The updates BP is sharing with the public serve BP, not the public. An example is the report below from one of their web sites. BP is reporting how much of the oil they have collected over various time periods – NOT how much oil is escaping into the Gulf.
Granted, how much is being collected may be the only piece of data that can be measured with any degree of accuracy. But the critical relationship is how much is being collected relative to how much continues to escape. Has the total flow declined, remained the same, or increased? Has the amount NOT CAPTURED decreased, stayed the same or increased? By how much? We are not hearing this piece of information.
From BP’s web site:
Subsea operational update:
•For the last 12 hours on June 17th (noon to midnight), approximately 8,020 barrels of oil were collected and approximately 4,770 barrels of oil and 24.5 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared.
•Optimization of the dual recovery system continues; on June 17th, total oil recovered was aprox. 25,290 barrels.
- approximately 16,020 barrels of oil were collected,
- approximately 9,270 barrels of oil were flared,
- and approximately 50.3 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared.
•Total oil recovered from both the LMRP Cap and Q4000 systems since they were implemented is approximately 204,200 barrels.
•The free standing riser installation is progressing for the long term containment option.
•The next update will be provided at 6:00pm CDT on June 18, 2010.
Sign of BP Meltdown:
And now BP’s Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg (the one who made the "small people" comment) will replace the publicly skewered Tony Hayward as BP’s PR voice. Good luck with that! It doesn’t appear that BP’s culture of safety as a priority has really changed much as Hayward tried to proclaim during his Thursday congressional skewering. If it had, this disaster would have been avoided and he would have been able to list dozens of steps the company has taken over the last year or two to enhance well drilling safety. He may not have been on the front lines of operations (actually, I think he was) but he certainly should have been prepared with a comprehensive listing of recently established safety measures, unless there weren’t any.
We will begin to see additional ineptness on the part of BP’s management as that corporation begins a slow, painful meltdown. This will be an example in managerial textbooks for decades.
Worst Case Scenarios:
And for you “worst case scenario” buffs out there (AKA conspiracy theorists) below is a provocative piece for your consideration. Note that with enough off-the-wall creative theories out there, one or more could be near the truth…
Richard Hoagland produced the above report. Check him out at Wikipedia. He is a noted conspiracy theorist with little to no credibility in the science community. He provides just enough facts to make his story sound possible.
Here is another “worst case scenario” from the site administrator at Godlike Productions, another conspiracy site. Interesting reading.
July 18 update:
It is great to see that the “doom and gloomers” so far appear to be wrong. It appears that the well casing is intact and able to withstand at least 6,700 psi of pressure from that oil and gas-laden cavern. Now if Obama can only get off his “destroy the American economy” high horse and open the Gulf to drilling again. Don’t you think the oil industry has learned its lesson and will institute safeguards to assure this type of disaster will not occur again?
I’m becoming more and more convinced that the government adopts many laws and regulations as political eyewash, with little funding and less real intention to effectively implement or enforce them. That was the case with the oil and gas industry and that is the ongoing case with Federal immigration laws. So, no, I don’t think it would be tremendously helpful for the Feds to adopt sweeping new regulations over off-shore drilling.
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