somewhat silly tea party question: Are tea partiers mad about the oil spill?

[Nitrogen]

I'm curious how the tea party crowd feels about tax dollars going toward the cleaning of BP's oil spill.

Any of ya'll know?  From where I am, it's silent, but I know better to assume what I see is everything.

[taurusowner]

BP should pay for the oil spill.  Their problem, their dollars.

[Jocassee]

BP should pay for the oil spill.  Their problem, their dollars.

Correct

Have they figured out the cause of the explosion yet? As in, unpreventable or preventable?

[sanglant]

i smell sabotage 

[grampster]

My view is America needs energy.  Man Vs Earth results in the occasional worst case scenario.  Well, deal with it.  Don't let "situations" result in moving backwords.  Ingenuity trumps management.  History verfies this.  So, don't look the gift horse in the mouth and move forward.

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

Being in the oil & gas field, rumor has is that the Blowout Preveter (BOP) failed or just flat out did not work. The souls that were lost were on the drill floor when it happened.

BOP -

A large valve at the top of a well that may be closed if the drilling crew loses control of formation fluids. By closing this valve (usually operated remotely via hydraulic actuators), the drilling crew usually regains control of the reservoir, and procedures can then be initiated to increase the mud density until it is possible to open the BOP and retain pressure control of the formation. BOPs come in a variety of styles, sizes and pressure ratings. Some can effectively close over an open wellbore, some are designed to seal around tubular components in the well (drillpipe, casing or tubing) and others are fitted with hardened steel shearing surfaces that can actually cut through drillpipe. Since BOPs are critically important to the safety of the crew, the rig and the wellbore itself, BOPs are inspected, tested and refurbished at regular intervals determined by a combination of risk assessment, local practice, well type and legal requirements. BOP tests vary from daily function testing on critical wells to monthly or less frequent testing on wells thought to have low probability of well control problems

[Jocassee]

i smell sabotage 

Zero to Fail in four posts.

[Balog]

Impressive even for APS really.

[sanglant]

Zero to Fail in four posts.

joke











your head.


zoom

[Balog]

We understand what you meant. It just wasn't funny.

[taurusowner]

I thought it was funny.

[RevDisk]

I'm curious how the tea party crowd feels about tax dollars going toward the cleaning of BP's oil spill.

Any of ya'll know?  From where I am, it's silent, but I know better to assume what I see is everything.

BP's CEO already said the company is going to be paying for the cleanup and all related liability. 

[mellestad]

BP's CEO already said the company is going to be paying for the cleanup and all related liability.  

Yea, I just read that in a CNN article five minutes ago, BP publically said they are taking full financial responsibility, including reimbursing the fed for military help provided.

Now, we'll see if that happens or not, but that is what they said.  Acording to this: http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/30/news/economy/bp_gulf_oil_spill_cost/index.htm?hpt=T1 it is a legal responsibility of the well owner to handle any spills nowadays.

[roo_ster]

BP's CEO already said the company is going to be paying for the cleanup and all related liability. 

Well, there you go.

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

More info on possible cause of the incident;

Meanwhile, oil services contractor Halliburton Inc. disputed allegations that its workers might have caused the April 20 accident that killed 11 people.

A lawsuit filed this week by an injured technician on the platform claims that Halliburton improperly cemented the well. Cementing is a process in which a slurry is used to fill the gap between the drilled hole and the casing, or the pipe that brings oil and gas up out of the ground.


From

http://foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=22995&content=37869757&pageNum=-1

[taurusowner]

I am by all means not a "ZOMG!!!1!! BUSHCO AND HALLIBURTON EVIL!!" kind of guy...but they sure do seem to be involved in a lot of fishy dealings.

[mellestad]

I am by all means not a "ZOMG!!!1!! BUSHCO AND HALLIBURTON EVIL!!" kind of guy...but they sure do seem to be involved in a lot of fishy dealings.

Part of the problem might be that they are such a huge entity, they are bound to be involved in fishy dealings, simply by statistical probability.

They do seem like these guys sometimes though...

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

It's not a ZOMG thing. Halliburton is a biggie in the oilpatch. They can do almost any
aspect of drilling. From exploration, drilling, directional work, fluids, cementing, workover and completion, production, drill bits.. etc. They are a diverse company.  No conspiracy. Name any
other company, in the world, with the rescources and knowledge?  Not many come
to mind. And FWIW, I do not like Halliburton.  And for the record, I am not an employee of Halliburton, never have been, never will be.

[kgbsquirrel]

Couple questions...

First, is there any sort of "catestrophic disaster/oil spill" insurance for these companies, or do they pretty much eat the loss themselves rather than passing it on to someone else?

Second, and this is directed at the couple current/former rig workers I seem to have spied floating around here, this is also the ORM side of my training coming out: Is there any way to alter or improve general drilling practices that would have resulted in less fatalities during a blow out event, or is the drilling evolution by it's nature unable to be altered such?

[CNYCacher]

I've heard Ron Paul say that protecting the environment is one of the few uses of government.

[Chester32141]

Why is sabotage out of the question ?  A couple days after BHO says he going to open the coast to oil drilling we have an explosion and one of the largest natural disasters in US history .... Why is sabotage not a consideration ...

[RevDisk]

Why is sabotage out of the question ?  A couple days after BHO says he going to open the coast to oil drilling we have an explosion and one of the largest natural disasters in US history .... Why is sabotage not a consideration ...

Because incompetence is generally always a more likely answer.

Not saying it isn't possible, and that did go through my head immediately after I heard. 

[Ben]

Couple questions...

First, is there any sort of "catestrophic disaster/oil spill" insurance for these companies, or do they pretty much eat the loss themselves rather than passing it on to someone else?

Second, and this is directed at the couple current/former rig workers I seem to have spied floating around here, this is also the ORM side of my training coming out: Is there any way to alter or improve general drilling practices that would have resulted in less fatalities during a blow out event, or is the drilling evolution by it's nature unable to be altered such?

They have insurance in the Lloyds of London category, but they'll still be very out of pocket. All oil companies are required to give dough to Oil Spill Response Organizations (OSROs), which are non-profit entities that respond to oil spills. And as stated, the oil companies themselves as the responsible party (RP) are completely on the hook for the bill, to include all costs of government response as well.They sit at the top of the Incident Command chain, along with the Federal On Scene Coordinator (FOSC - in this case the Coast Guard) and actually have a pretty big say in response and generally have a say in expenses. The FOSC however, has 51% of the vote and can at any time Federalize the response if they think the RP is not doing a good enough job. Once federalized, the RP is pretty much out of the decision equation but still on the hook dollar-wise for whatever the FOSC calls into play. Plus they'll be on the hook for years to come for damage restoration -- paying fishermen, environmental organizations, State and Fed government, etc.

As to rig safety, it's been 30 years since I worked on one, so I'm not familiar with current technology, especially for deepwater drilling. I actually do work for the fed.gov on the response side now. In fact they just sent the aircraft I usually work in doing other stuff down to Mobile, AL yesterday, and I just got put in a TDY pool, so if I'm really unlucky, I may be heading down there in the next couple of weeks.

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

With every company that I have worked for, safety is the number 1 concern. With that said, safety is up to everyone. Not just fatcat owners, big boss, rig super, tool pusher. Everyone. I'm a consultant. That means I could be working for Halliburton this week and working for BP the next hitch. So I've seen it all. Just one person failing to do his job testing shut in procedures and the BOP. One rig super deciding drilling was important and the BOP was fine on the las well. Cement job was bad and pressure tests did not show it or such tests were skipped. It could have been any number/combination of causes.

Things like this will happen. It's a fact of oil and gas business. IIRC, last spill/accident in the gulf was in the 60s. The industry has a good safety record. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

And here's a thought; everything could have been done correctly, by the book. And mother nature deciced to bite their ass. I've seen it.

As far as sabotage. I thought about it too. But I highly doubt it.

[Tallpine]

Poop happens 

Guys died, too 


It's a tragedy, especially for the fishing industry, but I notice that they all use petroluem powered boats these days