The Leak Is Stopped

[skyrider 0]

This may end iup in SC...I don;t know, BUT great news..
5 mins ago
NEW ORLEANS – BP says oil from its broken well has stopped gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since April.

The announcement Thursday came after company officials said all valves had been shut on a new cap over the busted well in an experiment to stop the spill.

Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said at a news briefing that oil stopped flowing into the water at 2:25 p.m. CDT.

It was a long-awaited milestone in one of the nation's worst environmental disasters. While not a permanent solution to plug the busted well, the success in capturing the oil spewing out was welcome news.

The crisis began when BP's deepwater rig exploded, killing 11 workers.

The cap is not a permanent fix. BP is drilling two relief wells so it can pump mud and cement into the leaking well in hopes of plugging it for good.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — BP says oil has stopped leaking into the Gulf for the first time since April.

BP has been slowly dialing down the flow as part of a test on a new cap. Engineers are now monitoring the pressure to see if the busted well holds.

[airdvr 200]

Wonder how much of that 20 bil. is left?

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[skyrider 0]

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Wonder how much of that 20 bil. is left?

My guess is before it is all finished they will have more than trippled that in paybacks!

[porpoishead 5]

was great news that it was holding, hopefully it holds long enough for them to get down hole and plug it.....that well is pretty beat up

if you want a friend feed any animal
Perry Farrell

[wayneflorida 0]

Good news.Now 20+ years of clean up.

[fendor1369 0]

Hope the new cap will last.

I was a commercial fisherman in the gulf a long time ago I understand the impact of this.

Plus the beaches around the Gulf coast, so sad.

John - D.S 1313

"I'll jump it, Np. It's all good"

[happythoughts 0]

"You're in luck, we've run out of ammunition..."

Kinda of good news of limited value.

[skyrider 0]

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"You're in luck, we've run out of ammunition..."

Kinda of good news of limited value.

????????????????????

you 'd rather it kept leaking?

[npgraphicdesign 3]

Did BP put Mel Gibson's mouth over it?

(Not my joke..heard it on a local radio show today)

[happythoughts 0]

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"You're in luck, we've run out of ammunition..."

Kinda of good news of limited value.

????????????????????

you 'd rather it kept leaking?

Just kinda late. I think they lacked motivation.
It doesn't cost them anything past a certain point.

Should have thrown one of their executives out a window every 3 days. When it gets close to your turn, you're motivated.

They've poisoned the whole gulf. It isn't going to just rebound.

"Looks like you're going to die. Good news, the bleeding stopped."


They're about 3 months too late.

[tkhayes 227]

it's a fucking mess. Stopped or not, the damage will not actually be realized in our lifetimes.

yes, good they stopped it - I am, for one, am not going to offer them thanks for doing that. Fuck them all

And fuck our govt if they are not regulating this shit from here on in. I for one will actually be willing to pay $5/gal for 'clean' gas exploration.

[billvon 2,672]

That's very good news. Let's hope that it holds, and that we learn from this incident so that we can avoid disasters like this in the future.

[jgoose71 0]

I've had tar ball roll up on my favorite beach, but hopefully they will start rolling up a little less here in the near future. The AK coast line never fully recovered, but hopefully they will continue to get as much oil as possible before it hits the coast line.

"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
Life, the Universe, and Everything

[Blink 0]

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Should have thrown one of their executives out a window every 3 days. When it gets close to your turn, you're motivated.

Thank you for the mature, informative post.

Do you honestly think they weren't motivated? They had continual efforts put forth to improve the matter, they might not have worked, but they tried.

People are so ignorant and arrogant it's amazing...

[skyrider 0]

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That's very good news. Let's hope that it holds, and that we learn from this incident so that we can avoid disasters like this in the future.

Bingo....

[1969912 0]

They are playing a dangerous game by closing valves and letting that well pressurize. Now that they have the equipment in place to capture all of the flow (could have been done months ago), they should be finishing the relief wells while flowing the oil to surface ships.

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG

[skyrider 0]

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They are playing a dangerous game by closing valves and letting that well pressurize. Now that they have the equipment in place to capture all of the flow (could have been done months ago), they should be finishing the relief wells while flowing the oil to surface ships.

We can only arm chair quarterback...

And hope they have a grip...so far...I am not convinced!

[1969912 0]

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They are playing a dangerous game by closing valves and letting that well pressurize. Now that they have the equipment in place to capture all of the flow (could have been done months ago), they should be finishing the relief wells while flowing the oil to surface ships.

We can only arm chair quarterback...

And hope they have a grip...so far...I am not convinced!

Read this thread (or at least the last five or so pages): http://www.flickr.com/photos/uscgd8/4551846015/page54/.

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG

[1969912 0]

Good graphics of what they are doing near the bottom of the page here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10674719

No mention of the gas bubbles leaking out at the base of the well.

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG

[happythoughts 0]

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Should have thrown one of their executives out a window every 3 days. When it gets close to your turn, you're motivated.

Thank you for the mature, informative post.

Do you honestly think they weren't motivated? They had continual efforts put forth to improve the matter, they might not have worked, but they tried.

People are so ignorant and arrogant it's amazing...

Really ? Let's talk about 2 choices.
1- Sealing the well, but in the process it will never produce oil in the future and they will lose their investment.
2- A flow of thousands of barrels a day (instead of saying millions of gallons per day) until they can get a solution in place that will allow them to use the well.

Do you really believe that there was no option-1 out there?

Ignorance is about lack of information.
Do You have special information that others lack ?
Tell us. Did you get it all from the standard media also?

Same information, different conclusions.

If it costs them an extra $1 billion, but they can get $3 billion out of the well later, which option are they going to choose (even if it means leaving the well free-flowing for 3 months).

Read about the 73 Ford Pinto sometime. It costs $11 per car to move the gas tank up off the differential.
Their choice? It was cheaper to let a few people (180) burn. Amount of expected lawsuits $ < cost of fixing cars.

Learned that one in business law in college.
Pinto brief

That's how corporate decisions are made. Knowing that, I feel less ignorant.

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ISSUE

Should a risk/benefit analysis be used in situations where a defect in design or manufacturing could lead to death or seriously bodily harm, such as in the Ford Pinto situation?

RULE

There are arguments both for and against such an analysis. It is an economically efficient method which has been accepted by courts for numerous years, however, juries may not always agree, so companies should take this into account.

[1969912 0]

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Good graphics of what they are doing near the bottom of the page here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10674719

No mention of the gas bubbles leaking out at the base of the well.

Fucking Idiots:

"An administration official familiar with the spill oversight, however, told The Associated Press that a seep and possible methane were found near the busted oil well. The official spoke on condition of anonymity Sunday because an announcement about the next steps had not been made yet.

The concern all along -- since pressure readings on the cap weren't as high as expected -- was a leak elsewhere in the wellbore, meaning the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/07/17/gulf-waits-oil-plugged-long/

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG

[skyrider 0]

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Good graphics of what they are doing near the bottom of the page here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10674719

No mention of the gas bubbles leaking out at the base of the well.

Fucking Idiots:

"An administration official familiar with the spill oversight, however, told The Associated Press that a seep and possible methane were found near the busted oil well. The official spoke on condition of anonymity Sunday because an announcement about the next steps had not been made yet.

The concern all along -- since pressure readings on the cap weren't as high as expected -- was a leak elsewhere in the wellbore, meaning the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/07/17/gulf-waits-oil-plugged-long/

Yep...that was even on AOL news earlier!

We aren;t out of the woods yet!

[billvon 2,672]

>Do you honestly think they weren't motivated?

It all comes down to a question of profit. If the cost of this accident to them is minimized, they will tend to take similar risks in the future, since the return on such risks is large. If the cost to them is tremendous, such that another such accident could bankrupt their company, they will make every effort to make sure it does not happen again.

>They had continual efforts put forth to improve the matter, they might
>not have worked, but they tried.

Actually, the evidence so far shows that they did little to 'improve the matter' even while they were having problems with the well. Indeed, BP apparently overruled people on-site who warned them that a spill might result from cost-cutting actions BP was taking. It was not until the rig was destroyed and 11 people were killed that they started taking actions to mitigate the problems - at which point it was far too late to prevent a spill.

As in most human endeavors, it is far, far easier to prevent a disaster before it happens than to deal with the disaster later.

[skyrider 0]

Everyone that I have spoke to "In The Business" said BP cut corners all the time!

[adrenalinejunki 0]

I have 3 relatives working on the rigs in the gulf. 1 on the rig that built the new cap, another on the rig drilling the relief well, and the 3rd doing cleanup. I haven't spoke to any of them in a couple weeks but the cap and relief well were not expected to be completed until sometime in August. This was what he told me 3 weeks ago. Having spent 4 years working in the oilfields myself I can tell you plugging that well permanently at those depths with that much pressure wont be easy. The oil is going to follow the path of least resistance, so 10 relief Wells would not slow it down without that cap to raise the pressure. Also the old well has taken a huge beating and they have to close the valves to see if the oil is coming out anywhere else. Better to find it now then find it months from now and discover the leak was just moved to a new location. With all the oil out there already it would be hard to spot if you didn't know it existed.

What's the worst that can happen?