WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?

It is a sorry day for BP and the world to see the terrible calamity now occurring. I highly recommend you watch the following video clips as they seem to be the best available in giving us an in depth understanding of what really happened.  Once again it was avoidable if only the greed factor was kept at bay and proper procedures were followed to insure safety for all. As in the Space Shuttle it boils down to a seal that was damaged and a decision to ignore it plus other short cut procedures that set up this operation for failure.

Lindsay williams is worth a listen to, but may be abit of over reaction as to the gas effects. However that will depend on how long this saga lasts. A volcano puts out far worse so we need to keep it in context.

I like the suggestion to use a biological approach to clean up the mess. This may well be the only viable option but I hear nothing about it even though it has been used in prior spills very successfully.

 

Here is a good suggestion for possible clean up. So far I have not heard it discussed but it will be the only viable way.

 

 

 

LISTEN TO ALEX JONES AND LINDSEY WILLIAMS

 

A word from the oil rigger: (edited version)

 

Friends,
If you’ve received this with my name at the bottom, it’s because you’re someone I trust. You may feel free to forward this or use this as you wish…. And for those who know me personally, I cannot stand silent, it’s not in me, and I’m not wired that way. This is long, for that I can’t apologize, it’s complex, and with the impact it’s having, and will continue to have for decades, it deserves some thoroughness. There are some thoughts around real solutions in the final section, but it’s important to understand the background of something to understand to get to real solutions…..

It is difficult to know where to begin, I am in the middle of this, and get very few breathers from it, but it’s best to start at the beginning, at what happened, then proceed to why it happened and on to how people can help, and what they can do that will provide real solutions in the long term. I am inundated daily with e-mails of all stripes and varieties, receive phone calls and text messages that completely fill my inbox on the phone within the first 24 hours of my going back offshore, and I realize that people are being assaulted hourly with media and it’s hard to separate out fact from fiction.

There will be some facts and figures here, they are accurate, and some technical terms, I will try to keep those to a minimum, but they are important, and I ask you not to skip over them.

First as to the what happened. By now, someone would have to have been living in a monastery to not know that the BP Transocean Rig went down some 45+ days ago, killing 11 men, and leaving a damaged drill pipe on the ocean floor of the Gulf of Mexico, this is a 4″ wellbore pipe, open to a depth of 18,000 feet, on top of a reservoir that was estimated to contain enough oil for it to continue to pump for 30 years. The real calculated flow right now, after 5 failed attempts to cap it is 33,250 gallons per hour.

Here’s how it happened:
What I’m providing are three links to a 60 minutes interview a Part 1, a Part 2, and a Part 3 for those of you who haven’t seen it, with an ET (Electronic Technician) on the Deepwater Horizon, and is the most accurate of the “what happened”. This interview is the best I’ve seen yet creating clarity and discernment around what occurred. Hopefully some of it will be a little clearer

What the interview tells, and I’ll boil it down is that:
(a) the BOP (Blowout Preventer) was damaged, damaged beyond the ability to control a blowout, and that damage, and the extent of it was known to the men who worked on the rig, and their bosses 4 weeks beforehand. The accumulator (basically a gasket, like a faucet spigot gasket,) had been pummelled into pieces and was coming back up in pieces, in the mud, due a drill operator’s pushing a drillhead straight through it. The decision was made by the bosses to continue to run it the way it was, since “they’d had gas pocket well control problems before, and nothing happened then”. The men who worked on the rig continued to run it, since their boss told them to, and they wouldn’t push back on that decision.
(b) One of the control pods, (there are two) on the BOP was not damaged, it was downright non-functional and broken, and again, this was known, but the decision was made to continue to run it “since the job was behind, and BP was losing money”.
(c) The night of the disaster, Halliburton’s Well Completion crew had only put two cement plugs in place. Before taking off a well, three have to be in place, to put redundant plugs in place, but again, “the job was behind, and BP had lost $25 million on well.”
(d) The entire original problem was caused by pushing the drill too fast and fracturing the well pocket, allowing too many pockets for gas to come up from. The Transocean and BP “company men” (translates to “managers”) made the decision to push the machinery beyond it’s limits since they’d lost the first well and “were losing money and time, and it was behind schedule”. The morning before the disaster, in the morning community meeting, the BP representative and the Transocean rep, and the tool pusher (the person in charge of drilling) had a very loud, aggressive argument about the best way to proceed that day. The BP rep won, with the Transocean rep and tool pusher “reluctantly agreeing”.
(1) The high pressure hydraulic pressure unit that operates the BOP was damaged, and full functional control of it was lost, there were cut lines and leaks somewhere in the unit, not allowing it to reach pressure necessary to put enough force behind the rams to cut the pipes.
(2) A full two hours before the blowout, the charts that are run at the remote operations center in Houston showed that the well was out of control, enough time to shut down drilling, shut down electrical equipment preventing the explosion and save every life. The decision was made to push on.
(3) A full 15 minutes before the explosion, the tool push and Transocean rep left the rig floor and headed down to the mud room. The men who worked in the mud shack were screaming, the pits were overflowing out of control with mud, indicating that more mud was coming back up the pipe being pushed by gas, than was being put in it.

In other words, in my own opinion, those 11 men were murdered, and the entire spill was caused by stupidity, greed and not caring at all about consequences by just 3 men, and an entire crew of 100+ going along with that decision.

I don’t often talk about the specifics of what I do out there, and I think many of you assume that I’m an xxxxxxxxxxx on a rig. Not so.
What I started out to do, and what I was hired to do, was to design, devise and deploy standardized Preventive Maintenance and Predictive Maintenance programs for large rotating equipment; turbines, generators, compressors, pumps, cranes; my specialty for 20 years with XXXX XXXXX XXXXXXX. That evolved rapidly.
Over the last 3 years, as XXXXX XXX XXX (not BP, I contract with another company) got more deeply involved in what they considered a “maintenance program”, it what evolved into a program that looks at, and redesigns every procedure and process on an oil platform and drilling operation, to absolutely, 100% guarantee that nothing can happen from a Safety, Health, Environmental or Operational standpoint. I won’t go into the details of it, but it does involve an entire culture change, and very different retraining into a different mindset, but it can be done. Everyone, and I mean everyone who works out there, that I’m associated with, is acutely and deeply aware of the consequences of every movement, every action, 24 hours a day. It is, in best description, absolutely a life and a job that very few people are aware of the real facts. You are completely dependent on the people around you, everyone one of them, making absolutely the right move, every time, every day, every minute, 24 hours a day and vice versa for their relationship with you. There are no insignificant people, or actions, on a platform. Every little thing counts. All of us, even the galley and catering staff, can operate a survival capsule, fight a fire, operate emergency equipment. Every last one of us is aware of the impact and implications of what we do.

Now let’s talk about the why of it’s happening, which is very, very different than the how. The why is simple, and it’s a point that many, many people are missing.

So, for the enlightenment and benefit of everyone let’s do some facts & figures (courtesy of Dick Gibson) -
– America has 5% of the world’s population. It consumes 27% of the world’s oil production, and a full, whopping 45% of the world’s gasoline production. That’s more than all the countries of the European Union combined. China and India do not come anywhere near us in consumption or usage.
– America consumes an average of 8,980,000 barrels, that’s 8.9 million, of gasoline (not oil, gasoline, bear with me, it’s a relevant point) daily. That’s ignoring jet fuel, home heating oil, diesel fuel, asphalt, plastics and everything else that uses crude oil as it’s base material.
– With a population of 306,000,000, this works out 1.22 gallons per day for every person, every single, last, living person, young, old, car owner, non-car owner, drivers license or not.
– That’s 446 gallons of gasoline, per year, per person. Again, every last, single, living human being in the United States.
– In terms of crude oil, the base for gasoline, and all the other substances listed above, America consumes 20, 680,000 barrels per day. That’s 20 million barrels per day, every day, day in and day out.
– There are 42 gallons of crude oil in one barrel of oil. That breaks down to 19 1/2 gallons of gasoline, 9 gallons of fuel oil, 4 gallons of jet fuel, and 11 gallons of other products including hydraulic and lube oil, kerosene, asphalts and the feedstocks for plastics (all plastic uses crude oil feedstock grains as it’s base; anything you own or use that is plastic came from crude oil). Now the mathematically astute amongst you will notice that the total comes out to more than 42 gallons, in fact it equates to about 44 gallons. This is called processing gain, and it happens in refining processes when the hydrogen and carbon bonds are broken in molecules and there is a corresponding increase in volume.
– What this other little tidbit tells us is that every living person, every soul in America, if we do the math, is responsible, personally, for around 200 barrels a year in the “other products”, especially plastics; cell phones, laptops, drinking water bottles, Tupperware, baggies, Ziploc bags, and other plastic containers.

What it comes down to when you do the math is that everyone, due to using averages, everyone, no matter who you are, is presently, at current usage rates responsible for about 600 barrels a year of crude oil in personal consumption.

Now, truly I do understand that in this society today, very few people really know where things come from, or what the base materials and raw construction are, but the bottom line of why this happened is simple, and it involves the complicit guilt of every single person living here in the United States. It wouldn’t have happened, not all, if the demand for it wasn’t there, and demand is economic, not verbal. Economics, the purchases we all make everyday are the engine that drives it, and the engine that drove this horrific episode. In strictly personal opinion, anyone that cannot look at themselves and see their own part in it is in complete denial.

Now as to what’s happening now. Let me say, I believe, from being there, from seeing it, that BP’s response has been pathetic, horrendously pathetic. Now, let me qualify that, Before I take off on ripping them, and what people can do, let me go to technicals one more time. The technical side of capping the well, plugging the pipe, stopping the leak is tremendously complicated. The unfortunate part of robot cameras and 24 hour a day media coverage makes it seem much closer than it really is. I suppose I ought to relate it to something that I think everyone can relate. At your nearest Taco Bell, while you’ve been standing at the counter, there’s the little water filled thingy that you put quarters or dimes in to make a contribution, and try to guide it onto the little paddles. It’s about 6 inches tall, and is absolutely still, no currents, no oil and gas blowing back. Now, try to do that from a mile and a half away, that’s what 5,000 feet is and guide it blind without seeing it, onto the top of something that is blowing out a stream at the calculated number I gave above, 33,250 gallons per hour. It isn’t easy, it’s like trying to perform open heart surgery, in the dark, blindfolded with a pair of remote arms trying to cap a gushing aorta.
As for any number of other solutions that anyone else has given, or come up with, there are a number of options on the table. Let me tell you that the well is in a basaltic formation, the most brittle rock known, so the thought of “blowing the well” using conventional explosives has been explored, but thrown out, as it stands the possibility of fracturing the entire dome. There is only one known explosive reaction on Earth that can generate enough heat to fuse the basalt into glass and seal it off, I’ll let your intelligence take over from there, so far that option isn’t on the table.

Now as far as what’s happening and the truly pathetic part of BP’s response, let’s take a look at the region. Understand that Plaquemines parish (a parish is a county in Louisiana) was completely wiped out by Katrina, I mean wiped off the map. I know, there’s only road down that boot, US-23, and I drive the entire length of it to the heliport every two weeks, (now every week). It hadn’t fully recovered and was still shaky, and is comprised mostly of bayous, marshes and wetlands, and is home to population, the bulk of which is shrimp and oyster fisherman and commercial fisherman. There isn’t a miraculous solution for it, these people have lost a way of life, forever. The shrimp and oyster beds will not recover, the fisheries in the Gulf will not recover. This isn’t doomsaying, it’s biological fact. The coast of Louisiana contains a full 40% of America’s wetlands, and acts as the biofilter for the Mississippi River, the brackish marshes providing the filter to keep the saltwater from intruding into the freshwater. These marshes are dead. I’m not even counting the other Gulf Coast states right now. Remember that it’s now summer all across the Nation, but come Fall, these wetlands and marshes are home to migrating ducks, cranes, herons and other migratory birds that don’t go all the way to Mexico or Central America. The dispersant that BP used also kills the microbes and bacteria that act as the foundation for the food chain in the Gulf and in the marshes. BP has hired some locals, but not many, in the clean-up effort, and is putting a gag order on them to keep them from talking in order to receive the check. Some of them, fortunately, as they see what’s happening, have walked away and are starting to talk. Please remember that just because someone has a lot of tattoos, likes to drink beer on Friday nights and says “fuck” a lot, they’re not that different than you, and in their case, they’re watching their family’s legacy and future, their own way of life being destroyed. As for the people who are doing the clean-up, BP is providing absolutely no personal protective equipment; no respirators, faceshields, or gloves; things we wouldn’t even think of handling crude oil without, and is providing no HAZMAT training; just paper coveralls. BP has already gone to court and to the U.S. Congress in order to limit their liability, cap it and their CEO has publicly said (matter of public record) “I’d like my life back”, as if this was a bother to him. I’m sure there are 11 families that would like their loved ones life back too, and countless families right now in Louisiana that would like their own lives back, which have now been irrevocably, irreversibly changed. He’s also said “People can get their shrimp and oysters from other places than Louisiana.”

Here are the things you can do, that will make a difference, and also the things that you can’t do, that won’t make any difference, and I’ll say this: there’s two types of people in the world. Talkers and Doers, and we all notice and know who the Doers are, they make a difference. All the rest? Well, all the rest is just coffee house bullshit.

- First and foremost, and most imperative, please, please, please look at your own consumption and use. It’s most likely much higher than you believe it to be. There are no “magic bullets”, no hidden things……. For now, there’s only one workable solution, that’s hybrid vehicles (or motorcycles, much better mileage) but hybrids use electricity; which brings up another dilemma, coal vs. nuclear power. That whole business about the Bakken oil field through the Midwest that is trillions of barrels and can provide oil for another century? Yup, it’s there, we just can’t get to it. It’s trapped in oil shale, and the choice there is either to strip mine the entire Midwest, bake the shale the get the oil out and put the toxic slag somewhere; or come up with the technology to insert heaters 5 miles deep into the Earth, bake the oil out at high enough temperatures to capture it, without methane, dioxane and hydrogren sulfide emissions; capture it somehow, and do it without causing underground fractures. We don’t have that technology yet. Remember that demand, verbal demand is known by another name, “opinion”. The only demand that a multi-national corporation knows, or responds to, is economic or political. I urge you to take a look at the following links and websites, first up is T. Boone Pickens, who made his fortune in oil, and knows the business inside and out, and knows that the term Peak Oil means, I strongly urge you to investigate The Pickens Plan and sign up to do what you can. The other site I highly recommend is one that is a Veteran’s organization, started by Iraq/Afghanistan veterans and laying some plain truths out about what we’re doing in the Mideast, and asking people to stop and think about what they’re doing putting young American servicepeople in harm’s way to satisfy this country’s insatiable energy needs. Called Operation Free: Securing America’s Energy Needs, it’s one that is worth your time to investigate fact and truth with……..

- Demand that BP not be allowed to put a “gag order” on it’s workers in talking to the media. This is a Constitutional First Amendment issue and is criminal, and is stopping the free flow of information about the extent of the damage already to the wetlands, the Gulf and the bayous.

My prayer? It’s that people wake up, look at their own part in it, in their own demands that contributed to it and do the right thing about it, and stop blaming everyone else, and stop waiting for someone else to do something about it.