Help me out here please. I recall seeing on the net that the oil

[rzemanfl]

gushing into the Gulf was low quality crude oil, thick, hard to refine, etc.

Now I see this at the MSBC site this morning:

"Well, that's not what our experts, multiple experts, not only from BP, and the industry say," said Bob Dudley, BP managing director for the Americas and Asia. "This crude is what's called a light-sweet crude. It has lots of gas and when it comes out, it expands very rapidly, a little bit like bubbles in a soda pop. So it's very difficult to look at it and say that the volume will be much higher. We certainly don't see that at the surface."

Not that I believe anything BP says, but what the fuck is going on here? Am I imagining things or are they changing the shape of the memory hole?

[LiberalLoner]

1. It was a biologist or some such expert saying it was heavy sour, not BP...I remember

there was an article saying that, so your memory serves you correctly. But it wasn't a BP executive. I have no idea who is right and who is wrong on that one.

[madokie]

2. With the vigilance the bp a holes are going after harnessing the oil I'd say it is what they call

light sweet crude. Other wise they'd done blown the hole up by now.

[marylanddem]

4. Whatever it is, it seems obvious BP wants to keep that gusher gushing.

[dems_rightnow]

6. That's just stupid

How in the hell do they benefit from it?

[madokie]

7. If by chance they can harness it they can let the output from it pay for all this

would be what I'm thinking they're thinking.

[marylanddem]

8. Yep. N/T

[rzemanfl]

3. If it was light sweet crude, why were they capping it rather than

Putting it into production? Price manipulation?

[BeFree]

5. capping

The drill rig was finished drilling and would have been on another site by now.

So they cap the new well and another crew comes in later, and lays pipe to a production facility. Then they uncap the new well.

[Codeine]

10. It was an exploratory rig,

not meant to be a working well. That's a whole different beast.

[BeFree]

11. WTF?

It IS a working well, DUH!!

It just isn't being managed properly.

[RC]

9. It is light sweet crude oil. The high level of natural gas coming out with it is your first clue.

[izquierdista]

12. Your recollection is faulty

Texas and Louisiana oil is light and sweet (low sulfur). That's why they have been able to conduct those burns and burn off a good percentage of the stuff that is floating on the surface. There is a lot of gas; the pressure of it caused the initial explosion, and formed the clathrates that clogged up the dome they tried earlier. As the slick ages, and the light fraction is burned or evaporates, what will be left will be thick and tarry. There will be tarballs washing up on Gulf coast beaches for decades to come, unfortunately.

[rzemanfl]

13. I found this, which is what I recall reading:

"While most of the oil drilled off Louisiana is a lighter crude, because the leak is deep under the ocean surface the leaking oil is a heavier blend which contains asphalt-like substances, and, according to Ed Overton, who heads a federal chemical hazard assessment team for oil spills, this type of oil emulsifies well, making a "major sticky mess". Once it becomes that kind of mix, it no longer evaporates as quickly as regular oil, doesn't rinse off as easily, can't be eaten by microbes as easily, and doesn't burn as well. "That type of mixture essentially removes all the best oil clean-up weapons", Overton and others said."

Looking for sourcing.

[rzemanfl]

14. I got this from MSNBC webpage on April 30th:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36878803/ns/technology_and_science-science/

[izquierdista]

15. I'd say Mr. Overton is doing a lot of speculating

Maybe he got wound up as he was being interviewed at the bar. I say that, because the longer the article goes on, the less verifiable facts and more opinion seems to creep in. How does he know so much about the chemical analysis of this particular oil sample? I thought the first time anyone saw it was when it came flying out of the hole at 15,000 psi. The reporter seems to have just transcribed his rant without asking what he bases it on.

I would go on the assumption that the oil is close to the average extracted off the Louisiana coast, until real data proves otherwise.