Gulf Coast Oil Spill

[captain]

Having worked in the petrochemical industry for 33 years discnjh's definition of primary containment is not exactly correct.
Primary containment is what the material is normally in. In this case the drill pipe, secondary containment is used to contain the material in the event it gets out of primary containment. In this case it was the BOP. He is correct in what the containment plan is composed of.

 

[discnjh]

Having worked in the petrochemical industry for 33 years discnjh's definition of primary containment is not exactly correct.
Primary containment is what the material is normally in. In this case the drill pipe, secondary containment is used to contain the material in the event it gets out of primary containment. In this case it was the BOP. He is correct in what the containment plan is composed of.

I actually also work in petrochem, at a refinery. Which of course means that my understanding of deepwater drilling is........... nonexistent. I'm used to emergency shutdown valves and such on process pipes, and I wouldn't consider those secondary containment. My view of the blowout preventer is that its basically an emergency isolation valve well pipe, but i may be a bit off in my mental conception of how it works. Maybe that's technically secondary containment, i dunno. I'm just used to secondary containment being things like the berm you put around a tank. Again, totally different world than undersea drilling.

 

[sschlesi]

So for completeness do you know the name of the "uh-oh, oil is in the water" plan?

 

[covediver]

Not to switch the subject to oil in the Arctic, but in your response to practicing clean up techniques in the environment in which they occur, you may find research being conducted in Norway to be of interest as it does relate to your concern

Oil Spills - SINTEF

Another reference. Not to belabor the point. Last one, I promise.

canadaeast.com - Scientists to spill crude oil in Arctic waters to test clean-up methods | Bob Weber, The Canadian Press - Breaking News, New Brunswick, Canada

 

[OldNSalty]

So for completeness do you know the name of the "uh-oh, oil is in the water" plan?

Step 1 is to pledge 25 million to each of the effected states so that the governors will not say bad things baout you.

 

[discnjh]

So for completeness do you know the name of the "uh-oh, oil is in the water" plan?

Perhaps coming up with a good name for such a plan would be good first step to actually having a coherent and reasonable plan for that scenario.

In an ideal world, any time we figure out how to do something new, we should be equally thorough in making sure we can undo that things, or at least undo the potential negative consequences. In this case, the technology for getting to deepwater oil has outpaced the technology for dealing with issues when something goes wrong..... by a lot.

Its easy to blame oil companies for this, and certainly they shoulder much of the blame. On the other hand, corporations essentially mold themselves to be what the public demands of them. If an oil company came out and said "we're going to invest X dollars in safer offshore oil, and the result will be that our gasoline will be 20 cents a gallon higher than our competitors"...... how do you think that would go over? As is often the case, we end up getting exactly what we ask for, even if we don't know we're asking for it. We get pissed if politicians don't tell us what we want to hear, so we get politicians who lie. We're angry if a company raises prices, so they cut corners.

 

[northen diver]

Perhaps coming up with a good name for such a plan would be good first step to actually having a coherent and reasonable plan for that scenario.

In an ideal world, any time we figure out how to do something new, we should be equally thorough in making sure we can undo that things, or at least undo the potential negative consequences. In this case, the technology for getting to deepwater oil has outpaced the technology for dealing with issues when something goes wrong..... by a lot.

Its easy to blame oil companies for this, and certainly they shoulder much of the blame. On the other hand, corporations essentially mold themselves to be what the public demands of them. If an oil company came out and said "we're going to invest X dollars in safer offshore oil, and the result will be that our gasoline will be 20 cents a gallon higher than our competitors"...... how do you think that would go over? As is often the case, we end up getting exactly what we ask for, even if we don't know we're asking for it. We get pissed if politicians don't tell us what we want to hear, so we get politicians who lie. We're angry if a company raises prices, so they cut corners.

Record Profits at Oil Companies Draw Criticism : NPR

With the oil companies making record profits and spending billions in buying back thier own stocks to boost their stock prices, I would think big oil would want to reinvest into thier companies. But instead it is all about profits and market shares. After looking at the 60 minutes segment last night, it looks like there were many warning signs that were ignored and overlooked that led up to this disaster.

 

[shoredivr]

This just in...the oil is going somewhere.

Researchers study underwater oil plumes from spill - MarketWatch

 

[deeper thoughts]

[/B]

Record Profits at Oil Companies Draw Criticism : NPR

With the oil companies making record profits and spending billions in buying back thier own stocks to boost their stock prices, I would think big oil would want to reinvest into thier companies. But instead it is all about profits and market shares. After looking at the 60 minutes segment last night, it looks like there were many warning signs that were ignored and overlooked that led up to this disaster.

Just last year this govt gave that rig an award for safety. Wow!!

 

[discnjh]

[/B]

Record Profits at Oil Companies Draw Criticism : NPR

With the oil companies making record profits and spending billions in buying back thier own stocks to boost their stock prices, I would think big oil would want to reinvest into thier companies. But instead it is all about profits and market shares. After looking at the 60 minutes segment last night, it looks like there were many warning signs that were ignored and overlooked that led up to this disaster.

I can't see the link from work, it violates our security filters, apparently. I'm assuming its from a couple years ago, because I don't know of oil companies that have been making record profits in the past year or two.

And look, i COMLETELY agree that that's what oil companies should have been doing, and should be doing. As I stated, exploration and production clearly let the technology of "how to find deeper oil" get way ahead of "how to fix the problems with deeper oil". Too often, corporations of all sorts cut costs to improve short term margins. But unfortunately, stock markets and investors don't usually reward the "we're going to settle for less money now in an effort to be better positioned for the future" mentality. That's another aspect of what I meant when I said we get what we ask for, even if we don't know we're asking for it. "We", in this case, is the overall "we" as in society, not any particular group of people.