When oil was first pumped up from the depths, it was gas that was predominantly utilized, then the heating fuels. Consider it the top distillate of the age. The civilized world with most money generally got the lions share of that product. As competition for resources increased and the push to find more of the sweet stuff became intensified, more barrels of oil were produced. The gas was distilled off the top leaving the heavier stuff behind. What a shame to waste all that extra stuff, so technologies were developed to utilize the heavy stuff. Down at the bottom, the sludge that didn’t seem to have a use was siphoned off and invariably someone develop the ability to exclude plastics from this seemingly useless resource.

That seemingly useless resource and the heavier oils that once were considered by product of the need to obtain gasoline and av gas, have begun to dominate and dictate the use of that barrel of oil from whence it was distilled. No longer do we view the gasoline as the prime product, and sell the residue of at t a cheaper cost. Every product that comes out of that barrel is in high demand.

If we look around us, we can see the truth in the statement above. See the plastic products, observe the cargo container traffic across our oceans, feel the heat emanating from your floor registers, and you will begin to comprehend the size of the task we have only just begun to set for ourselves as a developed nation. Step back and observe the budding industrial nations around us, following the same path of destiny laid down by the industrialize nations who went before them, and you further feel the enormity of the problem.

Curbing our thirst for gasoline, redesigning the combustion engine and turning down our thermostats will be but one step in our eventual journey towards planetary homeostasis (balance).

I like the article because it explores the full scope of the problem, but I would take it further into the realm of my personal existence and therefore all our personal existences. I must be fully aware and educated about the products I use that pertain to those millions of barrels of oil whose escapement from the earth threatens to unravel an ecosystem. If I do not, I cannot hope to reduce or eliminate them from my life.

I have touched oil from its release from the earth to its use as a cup from extruded plastic. I have marveled at its versatility, now I must see it for its potential to harm as well as help humanity.

We have a great deal to rethink my fellow planeteers. I still think all the oil execs and the higher ups in mineral management should be asked to form a conga line and spend a day bagging, taping and passing along in a human chain thousands upon thousands of bags which invariably will be collected off all those beaches (if we are lucky enough to use that tactic with this dispersant thinned oil). I would like to see them form a line of oil spill techs cutting down acres of saw grass using only fishermen fillet knives that have to be resharpened constantly to remain effective. I would like to see them spend another hour or two folding poly bags in preparation for the next day of use after they spent ten hours on their knees collecting oil. It is a sobering experience, and I mean sobering in the true sense of “a return to perceiving reality.”

I am not shilling for Shell, but this technology has many redundant fail safes including separating oil and gas at the sea bed. I suspect that BP was in an all fired hurry to bring what they had online to compete with Shell. The Shell site has very low pressure, and the oil from the many feeder wells has to be pumped up the risers to the surface. The Shell site is deeper than the BP site. BP really seemed to think (I assume this because they kept ignoring the evidence of high pressure at the Deep water site) they would encounter the same low pressure conditions. Bad assumption.

The sad part is that rig crews have a tendency to believe that alarms are faulty, and many times they are. The high salt contact plays havoc on sensors and wiring. I have repaired what I thought were very old sensor housings then found out they were only a few months old. It was heart breaking but not surprising to learn that the methane alarms did not sound on the rig when the blow back came up the pipes. They might have had a little time. The methane alarms are usually located at the shakers (where the mud from the drill is pumped) because that is the first place it would be detected. The boys on the shaker never knew what hit them.

Sounds good, but what about the citizen engagement before the Deepwater Horizon accident, the citizen engagement that allowed for and promoted offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the citizen engagement that wanted the money from that drilling and pushed their Senators and Reps to get it and to also keep the Federal Government out of regulating it as much as possible?

A good read -
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http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=329277

Louisiana touts its offshore oil drilling

“The $70 billion industry employs more than 320,000 people in the state. Unemployment rates in some coastal parishes hover around 3.5 percent, compared to 5.5 percent nationally. And the oil industry supports both the only deep-sea oil port in the United States and a Gulf of Mexico port that handles more vessels than even the Mississippi River.

While states on the east and west coasts debate whether to drill for offshore oil and natural gas, Louisiana and three other Gulf Coast states hold up their offshore drilling operations as proof that they can produce oil and gas without hurting the environment.”
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Now we all know that any information on the internet that is not porno is propaganda until verified otherwise by two independent sources:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-07-13-offshore-drilling_N.htm
http://www.atr.org/louisiana-gain-point-billion-offshore-drilling-a4815

Like they say in the oil industry – Yep there are tree huggers that don’t like us, but they drive their SUVs to go hug the trees and then drive their SUVs back home. As long as there are trees, there will be huggers, and we will be providing those huggers with gasoline, at pretty good profit I should add.

Troy Bakel

Rick, excellent! I have been so saddened and angered once again by this, yet unable to get past this very visceral reaction. You have put it in perspective, and covered the bases in your thoughtful, knowledgeable, and comprehensive manner. I missed the KO show, but will check it out on the network site. Keep up the fight, old friend, and if you need any back-up from this neck of the woods, please give me a call.

“Pursuit of Happiness Players” alumni,
CRFlats

The WSJ of all places (they still apparently have some good reporters) today published a lengthy article on the events leading up to the blowout, explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon that precipitated this disaster. It establishes two salient facts: #1 more than 12 hours before the blowout “negative pressure tests” indicated that the well was at risk. #2 about 11 hours before the blowout a “skirmish” occurred between the rig operator (Transocean) and the Contractee (BP) over whether or not to proceed with pumping the mud from the riser (the ~ 5,000′ of drill string between
the floating rig and the BOP on the sea floor), Transocean opposed doing so but were overruled by the contractee.

The article has a variety of shortcomings, not the least of which is that a number of other pertinent factors are mentioned but never discussed in detail with respect to how they might have affected the ultimate crisis. Admittedly these are quite technical points concerning the configuration of the drill pipe over its “in rock” depth and the use of centering devices that maintain the drill pipe within the bore hole on center such that the concrete casing effectively seals the *outside* of the hole. The two factors are intimately related but poorly explained.

It is further explained that the well was behind schedule and over budget. The implication is that there was pressure from BP to complete the well, cap it and move on to the next project. There are references to log data recorded even after the blowout had occurred but no details are provided of what that log data shows.

I would like to make one more observation that is not strictly technical but I think is pertinent. I have seen more than a few mentions in the press that one way to move towards less oil dependency would be to impose a tax on gasoline. I think this is a very poor solution. In the first place the tax would impact those who can least afford it the most. Secondly it would not in any sense guarantee that most people would alter their driving behavior therefore it might not decrease demand significantly. Finally, there is no assurance that the revenue generated by such a tax would be applied to the development of renewable or even more sustainable technologies.

What is so difficult to understand about just driving as efficiently as possible?

Democrats and environmentalists push to kill Shell’s Arctic drilling project
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/26/shell-alaska-drilling-oil-gas

..snipped..
“The interior secretary, Ken Salazar, is due to give final approvals this week to a Shell exploration project in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off the northern coast of Alaska. He told Congress today that new regulations would help assure greater safety. “We need to move forward with oil and gas development,” he said. “Nothing in life is risk-free … How do you create a program that does in fact minimize those risks?”

Work on the Shell project could get underway as early as July, and environmental groups say the administration has approved nearly 700 other projects in the Arctic. ” ..snipped..

I have a neighbor who has a “fishing camp” on an island in LA, and when I saw him a few weeks ago to ask how his area was affected, he said the current looked like it would take it east of where his place is and “unfortunately, this is going to push offshore oil drilling back 10 years.” Spoken like the big-money Republican that he is.

Meanwhile, his island HAS suffered the ill effects already, but after he said that. I may see him this weekend, but in Jan, he’d invited me and another neighbor to go there (I’m a vegetarian, and I don’t fish, but had hoped to go to New Orleans).

If we’re going to drill, we need do it right. Without cutting corners. The entire g0dd@amned industry made obscene profits for the past few years as prices were manipulated, and BP still needed to cut corners!?!? WTF?
BP cheated and lost in inept combination with their two other stooges (no offense to the real Three Stooges).

Obviously, I’m disgusted.