Drill, Baby, Drill, Disaster (w/ Pictures): Alaska, Florida, all this can be yours.

[denem]

Thai West Atlas Oil Rig Ablaze in the Timor Sea


Burning resources ...the West Atlas drilling rig, top, seen burning on Sunday. It has been leaking 400 barrels of oil a day into the Timor Sea for more than 10 weeks, as captured by NASA, bottom. Photo: Reuters and NASA

Earth Observatory, Extent of the Spill, October 28



STILL LEAKING

ANOTHER delay in attempts to stop a massive oil and gas leak into the Timor Sea has meant a fire aboard the West Atlas rig continued to burn last night.

The Thai-owned operator of the West Atlas, PTTEP Australasia, is mixing 4000 barrels of heavy mud to pour down a relief well which is expected to plug the leak and stop the fire.

Yesterday PTTEP delayed an attempt to block the leaking well when it realised it did not have enough mud to reach the right consistency to plug the well.

"The best and safest way to stop the fire is to 'kill the well' by pumping heavy mud into the leaking well from the West Triton rig," the PTTEP director, Jose Martins, said in a statement.http://www.smh.com.au/environment/mud-to-be-used-to-stop-oil-rig-fire-today-20091102-htfp.html

PERFECTLY HANDLED

More worrying is that PTTEP has apparently followed best practice for leaking undersea oil wells.

Woodside defends 'perfect' response to leak

Oil and gas company Woodside says the Federal Government has handled the oil spill in the Timor Sea "perfectly".

Woodside chief executive Don Voelte says the oil spill beneath the West Atlas rig and subsequent fire is a regrettable incident which has damaged the oil and gas industry's reputation.

Oil has been leaking from beneath the West Atlas rig for 10 weeks.

Mr Voelte has praised PTTEP's management of the incident and says it has been consulting with the industry to fix the leak as soon as possible.http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/02/2730967.htm?section=business

[mdmc]

1. thanks for the pics

sad pics

[taterguy]

2. Oh great, another "People shouldn't use oil" thread

Cool.

[denem]

4. What utter bullshit - it's about the dangers of offshore drilling.

[taterguy]

12. So if offshore drilling is dangerous, shouldn't people try to use less oil?

That's why I said the thread was cool.

[PretzelWarrior]

7. who do you work for, ExxonMobile? I think the thread is completely valid

and one we should think of when hearing our politicians talk about all these snazzzy clean ways to find, extract, and use fossil fuels.

[taterguy]

19. Who do you work for? Schwinn?

[bikingaz]

18. I'm with you - poor offshore management is the problem

just take the lease away from irresponsible operators. that will make the others take notice and get their act together.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. K&R n/t

[Canuckistanian]

5. I didn't know it was on fire

Where's Red Adair when you need him?

This has got to be one of the worst environmental disasters since the Gulf war oil fires.

[denem]

6. The fire is the result of the latest attempt to plug the well.

Sort of a reverse Red Adair.

[Arctic Dave]

8. Red Adair was bought out by Halliburton years ago.

Plus, he is no longer living.

[Canuckistanian]

10. Oh, I didn't know he died

Well, he accomplished a few things in his life that benefited humanity. And a lot of profits for oil companies.

[Arctic Dave]

13. And he got to blow stuff up. You can't hardly beat that.

[Canuckistanian]

14. How many professions allow you to blow up your worst problems?

It must have been very satisfying.

[Arctic Dave]

15. LOL. No kidding.

[SoCalDem]

9. dead

Red Adair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul Neal "Red" Adair (June 18, 1915 – August 7, 2004)

[Canuckistanian]

11. LOL

I get the point.

:hi:

[dysfunctional press]

17. right here...

oh wait- that's just the nasty pos coward that played him in a movie.

[denem]

16. ...