BP's ruptured oil well leaking from top, White House says

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: The Times-Picayune

A White House spokesman says BP's ruptured oil well is leaking at the top, along with seepage about two miles away.

Robert Gibbs also says officials are monitoring bubbles that can be seen on an underwater camera.

Leaks could mean the cap on the well has to be opened to prevent oil and gas from escaping elsewhere.

The mechanical cap on the well stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/bps_ruptured_oil_well_leaking.html

[groundloop]

1. BP should have been ready for this..

and had the hoses etc. connected so they could start collecting oil on tankers. I've read it will take 2 or 3 days of more oil pouring into the Gulf before they can use this cap to collect the oil. If they had half a brain they'd have been preparing for this.

[Magleetis]

2. BP can't be trusted

Everything they do and say is to CYA. Nothing is more important to them than their precious corporation.

[louis-t]

3. BP does not want to collect oil at the cap.

That would give away their secret: how much oil was actually escaping. BP would kill you, they would kill your children, they would kill your grandchildren, to protect their profits.

[flamingdem]

9. scary stuff nt

[redirish28]

4. They need to do something soon. I fear that the leaking is a prelude to something

massive.

[Downwinder]

5. Murphy (Murphy's Law) is alive and well.

[slackmaster]

12. They should have used more Teflon tape

[murray hill farm]

6. What a suprise!

I am shocked! At this point, how bad can it be or become is anyone's guess....I am guessing though that the greatest fears of what can happen is being kept from the masses.

[dgibby]

7. Thad Allen to give update in just a few minutes.

CNN will carry it live.

[JDPriestly]

8. Some of the comments to the nola source are idiotic.

I assure you that Obama and the White House are getting all kinds of input from experts in the oil industry. They are not giving out names because it is not appropriate at this point.

Also, some of the posts at nola that suggest that a doomsday scenario is a possibility are absolutely correct.

Frankly, we have allowed companies like BP to dig around in an environment that we really know less about than we realized.

It's possible that BP released a sea monster of sorts, to use poetic language. It's also possible that BP and other experts from the oil industry will be able to solve the problems, but I would not count on it. If we are set for the doomsday scenario, then it is best for people to stay calm. If not, the Obama administration would do us a disservice by frightening people unnecessarily. It's a rock and a hard place situation for the Obama administration. They need to tell the truth, but thus far, the truth is probably not known to anyone.

One of the comments on the nola site discusses the possibility that the problem is the failure of the cement -- maybe not enough cement. I wonder about the quality of the cement that was used. Halliburton was supplying the cement. That raises huge question marks in my mind. Where is Halliburton's corporate headquarters? I have distrusted Halliburton for a long time. -- It's just an intuitive thing for me. Anything associated with the Cheneys is suspect as far as I am concerned. And there is an old, old link between the Cheneys and Halliburton although I realize that link may no longer be very strong if it still exists at all.

[marions ghost]

11. "The truth is probably not known to anyone"

I think you are right about that, JDPriestley.

[Mimosa]

24. Wow.

JD, I guess you also recall a certain expression on the President's face about 5 days after this happened?

[slackmaster]

10. Murphy's Law of Plumbing Projects

Even if you have all the parts and tools you need, even the simplest plumbing project will snowball in a way that requires a minimum of two trips to a hardware store.

[Earth_First]

17. Or in this case...seven or eight. n/t

[DCBob]

13. Allen: leaks not a problem and seep is not related to well...

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen says Monday afternoon that the leaks are so far not a major concern.He also says seepage about two miles away is likely not related to the ruptured well.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100719/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill

The seep is natural.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

14. Good to hear!

Hopefully the leak will remain a non-issue and they won't have to reopen the cap.

[LisaL]

16. Leaks are no problem, and the drilling is perfectly safe.

And no walruses will be harmed during this.

[Posteritatis]

18. Hooray for responding to claims that weren't made! (nt)

[LisaL]

19. Hah?

You haven't heard claims that drilling is perfectly safe before all of this? And you don't know that BP claimed that walruses in the Gulf will be safe in case of a spill before all of this?

[Posteritatis]

20. Nobody in this thread has argued any of that. (nt)

[LisaL]

21. Maybe because we know there are no walruses in the Gulf.

Jeez.

[Baclava]

15. "The seep is natural" - yes, there are those too

methane seeps in the GOM



Iceworms (Hesiocaeca methanicola) on a solid piece of orange methane ice at 540 m depth in the Gulf of Mexico.



These methane mussels (Bathymodiolus childressi) live at the edge of Brine Pool NR1 at 650 m depth in the Gulf of Mexico



This group of very old tubeworms (Lamellibrachia luymesi and Seepiophila jonesi) live on the same piece of carbonate rock as large colonies of the gorgonian Callogorgia Americana americana.



A chemosynthetic community of tube worms and mussels adjacent to exposures of outcropping gas hydrate. The image was taken in the Mississippi Canyon Lease Area, Block 118, at 888 m depth.



Large tubeworm aggregations composed of Lamellibrachia luymesi and Seepiophila jonesi from 530 m depth at a seep site on the Upper Louisiana Slope of the Gulf of Mexico. In the foreground are mats of sulfide-oxidizing bacteria.

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/06mexico/background/plan/plan.html


--------------------

I, for one, welcome our new methane eating undersea overlords

[KakistocracyHater]

22. undersea overlords hehe, good one

when I read elsewhere, that there are oxygen dead zones, I thought why don't we put oxygen lines down into the ocean, with intake fans just up in the air, maybe with birdproof caging around it? Phytoplankton populations decreasing-why not create jobs by having people grow it & then 'seed' the ocean with it? Human-made problems can be fixed by Humans, & create jobs too.

[Nihil]

25. Thanks for those photos! (n/t)

[Baclava]

26. You're welcome - I don't think most know the undersea area we're talking about here

Map of the northern Gulf of Mexico showing the nearly 4,000 active oil and gas platforms.



Deep Horizon was drilling the northern edge of the Mississippi Canyon area on the map



'computer-enhanced multibeam bathymetry map of the northwestern and northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf and slope. The continental slope surface reflects an array of intraslope basins, sites of thick accumulations of sediment, surrounded by higher relief features in the form of ridges and domes that are the expressions of salt masses in the shallow subsurface. Major lease areas established by the Minerals Management Service are superimposed on the image'

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/06mexico/background/geology/media/gulf_600.html

[lark]

27. Hope this is true, but Allen is BP's tool

and I don't trust him one iota. He'll cover for them any way possible, and even some that aren't.

[RantinRavin]

23. Leaking...but at what rate

a gallon per year is still is leak, but nothing to be concerned about. Saying there is a leak means nothing without saying how much is leaking.