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Rank: Advanced Member  Joined: 9/9/2008 Posts: 2,844
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Everybody, pray that the "Top Kill" procedure to plug the oil well with mud and cement works. From what I understand the procedure started today and we should know more by the end of the weekend if it was successful. Technicians are reporting there is a 60-70% chance of success.
May 27, 10:27 AM EDT
Scientists say more Gulf oil flowing than thought
ROBERT, La.  -- Scientists studying the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico now say it's leaking at least twice as much oil and possibly five times as much as original estimates.
U.S. Geological Survey Director Dr. Marcia McNutt is the leader of a team put together to try to figure out how much oil is coming from the well.
She says results are preliminary but two teams using different methods determined the well is leaking at least 504,000 gallons a day. One team said it might be leaking as much as 798,000 gallons and another said that number might be closer to a million gallons.
The well blew out when the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20.
BP and the Coast Guard had said since then that about 210,000 gallons a day was flowing.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
ROBERT, La. - Scientists studying the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico now say it's leaking at least twice as much oil and possibly five times as much as original estimates.
U.S. Geological Survey Director Dr. Marcia McNutt is the leader of a team put together to try to figure out how much oil is coming from the well.
She says results are preliminary but two teams using different methods determined the well is leaking at least 504,000 gallons a day. One team said it might be leaking as much as 798,000 gallons and another said that number might be closer to a gallons.
The well blew out when the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20.
BP and the Coast Guard had said since then that about 210,000 gallons a day was flowing.
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Rank: Advanced Member  Joined: 1/4/2010 Posts: 2,741 Location: on a hill in the hollow
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I don't see why they cannot come up with a relatively accurate estimate of the quantity of oil coming out of the pipe, it should be relatively easy. BP knows what pressure what building in the system before the blow out and they should know what the normal pressure of such a well. Couple pressure with the physical size of the pipe and you can get a reasonable idea how much oil is coming out. If MY figures are even close, they are downplaying the largest spill in the history of the world!
Fire engines can supply 150-250 gallons of water per minute from a 2-1/2 inch hose at about 60 PSI. The broken oil pipe is 20 inches in diameter and it is flowing at pressures beyond imagination since it first has to overcome the 2,000 pounds of pressure exerted by the water. A cross section of a 2.5 inch hose is about 4.9 square inches, a 20 inch pipe has a cross section of more than 314 square inches... some 64 times that of a fire hose.
Taking the low ball figure a fire hose can put out of 150 gallons per minute times 64 and you get an astounding 9,600 gallons per MINUTE... on the high end it works out to 16,000 gallons per minute. In a 24 hour period that ranges from 13 MILLION gallons per DAY up to 23 MILLION gallons per day... both figures are way over any "official" estimate. Then of course, you have to remember that the pipe is only about 85% of the whole leak... the other 15% not even coming out of the pipe!Given the fact that the oil has been spewing out for some 36 days, the total leak could easily be near 830 MILLION gallons!Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 1/4/2010 Posts: 2,741 Location: on a hill in the hollow
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sarge wrote:She says results are preliminary but two teams using different methods determined the well is leaking at least 504,000 gallons a day. One team said it might be leaking as much as 798,000 gallons and another said that number might be closer to a gallons.
The well blew out when the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20.
BP and the Coast Guard had said since then that about 210,000 gallons a day was flowing.
I wonder what "different methods" were used to arrive at their numbers. I believe the 798,000 gallons per day is a much more accurate number than a mere 210,000 gallons. An under powered 2.5 inch fire hose puts out more than 210,000 gallons per day... how can anyone believe a 20 inch pipe is putting out less than a hose 1/64 the size of the blowout!?!
Sorta makes ya feel like a mushroom... eh?
Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 9/9/2008 Posts: 2,844
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May 27, 4:55 PM EDT
Gulf leak eclipses Exxon Valdez as worst US spill
By GREG BLUESTEIN and SETH BORENSTEIN
Associated Press Writers
COVINGTON, La. -- BP's attempt to choke off the gusher at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico appeared to be making some progress, officials said Thursday as dire new government estimates showed the disaster has easily eclipsed the Exxon Valdez as the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.
As the world waited to see whether the "top kill" would work, President Barack Obama announced major new restrictions on drilling projects, and the head of the federal agency that regulates the industry resigned under pressure, becoming the highest-ranking political casualty of the crisis so far.
BP started shooting heavy drilling mud into the blown-out well 5,000 feet underwater on Wednesday afternoon. It was the latest in a string of attempts to stop the oil that has been spewing for five weeks, since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank off the coast of Louisiana. Eleven workers were killed in the accident.
Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Thursday afternoon that the mud was stopping some oil and gas but BP was still pumping it in. BP said it should know by the end of the day whether it worked.
"It's a work in progress," Allen said. "We need to let it play itself out."
If the procedure works, BP will inject cement into the well to seal it permanently. If it doesn't, the company has a number of backup plans. Either way, crews will continue to drill two relief wells, considered the only surefire way to stop the leak.
A top kill has never been attempted before so deep underwater.
The stakes were higher than ever as public frustration over the spill grew and a team of government scientists said the oil has been flowing at a rate 2 1/2 to five times higher than what BP and the Coast Guard initially estimated.
Two teams of scientists calculated the well has been spewing between 504,000 and more than a million gallons a day. Even using the most conservative estimate, that means nearly 18 million gallons have spilled so far. In the worst-case scenario, 39 million gallons have leaked.
That larger figure would be nearly four times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster, in which a tanker ran aground in Alaska in 1989, spilling nearly 11 million gallons.
"Now we know the true scale of the monster we are fighting in the Gulf," said Jeremy Symons, vice president of the National Wildlife Federation. "BP has unleashed an unstoppable force of appalling proportions."
BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said the previous estimate of 210,000 gallons a day was based on the best data available at the time. As for the new figures, he said: "It does not and will not change the response. We are going all out on our response."
The spill is not the biggest ever in the Gulf. In 1979, a drilling rig in Mexican waters - the Ixtoc I - blew up, releasing 140 million gallons of oil.
In another troubling discovery, marine scientists said they have spotted a huge new plume of what they believe to be oil deep beneath the Gulf, stretching 22 miles from the leaking wellhead northeast toward Mobile Bay, Ala. They fear it could have resulted from using chemicals a mile below the surface to break up the oil.
In Washington, Elizabeth Birnbaum stepped down as director of the Minerals Management Service, a job she had held since last July. Her agency has been harshly criticized over lax oversight of drilling and cozy ties with industry.
An internal Interior Department report released earlier this week found that between 2000 and 2008, agency staff members accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography.
Polls show the public is souring on the administration's handling of the catastrophe, and Obama sought to assure Americans that the government is in control and deflect criticism that his administration has left BP in charge.
"My job right now is just to make sure everybody in the Gulf understands: This is what I wake up to in the morning, and this is what I go to bed at night thinking about. The spill," he said.
Obama said he would put an end to the "scandalously close relationship" between regulators and the oil companies they oversee. He also extended a freeze on new deepwater oil drilling and canceled or delayed proposed lease sales in the waters off Alaska and Virginia and along the Gulf Coast.
Fishermen, hotel and restaurant owners, politicians and residents along the 100-mile stretch of Gulf coast affected by the spill are fed up with BP's failures to stop the spill. Thick oil is coating birds and delicate wetlands in Louisiana.
"I have anxiety attacks," said Sarah Rigaud, owner of Sarah's Restaurant in Grand Isle, La., where the beach was closed because blobs of oil that looked like melted chocolate had washed up on shore. "Every day I pray that something happens, that it will be stopped and everybody can get back to normal."
Charlotte Randolph, president of Louisiana's Lafourche Parish, one of the coastal parishes affected by the spill, said: "I mean, it's wearing on everybody in this coastal region. You see it in people's eyes. You see it. We need to stop the flow."
"Tourism is dead. Fishing is dead. We're dying a slow death," she added.
The Coast Guard approved portions of Louisiana's $350 million plan to ring its coastline with a wall of sand meant to keep out the oil.
--- Borenstein reported from Washington. Associated Press Writers Ben Nuckols, Matthew Brown, Jason Dearen, Andrew Taylor and Matthew Daly contributed to this report. ~ Insults Should Be Written In Sand ~ Compliments Should Be Carved In Stone ~
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 9/9/2008 Posts: 2,844
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Oil spill (Gulf of Mexico) clean-up solution 2010 – (Response from Gov. Crist)
May 25, 3:36 PMJacksonville Christian Living Examiner Victoria Thomas Poller
On Thursday May 20th an article was sent to the office of Governor Charlie Crist and to a local TV news station. Here is the response from the office of the governor. This may be a little lengthy, yet you can imagine how this reporter felt reading this information. What are your views?
From: Governor Charlie Crist Charlie.Crist@eog.myflorida.com
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2010 1:13 PM
To: Governor Charlie Crist
Subject: Thank you for contacting Governor Charlie Crist
Thank you for contacting Governor Charlie Crist and sharing your concerns about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Governor Crist asked that I respond on his behalf.
On Tuesday, April 20, 2010, an offshore oil drilling platform, Deepwater Horizon, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico near Louisiana. Tragically, 11 men lost their lives in the blast. The oil well was owned by BP, while the rig was owned by Transocean Ltd and serviced by Halliburton. The rig is now submerged at the bottom of the Gulf. Under federal law, BP is the party responsible for cleanup operations.
According to estimates from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the rig was discharging at least 5,000 barrels of oil (210,000 gallons) per day. BP was able to insert a device into the largest breach which greatly reduced, but not eliminated, the amount of oil and gas spewing into the Gulf.
On April 27, Governor Crist was among the first to fly over the oil slick to gauge its threat to Florida’s coastline and small businesses along the Gulf Coast. From the early days following the explosion and oil discharges, Governor Crist has taken action to ensure that Florida’s beaches and affected industries are protected. The Governor has personally led Florida’s efforts to work with federal, state, and local authorities to put the well-being of both residents and visitors at the top of the list.
Governor Crist has taken these specific actions:
• Declared a State of Emergency on April 30 for several Gulf Coast counties to protect the citizens, visitors, natural resources and businesses. This action also eased the coordination between the state and federal government as well as the state and local governments. This state of emergency exists for the following counties: Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay, Gulf, Franklin, Wakulla, Jefferson, Taylor, Dixie, Levy, Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, Collier, Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.
• Designated David Halstead, Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management as the State Coordinating Officer and directed him to activate the state’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan and other response, recovery and mitigation plans necessary to cope with the emergency. This includes activation of the Florida National Guard for the duration of the emergency.
• Designated the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) the lead state agency for responding to potential impacts of the oil spill along Florida’s shoreline. For the latest news, answers to frequently asked questions and information about the oil spill’s impact on vulnerable animal life and the seafood industry, please view the Department of Environmental Protection’s Web site online at www.dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon/default.htm . For more information, you may wish to call the Florida State Emergency Information Line toll-free at (800) 342-3557.
• Visited the Apalachicola region, which is responsible for most of America’s oyster production, on May 8. Governor Crist participated in oyster harvests and pledged the resources of Florida State government to protect the seafood industry, tourism and other vital lifeblood industries of the region.
• Joined with Attorney General Bill McCollum on May 10 to appoint former Attorneys General Bob Butterworth and Jim Smith to lead an oil incident legal advisory council. The advisory council will work to prepare Florida for any future litigation, enforcement, or regulatory action that may be needed against BP, Transocean and Halliburton. Those with questions about the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Legal Advisory Council should call the Attorney General’s toll-free hotline at 1 66-966-7226.
• Created the Gulf Oil Spill Economic Recovery Task Force on May 11. This group, comprised of representatives from state and local governments, the hospitality industry and tourism industry, will monitor BP’s efforts in providing financial relief to impacted businesses and ensure that the vitality of the business and tourism industries continue to prosper. To protect affected businesses, the Task Force will ensure economic loss data and industry economic indicators are effectively collected.
• Called on BP to provide significant funding for a marketing campaign to counter negative and false information appearing in print and electronic media about the spill’s impact on Florida’s beaches and waters. On May 17, BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward came to Tallahassee to inform the Governor, and the State of Florida, that BP would grant the Governor’s request and provide $25 million for the marketing campaign.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact the Governor’s Office and for sharing your concerns about this issue of national importance.
Sincerely,
Willem J. de Greef
Office of Citizen Services
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 9/9/2008 Posts: 2,844
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May 29, 6:32 PM EDT
BP's top kill effort FAILS to plug Gulf oil leak
By BEN NUCKOLS
Associated Press Writer
ROBERT, La. -- BP has failed in its latest attempt to plug the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico with mud and cement, the company said Saturday.
BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the company determined the "top kill" method had failed after studying it for three days. The method involved pumping heavy drilling mud into a crippled well 5,000 feet underwater.
"We have not been able to stop the flow," Suttles said. "We have made the decision to move onto the next option."
It was the latest setback for the company trying to stop the crude from further fouling waters, wildlife and marshland. Other attempts included a gigantic box placed over the leak and a tube inserted to siphon the oil away. The box failed after ice-like crystals clogged it, while the tube was removed to make way for the top kill after it sucked up more than 900,000 gallons of oil.
The spill is the worst in U.S. history and has dumped between 18 million and 40 million gallons into the Gulf, according to government estimates.
BP says it's already preparing for the next attempt to stop the leak. Under the new plan, BP would use robot submarines to cut off the damaged riser from which the oil is leaking, and then try to cap it with a containment valve. The new attempt would take four days to complete.
"We're confident the job will work but obviously we can't guarantee success," Suttles said of the new plan.
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 9/9/2008 Posts: 2,844
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May 29, 7:43 PM EDT
BP's Top Kill Effort Fails To Plug Gulf Oil Leak
By BEN NUCKOLS
Associated Press Writer
ROBERT, La. -- BP admitted defeat Saturday in its attempt to plug the Gulf of Mexico oil leak by pumping mud into a busted well, but said it's readying yet another approach to fight the spill after a series of failures.
BP PLC Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the company determined the "top kill" had failed after it spent three days pumping heavy drilling mud into the crippled well 5,000 feet underwater. More than 1.2 million gallons of mud was used, but most of it escaped out of the damaged riser.
In the six weeks since the spill began, the company has failed in each attempt to stop the gusher, as estimates of how much is leaking grow more dire. It's the worst spill in U.S. history - exceeding even the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 off the Alaska coast - dumping between 18 million and 40 million gallons into the Gulf, according to government estimates.
"This scares everybody, the fact that we can't make this well stop flowing, the fact that we haven't succeeded so far," Suttles said. "Many of the things we're trying have been done on the surface before, but have never been tried at 5,000 feet."
The company failed in the days after the spill to use robot submarines to close valves on the massive blowout preventer atop the damaged well, then two weeks later ice-like crystals clogged a 100-ton box the company tried placing over the leak. Earlier this week, engineers removed a mile-long siphon tube after it sucked up a disappointing 900,000 gallons of oil from the gusher.
Suttles said BP is already preparing for the next attempt to stop the leak that began after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in April, killing 11 people.
The company plans to use robot submarines to cut off the damaged riser from which the oil is leaking, and then try to cap it with a containment valve. The effort is expected to take between four and seven days.
"We're confident the job will work but obviously we can't guarantee success," Suttles said of the new plan, declining to handicap the likelihood it will work.
He said that cutting off the damaged riser isn't expected to cause the flow rate of leaking oil to increase significantly.
The permanent solution to the leak, a relief well currently being drilled, won't be ready until August, BP says.
Experts have said that a bend in the damaged riser likely was restricting the flow of oil somewhat, so slicing it off and installing a new containment valve is risky.
"If they can't get that valve on, things will get much worse," said Philip W. Johnson, an engineering professor at the University of Alabama.
Johnson said he thinks BP can succeed with the valve, but added: "It's a scary proposition."
Word that the top-kill had failed hit hard in the fishing community of Venice, La., near where oil first made landfall in large quanities almost two weeks ago.
"Everybody's starting to realize this summer's lost. And our whole lifestyle might be lost," said Michael Ballay, the 59-year-old manager of the Cypress Cove Marina.
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Online: http://www.deepwaterhori...ponse.com/go/site/2931/
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AP Radio correspondent Shelly Adler and Associated Press Writer Matthew Brown contributed to this report.
© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 7/1/2008
Posts: 540
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 9/9/2008 Posts: 2,844
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Hello Hughey,
I know you have years of experience with deep well drilling. We've talked about it before. Perhaps "they" could use your experience and knowledge NOW! I am going to post a link for you, click on it and scroll to the bottom. You could leave a message there. Our country needs ALL hands on deck on this one. This is a disaster of huge proportions and our oceans are being destroyed! This is an emergency so any knowledge that you could pass on to these people would be appreciated. I have a feeling if somebody doesn't step up and show them what to do the situation will be the loss of the entire Gulf for decades, maybe lots more unless we act quickly. Write them Hughey, your experience and expertise is needed IMMEDIATELY!!
Online: http://www.deepwaterhori...ponse.com/go/site/2931/
Thank you,
Sarge
~ Insults Should Be Written In Sand ~ Compliments Should Be Carved In Stone ~
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 9/9/2008 Posts: 2,844
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I hope this newest procedure by BP works. Its being reported that the "cap" procedure will hopefully recover 90%+ of the leaking oil to recovery ships waiting on the Gulfs surface.
So much damage done and the pictures of the wildlife including the birds are heartbreaking. This catastrophe will take years to correct and the folks whose livelihoods have been destroyed is just terrible. I just hope we've learned something.
Jun 4, 12:11 PM EDT
Cap collects some Gulf oil; crude washes into Fla.
By GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press Writer
GRAND ISLE, La. -- Waves of gooey tar balls crashed into the white sands of the Florida Panhandle on Friday as BP engineers adjusted a sophisticated cap over the Gulf oil gusher, trying to collect the crude now fouling four states.
Even though the inverted funnel-like device was set over the leak late Thursday, crude continued to spew into the sea in the nation's worst oil spill. Engineers hoped to close several open vents on the cap throughout the day in the latest attempt to contain the oil.
As they worked on the system underwater, the effect of the BP spill was widely seen. Swimmers at Pensacola Beach rushed out the water after wading into the mess. Brown pelicans coated in chocolate syrup-like oil flailed and struggled in the surf on a Louisiana island. The oil on the beaches of East Grand Terre near Grand Isle, La., were stained in hues of rust and crimson, much like the color of drying blood.
"In Revelations, it says the water will turn to blood. That's what it looks like out here - like the Gulf is bleeding," said P.J. Hahn, director of coastal zone management for Plaquemines Parish as he kneeled down to take a picture of an oil-coated feather. "This is going to choke the life out of everything."
President Barack Obama was set to visit the Louisiana coast Friday, his second trip in a week and the third since the disaster unfolded following an April 20 oil rig explosion. Eleven workers were killed.
A mile below the water's surface, the cap has different colored hoses loosely attached to it to help combat the near-freezing temperatures and icylike crystals that could clog it. The device started pumping oil and gas to a tanker on the surface overnight, but it wasn't clear how much.
"Progress is being made, but we need to caution against over-optimism," said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man for the disaster.
He said a very rough estimate of current collection would be about 42,000 gallons a day, though he stressed the information was anecdotal.
Robots a mile beneath the Gulf were shooting chemical dispersants at the escaping oil - though it looked more like flares when illuminated a mile underwater.
To put the cap in place, BP had to slice off the main pipe with giant shears after a diamond-edged saw became stuck. By doing so, they risked increasing the flow by as much as 20 percent, though Allen said it was still too soon to know whether that had happened.
"Once the containment cap is on and it's working, we hope the rate is significantly reduced," he said.
The jagged cut forced crews to use a looser fitting cap, but Allen did not rule out trying to again smooth out the cut with the diamond saw if officials aren't satisfied with the current cap.
The best chance to plug the leak is a pair of relief wells, which are at least two months away. The well has spit out between 22 million and 47 million gallons of oil, according to government estimates.
In Florida, spotters who had been seeing a few tar balls in recent days found a substantially larger number before dawn on the beaches of the Gulf Islands National Seashore and nearby areas, a county emergency official said. The park is a long string of connected barrier islands near Pensacola.
David Lucas, of Jonesville, La., and a group of friends abruptly ended their visit to Pensacola Beach after wading into oily water.
"It was sticky brown globs out there," Lucas said after the group cleaned their feet in the parking lot and headed south to Orlando.
Just to the west at Gulf Shores, Ala., Wendi Butler watched glistening clumps of oil roll onto the white sand beach during a morning stroll. An oily smell was in the air.
"You don't smell the beach breeze at all," said Butler, 40.
Butler moved to Perdido Bay from Mobile days before the spill. Now, her two kids don't want to visit because of the oil and she can't find a job.
"Restaurants are cutting back to their winter staffs because of it. They're not hiring," she said.
Meanwhile, BP PLC Chief Executive Tony Hayward sought to reassure investors, saying the company has "considerable firepower" to cope with the severe, long-running costs. Hayward and other senior BP executives struck a penitent note in their first comprehensive update to shareholders since the oil rig explosion, stressing their commitment to rebuilding BP's tarnished reputation, improving safety measures and restoring the damaged Gulf coast.
"We will meet our obligations both as a responsible company and also as a necessary step to rebuilding trust in BP as a long term member of the business communities in the U.S. and around the world," said BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg. "This is in the interest of all our stakeholders."
In oil-soaked Grand Isle, BP representative Jason French might as well have painted a bulls-eye on his back. His mission was to be BP's representative at a meeting for 50 or so residents who had gathered at a church to vent.
"We are all angry and frustrated," he said. "Feel free tonight to let me see that anger. Direct it at me, direct it at BP, but I want to assure you, the folks in this community, that we are working hard to remedy the situation."
Residents weren't buying it.
"Sorry doesn't pay the bills," said Susan Felio Price, who lives near Grand Isle.
"Through the negligence of BP we now find ourselves trying to roller-skate up a mountain," she said. "We're growing really weary. We're tired. We're sick and tired of being sick and tired. Someone's got to help us get to the top of that mountain."
Obama shared some of that anger ahead of his Gulf visit. He told CNN's Larry King that he was frustrated and used his strongest language in assailing BP.
"I am furious at this entire situation because this is an example where somebody didn't think through the consequences of their actions," Obama said. "This is imperiling an entire way of life and an entire region for potentially years."
Newly disclosed internal Coast Guard documents from the day after the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig indicated that U.S. officials were warning of a leak of 336,000 gallons per day of crude from the well in the event of a complete blowout.
The volume turned out to be much closer to that figure than the 42,000 gallons per day that BP first estimated. Weeks later it was revised to 210,000 gallons. Now, an estimated 500,000 to 1 million gallons of crude is believed to be leaking daily.
The Center for Public Integrity, which initially reported the Coast Guard logs, said it obtained them from Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The logs also showed early in the disaster that remote underwater robots were unable to activate the rig's blowout preventer, which was supposed to shut off the flow from the well in the event of such a catastrophic failure.
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Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan in Washington, Paul J. Weber in Houston, Jay Reeves in Gulf Shores, Ala., Melissa Nelson in Pensacola, Fla., Holbrook Mohr in East Grand Terre, La., Jane Wardell in London and Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans contributed to this report.
© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.
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Rank: Advanced Member  Joined: 3/3/2008 Posts: 11,126
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Unbelievable.
This thing is still gushing oil.
You would have thought they might have considered the fact that they can't contain these things before they started drilling offshore.
Unbelievable.
Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? - Galatians 4:16
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 9/9/2008 Posts: 2,844
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Jun 9, 6:24 PM EDT
AP IMPACT: BP spill response plans severely flawed
By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, TAMARA LUSH and HOLBROOK MOHR
Associated Press Writers
VENICE, La. -- Professor Peter Lutz is listed in BP's 2009 response plan for a Gulf of Mexico oil spill as a national wildlife expert. He died in 2005. Under the heading "sensitive biological resources," the plan lists marine mammals including walruses, sea otters, sea lions and seals. None lives anywhere near the Gulf.
The names and phone numbers of several Texas A&M University marine life specialists are wrong. So are the numbers for marine mammal stranding network offices in Louisiana and Florida, which are no longer in service.
BP PLC's 582-page regional spill plan for the Gulf, and its 52-page, site-specific plan for the Deepwater Horizon rig are riddled with omissions and glaring errors, according to an Associated Press analysis that details how BP officials have pretty much been making it up as they go along. The lengthy plans approved by the federal government last year before BP drilled its ill-fated well vastly understate the dangers posed by an uncontrolled leak and vastly overstate the company's preparedness to deal with one.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, reacting to the AP story, said Wednesday he was angry and frustrated.
"Look, it's obvious to everybody in south Louisiana that they didn't have a plan, they didn't have an adequate plan to deal with this spill," Jindal said. "They didn't anticipate the BOP (blowout preventer) failure. They didn't anticipate this much oil hitting our coast. From the very first days, they kept telling us, 'Don't worry, the oil's not going to make it to your coast.'"
In its Deepwater Horizon plan, the British oil giant stated: "BP Exploration and Production Inc. has the capability to respond, to the maximum extent practicable, to a worst case discharge, or a substantial threat of such a discharge, resulting from the activities proposed in our Exploration Plan."
In the spill scenarios detailed in the documents, fish, marine mammals and birds escape serious harm; beaches remain pristine; water quality is only a temporary problem. And those are the projections for a leak about 10 times worse than what has been calculated for the ongoing disaster.
There are other wildly false assumptions in the documents. BP's proposed method to calculate spill volume judging by the darkness of the oil sheen is way off. The internationally accepted formula would produce estimates 100 times higher.
The Gulf's loop current, which is projected to help eventually send oil hundreds of miles around Florida's southern tip and up the Atlantic coast, isn't mentioned in either plan.
The website listed for Marine Spill Response Corp. - one of two firms that BP relies on for equipment to clean a spill - links to a defunct Japanese-language page.
In early May, at least 80 Louisiana state prisoners were trained to clean birds by listening to a presentation and watching a video. It was a work force never envisioned in the plans, which contain no detailed references to how birds would be cleansed of oil.
And while BP officials and the federal government have insisted that they have attacked the problem as if it were a much larger spill, that isn't apparent from the constantly evolving nature of the response.
Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said in an e-mail Wednesday to the AP that he and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, have asked for a criminal investigation of some of the company's claims.
"The AP report paints a picture of a company that was making it up as it went along, while telling regulators it had the full capability to deal with a major spill," Nelson said in an e-mail. "We know that wasn't true."
This week, after BP reported the seemingly good news that a containment cap installed on the wellhead was funneling some of the gushing crude to a tanker on the surface, BP introduced a whole new set of plans mostly aimed at capturing more oil.
The latest incarnation calls for building a larger cap, using a special incinerator to burn off some of the recaptured oil and bringing in a floating platform to process the oil being sucked away from the gushing well.
In other words, the on-the-fly planning continues.
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Some examples of how BP's plans have fallen short:
- Beaches where oil washed up within weeks of a spill were supposed to be safe from contamination because BP promised it could marshal more than enough boats to scoop up all the oil before any deepwater spill could reach shore - a claim that in retrospect seems absurd.
"The vessels in question maintain the necessary spill containment and recovery equipment to respond effectively," one of the documents says.
BP asserts that the combined response could skim, suck up or otherwise remove 20 million gallons of oil each day from the water. But that is about how much has leaked in the past six weeks - and the slick now covers about 3,300 square miles, according to Hans Graber, director of the University of Miami's satellite sensing facility. Only a small fraction of the spill has been successfully skimmed. Plus, an undetermined portion of the spill has sunk to the bottom of the Gulf or is suspended somewhere in between.
The plan uses computer modeling to project a 21 percent chance of oil reaching the Louisiana coast within a month of a spill. In reality, an oily sheen reached the Mississippi River delta just nine days after the April 20 explosion. Heavy globs soon followed. Other locales where oil washed up within weeks of the explosion were characterized in BP's regional plan as safely out of the way of any oil danger.
- BP's site plan regarding birds, sea turtles or endangered marine mammals ("no adverse impacts" also have proved far too optimistic.
While the exact toll on the Gulf's wildlife may never be known, the effects clearly have been devastating.
More than 400 oiled birds have been treated, while dozens have been found dead and covered in crude, mainly in Louisiana but also in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. On remote islands teeming with birds, a visible patina of oil taints pelicans, gulls, terns and herons, as captured in AP photos that depict one of the more gut-wrenching aspects of the spill's impact. Such scenes are no longer unusual; the response plans anticipate nothing on this scale.
In Louisiana's Barataria Bay, a dead sea turtle caked in reddish-brown oil lay splayed out with dragonflies buzzing by. More than 200 lifeless turtles and several dolphins also have washed ashore. So have countless fish.
There weren't supposed to be any coastline problems because the site was far offshore. "Due to the distance to shore (48 miles) and the response capabilities that would be implemented, no significant adverse impacts are expected," the site plan says.
But that distance has failed to protect precious resources. And last week, a group of environmental research center scientists released a computer model that suggested oil could ride ocean currents around Florida and up to North Carolina by summer.
- Perhaps the starkest example of BP's planning failures: The company has insisted that the size of the leak doesn't matter because it has been reacting to a worst-case scenario all along.
Yet each step of the way, as the estimated size of the daily leak has grown from 42,000 gallons to 210,000 gallons to perhaps 1.8 million gallons, BP has been forced to scramble - to create potential solutions on the fly, to add more boats, more boom, more skimmers, more workers. And containment domes, top kills, top hats.
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While a disaster as devastating as a major oil spill will create some problems that can't be solved in advance, or even foreseen, BP's plans do not anticipate even the most obvious issues, and use mountains of words to dismiss problems that have proven overwhelming.
In responses to lengthy lists of questions from AP, officials for BP and the Interior Department, which oversees oil rig regulator Minerals Management Service, appear to concede there were problems with the two oil spill response plans.
"Many of the questions you raise are exactly those questions that will be examined and answered by the presidential commission as well as other investigations into BP's oil spill," said Kendra Barkoff, spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who she said has undertaken transformational reforms of MMS.
Said BP spokesman Daren Beaudo from Robert, La.: "We expect that a complete review of the regional response plans and planning process will take place as part of the overall incident investigation so that we can determine what worked well and what needs improvement. Thus far we have implemented the largest spill response in history and many, many elements of it have worked well. However, we are greatly disappointed that oil has made landfall and impacted shorelines and marshes. The situation we are dealing with is clearly complex, unprecedented and will offer us much to learn from."
A key failure of the plan's cleanup provisions was the scarcity of boom - floating lines of plastic or absorbent material placed around sensitive areas to deflect oil.
From the start, local officials all along the Gulf Coast have complained about a lack of supplies, particularly the heavier, so-called ocean boom. But even BP says in its regional plan that boom isn't effective in seas more than three to four feet; waves in the Gulf are often bigger. And even in calmer waters, oil has swamped vital wildlife breeding grounds in places supposedly sequestered by multiple layers of boom.
The BP plans speak of thorough resources for all; there's no talk of a need to share. Still, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley said his shores were left vulnerable by Coast Guard decisions to shift boom to Louisiana when the oil threatened landfall there.
Meanwhile, in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish, some have complained that miles of the boom now in the water were not properly anchored. AP reporters saw evidence they're right - some lines of boom were so broken up they hardly impeded the slick's push to shore.
Some out-of-state contractors who didn't know local waters placed boom where tides and currents made sure it didn't work properly. And yet disorganization has dogged efforts to use local boats. In Venice, La., near where the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf, a large group of charter captains have been known to spend their days sitting around at the marina, earning $2,000 a day without ever attacking the oil.
But perhaps the most glaring error in BP's plans involves Lutz, the professor, one of several dozen experts recommended as resources to be contacted in the event of a spill.
Lutz is listed as a go-to wildlife specialist at the University of Miami. But Lutz, an eminent sea turtle expert, left Miami almost 20 years ago to chair the marine biology department at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. He died four years before the plan was published.
Molly Lutcavage, a research professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst who worked closely with Lutz for years on a groundbreaking report on the effects of oil and sea turtles, was dismayed to hear that Lutz was still listed as an expert in the response plan.
"It's horribly depressing and shocking that so little attention is paid to a bona fide contingency plan," she said. "What would Peter think? Oh, boy. I think he would think it was typical of bureaucracy."
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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Ted Bridis and Eileen Sullivan in Washington, Brian Skoloff in Grand Isle, La., Harry R. Weber in Houston, and Jason Bronis in New Orleans. Lush reported from New Orleans. Pritchard reported from Los Angeles.
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Jun 9, 6:23 PM EDT
Gulf residents angry about BP and claims process
By BRIAN SKOLOFF and RAY HENRY
Associated Press Writers
GRAND ISLE, La. -- Gulf Coast fishermen, businesses and property owners who have filed damage claims with BP over the oil spill are angrily complaining of delays, excessive paperwork and skimpy payments that have put them on the verge of going under as the financial and environmental toll of the disaster grows by the day.
Out in the Gulf of Mexico, meanwhile, the oil company Wednesday captured an ever larger-share of the crude gushing from the bottom of the sea and began bringing in more heavy equipment to handle it.
The containment effort played out as BP stock plunged to its lowest level in 14 years amid fears that the company might be forced to suspend dividends and find itself overwhelmed by the cleanup costs, penalties, damage claims and lawsuits generated by the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.
Shrimpers, oystermen, seafood businesses, out-of-work drilling crews and the tourism industry all are lining up to get paid back the billions of dollars washed away by the disaster, and tempers have flared as locals direct outrage at BP over what they see as a tangle of red tape.
"Every day we call the adjuster eight or 10 times. There's no answer, no answering machine," said Regina Shipp, who has filed $33,000 in claims for lost business at her restaurant in Alabama. "If BP doesn't pay us within two months, we'll be out of business. We've got two kids."
An Alabama property owner who has lost vast sums of rental income angrily confronted a BP executive at a town meeting. The owner of a Mississippi seafood restaurant said she is desperately waiting for a check to come through because fewer customers come by for shrimp po-boys and oyster sandwiches.
Some locals see dark parallels to what happened after Hurricane Katrina, when they had to wait years to get reimbursed for losses.
"It really feels like we are getting a double whammy here. When does it end?" said Mark Glago, a New Orleans lawyer who is representing a fishing boat captain in a claim against BP.
BP spokesman Mark Proegler disputed any notion that the claims process is slow or that the company is dragging its feet.
Proegler said BP has cut the time to process claims and issue a check from 45 days to as little as 48 hours, provided the necessary documentation has been supplied. BP officials acknowledged that while no claims have been denied, thousands and thousands of claims had not been paid by late last week because the company required more documentation.
At the bottom of the sea, the containment cap on the ruptured well is capturing 630,000 gallons a day and pumping it to a ship at the surface, and the amount could nearly double by next week to roughly 1.17 million gallons, said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is overseeing the crisis for the government.
A second vessel that will arrive within days is expected to greatly boost capacity. BP also plans to bring in a tanker from the North Sea to help transport oil and an incinerator to burn off some of the crude.
The government has estimated 600,000 to 1.2 million gallons are leaking per day, but a scientist on a task force studying the flow said the actual rate may be between 798,000 gallons and 1.8 million.
Crews working at the site toiled under oppressive conditions as the heat index soared to 110 degrees and toxic vapors emanated from the depths. Fireboats were on hand to pour water on the surface to ease the fumes.
Allen also confronted BP over the complaints about the claims process, warning the company in a letter: "We need complete, ongoing transparency into BP's claims process including detailed information on how claims are being evaluated, how payment amounts are being calculated and how quickly claims are being processed."
The admiral this week created a team including officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help with the damage claims. It will send workers into Gulf communities to provide information about the process. He also planned to discuss the complaints with BP officials Wednesday.
Under federal law, BP is required to pay for a range of damage, including property losses and lost earnings. Residents and businesses can call a telephone line to report losses, file a claim online and seek help at one of 25 claims offices around the Gulf. Deckhands and other fishermen generally need to show a photo ID and documentation such as a pay stub showing how much money they typically earn.
To jump-start the process, BP was initially offering an immediate $2,500 to deckhands and $5,000 to fishing boat owners. Workers can receive additional compensation once their paperwork and larger claims are approved. BP said it has paid 18,000 claims so far and has hired 600 adjusters and operators to handle the cases.
The oil giant said it expects to spend $84 million through June alone to compensate people for lost wages and profits. That number could grow as new claims are received. When it is all over, BP could be looking at total liabilities in the billions, perhaps tens of billions, according to analysts.
BP stock dropped $5.45, or 16 percent, Wednesday - easily its worst day since the April 20 rig explosion that set off the spill. In the seven weeks since then, the company has lost half its market value.
The latest slide came after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar promised a Senate energy panel to ask BP to compensate energy companies for losses if they have to lay off workers or suffer economically because of the Obama administration's six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling.
Calculating what is owed to victims of the spill has proved challenging.
David Walter owns an Alabama company that makes artificial reefs that anglers buy and drop in the Gulf to attract fish, but state regulators stopped issuing permits for the reefs on May 4 because of the oil spill - effectively killing off $350,000 in expected business.
When Walter called a claims adjuster working for BP, he was told to provide four years of invoices for May, June and July along with tax returns for those years. Walter said he sent the forms by overnight mail, but the adjuster assigned to his case changed offices and could not be found. The documents were lost.
After making more inquiries, Walter said, he was instructed to gather the same documents and this time go to a claims office. There, an adjuster told Walter he would be eligible for only a $5,000 payment since his tax returns showed a technical business loss when depreciation was factored in.
"I said that's not fair because if you say that, then I have to go out of business and I lose everything," Walter said. He is now working with an accounting firm to calculate his losses.
Not everyone had complaints about the claims process.
Bart Harrison of Clay, Ala., filed his first claim on Wednesday morning for lost rental income on his coastal property and expected to have a check for $1,010 within a few hours. The only documentation required was tax returns and rental histories for his units, which were both easy to provide.
"The guy I talked to was knowledgeable and respectful. It seemed like he really wanted to write a check and please me since it was my first time in," Harrison said.
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Associated Press Writers Harry R. Weber in Houston, Jay Reeves in Alabama, Eileen Sullivan and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report. Ray Henry contributed from New Orleans.
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Jun 20, 6:31 AM EDT
BP CEO's Yacht Outing Infuriates Gulf Residents
By RAPHAEL SATTER and HOLBROOK MOHR
Associated Press Writers
EMPIRE, La. -- It could have been a turnaround week in BP's campaign to convince the public that it's doing everything possible to contain the damage from the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
The company pledged to set aside $20 billion to help spill victims, and the containment system at the site of the crippled well was capturing or burning increasing amounts of oil.
Instead, the company faced renewed anger Saturday after reports that chief executive Tony Hayward had jetted back to England to attend an exclusive yachting competition.
Hayward took Saturday off to see his 52-foot yacht "Bob" compete in a race around the Isle of Wight off southern England. It was a good day for sailing - breezy and about 68 degrees - but anger simmered on the steamy Gulf Coast, where crude oil is still gushing from a blown-out well.
"Man, that ain't right. None of us can even go out fishing, and he's at the yacht races," said Bobby Pitre, 33, who runs a tattoo shop in Larose, La. "I wish we could get a day off from the oil, too."
BP spokespeople rushed to defend Hayward, who has drawn biting criticism as the public face of BP PLC's halting efforts to stop the spill.
Company spokesman Robert Wine said the break is the first for Hayward since the Deepwater Horizon rig that BP was leasing exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and setting off the undersea gusher.
"He's spending a few hours with his family at a weekend. I'm sure that everyone would understand that," Wine said.
He noted Hayward is a well known as a fan of the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, one of the world's largest, which attracts more than 1,700 boats and 16,000 sailors as famous yachtsmen compete with wealthy amateurs in a 50-nautical mile course.
"Bob" finished fourth in its group. It was not clear whether Hayward took part in the race or attended as a spectator. The boat, made 10 years ago by the Annapolis, Md.-based boatbuilder Farr Yacht Design, lists for nearly $700,000.
Hayward had already angered many in the U.S. when he was quoted in the Times of London as suggesting that Americans were particularly likely to file bogus claims for compensation from the spill. He later shocked Louisiana residents by telling them that no one wanted to resolve the crisis as badly as he did because "I'd like my life back."
Ronnie Kennier, a 49-year-old oysterman from Empire, La., said Hayward's day among the sailboats showed once again just how out of touch BP executives are with the suffering along the Gulf.
"He wanted to get his life back," Kennier said. "I guess he got it."
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden enjoyed a round of golf Saturday near Washington, something they've done on other weekends since the spill and a fact not lost on users of social networking sites.
Twitter feeds compared Obama and Biden's golfing to Hayward's yachting, lumping them together as diversions of privileged people who should be paying more attention to the spill.
"Our government, the executives at BP, it looks like they decide to worry about it later," said Capt. Dwayne Price, a charter fisherman in Grand Isle, La.
White House officials have struggled to counter criticism of Obama's handling of the disaster. An Associated Press-GfK poll released Tuesday showed 52 percent now disapprove of Obama's handling of the spill, up significantly from last month.
About 50 miles off Louisiana's coast, a newly expanded containment system is capturing or incinerating more than 1 million gallons of oil daily, the first time it has approached its peak capacity, according to the Coast Guard. BP hopes that by late June it will keep nearly 90 percent of the flow from the broken pipe from hitting the ocean.
More than 120 million gallons have leaked already, according to the most pessimistic federal daily flow rate estimates. Oil has been washing up from Louisiana to Florida, killing birds and fish, coating marshes and wetlands and covering pristine beaches with tar balls and oily debris.
A pair of relief wells considered the best chance at a permanent fix won't be completed until August.
BP has put many idled commercial fishermen to work on the cleanup. But not everyone.
Sai Stiffler spent Saturday repairing his shrimp boat at Delta Marina in Empire, La., on a hot and muggy day. He signed up for BP's "vessel of opportunity" program but hasn't been hired, and he was not pleased that Obama was playing golf and BP's CEO was at a yacht race while his life is on hold.
"Right now is no time for that," Stiffler said. "I don't think they know how bad people are hurting. They make a lot of promises but that's it."
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Satter reported from London. Associated Press writers Ramit Plushnick-Masti in New Orleans, Mary Foster in Larose, La., Jay Reeves in Gulf Shores, Ala., and Tamara Lush in Pensacola, Fla., and AP videojournalist Bonny Ghosh in Grand Isle, La., contributed to this report.
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Jun 22, 5:56 PM EDT
Judge lifts offshore drilling ban as `overbearing'
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS -- A federal judge struck down the Obama administration's six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as rash and heavy-handed Tuesday, saying the government simply assumed that because one rig exploded, the others pose an imminent danger, too.
The White House promised an immediate appeal. The Interior Department had imposed the moratorium last month in the wake of the BP disaster, halting approval of any new permits for deepwater projects and suspending drilling on 33 exploratory wells.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama believes that until investigations can determine why the spill happened, continued deepwater drilling exposes workers and the environment to "a danger that the president does not believe we can afford."
Several companies that ferry people and supplies and provide other services to offshore rigs argued that the moratorium was arbitrarily imposed after the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and blew out a well 5,000 feet underwater. It has spewed anywhere from 67 million to 127 million gallons of oil.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and has owned stock in a number of petroleum-related companies, sided with the plaintiffs.
"If some drilling equipment parts are flawed, is it rational to say all are?" he asked. "Are all airplanes a danger because one was? All oil tankers like Exxon Valdez? All trains? All mines? That sort of thinking seems heavy-handed, and rather overbearing."
He also warned that the shutdown would have an "immeasurable effect" on the industry, the local economy and the U.S. energy supply.
The ruling was welcomed by the oil and gas industry and decried by environmentalists.
Feldman's financial disclosure report for 2008, the most recent available, shows holdings in at least eight petroleum companies or funds that invest in them, including Transocean Ltd., which owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that blew up. The report shows that most of his holdings were valued at less than $15,000; it did not provide specific amounts.
It was not clear whether Feldman still has any of the energy industry stocks. Recent court filings indicate he may no longer have Transocean stock. The 2008 report showed that he did not own any individual shares in big companies such as BP, which leased the rig that exploded, or ExxonMobil.
Feldman did not immediately respond to a request for more information about his current holdings.
Josh Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group, said the ruling should be rescinded if the judge still has investments in companies that could benefit. "If Judge Feldman has any investments in oil and gas operators in the Gulf, it represents a flagrant conflict of interest," Reichert said.
Feldman's ruling prohibits federal officials from enforcing the moratorium until a trial is held. At least two major oil companies, Shell and Marathon, said they would wait to see how the appeals play out before resuming drilling.
In his ruling, the judge called the spill "an unprecedented, sad, ugly and inhuman disaster," but said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's rationale for the moratorium "does not seem to be fact-specific and refuses to take into measure the safety records of those others in the Gulf." Feldman said he was "unable to divine or fathom a relationship between the findings and the immense scope of the moratorium."
The judge said the blanket moratorium "seems to assume that because one rig failed and although no one yet fully knows why, all companies and rigs drilling new wells over 500 feet also universally present an imminent danger."
The lawsuit was filed by Hornbeck Offshore Services of Covington, La. CEO Todd Hornbeck said after the ruling that he is looking forward to getting back to work. "It's the right thing for not only the industry but the country," he said.
Earlier in the day, executives at a major oil conference in London warned that the moratorium would cripple world energy supplies. Steven Newman, president and CEO of Transocean, called it unnecessary and an overreaction.
"There are things the administration could implement today that would allow the industry to go back to work tomorrow without an arbitrary six-month time limit," Newman said.
BP CEO Tony Hayward skipped the event after coming under fire for attending a yacht race in England on Saturday rather than dealing with the spill.
BP stock dropped 81 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $29.52, near a 14-year-old low for the company in U.S. trading. The stocks of other companies associated with the spill remained low despite Feldman's ruling.
The drilling moratorium was declared May 6 and originally was to last only through the month. Obama announced May 27 that he was extending it for six months.
Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, slammed the ruling.
"This is another bad decision in a disaster riddled with bad decisions by the oil industry," said Markey, who was at the forefront of the effort to force BP to make underwater video of the spill public. "The only thing worse than one oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico would be two oil spill disasters."
In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal and corporate leaders had complained that the moratorium would cost the region thousands of lucrative jobs, most paying more than $50,000 a year.
Feldman agreed, writing: "An invalid agency decision to suspend drilling of wells in depths over 500 feet simply cannot justify the immeasurable effect on the plaintiffs, the local economy, the Gulf region and the critical present-day aspect of the availability of domestic energy in this country."
He said Gulf drilling accounts for 31 percent of total domestic oil production and 11 percent of domestic natural gas production, and an estimated 150,000 jobs are directly related to offshore operations.
Tim Kerner, mayor of the fishing town of Lafitte, La., cheered the ruling. "I love it. I think it's great for the jobs here and the people who depend on them," he said.
The American Petroleum Institute, one of the industry's main lobbying groups, also welcomed the decision: "With this ruling, our industry and its people can get back to work to provide Americans with the energy they need, and do it safely and without harming the environment."
In its response to the lawsuit, the Interior Department had argued the moratorium was necessary while the effort to stop the leak and clean the Gulf continues and new safety standards are developed. "A second deepwater blowout could overwhelm the efforts to respond to the current disaster," the department said.
The government also challenged contentions that the moratorium would cause long-term economic harm. There are still 3,600 oil and natural gas production platforms in the Gulf.
As Feldman was issuing his ruling, the people in charge of a $20 billion fund to compensate those whose livelihoods have been ruined by the spill were on the coast Tuesday to talk with officials about the claims process.
Kenneth Feinberg, tapped by the White House to run the fund, has pledged to speed payments to fishermen, business owners and others. He was to meet with Alabama Gov. Bob Riley.
BP claims director Darryl Willis visited a claims center in a rundown strip mall in Bayou La Batre, Ala., and said the company has already cut 37,000 checks for $118 million. Claims totaling about $600 million have been filed so far.
"Anyone who feels like they have been damaged or hurt or harmed has every right to file a claim," Willis said. "These are complicated in some cases, and in some cases they're straightforward. But every person should file their claim, and they will be looked at fairly."
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Associated Press Writers Pauline Arrillaga in Lafitte, La., and Jane Wardell and Robert Barr in London, and Mitch Stacy in Bayou La Batre, Ala., contributed to this report.
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LIVE VIDEO OF OIL SPILL
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp=37412412�
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It looks as if the oil spill just might be capped successfully this time and the oil stopped from flowing into the gulf. There is a danger though that if the well is capped successfully, it could ruture from pressure. So much damage has been done already. This will take many years to recover from and the losses in wildlife and the economy are horrifying. Those of you who are interested should read Intangibles new thread about the oil companies and the potential for this to happen again at any time. He has posted from very interesting information and facts. Good research Greg! Also, remember if you want to watch technicians placing the new cap on click on the live feed above.
Sarge
Jul 11, 2:56 PM EDT
BP Claims Progress On New Cap As Oil Spews In Gulf
By TOM BREEN
Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS -- Oil was spewing largely unchecked into the Gulf of Mexico as BP crews claimed progress Sunday in the first stages of replacing a leaky cap with a new containment system they hope will finally catch all the crude from the busted well.
There's no guarantee for such a delicate operation nearly a mile below the water's surface, officials said, and the permanent fix of plugging the well from the bottom remains slated for mid-August.
"It's not just going to be, you put the cap on, it's done. It's not like putting a cap on a tube of toothpaste," Coast Guard spokesman Capt. James McPherson said.
Robotic submarines removed the cap Saturday that had been placed on top of the leak in early June to catch the oil and send it to surface ships for collection or burning. BP aims to have the new, tighter cap in place as early as Monday and said that, as of Sunday morning, the work was going according to plan. BP hopes the capping operation will be done within three to six days.
Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president, said during a Sunday morning news briefing he was pleased with the progress but cautioned that unforeseen bumps could lie ahead.
"We've tried to work out as many of the bugs as we can. The challenge will come with something unexpected," Wells said.
If tests show the new cap can withstand the pressure of the oil and is working, the Gulf region could get its most significant piece of good news since the April 20 explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 workers. Since then, between 88 million and 174 million gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf, according to federal estimates.
It would be only a temporary solution. Hope for permanently plugging the leak lies with two relief wells, the first of which should be finished by mid-August.
And the hurricane season that lasts through November could interfere. There are no storms forecast now, but if one blows through, the ships collecting the oil may have to leave and crude would spew again for days into the water.
The work was being closely monitored at the White House, where President Barack Obama is being briefed multiple times a day, adviser David Axelrod said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.
"We have every reason to believe that this will work," he said.
With the cap removed Saturday at 12:37 p.m. CDT, oil flowed freely into the water, aside from a small share still collected by a pipe running to the Q4000 surface vessel, with a capacity of about 378,000 gallons. That vessel should be joined Sunday by the Helix Producer, which has more than double the Q4000's capacity.
But the lag could be long enough for as much as 5 million gallons to gush into already fouled waters. Officials said 46 large skimmers had collected about 1 million gallons of oily water from the surface above the well site as of Sunday morning.
The process begun Saturday has two major phases: removing equipment currently on top of the leak and installing new gear designed to fully contain the flow of oil.
BP on Sunday said it had successfully removed the top flange that had only partially completed the seal with the old cap, almost a day earlier than a previous estimate.
Now that the top flange is removed, BP is considering whether it needs to bind together two sections of drill pipe that are in the gushing well head. The step following that involves lowering a 12-foot-long piece of equipment called a flange transition spool onto the well head and bolting it down.
After the spool is in place, the new cap - called a capping stack or "Top Hat 10" - can be mounted. The equipment, weighing some 150,000 pounds, is designed to fully seal the leak and provide connections for new vessels on the surface to collect oil. The cap has valves that can restrict the flow of oil and shut it in, if it can withstand the enormous pressure.
That will be one of the key items for officials to monitor, said Paul Bommer, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
"If the new cap does work and they shut the well in, it is possible that part of the well could rupture if the pressure inside builds to an unacceptable value," Bommer wrote in an e-mail Saturday.
Ultimately, BP wants to have four vessels collecting oil within two or three weeks of the new cap's installation. If the new cap doesn't work, BP is ready to place a backup similar to the old one on top of the leak.
The company originally planned to bring the Helix Producer on site and install the new cap at different times, but combined the two following forecasts of calm weather for about seven to 10 days.
The new vessels will all be connected to the gusher through flexible hoses that will allow them to disconnect and sail away much quicker in the event of a hurricane. Prior to the new lineup at the site, officials estimated they would need five days to remove everything in advance of a major storm; the new setup should cut that to two.
The government estimates 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons of oil a day are spewing from the well, and the previous cap collected about 1 million gallons of that. With the new cap and the new containment vessel, the system will be capable of capturing 2.5 million to 3.4 million gallons - essentially all the leaking oil, officials said.
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Associated Press Writers Vicki Smith in New Orleans and Carrie Schumaker in Washington contributed to this report.
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