BP Friday: Did You Remember to Flush Before Glossing ?

(noon – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

Because the Original is always so much better than anything I could ever hope to make up:

The Further Adventures of Macondo 252, Oil Well of Doom

Hit the theme music:

If I had to do the same again, I would, my friend, Fernando !  

Remember this, back in June on the 23rd ?

Uncapped BP Well before installation of new blow out protector assembly.

And then in July, they finally got a new spool, cap n stack and a spankin’ new Blow Out Protector on the thing to cap the well and shut it off almost 3 months after it blew ?  And everybody went Halleleujah ?

Fri Aug 20 2010  a little over a month later:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node…

Adm. Thad Allen to BP:

Based on the results of yesterday’s Government Scientific Technical Team Meeting, you are authorized to proceed with the course of action to replace the BOP on Macando 252 prior to completing the relief well subject to the following conditions:

1. Submission to me for my approval of a fishing procedure and a procedure and timeline for BOP replacement.  Each procedure should recognize and preserve the forensic and evidentiary value of the BOP and any material removed from the BOP.  None of the procedures may be performed prior to my approval.

2. No flow of hydrocarbon is detected during the ambient test of the fishing operations and a complete monitoring system is in place.

3. The drill pipe and any other material that might interfere with the BOP replacement can be fished out of the well without causing any further damage to the existing plug, hangar (sic) or seal. BP will provide a contingency plan demonstrating that the BOP can be replaced without causing additional damage if the fishing operation is unsuccessful.  

Yes, while the Republican Party is going completely batchit on the usual topics of how All Mooslums are Terrorists so We Must Convince  Demokrat Party to Ban Cultural Center Zoning, or We Should Nuke Iran, or Teh Gay Problem, or Teh Illegalz Are Invading,  the Federal government is going to take all the old crap off the top of the sealed well, try to fish out the old drillpipe stuck down in hole, and then re cap it with a new Blow Out Protector from one of the relief wells.  THEN they might complete the relief well, sometime after September 6th.

Last press release 2 days ago from Beyond Pathetic:

http://www.bp.com/genericartic…

HOUSTON – Under the guidance and approval of the Unified Area Command, BP has been authorized to begin flushing drilling mud and hydrocarbons from the MC252 well sealing cap and the original Deepwater Horizon Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) and Blow Out Preventer (BOP). The flushing is in advance of a pressure test procedure that will study the well’s BOP stack and sealing cap under ambient conditions.

The work began Wednesday afternoon and the flushing procedure will involve the following steps:

The Discoverer Enterprise will attach a drill string to the top of the existing sealing cap.

The middle blind shears of the sealing cap will be opened.

The Q-4000 will pump an ‘anti-freeze’ mixture down through the existing manifold and into the BOP’s choke and kill lines. The liquid used in the flushing will be completely contained and carried to the surface through the Enterprise drill string.

Following the flushing, the sealing cap’s blind shear ram will be closed.

Following successful flushing of the subsea equipment, BP will conduct an ambient pressure test to reassure that the well is secure. The test will be conducted over a 48-hour period, which mimics twice the time estimated to remove the original BOP and replace it with the Transocean Development Driller II (DDII) BOP.  

Of course they have to seal/plug the spare relief well first to steal the BOP off of it to use on the original well.

Transcript of the full press conference here from Aug 19th:

http://ht.ly/2smPt    Press Briefing

Thad Allen:

…. we are actually going to put a drill bit down in the blow out preventer and attempt to extract the drill pipe.  The reason we want to try and extract the drill pipe that reduces the risk when we remove the blow out preventer and put the new one on, there won’t be an (off score) or some kind of a bar to having a seal with the new blow out preventer.

This is fvcking nutz,  IMO their #1 priority is to shut the s.o.b. well down, permanently, to prevent more damage and toxic oil spilling,  not collect evidence,   but I’m merely retyping it and you decide when it works, or not.

Allen:

…. there was no timeline at the present, and that was true.  There remains a sequence of events that will be carried out. They are conditions based.  When we take one step and are successful, we will move to the next step.

Homeland Security and the Dept of the Interior has a joint investigative team, and the Dept of Justice has an investigative team, and the first one issued subpoenas for the equipment.    Allen referred to it as a chain of evidence.   He also said they don’t want damage to the blow out preventer.

While this sounds really great that the Federal government is attempting to collect physical evidence, in the ways of legal battles and bankruptcies,  even if they found evidence, the chances of BP ever actually PAYING for any damage in a way that would be beneficial to the residents of the Gulf of Mexico the most hurt by the blowout is decreasing every day.  

After watching the genteel reluctance of the current Dept of Justice,  and having documented the various government and BP collusions of hiding what is really going on via the amount of oil and gas actually coming out of the broken well, and then what happened to it, this is just make-  work for lawyers at this stage, and stalling further while BP figures out ways to avoid paying anything further, and it’s very horribly risky to the Gulf of Mexico to try to take apart the inside of the well and re cap it again.  

Meanwhile, NOAA has reopened several state’s fishing waters for shrimp season as if nothing had happened, while reports today contradict the government’s earlier claim that about  2/3 to 3/4 of the oil was “naturally dispersed” or collected and disposed of already.  

Rep. Markey of Massachusetts convenes an August hearing during recess and says the public has a right to know right now what is going on the Gulf of Mexico   http://www.npr.org/templates/s…

The Federal Govt’s  FDA admits they’re not testing for certain toxic bio accumulating metabolites of PAHs hydrocarbons (that could be in seafood from the spilled oil )

8/19/2010  

Notice how in this article, the FDA’s Kraemer is saying that Corexit is unlikely to present a food safety concern and fish have not supposedly shown a tendency to accumulate it in their flesh (that’s him in the above video saying the govt. is not testing for this)

Is Gulf Seafood Safe to Eat ?  Feds Say Yes, but Testing is Limited

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2…

When Vicki Margolis, another FDA scientists, revealed that the FDA has only conducted tests for the effects of one element of Corexit, Markey seemed shocked.

“You’re sitting here as the FDA, representing the public’s interest in determining whether or not these fish are safe to eat, it is without having completed the study in terms of these actual chemical components inside the fish, is that right?” Markey asked.

FDA’s Kraemer explained that because many of the untested components in the dispersant are commonly found in lip gloss and over-the-counter drugs, the government assumes the danger from ingesting them should be low.  

“We believe that the fish coming out of the Gulf do not have levels that are of concern,” he said. When pressed by Markey, he said the levels are estimates for a 170 pound man, and not for children, pregnant women or other more vulnerable people.  

Local fishermen from Louisiana also testified before Congressman Markey and said a reluctant public is asking why they should believe the shrimp are safe when the same government told them only a 1000 barrels a day were leaking out of the broken oil well.

NOAA keeps saying the oil’s not there.  But we know it’s there.

But, hey, it’s not any worse than makeup if you eat the shrimp now.