An Exxon Valdez worth of oil may be spilling into the Gulf of Mexico every two days - time to get punk

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 05/02/2010 - 01:55.

Music video by The Clash performing Rock The Casbah.
(C) 1982 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (UK) Limited

One report I read today estimates that an Exxon Valdez worth of oil may be spilling into the Gulf of Mexico every two days, 50 miles off the shores of Louisiana, in what is in my mind the worst environmental catastrophe (besides war) in human history - and that may continue for months (no end in sight, at all). All happening 2 miles under some of the most treacherous seas in the world - I've known deep rig divers to confirm that - and they don't even know what caused this blowout. Bottom line, a huge area of the Gulf of Mexico and its shorelines are now probably dead for our lifetimes and generations to come, if not forever. Where the oil will invade beyond is to be determined by Mother Nature, in response. Man shook the Etch-a-sketch of the environment for eternity in an area spanning many states and international boundaries... ending the global sustainability movement forever.

It's 1969 all over again... America's rivers are burning... time for the punks to take charge!

To me this oil spill is just a flashback - I've lived this before - I grew up in toxic hell Cleveland, in toxic hell America of the Industrial 1960s and 1970s, and our mutant response was to become punk. We created punk rock and punk culture - exposing decay and being decayed with our songs, our attitudes, our lifestyles, and our ideologies. Many of us have died - some sold-out - most I believe have kept expressing our anti-authoritarian ideologies.

As such, many of the world's great environmentalists and  environmentalist statements have been punk, expressing the toxic reality of our sick world through bands like Rocket From The Tombs, Dead Boys, Sex Pistols, Pere Ubu and the Clash - they sang of toxic mutation as we saw it happening, in worlds of flaring factories and belching industrial blight, in places so sick water burned.

Sort of like the Gulf of Mexico today, around 40 years later.

Seems Americans have spent too much time drunk in Margaritaville and not enough time rocking the Casbah.

Punk songs and lives have shaken up the world and been raising ultimate social awareness ever since the early 1970s - kept culture uncomfortable and at edge - made more enemies than friends - as environmentalists must. That has kept at least some of the population on alert for situations like these, when the world tumbles out of its Bon Jovi zone and into the oblivion where it seems we punks are most at home.... surrounded by burning rivers and global conflict not known as war, all for nothing.

Time to listen to the punks again - we've grown up and control more of the world than folks think - and we are still as blunt, loud and right as ever.

The Dead Boys were one of the first punk bands to escalate the level of violence, nihilism, and pure ugliness of punk rock to extreme new levels. Although considered part of New York's mid-'70s CBGB's scene, all of its bandmembers originally hailed from Cleveland, OH. The group's roots lay in the early-'70s Cleveland cult band Rocket from the Tombs, which included future Dead Boys Cheetah Chrome (aka Gene O'Connor) on guitar, and Johnny Blitz (aka John Madansky) on drums, along with future Pere Ubu members David Thomas and Peter Laughner. The group's sound was a bit too comparable to art rock for Chrome and Blitz's tastes (whose influences included the Stooges, Alice Cooper, and the New York Dolls), and by 1975, Rocket from the Tombs had split up.

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock. They created fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY (do it yourself) ethic, with many bands self-producing their recordings and distributing them through informal channels.

By late 1976, bands such as the Ramones, in New York City, and the Sex Pistols and The Clash, in London, were recognized as the vanguard of a new musical movement. The following year saw punk rock spreading around the world. Punk quickly, though briefly, became a major cultural phenomenon in the United Kingdom. For the most part, punk took root in local scenes that tended to reject association with the mainstream. An associated punk subculture emerged, expressing youthful rebellion and characterized by distinctive styles of clothing and adornment and a variety of anti-authoritarian ideologies.

When I think of the revolutionaries for environmentalism in the world, they are a small slice of society.

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Miami Herald editors write "It just takes one disaster"

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 05/02/2010 - 03:48.

Miami Herald editors write "It just takes one disaster"

It just takes one disaster

OUR OPINION: Gulf's oil spill offers lessons on U.S. energy policy

A disaster bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico after the April 20 oil rig explosion, where a shutoff valve failed to close a test well. It is gushing 210,000 gallons of crude a day, and the U.S. Coast Guard, other federal agencies and British Petroleum, which owns the rig, are trying every trick to cap the flow.

This disaster offers many lessons, starting with the need for an energy policy that reduces our thirst for oil. 

.../..

The final component of a sound energy policy is conservation. The federal and state governments can offer consumers better inducements to use less energy.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/02/1607535/it-just-takes-one-disaster.html#ixzz0mlBDKJR3

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90 days x 0.5 Valdezes per day = how many Valdezes?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 05/02/2010 - 15:40.

I always hated story problems, but got pretty good at them with concentration. Try this one out...

If every 2 days a severed oil exploration pipe 2 miles beneath the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana, leaks as much oil as 1 Exxon Valdez supertanker spilled off the coast of Alaska, causing $ billions in destruction, and there is no way to stop the leaking for 90 days, how many Exxon Valdezes of oil will be spilled into our interconnected global waters, and how many Valdezes of this spilled oil shall ever be recovered, how and where?

What will be the total cost, and how much will that increase the price of gasoline July 4th weekend, and so impact global inflation?

Bonus question... where is the most distant point that will be directly affected by this oil traveling by water, when, and at what environmental and economic toll to the native people there, 1,000s of miles from the Gulf of Mexico?

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And, why don't you already know these answers

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 05/02/2010 - 15:49.

And, why don't you already know these answers?

A smart, well connected, open world using the right information technology well would be less probably to have such problems and would understand and solve them quickly if it did.

ICEarth GRASS.

Make sense of what just doesn't make sense, by doing things like growing GRASS...

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Mother of all gushers could kill Earth's oceans

Submitted by Charles Frost on Sun, 05/02/2010 - 19:44.
 

Imagine a pipe 5 feet wide spewing crude oil like a fire hose from what could be the planets' largest, high-pressure oil and gas reserve.  With the best technology available to man, the Deepwater Horizon rig popped a hole into that reserve and was overwhelmed.  If this isn't contained, it could poison all the oceans of the world.

     "Well if you say the fire hose has a 70,000 psi pump on the other end yes!  No comparison here.   The volume out rises geometrically with pressure.  Its a squares function. Two times the pressure is 4 times the push.   The Alaska pipeline is 4 feet in diameter and pushes with a lot less pressure.  This situation in the Gulf of Mexico is stunning dangerous." -- Paul Noel (May 2, 2010)

Last night we received the following text in an email, author not identified.  I passed it by Paul Noel, who is an expert in the field.  His response follows thereafter.

The Oil Mess

The original estimate was about 5,000 gallons of oil a day spilling into the ocean. Now they're saying 200,000 gallons a day. That's over a million gallons of crude oil a week!

I'm engineer with 25 years of experience. I've worked on some big projects with big machines. Maybe that's why this mess is so clear to me.

First, the BP platform was drilling for what they call deep oil. They go out where the ocean is about 5,000 feet deep and drill another 30,000 feet into the crust of the earth. This it right on the edge of what human technology can do. Well, this time they hit a pocket of oil at such high pressure that it burst all of their safety valves all the way up to the drilling rig and then caused the rig to explode and sink. Take a moment to grasp the import of that. The pressure behind this oil is so high that it destroyed the maximum effort of human science to contain it.

When the rig sank it flipped over and landed on top of the drill hole some 5,000 feet under the ocean.

Now they've got a hole in the ocean floor, 5,000 feet down with a wrecked oil drilling rig sitting on top of is spewing 200,000 barrels of oil a day into the ocean. Take a moment and consider that, will you!

First they have to get the oil rig off the hole to get at it in order to try to cap it. Do you know the level of effort it will take to move that wrecked oil rig, sitting under 5,000 feet of water? That operation alone would take years and hundreds of millions to accomplish. Then, how do you cap that hole in the muddy ocean floor? There just is no way. No way.

The only piece of human technology that might address this is a nuclear bomb. I'm not kidding. If they put a nuke down there in the right spot it might seal up the hole. Nothing short of that will work. [See Paul Noel's ideas above.]

If we can't cap that hole that oil is going to destroy the oceans of the world. It only takes one quart of motor oil to make 250,000 gallons of ocean water toxic to wildlife. Are you starting to get the magnitude of this?

We're so used to our politicians creating false crises to forward their criminal agendas that we aren't recognizing that we're staring straight into possibly the greatest disaster mankind will ever see. Imagine what happens if that oil keeps flowing until it destroys all life in the oceans of this planet. Who knows how big of a reservoir of oil is down there.

Not to mention that the oceans are critical to maintaining the proper oxygen level in the atmosphere for human life.

We're humped. Unless God steps in and fixes this. No human can. You can be sure of that.

See also: Oil spill Much Much Worse than reported and Not Stopping Soon (Christian Science Monitor)

Response by Paul Noel
for Pure Energy Systems News

I really do think that the situation is getting further and further out of hand. 

By yesterday morning, the nature of the crude had changed, indicating that the spill was collapsing the rock structures. How much I cannot say. If it is collapsing the rock structures, the least that can be said is that the rock is fragmenting and blowing up the tube with the oil. With that going on you have a high pressure abrasive sand blaster working on the kinks in the pipe eroding it causing the very real risk of increasing the leaks. 

More than that is the very real risk of causing the casing to become unstable and literally blowing it up the well bringing the hole to totally open condition. Another risk arises because according to reports the crew was cementing the exterior of the casing when this happens. As a result, the well, if this was not properly completed, could begin to blow outside the casing. Another possible scenario is a sea floor collapse. If that happens Katie bar the door. 

Possible Fix

I do not see any good possibilities from humans further fracturing the rock particularly at higher levels. That is the cap rock that is holding the deposit together. 

I do see a possible use of explosives for favorable outcome. If a properly sized charge were applied in a shaped fashion around the drill pipe at some distance from it say 5 feet or so it is entirely possible that an explosive charge could pinch the pipe off similar to a hydraulic clamp. The resulting situation would vastly reduce the spill. Once you clamped off the pipe much more substantially say down to 1 foot or less opening the resulting pipe could be charge cut above the location and a tapered pipe fitted to it to collect any leaking oil. The end result would be to contain the spill and dramatically control any leaks because drill mud could then be entered into the pipe fitted to the exterior. In the end, the pipe could be controlled that way. The size of a charge to do this would be a few pounds not megatons. 

A nuclear detonation carries the real risk of giving us the full doomsday scenario on this well. I just don't like doing that. There is no coming back from the brink when you do that one. If it works, which I see as unlikely, great. If it doesn't work, there is now a maybe a hole 1/4 mile across leaking oil. That looks worse than any possible outcomes otherwise. 

Oil Deposit Capacity

The BP people are not talking, but this well is into a deposit that easily could top 500,000 barrels production per day for 10 or 15 years. Letting that all go in one blast seems more than foolish.

The deposit is one I have known about since 1988. The deposit is very big. The central pressure in the deposit is 165 to 170 thousand PSI. It contains so much hydrocarbon that you simply cannot imagine it. In published reports, BP estimated a blow out could reach near 200,000 Barrels per day (165,000) They may have estimated a flow rate on a 5 foot pipe. The deposit is well able to surpass this. 

The oil industry has knowledge of the deposit more than they admit. The deposit is 100 miles off shore. They are drilling into the edge of the deposit to leak it down gently to be able to produce from the deposit. The deposit is so large that while I have never heard exact numbers it was described to me to be either the largest or the second largest oil deposit ever found. It is mostly a natural gas deposit. That is another reason not to blast too willy nilly there. The natural gas that could be released is really way beyond the oil in quantity. It is like 10,000 times the oil in the deposit. 

It is this deposit that has me reminding people of what the Shell geologist told me about the deposit. This was the quote, "Energy shortage..., Hell! We are afraid of running out of air to burn." The deposit is very large. It covers an area off shore something like 25,000 square miles. Natural Gas and Oil is leaking out of the deposit as far inland as Central Alabama and way over into Florida and even over to Louisiana almost as far as Texas. This is a really massive deposit. Punching holes in the deposit is a really scary event as we are now seeing. 

Rig and Pipe Info

The pipe is a fairly rigid pipe and sticks up out of the Blow out prevention device for some distance before it bends over and kinks off. The distance is not long but is enough to do what I suggested. Explosive forming of metals is a standard technology and under water it is easier. The charge focuses very predictably. 

Imaging a long straw that is 1 mile long and has kinked over in several locations. This is about what you have. I have seen the submarine photos from early on. Just a really big straw. It has about a 1.5 or 2 foot diameter drill pipe in the center with about a 10 inch hole down the center. I am not exactly sure on the drill pipe size. The casing here is very thick steel. It has to handle massive pressures.

The rig is quite some distance away from the well. It may be a 1/4 mile or more away. It sort of bent over and then kinked the pipe as it went down. 

I guess the size here sort of bends the imagination. This rig has a deck area of about 3 to 4 acres. It had a crew quarters on board that had about 120 people in it. (Imagine a big hotel here.) The hotel on the rig was about 4 stories high. You just cannot imagine until you see these rigs how big they are. If you want to see one go to Mobile Bay. Gulf High Island 2 and other rigs in the area can be seen clearly for 90 miles from Pensacola Florida. The towers go up 1100 feet. You can take the ferry right between two rigs if you go from Fort Morgan to Dauphin Island. There is no comparison to these rig anywhere in the world. They are the biggest ever built bar none. 

Controls That Should Have Been In Place

By the way, I am not against drilling it, I am just against doing so without proper controls.

  1. The rig that was drilling was not a US Flagged rig. That means US Inspectors were not allowed on board the rig to inspect it. As a matter of National Security under the GATT the USA has a right to demand US Only in various technology. The USA should never allow a foreign flag vessel to drill for oil in the US Economic Zone (200 mile limit). 
  2. Acoustic automated shut of devices should be required. 
  3. I think US Federal Inspectors should have to be resident on and inspecting rigs like this 24/7. 
  4. I think that the drilling should be required to do some smaller holes that deliberately miss the main deposit that test the structure before main drilling operations happen. 
  5. Careful procedures should be in place to set up wells before they hit the main deposit. The well casing should have to be inserted well before the drill hits the deposit and it should have to be cemented in at least 2 weeks prior to finishing the hole down to the oil or gas. This is to give the cement time to set. The casing should have ridging to make this cement have a tight wedged grip on the miles of rock around it. This is required because the lift pressure on a pipe in this case could easily reach 20 million pounds of lift. This is an insane amount of up pressure. Even at 70,000 psi it would lift about 140 million pounds. (almost 64,000 long tons!) 

Haste from Economic Pressure

I suspect that the series of disasters we have seen in mines around the world and in the USA regards coal and oil are the product of pushing the crews and developments too fast due to the high economic pressures. This happened the last time (Sago and others) when the economic pressure started rising. 

The economic pressures on the energy prices are stunning. Everyone is trying to keep their economy going. You can measure the economic output of a nation directly with the energy consumption day to day. The USA dropped its energy consumption in the current downturn (depression) by about 24%. It is now rising again. We are about 19% down and rising. The current situation is that the developments in oil/gas and coal are not keeping pace with what is going to be the demand shortly. They cannot even hope to meet the demand. 

This is why I said that Alternative Energy is the only hope. 

They can push the pedal to the metal (figuratively speaking) and there is not going to be a speed up much. Since human demand is going to force increases in supply towards 3 times the current level in less than 30 years, we are looking at a big hole with no hope of fixing it. 

Air pollution world wide is reaching levels that are at the limits of the environment to take the demands. This increase in energy has to come from somewhere else. 

Nuclear power doesn't have the potential. It turns out to run out of fuel in about 30 years. Worse yet solving the problem with nuclear doesn't do anything but boil away scarce fresh water supplies. All combustion does this. The only solutions are ones where the energy comes from somewhere else. Solar and Wind are good options. As you are also aware, the hard core alternatives are there in magnetic power etc. This has to come. 

The alternatives to drilling US Waters for oil if we solve this with oil are to depend more and more on hostile powers for oil. Funding your enemies is insane. Drilling in US waters risks ever increasing threats of what we have going on right now. 

The collapse of rock structures is even more scary. Mexico has one entire state that is being held up by nitrogen injection wells that would sink if that gas is released. This is not funny stuff. I know I get punched by the "know nothings" out there with political agenda, but I will risk it. If you will note the Oil and Gas people pretty much don't say anything against me. They know. I have been to some of their events and they actually like what I have to say. They cannot say it for fear of their jobs. 

If one estimates the cost of a barrel of oil from the Middle East, the US Armed Forces cost added in would drive it to about $2000/barrel. If people paid this at the pump they would be demanding what I say with force so high you couldn't hear anything else. If you factor in the cost of spills and such domestic oil probably costs $500/barrel or more. This is just insane. 

# # #

Paul Noel, 52, works as Software Engineer (as Contractor) for the US Army at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. He has a vast experience base including education across a wide area of technical skills and sciences. He supplies technical expertise in all areas required for new products development associated with the US Army office he works in. He supplies extensive expertise in understanding the Oil and Gas industry as well. 

Born in Lynnwood Washington, he came to Huntsville Alabama, when his father moved to be part of NASA’s effort to put men on the moon. Neal Armstrong may have gotten the ride, but his father’s computers did the driving. 

Paul is also a founding member of the New Energy Congress

From: http://www.examiner.com/x-8199-Breakthrough-Energy-Examiner~y2010m5d2-Mother-of-all-gushers-could-kill-Earths-oceans

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By refusing to deal honorably with others, you dishonor yourself.

Mother of all Gushers

Submitted by Gone Fishin on Sun, 05/02/2010 - 20:24.

Of all the stories and postings that I have read today on numerous websites regarding this oil spill, Macdermott's was by far the most informative.

 

Who bought lots of oil futures recently?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 05/02/2010 - 20:42.

Horrific and we still have little of the truth...

It is hard to believe the Gulf of Mexico is now just an historic place on Earth I got to enjoy that my children and future generations will never see...

And Evelyn was just saying... at least she got to spend lots of time in the Florida Keys before they were gone

Now to be known as Southern Florida Extension into Gulf Dead Zone 1

America... unsustainable

Will this poison and starve the people of Cuba. Who pays for that?

$500 a barrel seems cheap - $2000 a barrel seems cheap.

Who bought lots of oil futures recently?

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Drill baby drill? Go straight to hell, bitch!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 05/03/2010 - 05:21.

Growing up on punk, in the 1970s and 1980s, I like a direct, open, honest approach to decry injustice... and the Clash offer some of the best expressions of that ever. Enjoy.

From Wikipedia:

Like those of many songs by the Clash, the lyrics of "Straight to Hell" decry injustice. The first verse refers to the shutting down of steel mills in Northern England and the alienation and racism suffered by immigrants despite their attempts to integrate into British society.

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Drill Baby Drill!!!

Submitted by Charles Frost on Mon, 05/03/2010 - 07:46.

An interesting opinion from the Colbert Report...

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/308087/april-28-2010/gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill

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By refusing to deal honorably with others, you dishonor yourself.