Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster...

Figures...... Connie and I finally have enough free time to spend at the beaches and now we have an oil well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico pouring untold millions of gallons of crude oil into the water, destined to wind up on probably every square inch of beach. :headbang:

Not to mention that fresh local seafood is going to likely get pretty darn scarce for a while. I just flat out REFUSE to knowingly eat seafood (or any food for that matter) imported from China.

Florida is already reeling from the economy in real estate, so this is definitely going to impact tourism and the fishing industry (both commercial and sport). Fortunately the "snow bird" season is already drawing to a close, so that will mitigate the effects somewhat.

Still, I think one colossal mess is in store for the coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico. And if the spill goes through the Florida Keys and around into the Atlantic, probably MUCH more widespread than that.

The scary thing is that they really don't have a handle on how to shut down the leak that is a mile under water. And there is talk of a complete blowout that could raise the amount of oil pouring out by 10 fold.

Not good.....

I saw a report today that said that if the collection and containment goes perfectly they hoped to contain 20% of the oil. That is if all the conditions work out just right.

Here's a report I found interesting...

WOW

That is so bad,the people who are liable for the spill should have to pay severely.....

stephen said:

That is so bad,the people who are liable for the spill should have to pay severely.....

Click to expand...

I doubt anyone can even imagine the total cost, much less afford to pay it.

I think this is going to be a wake-up call for a lot of people. Yes, humanity CAN make a mistake that it can't stop once it starts, nor can they fix the damage that is caused by it.

yes

I agree and it sickens me.
It pretty much all goes back to money.They were making billions of dollars with that oil rig,but were to cheap to spend the 500,000 that could have prevented that accident. No amount of money will ever fix it now,I just hope that they find a way to get it cleaned up.

Rich Z said:

I think this is going to be a wake-up call for a lot of people. Yes, humanity CAN make a mistake that it can't stop once it starts, nor can they fix the damage that is caused by it.

Click to expand...

Sadly, I do not think it will be a wake up call.

As long as money is the motivating factor, I think these things will continue to happen. They happen to a smaller degree in many businesses every day. Greed is powerful.

Everything I've read says oil drilling is safe.....:sidestep:

The video Joe posted was very political. I don't think I ready to assume that was the cause and it is all the Bush Administrations fault. There's more to come.

What's the over/under on how high the price of things affected by this will go? And I assume BP is "too big to fail" so we will have to bail them out of any financial difficulty they get into even if it was caused by their own actions.

Is anyone surprised that Haliburton, just 20 HOURS prior to this fiasco, was working on that well head?

Is anyone surprised that this is NOT the first, or second or third, or even 12th time, literally they've had this happen MORE than a dozen times, that this exact problem has occurred?

Who IS Haliburton again?

stephen said:

I agree and it sickens me.
It pretty much all goes back to money.They were making billions of dollars with that oil rig,but were to cheap to spend the 500,000 that could have prevented that accident. No amount of money will ever fix it now,I just hope that they find a way to get it cleaned up.

Click to expand...

I agree with you... however, there's a quote from the movie, Armageddon... "You know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder."

It is, sadly, just one fact in life that isn't gonna change and, thus far hasn't proven to be the cause of the accident as tragic and horrible as it is.

My understanding, is that the drill hit a pocket of methane, at that point, there was really not much that could be done to stop the blowout.

Now about the current leak, yeah that should have been stopped by now, but to be honest, the impact is being blown out of proportion.

Mike, elaborate on that statement will you? How is it being blown out of proportion and what is your source of information?

wade said:

Mike, elaborate on that statement will you? How is it being blown out of proportion and what is your source of information?

Click to expand...

The oil slick is a very thin layer on top of the water, most of, if not all of the crude is being burned off and thus not an issue (unlike the Exxon Valdez). Just one of the things you hear when you live on the coast and know people in the industry.

I am not really sure that anyone can really know how big of a deal this is yet. And I think that how big of a deal it is also depends on what you do and where you are and what your particular focus is. I do not know which industry the people you know are in, but by coast I presume you mean Texas. I can say that I also live near the coast (FL) and have friends in the 'industry' (by which I mean Fishing and tourism) and I can tell you they are say this is a huge deal.

Originally I am from the Keys and a lot of the fishermen I know are down right panicked! They are convinced that even if no further spreading happens the damage is done and they do not think the fishing will be ok for a long time to come. Things where bad enough already many people I have talked to with business in the Keys do not think their business will be able to survive the blow they are expecting. One guy I know who has been fishing commercially down there for at least 20 years before I was even born told me that if the oil makes it the gulf stream, they may as well put a closed sign on the Keys.

So what is my point? Just that lots of industry people can say whatever they want and it doesn't make it so. The truth is there is a very serious situation that has the potential to have set backs and could turn into a huge disaster, or we could luck out and be very fortunate and this can be contained and cleaned up quicker than anyone had hoped, but no matter what industry people say right now, the real truth is nobody knows yet how this is going to go, and anyone who claims to know be they Key Largo Fisherman or Unknown Industry Friends in Texas they are all just talking just talking out of their...um...tushes right now. Not a single one of them can tell the future!

I have a hard time dealing with politics. This is going to be a bad one and the fall out should be interesting.

But Rich, I can ship you fresh Maine lobsters right to your door!

stephen said:

I agree and it sickens me.
They were making billions of dollars with that oil rig,but were to cheap to spend the 500,000 that could have prevented that accident.

Click to expand...

Thats not entirely true. I am currently sitting on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. We were within eyesight of the Deepwater Horizon (I haven't been on land since it happened...still in the gulf). We watched it burn down over the 2-3day period. Our rigs work boats were one of the first on scene to help rescue the guys in the water.

That rig wasn't making money- it was a DRILLING rig (costs money to drill...our current rig is running $750,000/per day to drill our well). After we drill a well, a production platform is brought in..it will pull the oil out (if there's any down there).

Most of the time we'll drill a multi-million dollar hole and find NO oil and the investors LOOSE lots of money...sometimes we hit oil and they make alot of money...it's a gamble.

Drilling out here is HIGHLY regulated and safe. The Deepwater Horizon was one of the best around and the guys out there at the time of the accident were their best crew. The news media isn't giving you the whole story.... heck, we don't fully know what happened yet. But whatever happened was out of their control from what it looks like... It was a tradegy and alot of good people lost their lives... It's dangerous drilling out here...but heck, we all need gas for our cars, petroleum to make plastics, etc...

I have a degree in Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences- I love nature- and I work on offshore oil rigs.

I hope they get the oil spill contained with the least enviromental impact possible.

mike17l said:

Now about the current leak, yeah that should have been stopped by now, but to be honest, the impact is being blown out of proportion.

Click to expand...

They sent down ROVs (Remote operated vehicles) right away to close the seafloor stack BUT the valves wouldn't shut. Percipitates have probably frozen the valves.

OUR rig is drilling down to the exact same formation (just 17 miles away) in 6500' of water. There's a TON of gas down there in the different formations we're drilling through. It seems that as they were plugging the well, formation gas made it's way (channeling) through wet cement or through a shoe, and before they could do anything it was too late. Even the living quarters had balls of fire shooting down the hallways...

It's sad... heck, the guys that do the EXACT same job I do were killed (meaning that if I was working over there I would have been killed also). The guys who died were all in the porocess of trying to shut the well in and STOP the potential oil spill, fire, etc. They died trying....

The coast guard was out here trying to BURN the oil BUT there wasn't enough crud oil in the spill to burn so they were actually dumping an accelerant into the gulf that WOULD burn. This lasted ONE day... now they dumping surfactants in.

Hopefully everything gets contained asap!

wilomn said:

Is anyone surprised that Haliburton, just 20 HOURS prior to this fiasco, was working on that well head?

Is anyone surprised that this is NOT the first, or second or third, or even 12th time, literally they've had this happen MORE than a dozen times, that this exact problem has occurred?

Who IS Haliburton again?

Click to expand...

WILOMN- I take that statement personally. I work for Halliburton offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. The tradegy on the Deepwater Horizon was an accident.... The rest of the stuff posted is BULL $HIT... problems happen in every aspect of our jobs out here...we do everything in our power to prevent them... Drilling out here in the gulf to supply everyone gas, petroleum products, etc is dangerous. Those guys lost their lives...