BP & Halliburton~ Mucking up the waters

The safe & clean energy technologies the U.S. has embraced, has a definitive stain on our line of thinking. 

Despite our ongoing debate/denial over if climate change exists, the rest of the global community has accepted the science, and have taken proactive steps to correct the problem. 

Oh sure, the GOP seemed like an angry mob of villagers, complete with torches & pitchforks, chanting Drill Baby Drill, in a kind of bloodthirsty (oilthirsty?) manner. We can not get enough of the liquid gold, and we would not adjust our technology to demand better gas efficiency, or allow electric vehicles to be mass produced, and allow the supportive infrastructure changes necessary to do so. 

We want to drill, and offshore oil is just there for the taking. Since 1919, Halliburton built their business around it. They invented cement technologies that allowed offshore drilling- bigger & deeper wells, and to drill in deeper waters. Black gold. 

But when it all goes wrong- as it did in Australia, and now in Louisiana, Halliburton shrugs it's corporate shoulders & walks away. 

Between spewing nasty black clouds in the sky for days, then saying the platform was listing but would not sink, then it sank. We were then told it's probably not leaking, or maybe a little leak, and now they say this will exceed the Exxon heavy crude tanker disaster.
Worse, they say they have never had this kind of disaster in this deep an offshore well.
So everything they might do to try to stop it, is purely experimental.

Maybe Halliburton oil well division needs a corporate motto- something like:

• Halliburton, We have no idea what the hell we are doing.

• Halliburton: Mucking up international waters since 1919.

Ahhh but a quick glimpse @ the Halliburton web site reveals the following official press release:

• The cement slurry design was consistent with that utilized in other similar applications.
In accordance with accepted industry practice approved by our customers, tests demonstrating the integrity of the production casing string were completed.
(Read: Code for "accepted industry practice"= Australian oil spill of 9 million gallons, that spilled for 2.5 months).

• At the time of the incident, well operations had not yet reached the point requiring the placement of the final cement plug which would enable the planned temporary abandonment of the well, consistent with normal oilfield practice.
(Read: It's not their fault)

Halliburton extends its heartfelt sympathy to the families, friends and our industry colleagues of the 11 people lost and those injured in the tragedy.

Halliburton continues to assist in efforts to identify the factors that may have lead up to the disaster, but it is premature and irresponsible to speculate on any specific causal issues.

 Well Sure! Not only might Halliburton have had a hand in the making of this disaster, but they stand to profit from charging money to create the "fix". Plus they would not want to be irresponsible by assuming any liability. 
Besides, BP just released their first quarter 2010 results, and profits are up 135% from last year. I'm going to go out on a limb here & predict 2nd quarter numbers will not be looking as good. 


 Bill Maher said it best:
"Every asshole who ever chanted 'drill baby drill' should have to report to the gulf coast for cleanup duty"


Official press releases from BP:


"We will be judged by the success we have in dealing with this incident and we are determined to succeed." 

Preliminary estimates indicate that current efforts to contain the spill and secure the well are costing the MC252 owners about $6 million per day. This figure is expected to rise as activity increases.

The Globe and Mail reports:

"In an exploration plan and environmental-impact analysis filed with the federal government in February 2009, BP said it had the capability to handle a “worst-case scenario” at the site, which the document described as a leak of 162,000 barrels per day from an uncontrolled blowout — nearly 26 million litres per day.

Oil-industry experts and officials are reluctant to describe what, exactly, a worst-case scenario would look like — but if the oil gets into the Gulf Stream and carries it to the beaches of Florida, it stands to be an environmental and economic disaster of epic proportions.

The well is at the end of one branch of the Gulf Stream, the warm-water current that flows from the Gulf of Mexico to the North Atlantic. Several experts said that if the oil enters the stream, it would flow around the southern tip of Florida and up the eastern seaboard.

“It will be on the East Coast of Florida in almost no time,” Mr. Graber said. “I don't think we can prevent that. It's more of a question of when rather than if.”

To echo that sentiment, it is now a matter of when, rather than if the United States understands that offshore oil drilling is not worth the risk, and that we must look elsewhere (and I don't mean safe and clean nuclear power!) for truly alternative energy resources.

Like the proverbial lightbulb over our heads, perhaps we can consider that glowing orb in the sky~

 Solar, that is. 


The following photos were NOT posted on BP's website of the cleanup effort.... wonder why?

At the former well site. 

Attempting to collect oil from the bubbling crude seeping into the ocean from a mile below,

More spill than catch going on here.  

Booms meant to collect the oil & keep it contained are blown out by wind & waves.