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So, what do YOU think

post #1 of 36
4/30/10 at 11:25am
Thread Starter 
Was, what happened in the Gulf, which caused the horrendous oil spill, an accident or could it have been terrorism. I'm starting to wonder.

http://bungalowbillscw.blogspot.com/...rican-off.html

Quote:
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Obama Sends Swat Teams to American Off Shore Oil Rigs in the Gulf of Mexico

One day before Earth Day, a Louisiana British Petroleum off shore oil rig mysteriously blew up. This of course was just weeks after Obama announced his plans to increase drilling. Now we are hearing Obama is sending a swat team to all oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Was it terrorism? There could be two possibilities of terrorism.
Barack really loves those S.W.A.T. Teams, doesn't he?
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post #2 of 36
4/30/10 at 11:43am
Ten years ago, I would have said no. But, nothing is beyond the realm of possibility today.

To tell you the truth, I never thought it could be terrorism until now. Makes me want to know more.
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post #3 of 36
4/30/10 at 11:50am
Right now we have so many enemies both foreign and in the US, I would not be surprised or shocked to find out it was sabatage!

BTW you do realize this will cost all of us by summer time with gas prices at the $3-4 mark AGAIN!
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post #4 of 36
4/30/10 at 12:11pm
I just got an email about this from a friend of mine who does accident reconstruction and since I can't post the email, I hunted around on the internet to see if I could find the source. The content shows up word for word on several forums and in several blogs so I picked a blog that doesn't have any objectionable content and which shows the pictures. This information has NOT been verified.

Quote:
The rig represents the cutting edge of drilling technology. It is a floating rig, capable of working in up to 10,000 ft water depth. The rig is not moored; It does not use anchors because it would be too costly and too heavy to suspend this mooring load from the floating structure. Rather, a triply-redundant computer system uses satellite positioning to control powerful thrusters that keep the rig on station within a few feet of its intended location, at all times. This is called Dynamic Positioning.

The rig had apparently just finished cementing steel casing in place at depths exceeding 18,000 ft. The next operation was to suspend the well so that the rig could move to its next drilling location, the idea being that a rig would return to this well later in order to complete the work necessary to bring the well into production. It is thought that somehow formation fluids – oil /gas – got into the well-bore and were undetected until it was too late to take action. With a floating drilling rig setup, because it moves with the waves, currents, and winds, all of the main pressure control equipment sits on the seabed – the uppermost unmoving point in the well. This pressure control equipment – the Blowout Preventers, or ‘BOP’s†as they’re called, are controlled with redundant systems from the rig. In the event of a serious emergency, there are multiple Panic Buttons to hit, and even fail-safe Deadman systems that should be automatically engaged when something of this proportion breaks out. None of them were apparently activated, suggesting that the blow-out was especially swift to escalate at the surface.
http://veronicahhh.tumblr.com/post/558925204

Based on this (and how knows how true it is) it may simply be a failure of new and sophisticated technology. I'm sure the high rolling failure analysis people are already on this one.
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post #5 of 36
4/30/10 at 4:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckblv View Post
Was, what happened in the Gulf, which caused the horrendous oil spill, an accident or could it have been terrorism. I'm starting to wonder.

http://bungalowbillscw.blogspot.com/...rican-off.html



Barack really loves those S.W.A.T. Teams, doesn't he?
Just out of curiosity, what do you think S.W.A.T. means in Minerals Management Service lingo?

http://cbsurveys.ucsc.edu/funding/funding.html
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post #6 of 36
4/30/10 at 5:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2dogmom View Post
Based on this (and how knows how true it is) it may simply be a failure of new and sophisticated technology. I'm sure the high rolling failure analysis people are already on this one.
That sounds about right. Having family that have always worked in the oil field, accidents and death is unfortunately fairly common. All it takes is slight human error or minor equipment failure.
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post #7 of 36
4/30/10 at 6:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skippymjp View Post
Just out of curiosity, what do you think S.W.A.T. means in Minerals Management Service lingo?

http://cbsurveys.ucsc.edu/funding/funding.html
That's what happens when you consider blogs to be News source...
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post #8 of 36
4/30/10 at 6:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carolina View Post
That's what happens when you consider blogs to be News source...
Well, in all fairness, they ARE Swat teams. Just not S.W.A.T. Teams.
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post #9 of 36
4/30/10 at 6:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skippymjp View Post
Well, in all fairness, they ARE Swat teams. Just not S.W.A.T. Teams.
I do understand that.... but this is not the right one, and Obama, of course should not be ridiculed for this like the OP was trying to do.
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post #10 of 36
4/30/10 at 8:37pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skippymjp View Post
Just out of curiosity, what do you think S.W.A.T. means in Minerals Management Service lingo?

http://cbsurveys.ucsc.edu/funding/funding.html
I thought that sounded weird, one would think it would be the FBI at least.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carolina View Post
That's what happens when you consider blogs to be News source...
Maybe that is why I posted it asking for opinions, ya think?
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post #11 of 36
4/30/10 at 8:42pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carolina View Post
I do understand that.... but this is not the right one, and Obama, of course should not be ridiculed for this like the OP was trying to do.
Who said? Who made that rule?

All Presidents get ridiculed Caroline, Barack gets no special pass.
To tell you the truth I was just kidding in the OP, just a little dig regarding the the SWAT teams vs Tea Party grannies debacle in Illinios.

The thread was an honest question.
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post #12 of 36
5/1/10 at 4:31am
Halliburton was responsible for putting down the concrete for the platform (per the link that 2dogmom posted). I understand that there is already a law suite being investigated against them. But since they don't know what caused this, anything you hear right now is entirely speculative. I'll be curious to hear the cause, and if this was due in part to the slack regulation over that industry - we did just have 8 years of an oil administration in power, and I think we all know how industries don't like to be regulated.

I would vote against terrorism on this one, but it sure does make you stop and think about the possibility of a terrorist attack against our offshore drilling platforms in the future.

My bigger question on all of this is this: Now that drill baby drill has turned into spill baby spill, what is the future of offshore drilling? I don't think anyone will disagree that we need to reduce or eliminate our dependency on foreign oil supplies. But how can you continue an industry that is neither safe nor open to terrorist attacks?

America has to be weaned off of oil and it has to be at a far greater pace than what has been discussed thus far.
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post #13 of 36
5/1/10 at 6:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckblv View Post
Who said? Who made that rule?

Yeah! Look at some of the old colonial political cartoons...ridicule is practically tradition.

Terrorism is, in fact, a very valid concern here I think. What do we know of the backgrounds of the men working there, or about the 11 missing ones? As much as oil and our need of it is harped on in the news, it makes perfect sense that terrorists would target it. And the timing, when new shallow water areas were about to be opened for drilling...it makes you go "hmm".
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post #14 of 36
5/1/10 at 6:11am
While terrorism on the platforms is a very real concern, I'm pretty sure this one wasn't. It looks to be an unfortunate confluence of little things that adds up to one big one.

Skimping on blowout control is going to cost BP big time, though.
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post #15 of 36
5/1/10 at 9:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrblanche View Post
Skimping on blowout control is going to cost BP big time, though.
That blowout control part would have cost them $500M. Think of how much it will cost them now.
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post #16 of 36
5/1/10 at 10:07am
I wonder why there are no interviews being conducted of the people who were there. Also, nobody is saying anything about what has caused it. This makes me vote for terrorism or sabatoge. There is so much going on now, I wouldn't be surprised to find out it was either. We have plenty of enemies within our own country as well as those from other countries that would benefit. Probably we will never hear the whole story.
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post #17 of 36
5/1/10 at 7:39pm
Thread Starter 
If I remember correctly (I'll have to check) George Soros is connected to BP.

It is being said that this accident and the resultant gigantic oil spill is Obama's "Katrina."
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post #18 of 36
5/3/10 at 1:30pm
I wish I had time to sit around and make up stuff like this all day.

1) A North Korean submarine torpedoed the oil platform.

2)A Venezuelan ship dropped of a North Korean mini-sub that rammed the oil platform during a suicide mission.

You have to give the hoaxers (is that a word?) credit for having wild imaginations. Somebody needs their medication.

Me? I'll just wait until investigation is over to see what they find.
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post #19 of 36
5/3/10 at 1:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Momofmany View Post
That blowout control part would have cost them $500M. Think of how much it will cost them now.
Apparently other rigs have acoustic BOPS and the BP rig did not.

Quote:
Deepwater drilling rigs have emergency shut off valves called a BOP, or blowout prevention device. But the Deepwater Horizon rig didn’t have an acoustic backup switch to trigger the device in the event of an accident. Acoustic backup controls are used on rigs in at least two other major oil-producing nations. Further, according to a newly published account in the Wall Street Journal, regulators learned six years ago that some of industry’s well-capping equipment may not even function in a deep-water environment.
http://www.panhandleparade.com/index...es/mbb7723050/
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post #20 of 36
5/3/10 at 2:38pm
Thread Starter 
Then why in the heck was BP a finalist in the, "Off-Shore Safety Awards"? (The Obama administration has now cancelled the awards. Wise choice, I would say)


http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/30...vention-award/

Quote:
In Ironic Twist, BP Finalist for Pollution Prevention Award

Call it a tragic irony.

BP, now under federal scrutiny because of its role in the deadly Gulf of Mexico explosion and oil spill, is one of three finalists for a federal award honoring offshore oil companies for "outstanding safety and pollution prevention."

The winner of the award - chosen before the April 20 oil rig incident - was to be announced this coming Monday at a luncheon in Houston. But the U.S. Department of Interior this week postponed the awards ceremony, saying it needs to devote its resources to the ongoing situation resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and fire.
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post #21 of 36
5/3/10 at 3:11pm
I think that anyone that has ever chanted "Drill, baby, drill" should be required to report to the gulf with a bucket and a sponge.
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post #22 of 36
5/3/10 at 3:16pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skippymjp View Post
I think that anyone that has ever chanted "Drill, baby, drill" should be required to report to the gulf with a bucket and a sponge.
I'M NOT GOING!!!

This is going to be interesting to see what really happened.
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post #23 of 36
5/3/10 at 3:23pm
Compliance with safety standards is voluntary.

Quote:
MMS gave the first SAFE Award in January 1983. This award recognizes and commends companies that expend extra effort to conduct operations in a safe and pollution free manner by adhering to all regulations, employing trained and motivated personnel, and going the extra mile to enhance safety and environmental protection. The objectives of the program are to:
  • Elevate awareness of safety & pollution prevention.
  • Encourage voluntary compliance.
  • Provide public with better understanding of professionalism of OCS operators.
  • Encourage excellence in safety & pollution prevention.
  • Demonstrate that safe practices enhance protection of personnel.
http://www.mms.gov/awards/allSAFEwinners.htm

Makes you wonder what the other companies are up to. And I bet that party is going to be over soon.

Quote:
Salazar also said that MMS will continue rigorous oversight of industry operations to ensure compliance with all drilling laws and regulations. (For information about existing MMS regulations, click here.) At Secretary Salazar’s direction, MMS is conducting immediate inspections of all 30 deepwater drilling rigs and 47 deepwater production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. This operation is underway and consists of targeted inspections ensuring that tests of BOP (blowout preventer) stacks have been completed, related records are available for inspection, and that emergency well control exercises are taking place. MMS inspectors should complete inspections of deepwater drilling rigs within seven days, whereupon they will immediately start inspecting all deepwater production platforms.
http://www.doi.gov/news/pressrelease...Gulf-Coast.cfm

BTW The awards have not been canceled, they've been postponed.
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post #24 of 36
5/3/10 at 7:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckblv View Post
I'M NOT GOING!!!

This is going to be interesting to see what really happened.
It's actually starting to look like a simple case of them "biting off more than they could chew".
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post #25 of 36
5/5/10 at 3:30pm
Thread Starter 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=topnews

Quote:
U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Interior Department exempted BP's calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.

The decision by the department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP's lease at Deepwater Horizon a "categorical exclusion" from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 -- and BP's lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions -- show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf.
Much more at link.

They cynic in me is starting to get a real bad feeling about this. Would someone or a group of someone's go so far as to sabotage an oil rig so something like this would happen so that, in turn, off-shore drilling would be forever outlawed? Maybe ELF?
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post #26 of 36
5/5/10 at 4:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckblv View Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=topnews


Much more at link.

They cynic in me is starting to get a real bad feeling about this. Would someone or a group of someone's go so far as to sabotage an oil rig so something like this would happen so that, in turn, off-shore drilling would be forever outlawed? Maybe ELF?
It's entirely possible. I know that Rush Limbaugh desperately wants that to be the case (he never bothered taking the 4 minutes researching MMS Swat teams apparently) They have done some really whacky stunts in the past. I'm not really sure if any of them were ever fatal though.
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post #27 of 36
5/5/10 at 6:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Momofmany View Post
Halliburton was responsible for putting down the concrete for the platform (per the link that 2dogmom posted). I understand that there is already a law suite being investigated against them. But since they don't know what caused this, anything you hear right now is entirely speculative. I'll be curious to hear the cause, and if this was due in part to the slack regulation over that industry - we did just have 8 years of an oil administration in power, and I think we all know how industries don't like to be regulated.

I would vote against terrorism on this one, but it sure does make you stop and think about the possibility of a terrorist attack against our offshore drilling platforms in the future.

My bigger question on all of this is this: Now that drill baby drill has turned into spill baby spill, what is the future of offshore drilling? I don't think anyone will disagree that we need to reduce or eliminate our dependency on foreign oil supplies. But how can you continue an industry that is neither safe nor open to terrorist attacks?

America has to be weaned off of oil and it has to be at a far greater pace than what has been discussed thus far.
Why does America have to weaned off oil?
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post #28 of 36
5/7/10 at 1:59pm
I wouldnt mind being weaned off oil.....If someone doesnt want to be weaned off it feel free to pay for my oil tanks to get filled in the winter...Id be more than happy to get rid of that bill.
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post #29 of 36
5/8/10 at 6:03am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by 3CatsN1Dog View Post
I wouldnt mind being weaned off oil.....If someone doesnt want to be weaned off it feel free to pay for my oil tanks to get filled in the winter...Id be more than happy to get rid of that bill.
When Cap & Trade passes the Senate and utilities "skyrocket" (Obama's words) you will be yearning for the good, old days when you paid to get your oil tanks filled in the winter.
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post #30 of 36
5/8/10 at 7:19am
No matter what bill is passed....Id be much happier without having oil for heat period. Id also be happier having a car that ran off something other than gas because of how expensive it is. If I wasnt so phobic about the house catching on fire in the middle of the night Id keep my wood stove burning. I dont think it really matter who the president is whether Obama or Joe Schmoe from Podunk, Whereever.....They are going to do something that doesnt please everyone and unless someone magically makes it only $100 bucks to fill an oil tank rather than $280+ to just get 100 gallons not everyone in the entire world is going to be pleased with the cost of oil, gas, or fuel in general! I just so happen to be one of those people who unless the cost drastically lowers, which will never happen, Im not going to be happy with it!
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