Oil Flow in the Gulf of Mexico Halted

[Elm11]

Huzzah! after almost three months, the flow of oil into the gulf of mexico from the destroyed oil well has finally been halted by a large capplaced over the leak. While obviously this is great news, there are concerns that the buildup of pressure this will cause may open another rupture along the seafloor. None the less, it's good to hear that the flow has finally been stopped. Now there's just the colossal cleanup to do...

[Cobalt]

Temporary solutions, ftw.

At least we have time to clean up and think of something more permanent.

[Teutonic Knight]

Then they better act fast. I say build a controllable valve somewhere close by, or something like that, while they can get close enough to the leak to fix it.

[Lycan 01]

Meh, I'm happy they finally got it capped, but I get the feeling in about 3 days they'll be like "Oops, more oil..." for some reason. Hurricane, pressure issues, mechanical failure, or another psycho robot trying to sabotage the mission in order to spur its construct brethren into rebellion... :smallsigh:

[KenderWizard]

Finally, some good news on that! I was starting to think they were never going to manage halting the flow.

[Haruki-kun]

You got any link to the source? I'd like to read up a bit more.

[Mando Knight]

or another psycho robot trying to sabotage the mission in order to spur its construct brethren into rebellion... :smallsigh:

That's a rather stupid robot. We don't have a viable total replacement for fossil fuels yet. Why sabotage your own fuel source in order to stop a revolution against beings that can survive off of almost anything the Earth has to offer?

[Lycan 01]

Dunno. Ask the robot that knocked the cap loose a couple of weeks ago. :smalltongue:

[tomandtish]

You got any link to the source? I'd like to read up a bit more.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/15/gulf.oil.disaster/index.html?hpt=T1 (http://http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/15/gulf.oil.disaster/index.html?hpt=T1)

[CoffeeIncluded]

Thank. God.

[Closak]

About damn time they did something about that.

Now to repair the damage caused...wait, what do you mean throwing money at them won't bring back all the animals that got killed by it?
HA, so much for money being able to solve anything!

See, there are problems you can't solve by throwing money at it, like the fact that countless animals winded up dead because of this mess.

Yes, i'm bitter :smallannoyed:

[Eldan]

With enough money, we could clone all the killed animals. Perhaps even shake up the DNA a bit for diversity.

[Closak]

{scrubbed}

[Emperor Ing]

I think it's safe to assume that the BP execs have done more to solve this oil crisis than you, so I question your credibility in what to do with the execs themselves.

[Closak]

However, they were also the ones who caused the problem in the first place.

The fact that they fixed it doesn't make it any better, just look at how much damage their idiocy has caused!

I say they should meet the same fate as the animals that died because of their mistake.

[Emperor Ing]

Their company is facing bankrupty

Their PR can be best described as "abysmal"

BP's stock has completely plummeted

The whole company is an enormous corporate pariah

The US government, and possibly others, are clamping down on their company

Nobody will ever hire the executives again once they're out of the job

I'm not a corporate executive, but I am a thinker, and I think that the execs have more than payed for it already.

[Allan Surgite]

BP's stock value did rise this morning in early trading, I believe. Not by a great deal, but a rise is a rise.

On the oil flow: the cap is a temporary solution; they're running tests every few hours and if things start going wrong, they've got ships in position to capture any leaking oil (or something).

They're digging two "emergency relief wells" which should be done by next month; those are apparently a more permanent solution. Ho-hum.

-edit-
@Closak; ah, but money is a grand incentive. Slip a £1000 into someone's pocket, they'll work quicker and faster; the technology, to my information, does currently exist, but is economically unfeasible (if there is an expert in such matters, feel free to correct me) at the present time. Of course, a problem emerges in who's going to be paying the bill; I highly doubt BP will be in a position to pay for it and if they do, the company will be sufficiently poor that they will be the corporate equivalent of Foul Ol' Ron a pauper.

[CoffeeIncluded]

However, they were also the ones who caused the problem in the first place.

The fact that they fixed it doesn't make it any better, just look at how much damage their idiocy has caused!

I say they should meet the same fate as the animals that died because of their mistake.

The vengeful part of me would like for them to choke on oiled shrimp too, but that's not going to happen, and more importantly, they're still people.

Furthermore, BP is all but screwed as a corporation. Even with this good news it really isn't that likely that they'll be able to survive. Odds are that in a few months they'll declare bankruptcy or merge or something. And do you honestly think that the CEO will be able to keep his job by the end of the year?

[KuReshtin]

However, they were also the ones who caused the problem in the first place.

Did the execs of BP actually cause the explosion? how do you come to that comclusion? The explosion was apparently caused by a faulty Blow-out fail-safe valve that caused the oil rig to explode and subequently sink, thereby damaging the pipes and opening the rift that started spilling out the oil.
Are you then suggesting that the execs of BP had something to do with the fail-safe not working?



The fact that they fixed it doesn't make it any better, just look at how much damage their idiocy has caused!

As has been said, they've done quite a bit to try to quell the oil spill and prevent more oil from spewing from the pipes.
Yes, there has been a massive amount of damage done to the environment because of this ACCIDENT, but the ACCIDENT didn't have anything to do with the execs' 'idiocy'.



I say they should meet the same fate as the animals that died because of their mistake.

That is your opinion, and you are entitled to it.
Personally, I think it's a gross overreaction.

Did you call for the death of the captain of Exxon Valdez as well?
Or was that oil spill caused by the Exxon execs?


I'm not trying to incite a flame war here, I just think that stepping away from emotions is the better thing to do in a tragedy as this.


It's a good thing that they've managed to cap the well and stopped the oil flow, though. I hope they get it sorted soon.

[Jack Squat]

On the oil flow: the cap is a temporary solution; they're running tests every few hours and if things start going wrong, they've got ships in position to capture any leaking oil (or something).

They're digging two "emergency relief wells" which should be done by next month; those are apparently a more permanent solution. Ho-hum

The relief wells are the only real fix to a flow like this. I'm not an expert, but I'm surprised that they were able to cap the well without them. Hopefully they did the math and it'll hold until they can get rid of a lot of the pressure put through those relief wells.

I honestly wish that this incident wouldn't have gotten near as much publicity as it did. BP was forced to throw money into putting on a charade of "fixes" that they knew wouldn't work to show the public that they were working on the problem, when they've been drilling these relief wells from day one.

[Yora]

Nobody will ever hire the executives again once they're out of the job
I wouldn't say that. It's said you are only getting considered for the real good exec jobs after you've been to prison for a few years. :smallbiggrin:

[Sucrose]

Did the execs of BP actually cause the explosion? how do you come to that comclusion? The explosion was apparently caused by a faulty Blow-out fail-safe valve that caused the oil rig to explode and subequently sink, thereby damaging the pipes and opening the rift that started spilling out the oil.
Are you then suggesting that the execs of BP had something to do with the fail-safe not working?



As has been said, they've done quite a bit to try to quell the oil spill and prevent more oil from spewing from the pipes.
Yes, there has been a massive amount of damage done to the environment because of this ACCIDENT, but the ACCIDENT didn't have anything to do with the execs' 'idiocy'.



That is your opinion, and you are entitled to it.
Personally, I think it's a gross overreaction.

Did you call for the death of the captain of Exxon Valdez as well?
Or was that oil spill caused by the Exxon execs?


I'm not trying to incite a flame war here, I just think that stepping away from emotions is the better thing to do in a tragedy as this.


It's a good thing that they've managed to cap the well and stopped the oil flow, though. I hope they get it sorted soon.

According to Time, at least, this 'accident' involved a corporate environment where the approach to safety and maintenance was, at best, slipshod, in comparison to other oil companies. The failure of the equipment supports this. In that sense, the executives can, to some degree, most certainly be blamed for this 'accident.'

In more support for this, my boss, a chemical engineering professor, is apparently aware of a pipe that they had up in Alaska that failed and leaked a large quantity of oil because of failure to perform basic maintenance, as well as another BP rig that blew up a few years ago, again because of basic maintenance failure.

They cannot be blamed for everything, no, but to state that they have no culpability for this spill, by emphasizing that it was an 'accident,' is incorrect as well.

[Closak]

Funny how most of these "Accidents" are caused by the people in charge taking shortcuts on the safety measures to save money.

"Why would we need safety measures? There's no way anything could go wrong"
Cue accident that could have been prevented if the safety measures hadn't been so cheap and shoddy.

Really, you think they learn after a while, but nope.


This sort of thing happens way to often.

[BisectedBrioche]

Funny how most of these "Accidents" are caused by the people in charge taking shortcuts on the safety measures to save money.

"Why would we need safety measures? There's no way anything could go wrong"
Cue accident that could have been prevented if the safety measures hadn't been so cheap and shoddy.

Really, you think they learn after a while, but nope.


This sort of thing happens way to often.

They were well within industry standards.

Quite frankly every comment you've made in this topic has given the impression you don't know what you're talking about (and I mean that quite literally, rather than as an insult).

[Sucrose]

They were well within industry standards.

Quite frankly every comment you've made in this topic has given the impression you don't know what you're talking about (and I mean that quite literally, rather than as an insult).

However, industry standards were set by people who were severely compromised (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/washington/11royalty.html)by the oil companies.

[KuReshtin]

However, industry standards were set by people who were severely compromised (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/washington/11royalty.html)by the oil companies.

Even so, if you were head of a company, trying to make money, would you not try to save money where you could?

If there were no laws stating that a car needed to be checked by an authorised testing centre each year to make sure that exhaust emissions were below the legal limits and to make sure that the car was safe to drive, do you believe that everyone would still take them in for a test each year 'just because'?

If you were to buy a spare part for your car and you had a choice between one that cost $50 and one that cost $150, and both looked the same, and did the same job, which would you buy?

It's all about savings. if the industry standards, however flawed they may be, tells you that you can get away with a minimum requirement, then that minimum requirement would in most cases make the most financial sense.

In this case, the failed part didn't do the job it was designed for. Not something the execs at BP can be blamed for.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff of Moddingham: This seems both too political and too hostile a discussion for the Playground.