"Top kill" halts flow of oil and gas, admiral says

[Ellipsis]

Source: Chicago Tribune

Reporting from Houma, La.
Engineers have succeeded in stopping the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government's top oil spill commander, Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning.

The so-called "top kill" effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers in Houston, has pumped enough drilling fluid to block all oil and gas from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well is very low, but persistent, he said.

Once engineers have reduced the well pressure to zero, they will begin to pump cement into the hole to entomb the well. To help that effort, he said, engineers are also pumping some debris into the blowout preventer at the top of the well.


Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-oil-spill-stopped-top-kill-link,0,1045555.story?track=rss

---

FYI Wikipedia Link on the Admiral


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thad_Allen

[boston bean]

1. Yahoo!!!!!

Thank goodness!

[izquierdista]

6. Keep your fingers crossed

They are not out of the woods yet. Not until the well is grouted and they can make sure no other leaks have opened up.

[breadandwine]

41. But they're saying a ship pumping in heavy drilling fluid ran out of drilling fluid.

They say anther ship with more drilling fluid is on the way. Why isn't it there on hand before they tried this method, which they supposedly prepared so well for? What happens now, with the heavy drilling fluid inadequate? Does the well back up again and the method fail while they wait for the other ship to get there?


How could they not have the extra drilling fluid on hand after contemplating this method for a F*CKING MNTH?

[backscatter712]

46. I thought they had three ships full of drilling mud there.

They ran out on one ship, still have two more going, and now have one more on the way.

At least that's the way I'd do it if I'd planned this.

[Control-Z]

99. That's what I had heard.

The ships were there standing by, was my understanding.

[sasquuatch55]

Premature ejaculation from official.

nt

[FSogol]

2. Awesome. Hope they are correct. n/t

[happygoluckytoyou]

42. CORRECT? CHECK OUT THESE NEWS HEADLINES-->---> --> --->

American Medical Journal - PRESSURE APPLIED, BLEEDING STOPPED
Alaska Palin Weakly - DRILL, FIRST DUDE, DRILL
Cosmo - HOW A GOOD MUD PACK CAN SAVE THE WORLD
USA Today - BP SUCCESS, LEAK STOPPED
Playboy - LAYING PIPE WITHOUT PROTECTION AND THE CURE
FIX News - Paris Hilton buys new pair of shoes
Murdock News Daily - BP SUCCEEDS IN NOT SPILLING OTHER BILLIONS OF BARRELS OF OIL

[Kolesar]

78. Cosmo--LOL

very creative, take a bow

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. 60-70% chance was far better than 50-50, and

far better than a complete fucking blow out.

But weeks and weeks of crude spewing forth will still cause decades of damage.

[Beartracks]

127. But as the President said...

... "This is the best outcome we could have hoped for." Oh, wait... that was ex-President Charles Logan from "24." Never mind.



------------------------

[lark]

129. Oh, but think of all the money they made from recovered oil

That's always been their top priority and why it took 35 days to ruin our
Gulf and it's ecosystem. They all should be made to live on the coast and let them deal with this and see how tiny they think it is then!

[dionysus]

144. yes, because recovering oil at $1000+ per barrel and selling it for $67 a barrel is so profitable

BP is evil but really, they're not making money off of this incident...

[Rockholm]

4. Excellent!

[babylonsister]

5. Wow wow wow! nt

[donco6]

7. Wow! Really?

That's great news.

[Ellipsis]

8. LA Times article link

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-top-kill-works-20100528,0,4282960.story



...Allen also said that later today, an interagency team will release a revised estimate of how much oil was flowing from the well into the Gulf before the "top kill" effort began. The Coast Guard has estimated the flow at 5,000 barrels a day, but independent estimates suggest that it was much higher – perhaps tens of thousands of barrels a day.

[time_has_come]

9. Let it be so. Can't believe Allen decided to own this effort like this.

God forbid it doesn't work, anger at him for this false hope will be white hot.

[ShortnFiery]

79. MSNBC announced over an hour ago that the good Admiral Allen has MIS-SPOKE. eom

[Art_from_Ark]

146. Is that the same guy who announced

that there was no detectable leak 3 days after the blowout?

[scentopine]

10. Now comes a 50 year battle in the court system where

BP buys every lawyer and politician in the system to keep from having to pay a dime in restitution and negligence beyond their 75 million. By preventing an accurate measurement of the oil flow rate, this is going to get ugly. The second wave of slim is moving to shore and its going to be 10x worst than the first.

[Scuba]

12. They better make sure some of their lawyers are criminal defense guys.

[notadmblnd]

32. I'll bet Mr Allen gets himself a nice job with BP for keeping estimates low

Wasn't it announced that he has submitted his resignation with the Coast Guard?

[tammywammy]

40. No, he was planning on retiring

He is 61.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/05/coastguard_allen_papp_change_command_052510w/

[notadmblnd]

50. Thanks. I just read where he will continue to be Obam's point man on the spill after he retires

I apologize for my cynicism. It's difficult not to think badly of our leaders these days.

[DeSwiss]

87. I suppose we'll have to wait and see.....

Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen is to retire at the end of this month. He was named as national incident commander for the oil spill and President Obama has stated that Allen will continue in his position after he retires. However, WMR's sources in FEMA report that Allen has been in post-retirement employment discussions with BP. Under his watch, the Coast Guard has been accused of shilling for BP's public relations efforts, including having armed Coast Guard personnel chase away a CBS camera crew from filming the oil spill's effects in Louisiana and claiming that tests of oil tar balls in Florida have not come from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5923.shtml

[ProudDad]

101. Easy fix...be your OWN "leader"

Those people aren't "leaders", they're apologists and shills for corporate USAmerica...

[L0oniX]

75. Silly ...BP = Beyond Prosecution

[caseymoz]

77. Yes, this is like our own Bhopal, India vs. Union Carbide.

Like it, without direct deaths. We are never going to get BP to pay anything significant for this, unless there is some kind of revolution resulting from it.

Louisiana is now in poverty for the foreseeable future.

[scentopine]

134. Bhopal - yes, you are right. Oil and Coal - filthy industries that treat world as a toilet -nt

[Lerkfish]

11. your lips to god's ears, I hope so!

[The Old Creak]

13. I Just Checked-out

the live BP feed. It looks like the oil and gas are still flowing.......?

[RedCloud]

17. Oh, a realist.

[zeemike]

19. I think that is the mud that they are pumping

Escaping from the leaking pipe.

[rurallib]

14. best news in weeks. Hope, hope, hope it is true.

[City Lights]

15. Keeping my fingers crossed. nt

[lame54]

16. should we believe this?...

I want to - I want to

but should we?

[valerief]

38. I think we have to until someone trustworthy and who knows better tells us otherwise. nt

[Javaman]

18. Until the concrete is poured, I won't be popping a cork just yet. nt

[Rebubula]

20. Agreed...

...there is still a lot to do to stem this disaster.

As someone posted upthread, regardless of the containment - we have decades of ecological problems to deal with.

[Javaman]

58. exactly right.

I fear, that as soon as this thing is corked, it will vanish from the landscape.

[Truth2Tell]

107. only figuratively

[Javaman]

121. media landscape, that is. nt

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

126. ...lest the hole does.

Sorry.

[mikeytherat]

21. BP says "at least 24 hours needed to determine if top kill is working"

In Robert, Louisiana, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles would not comment on the impact of the "top kill."

"It's too hard to say," he said. "I think we just need to take the next 24 hours and actually see what the results are."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/26/gulf.oil.spil/index.html

Perhaps Adm. Allen got his info from 'lil Bobby Jindal:

The 24-hour timetable diverged from one offered by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who told reporters in Venice, Louisiana, that he expected to know Wednesday night whether the attempt was working.

"What they have told us is it will take a couple of days for it to be fully implemented, but that they should know in a matter of hours," he said late in the afternoon. "We should, hopefully, know something later tonight," he said.

mikey_the_rat

[Aslanspal]

22. Never thought I would say this in my life but "I Love Mud"

I jsut want to smear it on my face and dance around a puddle.

[drm604]

23. This is very good news.

We're not out of the woods yet but this is an important advance.

[ShamelessHussy]

24. Great News!!!!!!

I just hope they don't skip over the 'trust but verify' rule of thumb.

not to mention the clean up.

:bounce:

[joanmj]

25. Good!

but still waiting for official results.....

[maddezmom]

26. Oil spill command cannot confirm "top kill" success

Oil spill command cannot confirm "top kill" success
Thu May 27, 2010 9:33am EDTStocks
MIAMI, May 27 (Reuters) - The unified command tackling the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico cannot confirm or deny a Los Angeles Times report that BP (BP.L)'s "top kill" operation to plug its leaking well has succeeded, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.

Stocks | Bonds | Global Markets

"At the moment, we can't confirm or deny anything," she told Reuters, when asked about the Latimes.com report which cited Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen. BP shares rose more than five percent in London trading.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2724341420100527

[dave29]

27. We're not done yet, but this is looking good.

:)

[tularetom]

28. "... launched Wednesday afternoon by industry AND GOVERNMENT engineers..."

Maybe all the Democrats who have been whining that this is the end of Obama's presidency will finally STFU.

[texanwitch]

29. Why didn't they do this to begin with.

Did they want to kill the Gulf first.

[sulphurdunn]

62. No.

BP wanted to recover oil by keeping the well alive and pumping directly into tankers until they could sink another hole into the reservoir. They don't care about the Gulf, and they're not the only ones. Save for expedient ranting, BP shouldn't have much trouble with the political class. The rest will be handled by BP lawyers and PR firms.

[TheMadMonk]

71. Actually not likely. Whatever cap they put on this, there was going...

...to be a relief well.

I think more likely they were shit scared this wouldn't work and wanted to try non-intrusive solutions before risking adding even more stress to a damaged BOP and an improperly cemented pipe. If this had gone pear shaped worst case scenario would have removed the BOP entirely leaving the well flowing at full bore.

[sulphurdunn]

82. That is a reasonable.

[docb]

91. Mud fix!

Salazar from Obama said to drill two --not one relief wells..They are to do this now!

We better hope that this works--BP used cheap casings the day before the explosion --It was in Congressional testimony from yesterday!

[Nihil]

73. Repeating that bullshit meme really doesn't help.

> BP wanted to recover oil by keeping the well alive and pumping directly
> into tankers until they could sink another hole into the reservoir.

Yeah, right ...
:eyes:

[sulphurdunn]

81. Excuse me!

Have you been paying any attention to what's been happening here? Because if you had you'd know that the "bullshit meme" has been that BP is doing everything possible and that the government has been monitoring their heroic efforts. Jesus. P.T. Barnum was right. :dunce:

[Aramchek]

84. one of you is born every minute?

[austin78704]

135. That makes no sense at all.

It would have been cheaper for them to kill the well quickly and just go poke another hole.

Leaving the well spewing like it has been has cost far and away more than the value of the oil they've recovered so far, plus, it has made it more difficult for BP to get a permit to poke that other hole and get a productive well going. Do the math, pretend a barrel of crude is still almost $200, and BP still loses a shitload of money in this mess. They're losing 100% of the natural gas from this well to boot.

Believe it or not, BP's employees are all from Earth and the vast majority do actually care. Maybe you can make a case that the guys in charge are all assholes, but the workers doing the actual work--like the eleven who were killed--want this mess stopped for more than just financial gain.

[sulphurdunn]

136. My contention

is not intended to reflect badly on any working people even if they aren't from Earth. My position is that BP was less interested in plugging the hole than with trying to recover oil. That statement is either true or false. Since it can only be inferred, it may never actually be more than my opinion. Regardless, it bears no relationship to the eleven people who were killed on BP's oil rig.

[Nihil]

137. Your contention is wrong.

> My position is that BP was less interested in plugging the hole than
> with trying to recover oil. That statement is either true or false.

That statement is false.
Even if the public relations side was totally ignored (Exxon, Chevron & Shell
are still in business after repeated catastrophic pollution "accidents"), the
financial side simply does not justify the statement for a single minute.

> Since it can only be inferred, it may never actually be more than my opinion.

Wrong. It would have to be supported by some form of reasoning which, in turn,
would have to be supported by facts. None of the latter support your position,
all "inference" from the facts runs counter to your view and thus your contention
is incorrect.

(Of course, you are still perfectly free to hold an opinion that is blatantly
wrong but don't be surprised when you are repeatedly corrected on it.)

[sulphurdunn]

139. If the statement

is false, you haven't proven that with your invalid assertion i.e. that what other oil companies have done in the past has something to do with what BP has done.

Opinions are opinions for the simple reason they are not supported by facts. Inferences are supported by fact, and the fact remains that BP's claims that it feared using the only proven technology to stop the leak while using untested techniques to stop it that, had they worked, would have recovered its assets is based on BP's facts, which themselves may be false. Of course, it would be fallacious to attack BP's facts because they are BP's facts, but then again BP is not known for objective truthfulness.

Eventually, truth will win out. Only then will it be known who is right or wrong in this matter. Be that as it may, your refutation is well stated but false, even if the facts eventually prove you right.

[austin78704]

147. You are confusing opinion

with nonsensical bullshit. Saying something that is completely counter to all reason and then presenting NO support for it does not make your statement into "opinion."

[kirby]

86. Because of the BOP

The Blow Out Preventer, which did not work properly, is believed to be compromised. The engineers wanted to try things that did not mess with/risk the BOP. They put ideas such as the containment dome 'top hat' at a higher priority because they felt it was less risky. Once those ideas did not work, they moved on to the riskier options like top-kill.

[lark]

131. No, they don't give a F*** about the Gulf

They wanted to extract every ounce of oil they could before they had to fix it.

[Bragi]

30. Great. Until the next blowout. /nt

[Magleetis]

31. I hope

this is true.

[florida08]

33. update on msnbc

Admiral Allen was misunderstood. Too early to tell..will hold news conference later

[AllyCat]

34. Is BP allowing scientists to go and look or do we have to take their word for it?

[maddezmom]

36. I believe Steve Chu is in the command center

[paparush]

35. So this is a new speed record for dealing with deep sea blowouts?

The Ixtoc well took, what, 9 months to stop the flow?

[madokie]

37. should have done this on day one

and since they didn't I say off with their heads, what I mean by that is off to the gray bar hotel for the guilty

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

44. I agree. How many gallons could have been prevented from

going into the Gulf? I think that initially their (BP's) first goal was to preserve the well, not just stop the flow. That's my opinion. I think they wasted a lot of time and exacerbated the damage. Not to mention the methane release. That could be the real long term legacy from this blow out.

[madokie]

88. Everything I read indicated that too

Thats why this is the criminal act that it is. This can not be, not dealt with, in our courts of law. These ole boys walk will mean one thing and one thing only and that is we're no longer a nation of laws. Many of us already suspect that to be true and to us this will only be another hash mark to add on our short timers stick of ruin. Man is letting greed destroy our earth and with it all of us. When it starts going down hill like it is now it won't take long until anarchy takes over. People better wake the hell up and soon cause we're letting the big boy tell us how to run things and all they're doing is making it easier for themselves to empty our pockets. To reduce us to a place where we were before we had any labor and environmental laws or safety nets at all.

It can't be any plainer that it is today either. The chinman and boner too have both told the American people just what they're up too but I guess only a few of us were paying any attention. This present crop of politicians,for the most part, are not a nickels worth of difference in them. They keep the thought of governance so toxic that many people can't stomach even the thought of paying attention. Thats all by design too I might add.
my nickels worth anyway :-)

Sad what people can't see when they won't or don't look.

[ProudDad]

102. According to best estimates - about 8,000,000 gallons...(n/t)

[defendandprotect]

39. Trust this is tue and we can begin totally focusing on recovering oil from Gulf . . .

limiting damage to coastal areas and wildlife !!

[Uncle Joe]

43. If this is true, that is great news.

Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Ellipsis.:thumbsup:

[suffragette]

45. If this is the case, it's good news

[backscatter712]

47. Don't count chickens yet, but I'm highly encouraged!

It's not over until the concrete is poured and the well is capped.

Then it's time for a looooooong cleanup. And demands for new environmental regulations. And seppuku for the CEO, board of directors and other suits at BP, Halliburton and Transocean...

[leveymg]

48. Great. But, now we'll never get an accurate flow reading. BP off the hook for many $billions in

fines under the Oil Pollution Act Sec.4301(b) imposes $1,000 per barrel - there's a huge difference between 6,000 and 60,000 bbls/day for 35 days.

Guess we'll never know, and will just have to take BP's word for it. Relieved they finally stopped this monster.

[riskpeace]

49. Please Be True!

This could be the first good news about this mess in 38 days!

[Jackpine Radical]

51. I have nothing to add beyond my fervent wish that this be true.

[lonestarnot]

52. So if true, demonstrates they could have done so 1 week into their nutfuckery.

[wtmusic]

53. +1 nt

[hunter]

56. Maybe first they had to buy the mud from China...

... and international air delivery cost too much.

:shrug:

[Jennicut]

57. Actually, I think the blowout preventer had to be rebuilt to do this.

I do wonder why that took so long.

[lonestarnot]

64. They were hoping not to have to kill the well of money and investments in dispersants.

:shrug:

[readmoreoften]

94. +1

[Nihil]

143. -1

As stated elsewhere ...

Other (safer & quicker) approaches were tried first (e.g., capture "funnel").
I suspect that the methane content was seriously underestimated else the problems
with hydrate freeze would have been added into the balance back then.

The state of the BOP meant (and might still mean) that the current approach
risks a larger blowout due to the pressures involved.

It takes time to rebuild the BOP for this operation and when you are working
with a spanner in the mitt of a remote controlled submersible, every single
operation with that spanner takes a hell of a lot longer than if you were
stood there doing it yourself.

People who claim that "BP were deliberately delaying/slowing the capping
attempt for the sake of a few more barrels of oil to sell" are just showing
their own stupidity and their lack of grasp of the situation.

[residentfan]

54. Now...

onto suing BP to the stone age. Better yet let's nationalize it's assets and use the profits towards free health care for all.

[onehandle]

55. I saw this guy on Rachel. She and I like him. nt

[HCE SuiGeneris]

59. Oh, FFS

"Allen said one ship that was pumping fluid into the well has run out of the fluid, or "mud," and that a second ship is on the way. He said he was encouraged by the progress."

Why the hell wasn't the second ship already staged? :grr:

[florida08]

63. cheese and crackers

apparently "be prepared" was not on their list of things to do today

[metapunditedgy]

123. Based on comments on The Oil Drum, the picture is something like:

1) They do have a lot of backup ships ready with more mud
2) They're finding that nearly all of the mud is being lost, or at least not entering the well. That's what you see spewing out.

Now these may be false; they're unconfirmed reports from the internet. But if they're true, the scenario might be something like... they're finding that they can cut the oil flow, but only a small amount of mud is actually entering the well. So they're going to keep trying for longer than they originally planned, even though it's not going very well. (Most of the mud is shooting back out.) At this point, there's not much to lose.

I don't think it's possible to pump mud indefinitely, as the well will eventually be eroded from the pumping.

Edit: this is just my attempt to make sense of the facts as they are now (unreliably) reported. May not be true.

[Jester Messiah]

60. About time! [nt]

[LynneSin]

61. And we waited this long to do it because.........

:shrug:

[slackmaster]

66. There was a lot of work to do to prepare for it, and it's a very complex process

Nobody has been waiting.

[DoBotherMe]

65. Yea! Now I can sleep through the night

A catastrophe averted. Let's hope the environmental exploitive types will have had a revelation. Dana ; )

[Juneboarder]

67. OMG is this for REAL!?!?

It's almost too good to be true. This is amazing that they got the leak to stop!! I'm jumping up and down right now!! :)

[Urban Prairie]

68. They had to build the pumping unit stronger to operate at that depth

that is attached to the BOP, top kills have never been done underwater before, not to mention at the depth and pressure a mile down in the Gulf. That is why it wasn't in place earlier, allegedly.

[DFW]

69. This is a vital first step, but it's only the first step

It was BP's pressing responsibility to get the flow stopped.

It is now their pressing responsibility to do what is, in essence, impossible. They cannot undo the damage done
to the Gulf. They must spend every cent they have to try. They owe hundreds of thousands of people who live on
the coast a living. They owe the USA the restoration of our fishing waters, our coastal wetlands and recreational
areas. They owe us what they cannot pay.

ALL those responsible need to be brought up on criminal charges, and the guilty need to be put away for decades,
after forfeiting their entire fortunes, harsh as that may seem. It won't undo the damage, but it WILL send a
message to those operating other drills that this WILL NOT BE TOLERATED, NOT NOW, NOT EVER AGAIN.

[marions ghost]

83. They will not be brought up on criminal charges

unless people demand it. And even then, they can get off. The justice system just isn't strong enough to prosecute and get tough sentences for criminal businessmen. The companies will do everything they legally can to compensate as little as possible.

BP--Beyond Prosecution, somebody here said.

Maybe I'm wrong, I hope so, but I think that's what we'll see.

[readmoreoften]

96. +1

They must pay for 100%

[HudsonValley]

70. big oil

Latest news (1200 EDT) looks like the top-kill is working, thankfully. Yet despite the current mess... this from Reuters just points to how blind big-oil really is:

Oil executives were equally sure that whatever the difficulties, deepwater exploration would continue because of the need for oil and the limited opportunities for conventional exploration.

"I am sure that there is going to be continued investment in deep offshore," Ayman Asfari, the chief executive of UK services company Petrofac, said. (PFC.L)

"The world can't afford not to do that, but I think it may slow down until there are new regulations." WOW.... THE WORLD "CAN'T AFFORD NOT TO ..." THESE BIG-OIL FOLKS ARE JUST BRILLIANT.

[anachro1]

72. Pity

I was so hoping we would try to plug up that oil well with Sarah Palin's fat ass.

[saigon68]

90. Even her posterior wasn't big enough

[alp227]

74. I say with skepticism that this gives us some hope.

Still, I wonder if any scientific tests can prove that it's mud not oil gushing out that pipe.

[myrna minx]

76. I hope this is true, but inscrutable big business liars have made me a skeptic.

[caseymoz]

80. Hope it isn't premature.

I wouldn't totally trust it until they actually have it cemented.

And I knew very early we weren't receiving any accurate reports from BP about how big this really was. They were too afraid of losing their liability limit.

[Ellipsis]

85. The Oil Slick is over 29,000 square Miles in Size n/t

[Art_from_Ark]

145. If that's true

then it covers an area greater than the state of West Virginia! :cry:

[Xenotime]

89. Good. This is what true leadership can do when somebody like Obama takes charge.

[totodeinhere]

92. Fair enough. Since so many were willing to blame Obama for this happening in the first place,

lets' give him credit for the fix. But I doubt if it will work that way. Many of the blamers who were happy to call this Obama's Katrina will not want to return the favor and give him any credit now for the fix.

[flamingdem]

98. Obama no doubt sent the brains to Houston that are making the Top Kill work

and he should get credit for that.. I SHUDDER to think of what would have happened with Bush in charge.

[readmoreoften]

97. Oh give me a fucking break. Obama has nothing to do with this. Thank the engineers,

scientists, and crew who've solved this problem. And the professors who taught them and published articles on deep sea engineering. Can you people stop shilling for Obama for ONE SECOND? During a NATIONAL EMERGENCY?

[meisje]

93. Topkill failed! see link

Animated gif showing leak progress at BOP.

http://j.imagehost.org/view/0707/compare2

top image 3:45pm Wednesday
bottom image 6:35am Thursday(today)

Angles are slightly different. Color difference may be due to lighting on ROV.

[Statistical]

103. Your fear mongering failed. n/t

[dbmk]

105. Or maybe because it is not the same stuff coming out.

The mud they pump in does not magically disappear. It comes out the same way as the oil. And apparently it is now mostly mud coming back out - which means it has started diminishing the oil flow. Hopefully eventually leading to it completely clogging up the well - at which point they pour cement in.

[DebbieCDC]

95. I want verification

This guy has been cheerleading for BP since Day 1. They must have a cushy job lined up for him after his soon to take effect retirement. When I see independent verification I'll believe him; not until.

[ProudDad]

100. Meanwhile, they're drilling a new hole into the reservoir

Wanna' take bets on whether they'll start a new plume?

You know they sure as hell ain't gonna let all that oil stay down there, do you?

Has their permit been rescinded yet?

On Edit:

I can't believe that people fall for this shit...

1) Drill, baby, Drill

2) Ooops -- KABLOOEY (again!)

3) Stop the flow, stop the flow (fireman, save my child)

4) Whew! Thank you, BP

5) Time to fill-er-up

6) (6 months later) New oil leases granted; Drill, baby, drill...

POWER THE FUCK DOWN!!!
www.transitionus.org

[liberation]

104. "Halt" and "slow down" are two different things. Mr. Admiral should invest in a dictionary

but then again, I don't think intellectual honesty was his priority in this case.

[BelgianMadCow]

106. "halt" changed to "slow down" in reporting over here as well

just saying

[paulkienitz]

108. *snoopy dance*

[Cant trust em]

109. 'Top kill' stops gulf oil leak for now, official says

Source: LA Times

Reporting from Houma, La. —Engineers have at least temporarily stopped the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government's top oil-spill commander, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning.

The "top kill" effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers, had pumped enough drilling fluid to block oil and gas spewing from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well was very low, he said, but persisting. The top kill effort is not complete, officials caution.

Once engineers had reduced the well pressure to zero, they were to begin pumping cement into the hole to entomb the well. To help in that effort, he said, engineers also were pumping some debris into the blowout preventer at the top of the well.



Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-top-kill-20100528,0,5782115.story?track=rss

[no limit]

110. Good news

[AndyA]

111. Let's just hope it holds and they can cap it off permanently.

Then the work of figuring out how to clean up the mess begins. And we have to determine what steps to take to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.

Point 1: BP lies. NEVER TRUST BP. Question everything they say. Verify everything they've done. Challenge their motives.

BP has a long history of dishonesty and safety infractions. They need to be watched very closely going forward.

[fleabert]

112. Fingers crossed, toes too....nt

[joanmj]

113. this is a story from this morning....

[intheflow]

114. This would be the same guy the folks south of NOLA are saying should be fired?

The man in charge of the CG that told CBS they were taking orders from BP? Sorry, I'm not trusting the source here. (Not as in LA Times, but as in CG shill for BP.) Where are the independent scientists to monitor and test what is happening down there?

[NJmaverick]

115. K & R! with fingers crossed

[pinto]

116. ‘Top Kill’ Effort Seems to Be Working, U.S. Says Cautiously (New York Times)

‘Top Kill’ Effort Seems to Be Working, U.S. Says Cautiously

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and JOHN M. BRODER
Published: May 27, 2010

HOUSTON — The latest effort to plug a gushing underwater oil well in the Gulf of Mexico appeared to be working, officials and engineers said on Thursday morning, though definitive word on its success was still hours away.

At the same time, government experts said that the flow of oil from the well, which has been gushing since an explosion and fire wrecked a drilling rig in late April, was several times worse than the preliminary estimate by BP, the oil company responsible for the rig and the well. If these new estimates prove to be accurate, the spill would be far bigger than the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 and the worst in United States history.

As frustration and criticism surged over the Obama administration’s handling of the crisis, the head of the agency that oversees offshore oil drilling, S. Elizabeth Birnbaum, resigned under pressure on Thursday after only 10 months in the job.

Hours later, in a lengthy news conference, President Obama defended his administration’s response to the spill while acknowledging some shortcomings in estimating the flow of oil.

“Those who think we were either slow on the response or lacked urgency, don’t know the facts,” Mr. Obama said. “This has been our highest priority,” since the rig exploded and sank, he added.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/us/28spill.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[earth mom]

117. We shall see, but I'm skeptical. nt

[NJmaverick]

118. why?

[liberation]

119. Maybe 5 weeks of continuous lying was enough for some people to dry their benefit of the doubt wells

Plus this solution counts on having enough wells to relieve the pressure on the main leak. Wells which have yet to come on line, and which are no where near being ready to be drilled.

[NJmaverick]

120. Lies? This is the first claim to stopping the leak

up until now they talked about the leak continuing and what plans they had for stopping it.

[liberation]

122. I know, that you know, that I know, that you know that is not what I was talking about

*wink* *wink*


Cheers.

[BelgianMadCow]

124. "Deepwater Oil Spill - Preparing for Cement " - junkshot time it seems

latest blog entry over at theoildrum.com, http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6516#more

I find it pretty encouraging that this faze of the process is about to begin - so what we are looking for is a reducion of the BOP leaks we have been seeing (4 plumes) so they can start the cementing.

So we are at the junkshot moment it seems - trying to plug holes at BOP using spheres and the like to restrict flow.

[DallasNE]

125. Until Pressure Is Reduced To Zero

And the cement can be pumped in it is premature to get too excited about this development. In fact, the fact that they are also pumping debris in is not real good news. Is the faulty BOP, that was last inspected in 2005, why they haven't been able to stop the persistent pressure? Are there no procedures nor schedules for maintenance and inspection of super critical equipment? How can this be.

[Jacobin]

128. hmmm

premature rejoicing

Farking coast guard has turned into BP toadies

[Chef Eric]

130. If this is true, then why aren't we hearing it from BP? nt

[debunkthelies]

132. Not so fast.....

There's another leak about 5-6 miles from the plug that is way worse with a 22 mile long plume that is headed toward Mobile, Alabama. Here's a link
Matt Simmons: "Theres another leak, much bigger, 5 to 6 miles away".flv
www.youtube.com
Matt Simmons: "Theres another leak, much bigger, 5 to 6 miles away". WKRG.com live oil spill cam http://www.livestream.com/wkrg_oil_spill?utm_source=lsplayer&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=footerlinks Transocean says it will make a $270 million profit on the insurance policy for the rig. ...

[Liberty Belle]

138. coincidence or is the new leak caused by pressure from plugging the 1st one?

[christx30]

133. when I read the headline

the first thought I had was of him at the press conference saying "So... we good now?"

[Owl]

140. Thad Allen apparently doesn't know squat.

[Optimistic]

141. So what is that in the "LIVE" video?

Has Dick Cheney possessed the Admirals body?

[carlyhippy]

142. I pray it works, but it looks like it's getting worse to me

a couple of weeks ago the oil was escaping from 1 place on the pipe, now it looks like 3-4 different places. I hope it works, what a shame this has gone on for so long. God help our earth, 2012...humans are going to make sure the predictions come true.

[depakid]

148. Oops

How does a person who's inclined to issue premature statements with no CYA rise to the rank of admiral?