Explosion – Deep Water Horizon Drilling Rig in GOM, USA

[Bill Bulloch]

Does anyone really think that a Scottish Parliament released a convicted Lockerbie terrorist without any consultation or agreement from Westminster?
I don’t think so!! Westminster would be happy for the Scottish Parliament to take the full blame though for the decision, but they cannot deny that they were involved in the decision to release.

I actually heard the stories of an oil rights agreement when the discussions started before the terrorist was released. Its only now since it has become appropriate to kick BP that a company name is being mentioned.

I still find it hard to believe that this terrorist was shown any compassion at all though. Watching him walk down the stairs of that aircraft in Libya to freedom was very sadly and ironic when you think of the friends and family who never made it home!

[Rons_ROV_Links]

This is how they cleanup oil in China: http://www.telegraaf.nl/buitenland/article7218705.ece

😕

[James McLauchlan]

As unorthodox as it appears to be, it does work though… you can clearly see how much oil has been collected on each person… no water, just oil…. a few more million of those ‘professional oil collectors’ and they’d have it sorted.

There appears to be loads of oil in the sea but the spill/oil being washed up on the beach doesn’t appear to be well known globally.

Shouldn’t the newly formed IOOCP ‘(International Obama Oil Company Police)‘ be advised so they can investigate the company concerned and take those responsible to task?

Maybe not in this case as CNOOC is a state-owned oil company, 70% of whose shares are owned by the Government of the People’s Republic of China….. oops!.

OK, forget that…. back to BP then!

[Rons_ROV_Links]

BP Caught Photoshopping Its Press Images

[James McLauchlan]

Extracts from the above link……

BP Caught Photoshopping Its Press Images

Once the story broke (it was picked up by Rachel Maddow’s blog and then The Washington Post) BP took down the altered picture and Scott Dean, a spokesman for the company, explained it thusly: "In this case [our post-production team] copied and pasted three ROV screen images in the original photo over three screens that were not running video feeds at the time." They then released this "unretouched" version.

Original "unretouched" image:

BP Photoshopped image:

More at: http://www.good.is/post/bp-caught-photoshopping-its-press-images/

Oh dear…. talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

[ROVSKI]

So BP were to tight to buy a video switcher at their command center.

[Rons_ROV_Links]

Deepwater Horizon alarm had been ‘inhibited,’ technician testifies

[R2D2]

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/294728-1

[Rons_ROV_Links]

Telegraph: US petrol stations to consider banishing BP from the pumps

And Amoco has a good reputation when it comes to massive oil spills.

On March 16, 1978, the very large crude carrier Amoco Cadiz ran ashore just north of Landunvez, Finistère, France, causing one of the largest oil spills in history. More than a decade later, Amoco was ordered to pay $120 million in damages and restitution to France.

On October 21, 1980, an explosion at an Amoco plant in New Castle, Delaware, killed six people, caused $46 million in property damage, and eventually led to the loss of 300 jobs.

In the 1980s and 1990s, six former Amoco chemical engineers at the firm’s Naperville, Illinois research campus developed a deadly form of brain cancer. Researchers who conducted a three-year study of the cancer cluster determined that the cancer cases were workplace-related, but they could not identify the source of the workers’ ailments. In June 2010, BP demolished Building 503, where the workers had worked, because according to a company spokesperson, the building was "underused," and "required upgrades the company deemed too expensive." Heirs of one of the cancer victim workers won a $2.75 million suit against BP Amoco in 2000.

[Mark DuPriest]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10846725

What does it take to control a robot claw?
By Finlo Rohrer
BBC News, Washington

"The response to the BP oil spill has thrown a spotlight on the work of the pilots who painstakingly steer the underwater remote-operated vehicles. So how hard is it to drive an ROV?"…

…"imagine doing it more than a mile under the surface of the sea,"…

…"One ROV worker has described it as like trying to "ring a doorbell with a broomstick at the end of a vehicle"."…

…"The custom-built ROVs were already around, but much of the equipment attached to them has been built "on the fly","…

…" it is very well paid. "I’ve got guys three years out of college earning (US) $125,000.""…

…""The hard part isn’t about the technology," says Mr Christ. "The problem is getting trained operators. It takes years to break in most people.""…

…"One of the consequences of the spill is ROV footage appearing on rolling news stations on both sides of the Atlantic.

"You might see an influx of people like what happened when Top Gun came out and people wanted to join the navy and be a pilot," …

…"But as well as the technical background, long training and patience needed, the pilots have a lifestyle – like many others in offshore drilling – which is not for everyone.

"They have a difficult and hard life," …

[Scott Beveridge]

Off topic here but I can’t control myself….

Thx Lucas for the link! And to the guys who finally got the leak stopped (esp. to those of you whom I know). BTW – not putting your efforts down at all in any fashion or form… The media and they’re lack of research is the one(s) I’m hitting on.

After reading a few comments in the above post and picking my jaw off the floor. I have to add this…

2nd comment – It’s the same as doing it in a swimming pool – just takes longer to get to the job…

3rd comment – if you have "the shakes"…

4th comment – loads of ancillary equip on the market that has / can be modified "on the fly"

5th comment – huh??? Maybe if the guys in the GOM work 250 ++ days per year offshore they earn that amount (before tax)

6th comment – If it’s so hard and takes so long to "break in" new pilots then Why T F _ _ _ is the pay going friggin’ down (office staff getting same or more?) ???

8th comment – yes, true, bad again…. more systems coming back with empty TMS’s

9th & 10th comment – similar to my feedback on comment 6.

[R2D2]

Oil spill investigators focus on communication

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100823/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill

[Mark DuPriest]

"Oil spill panel hears about Halliburton warning"

"Federal investigators probing the blowout that led to the Gulf oil spill grilled a Halliburton official Tuesday about concerns the petroleum services firm raised over the potential for a severe gas flow problem if a BP plan was used.

Halliburton and BP were at odds over a key device, known as a centralizer, that is used as part of the process to plug a deepwater well like the oil giant was doing at the time of the disaster. Halliburton’s well design expert testified he told BP officials April 15 — five days before the well blew — that fewer centralizers would cause a bigger gas flow problem.

Centralizers are meant to ensure casing runs down the center of the well bore. If casing strings are cemented off-center, there is a risk that a channel of drilling fluid or contaminated cement will be left where the casing contacts the oil formation, creating an imperfect seal.
BP rejected Halliburton’s recommendation to use 21 centralizers. Instead, BP used six centralizers.
The April 20 blowout of BP’s undersea well, which killed 11 workers and caused 206 million gallons of oil to spew, was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before exploding, according to interviews with rig workers conducted during BP’s internal investigation and obtained by The Associated Press in May.
E-mails released by Congress in June show that a BP engineering official conveyed Halliburton’s conclusions to a BP well team leader and his own concerns that BP needed to install the extra centralizers. The well team leader responded he didn’t like the idea because it would take 10 hours to install them.
"BP then in turn decided not to run the additional centralizers without consulting me or their in-house specialists," Jesse Gagliano, the Halliburton official, told members of the joint U.S. Coast Guard-Bureau of Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement investigative panel.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100825/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill;_ylt=AgaC.YqcpqIonc1Fr2QP7gFvzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTJuM3RuNG5wBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwODI1L3VzX2d1bGZfb2lsX3NwaWxsBHBvcwMxNQRzZWMDeW5fYXJ0aWNsZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA29pbHNwaWxscGFuZQ–

[R2D2]

Oil industry’s answers frustrate federal panel

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-hearings-20100826,0,2159269.story

[ROV_Monkey]

Off topic here but I can’t control myself….

Thx Lucas for the link! And to the guys who finally got the leak stopped (esp. to those of you whom I know). BTW – not putting your efforts down at all in any fashion or form… The media and they’re lack of research is the one(s) I’m hitting on.

After reading a few comments in the above post and picking my jaw off the floor. I have to add this…

4th comment – loads of ancillary equip on the market that has / can be modified "on the fly"

5th comment – huh??? Maybe if the guys in the GOM work 250 ++ days per year offshore they earn that amount (before tax)

6th comment – If it’s so hard and takes so long to "break in" new pilots then Why T F _ _ _ is the pay going friggin’ down (office staff getting same or more?) ???

Sod it, we are apparently now allowed to speak, so:

4 – Damn near all of the gear used was built or modified on the fly, a lot of it via back of fag packet drawings from the ROV teams – but when you say aluminium, one meter long, and what you get is 4 meters long made of steel ( thanks Houston) then you start to wonder WTF are the BP ROV "experts" on?

5 – 125K US PA. I’m led to believe OI US pay different rates to their pilots and their techs, and their techs get paid a damn sight more than their pilots, for obvious reasons – and work more days, again for obvious reasons. I’d suspect the numbers refer to techs rather than pilots, but I could be wrong.

6 – See 5

Cheers

Monkey

[Author]

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