Oil Spill in the Gulf

Feds Say BP's Blown-out Oil Well in the Gulf Is Not Dead Yet, More Drilling Needed

August 14, 2010

AP – BP's broken oil well is not dead yet.

The government's point man on the crisis said Friday that the blown-out well is not securely plugged to his satisfaction and that the drilling of the relief well — long regarded as the only way to ensure that the hole at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico never leaks oil again — must go forward.

"The relief well will be finished," said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen. "We will kill the well."

Work on the relief well was suspended earlier this week because of bad weather. Allen did not say when it would resume, but when the order comes, it could take four days to get the operation up and running again.

From there, it could be only a matter of days before the "bottom kill" is done and the blown-out well that wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast economy and environment is no longer a threat.

Last week, BP plugged up the ruptured oil well from the top with mud and cement, and for a while, it appeared that the relief well that BP has been drilling 2 1/2 miles under the sea all summer long in an effort to seal up the leak from the bottom might not be necessary after all. But Allen dashed those hopes after scientists conducted pressure tests on Thursday.

Scientists had hoped that the cement pumped in from the top had plugged the gap between the well's inner pipe and its outer casing. The pressure tests showed some cement was in that gap, but officials don't know enough about what's there — or how much of it — to trust that there is a permanent seal, said Allen, who has repeatedly insisted on an "overabundance of caution" when it comes to plugging the well.

The well spilled an estimated 206 million gallons of crude into the sea before BP finally put a cap on it July 15. But that was always regarded as a temporary fix until the relief well and the bottom kill could be completed.

Bob Bea, a petroleum engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said that given the results of the pressure tests, proceeding with the relief well makes sense.

"Everything we know at this time says we need to continue the work with the relief wells," he said. "We don't know the details of how they plugged the well from the top. We don't know the volume of material they put in the well bore, and without that we can't tell how close to the bottom of the well they got."

Drilling of the relief well began in early May, and the tunnel is now just 30 to 50 feet from the blown-out well. To intercept the well, the drillers must hit a target about the size of a dinner plate. Once they punch through, heavy drilling mud and cement will be injected into the bedrock.

Allen said scientists from BP and the government are working to ensure the bottom kill does not damage the cap and make the disaster worse. New equipment to ease the pressure inside the well might have to be installed, which would "significantly affect the timeline" for the final fix, Allen said, though he did not specify how much.

Officials from BP and the federal government have been touting the bottom kill as the final fix for weeks, and local officials said they were glad to hear it will go forward.

"If it's a nearly redundant safety measure, that makes sense to us," said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who attended a closed-door meeting with Allen, local leaders and other federal officials.

The possibility, floated earlier this week, that the well might already be plugged didn't sit well with local officials or environmentalists, who said they were leery of optimistic forecasts from BP and the government.

"After all this effort, why would they quit before they're done?" said Richard Charter, a senior policy adviser for Defenders of Wildlife. "If you had a trustworthy company and they said it's done, it's done. But in this case BP has not been a trustworthy company."

Along the Gulf Coast in Houma, La., construction worker Doug Hunt wearily wondered if the crisis would ever end upon hearing that the permanent fix was at least several more days off.

"All we've heard is oil, oil, oil. I guess they'll do the job sooner or later, but it will take a long time for the people here to recover from this," Hunt said.

The crisis began on April 20, after an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers.

Was Matt Simmons Right About the BP Oil Spill?

August 9, 2010

Gus Lubin - Back when BP and the government were talking about a 5,000 bbd leak, Matt Simmons boldly predicted a rate of 120,000 bbd -- and he wasn't far off. His apocalyptic predictions were often right, like the existence of underwater oil plumes, and sometimes wrong, like the imminent bankruptcy of BP.

But the prominent oil investor, who died at his home yesterday, dropped out of the news recently, as BP appeared to get a hold on its leaking well.

So has Simmons revised his apocalyptic warnings?

Probably not -- and they could still come true. His latest theory called BP's now-successful mission to plug the well a diversion from the real leak. Here's what he told Bloomberg on July 21:

"What we don’t know anything about is the open hole which is caused by the drill bit when it tossed the blow-out preventer way out of the hole…and 120,000 minimum of toxic poison has now covered the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. So what they’re talking about is the biggest environmental cover-up ever. And they knew that that well, that riser, would finally deplete. And then they could say it’s over. And unfortunately, we now have killed the Gulf of Mexico."

If he's right, it could take years of depleted fish stock and human injury to know for sure. Or the "cover-up" could be exposed any moment.

For a critical examination of Simmon's claims see here. If he's right, just watch the headlines.

Don't Miss: Matthew Simmons' Excellent Presentation on Peak Oil
BP Gulf Oil Disaster: "Matt Simmons Was Right"
BP Critic Matt Simmons Found Dead
BP Editing Gulf Oil Spill Video Feeds To Hide Many Oil and Gas Leaks From Cracks On Sea Floor

Matt Simmons Dies: 'Peak Oil' Proponent and Energy Investment Banker was 67

August 9, 2010

Washington Post - Matthew Simmons, an energy investment banker who espoused the peak oil theory, became an advocate for alternative energy and served as energy adviser to President George W. Bush, has died at his North Haven island home, officials said Monday. He was 67.

The founder of Houston-based Simmons & Co. International wrote the 2005 book "Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy," raising concerns about Saudi Arabia's oil reserves and laying out his theory that the world was approaching peak oil production.

Two years later, Simmons founded The Ocean Energy Institute, a think tank and venture capital fund in Rockland to promote offshore wind energy research and development.

The institute is a part of the consortium led by the University of Maine, which aims to design and test floating deep-water wind turbine platforms.

"Matt Simmons was an innovative thinker who pushed ideas that have the potential to yield a more environmentally and economically sustainable future for Maine and the world," said Maine Gov. John Baldacci, who attended the opening of the institute's headquarters last month.

Simmons' body was found Sunday night in his hot tub, investigators said. An autopsy by the state medical examiner's office concluded Monday that he died from accidental drowning with heart disease as a contributing factor.

In 1974, Simmons founded Simmons & Co. International, which grew into one of the largest investment banking companies serving the energy industry. He continued to serve as chairman emeritus until last month, when he retired to give his full energy to the Ocean Energy Institute.

"We are deeply saddened by the unexpected loss of a true visionary and friend. As a pivotal figure in the lives of many of our employees, and countless others across the energy industry, Matt will be sorely missed," Simmons & Co. CEO Mike Frazier said in a statement.

Simmons was critical of BP PLC's handling of the Gulf oil spill and predicted the company would file for bankruptcy. In one interview, he said the cleanup costs could top $1 trillion.

As an international energy expert, Simmons correctly predicted in 2007 that oil would surpass $100 a barrel. The following year, it peaked at $147 a barrel.



According to the video clip in the video and article, CIA secret weapon of assassination, a CIA secret weapon used for assassination shoots a small poison dart to cause a heart attack, as explained in Congressional testimony in the short video. There's also a link to a longer video online. Also mentioned in the article is Dick Cheney's secret CIA assassination squad: What's the big deal? - BARRACUDA, Was Matt Simmons Murdered?-CIA Secret Weapons of Assassination Causes Heart Attacks, Before It's News, August 9, 2010





And then we're told of the sudden death of Matthew Simmons, of a "heart attack" while in a "hot tub" at his home in Maine. I find it incredibly convenient for BP and the federal government that their most vocal critic, a man whose credentials and experience were far more trustworthy than the lies and deceptions provided in the "official" story line, should die right now, before Congressional hearings on responsibility for this disaster start. The timing of this death is simply too remarkable to be ignored. - CoyotePrime, BP Gulf Oil Disaster: Matt Simmons Was Right, Before It's News, August 10, 2010

See The Government Authorizes the CIA to Kill U.S. Citizens

Government Study Confirms Spread of Oil Below Gulf Surface

July 23, 2010

Gus Lubin - A NOAA study released today confirms previous reports that oil was spreading below the surface. The heavy liquid is not floating up to the surface as one might expect. This 3D map shows detected levels of oil, along with unrelated seepage from the ocean floor.

Although underwater oil plumes could cause lethal oxygen depletion -- as Matthew Simmons warns -- these levels are NOT severe enough to kill aquatic life:

Dissolved oxygen measurements sometimes show a drop in dissolved oxygen at or below a depth of 1,000 meters, although these drops were not severe enough to indicate impending hypoxic conditions.