like your post said, the animals are the biggest losers in this sad, sad game. I hope this at least helps them find a way to prevent this from happening again.

kevin, thank you, thank you for posting that link. I was searching for that article yesterday afternoon to post here and couldn’t find it. I now have it bookmarked.
.
“One of his clearest successes so far”, but this is the only article I have seen about it compared with the many, many OMG he has failed in everything articles.

Thanks Paul, that’s a very important take on this.

Reading about these engineering ideas people have to solve problems is facinating.

Let’s just hope they can get this stuff cleaned up well before a hurricane hits the Gulf and really stirs it all up.

It’s going to catch the loop current, do an end-around on FLA, and come ashore in South Carolina, where a plenty big political oil slick now resides.

Wouldn’t exploding a large device at the site achieve the same effect as topkill by collapsing millions of tons of mud on the leak?

http://www.middleofthefreakinroad.com

imputability…Hum … who did it first… In a certain way we all did !But who did it more ?British Petroleum?Engineers ? there is spirit a philosophy behind all that and that is not very pretty … But business person dont claim to be saint they are in it for the dough …But who is singing sainthood and truthfulne$$ ? Hum …The bum drinking all day in the street …Bum yes , but not as much as some sophisticated I.Q. …the one teaching your children at university …CHILDREN-STUDENTS ; are not they learning the summit of the modern and up to date know-how knowledge …The most redemptuous chattering about ethical point of view …the most of everything and us , are we not listening and hoping for the best …Nuclear energy is good for you omega 3 also …The spychologist seem to accept well enough the burden of a cruel marketing hammering on us all day …We cannot know nothing we are not experts we have to trust them …But N’HOW the air that we breathe the water that we drink is in danger …There is a mistake somewhere and many lies …the indians used to say that you cannot eat money, we will see …Who did it ? Silence fear and obedience did it …DO let again education GROWING the way it is and the worst is yet to come …Slow down small is beautifull …You can pollute with powerfull tools but if you are using your heart at eveyrthing you do you will pollute less …But who want to think …universities ?Young students of the world believe in the thirst of your soul and dont let nobody tell you what life should be …Look what they did with their numbers and motors …and long long words!

This from Jon Chait:

“There’s no such thing as offering somebody a job in return for them dropping out of a Senate race. The acceptance of a job means dropping out of a Senate race. The concept of offering somebody a job “in exchange” for them declining to seek another job is like offering to marry a woman in exchange for her not marrying some other guy. It’s conceptually nonsensical.”

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/75178/sestak-gate-getting-dumber

The petroleum industry has been gouging the good citizens of this planet for far too long, in my opinion, mercilessly destroying natural habitats, endangered species, and small business irreparably in the process. Maybe a fine is levied (for what must be pennies on the dollar for multi-billion-$$ giants like BP) for the damage they cause, but We The People see not a cent of it, chances are. Me, I’m still outraged about that 5-and-6-dollar-a-gallon gas a couple years ago as Exxon proudly reported its largest profit ever.

I mean, if the hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico interrupted production so much that they had to raise gas prices to those exorbitant amounts to compensate, how, then, did profit revenues so dramatically exceed the norm as a result? I’m sure a boardroom filibuster could politically justify correctly the outcome on paper, but real world? . . it don’t add up.

Now BP is getting its profit-driven @$$ kicked by Reality itself (likely the only entity in existence actually capable of doing it), and I believe this is just a taste of things to come. Mr. Krooked Amerika (& cohorts): it’s time to pay the piper.

All this looks like a flimsy cover-up…stringent measures have to be put up in place

It’s an enourmous disaster what happened in coasts of Mexico, in U.S.A. I don’t want to poin my finger against somebody. I want to say what sayd Frabrizio del Noce, italian journalist, son of catholic philosopher, an ex General Director Italian Television RAI. This ‘frase’ is reported on my book: Paolo Campidori . Folli e Sapienti – Giorgi e Gambi Editori 1998, pag. 63: “Lo sviluppo è sostenibile fino ad un certo punto” (Development is recommandable until a certain point”.
We all have to save our sees, our countries, because, even Texas coasts belongs to United Stated people, they are common ‘paterimonio’. Unesco should give more attention on such catastrophic avvenimenti.
But all the people of the world have the “dovere” to help United States, to rosolve this enourmous problem.
Paolo Campidori – Cultura mugellana
http://www.culturamugellana.wordpress.com

I don’t know what your source is, but from everything I’ve been reading the estimate that scientists were able to come up with is very sketchy, even those who came up with it admit this. This is due to the fact that they were only given a few seconds of video from the actual leak to deal with. Video. That’s it. There’re also the satellite photos to work with, but as we found out recently there is also an unknown amount of oil under the water. This hasn’t really happened before in an oil spill so there’s no way for us to estimate how much is down there. Now, I would be in favor of using the sketchy, but ‘it’s the best we’ve got’ estimate, but the problem is that the bp lawyers may be able to tear is to pieces. It’s just the way the world works.

There is no money to pay a disaster of such dimension.
The only way is to change the opinion that money is all in the life. There is too much egoism in this kind of society.
My opinion is also that all men have to help to reduce this catastroph, and to prevent the sames in the future.
Nobody and no nations have the propriety of the world.
We have born free and world belongs to everybody.
Stop the hipocrisy.
Cultura Mugellana

IDESS is an independent organisation providing training services to the maritime and offshore industries.