BP Spins The Oil Spill

Over at 1115.org, Sarabeth Guthberg's been doing some seriously amazing work chronicling BP's ever-shifting spin on the amount of oil that's been gushing into the Gulf Of Mexico. Absolutely essential background can be obtained here, and here. Today, she returns to that beat and offers up an example of corporate flackery that will simply redefine chutzpah for an age in which our coastlines teem with poison and death.

The short of it is this: BP last week managed to get a tube attached to the rupture, through which oil was a-gush. The oil giant told reporters that they were managing to capture 5,000 barrels a day through that siphon. Of course, if you recall, BP had previously insisted that the total rate of the oil leak was 5,000 barrels a day. So, post-siphon, how to account for the fact that oil was still visibly escaping from a hole in the sea?

Allow me to pass the mic to Sarabeth:

To BP's credit, they did realize at some point that if a) they were going to claim they were collecting 5,000 barrels a day through the siphon tube, and b) huge amounts of oil could be clearly seen still spilling into the Gulf in the live video feed, then c) they couldn't continue to pretend that the size of the spill was only 5,000 barrels a day.

So they issued a clarification, which is surely destined to become a PR classic:

BP had stuck by its first estimate that some 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, a day of oil was leaking from the well - despite claims from several experts the real figure was at least 10 times higher.

But BP spokesman Mark Proegler told news agency AFP on Thursday: "Now that we are collecting 5,000 barrels a day, it might be a little more than that."

Just: wow. Let that marinate, won't you? Not for too long, of course, because a) it's probably covered in crude oil and toxic chemical dispersant! Also, because since then, BP has revised its estimates of siphon capture down, telling shareholders it was managing to siphon off 3,000 barrels a day, and, to reporters, 2,010 barrels a day. "Which means they can go back to pretending that the spill rate is only 5,000 barrels a day after all," reminds Guthberg.

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Comments

[westwoman]

02:12 AM on 05/27/2010

I agree with James Carvell and Mary Matlin (there's a combo). BP's statement that they are a great oil company and that the US is a great country is hogwash. BP is a greedy int'l oil producer which shaves corners to make profits, and has no social redeeming qualities. We are the super country of this world. It's far past the time for Obama to slam them into the ground, punish them, ban them from off-shore drilling which affects our country and that of our neighbors. Then Obama must admit he made a mistake in trusting BP's expertise, or lack-thereof, and admit that all off-shore drilling expansion must be immediately halted, or banned until/and unless we can prove as a government and as oil companies that we can keep this catastrophe from happening again.

[Dr Juan]

08:31 AM on 05/26/2010

One little fact that we have overlooked is the methanol they are pumping into the "straw". this is being done to reduce/prevent the formation of methane hydrates which can ice up the well. There is again no transparency on how much they are injecting, if any can excape into waters of the gulf, If the amount is significant compared to the oil collected and if this quantity is deducted from the total volume they claim to be collecting.

And in the LMRP package needs the same ability to inject methanol. So methanol will be flowing there too and possibly held back only by a huge grommet which may or may not seal properly to the BOP. Diamond wire saw they are planning to use for the cut may not give an adequate flat plane to establish a reliabel seal. There is a heavy flow in the pipe, there is some risk of bent drill tube or cement in the are of the cut and this could deflect the attempted cut, particularly if they run things too fast. Better to also seal on the OD of the 21 inch riser and on the flange with a special molded grommet shaped to accomplish this.

Read the tech update on right of page at:
http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=40&contentId=7061813

[liberalOrgonian]

02:16 PM on 05/25/2010

I am amazed how quickly after the Supreme Court gave our country to the Multi National Corp they have been able to take over the the Country and DESTROY our Oceans.
This is their vision of our future.

[charon]

01:31 PM on 05/25/2010

Although I am unhappy with Obama over this, it was not his fault. He inherited the regulations and the structure. He could have purged the entire regulatory structure, but it had no obvious faults before, and he had other plans on his agenda; a mistake that in hindsight he will regret and that should be a lesson to future Democratic presidents: the right wingers "purify" the agencies and make them all staffed with their guys, and thus when left wingers come in they need to reverse the process in order to see they are staffed with people on board with their agenda and not industry toadies and incompetents.

I think he needs to do more, but the accident was not his fault, and there may not have been much he could have done once it happened to change things. This is an important point, because the right-wingers will try to seize on this issue and use it against Obama in 2012, and it is important we stay united against the right wing. If we don't, we could have Palin, Rand Paul, etc. winning the Presidency, and any of them would be at least a hundred times worse at everything than Obama has been with the BP Gulf disaster.

Let's encourage Obama to deal more forcefully with this, but let's not forget: it could be much worse--a President Palin would do far greater damage to this country than the BP Gulf disaster has.

[liberalOrgonian]

12:44 PM on 05/25/2010

Are there any environmentalist involved with/in the EPA?????
Why do they let BP spray all that toxic $hit on the waters of the Gulf?
Making it sink so we can't see it is foolish, it is more likely it will end in the deep currents of the Atlantic. Every State along the Atlantic will know first hand the danger of oil drilling. Just wait for our next hurricane and it will be on shore coating everything.
Before this is over the shore lines may all be condemned as unlivable.
Oil, Oil, everywhere, will be the repubs new song and dance.

[charon]

01:10 PM on 05/25/2010

Most of the environmentalists were weeded out under Reagan. He put personnel managers in place with specific directives to get rid of people who had come in during the 70s with known environmental activist records in the name of "streamlining and cost reduction." James Watt, Secretary of the Interior under Reagan, with the help of Ann Gorsuch as head of the EPA, oversaw the process. The right-wing, anti-regulatory, pro-Watt people, mostly who had been hired after Gorsuch came in, were then left to run the show. Some moderates were left in the technical positions, but not many.

[liberalOrgonian]

02:49 PM on 05/25/2010

Charon, thank you for your info.
This is what I was fearing.
They should have changed the name to notEPA.
fanned.

[Kevin Atlanta]

12:11 PM on 05/25/2010

Let's get this right. This BP disaster is a Dick Cheney gift to the United States and a direct result of the Oilmen Halliburton White House.
The Goldman Sachs group that own the White House now are gleeful that Cheney blew up this rig to distract from the Financial Reforms that would restore liberty to the US Economy.

[liberalOrgonian]

12:46 PM on 05/25/2010

Yes, the Cheney/Bush gift which keep on giving.

[Mensch99]

11:30 AM on 05/25/2010

How We Wrecked the Oceans.
Some background, before Old Filthful:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tedtalks/jeremy-jackson-how-we-wre_b_564447.html

[Belair222]

10:06 AM on 05/25/2010

Salazr, Big-Sis and Obama Spin the OIL

Published by Myra 3/25/2010

The Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 4201- 311 (c) amended.

“No Salazar, No Obama it is NOT BP responsibility to see that mess gets cleaned up, it is yours as outlined in OPA - 4201 section 311(C) amended of the Clean Water Act (CWA).

Spill Response Authority

When responding to a spill, many considered the lines of responsibility under the pre-OPA regime to be unclear, with too much reliance on spillers to perform proper cleanup. OPA strengthened and clarified the federal government’s role in oil spill response and cleanup. OPA Section 4201amended Section 311(c) of the CWA to provide the President (delegated to the USCG or EPA) with three options: perform cleanup immediately (“federalize” the spill), monitor the response efforts of the spiller, or direct the spiller’s cleanup activities. The revised response authorities addressed concerns “that precious time would be lost while waiting for the spiller to marshall its cleanup forces.

No Salazar, America has the "boot" on your neck.

Have a nice day,

Myra

[angelrubes]

07:54 AM on 05/26/2010

Actually from the beginning of the Spill the Coast Guard was in charge. Google the timeline of the spill and the response by the Administration, and you will get a detailed up to the minute brief of what the Administration has done and is doing. It's that they don't know what to do, that's the point. Again, a disaster that has Bush/Cheney written all over it. Cheney's secret Energy Task Force that he headed and would not disclose the details by provoking Executive Privilege, altered the regulations that would have required the "fail safe," valve.

It is BP's responsibility, and should be fined (which I understand is being implemented) for every day the well is gushing uncontrollably.

[cubenet]

09:52 AM on 05/25/2010

I am requesting that a article be published with the following contents:

The use of any dispersant chemicals make surface removal impossible and poisons the sea –

What BP dumped and is dumping in our oceans will not only kill most marine life but will effect the health of tens of thousand of people.

There are solutions - that could have been used from "DAY ONE" -

To stop the leaking pipe:

Slip a pipe with a shut-off valve(open) and cable lugs over the broken pipe - after attaching cables to hold in place - turn-off valve.

To seal the well:

– drill deep (about 1000ft) new adjacent shaft a few feet away from old shaft – place explosive charge at bottom and fill/cover/seal with cement – explode charge to collapse old well wall and fill with rock, earth etc.

To slow/stop leak temporarily:

– discharge "liquid nitrogen" inserted as far in as possible.

Thank you - Michael Gruters - physicist / engineer - faculty princeton late 60's -

917 885 4471 - [e-mail]

Michael Gruters
40 East 94th Street
New York, NY - 10128

p.s. mud plug may blow back in their face - and waste another 4 days till Sunday - now Wednesday !

[Aerows]

09:49 AM on 05/25/2010

Let's stop calling it these gentle words like "spin" and "mislead". They've lied about the situation from day one, and it's impossible to confront a problem without accurate and complete information.

This is well on the way to becoming not only an environmental disaster, it's on the way to becoming a public health disaster for the residents here. That's hardly hyperbole, either; when you can smell it in the air, and people cleaning it up are getting sick, clearly this is becoming a dangerous situation.

BP is not focused on clean up - they are focused on getting the oil and maximizing profits. None of the things they are doing are going to work; if they stop the leak, they won't get a second shot at the oil, and they know it. They want to drill more wells before this is stopped. It's a disgrace, and honestly, as many good things as Obama has done, this is rapidly making me lose faith in the man. I voted for him and I am a supporter, but allowing them to continue to lie rather than getting the full truth and disseminating it to the public he is dropping the ball.

[skantea]

09:47 AM on 05/25/2010

Reports are that the casing wall 300ft below the sea bed has worn out and "the seabed is collapsing into a crater and oil and gas has begun leaking directly from the sea floor."

http://themoderatevoice.com/73770/what-the-hell-is-happening-with-the-bp-oil-gusher/

[SShaw490]

10:07 AM on 05/25/2010

Let me tell you, if that happens, there's no hope of fixing the well with anything other than a relief well. That's what they call an "underground blowout" and all the efforts to seal off the casing is useless because the casing itself is being undercut. Around my area, there are several pits where land drilling rigs were simply swallowed up by the earth - some of them thousands of feet deep.

If the well blows out underground, they can only hope to pump enough mud into it to actually establish a hydrostatic balance on the formation fluid, which would be very, very hard to do on land and is probably out of the question at 5,000 feet.

[jorjan]

09:39 AM on 05/25/2010

On the Ed Show last night one of his guests said that BP had the means to clean up the mess by using tankers to suction it up from the ocean but that the tankers were sitting in the Middle Eastern Gulf full waiting for the prices to rise. If that is true it certainly is criminal to let the oil that is leaking out ruin the Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida coastlines while they try to fix it.

[karen1p]

11:12 AM on 05/25/2010

The ex-President of Shell has been saying this from day ONE! He has been talking about a secret oil spill that happened in Saudi Arabia. The reason that BP isn't even considering this, is the price tag. I am so furious, what to do with this rage? Hard to know.

[wesleypresley]

09:27 AM on 05/25/2010

And of course no one mentions that BP is one of the major causes for the tensions between Iran and the US/Brit Empire.
Read the history of BP and it's role in Iran. Note the USA overthrew the Iranian government in 1953 for the Brits and BP so the USA could share a stake in BP Iranian oil production.
And when the Americans take back Iran who will be the first US/Brit company back in Iran? BP

[Hopster1]

09:27 AM on 05/25/2010

Pointing the FINGER at the government and the Obama Administration is pure lunacy. As a private business worker I know that my company, and other companies that I've worked for in the past create Disaster Recovery Plans for the faciilities and field operations we operate. And it is done for not only our US operations but our international operations as well. It is done to reduce down time, reduce insurance costs and protect vital investments.

What we are witnessing right now is a private business and possible industry that didn't care or due to hubris didn't think it needed to.

What really disturbs me is that based on the information provided there doesn't appear to be any engineered solution for this. And how many offshore rigs are there along our borders? How many worldwide?

This problem goes beyond our borders and is a direct reflection of the OIL INDUSTRY.

Just like the coal industry they care little for regulation. Just think how bad things would be if we didn't even have the regulations we have now? And people want to blame the GOVERNMENT?? That's just plain lazy thinking.

[skantea]

09:54 AM on 05/25/2010

We let it happen. Big Oil lied for decades but we knew it and never did anything about it.
Even if we pretend we're powerless we still didn't bother to try
There are viable alternatives to oil (Cold Fusion?) but we let the Industry sweep them under the rug so they could keep doubling their profits.
So now saving the lives of sea creatures galvanizes the nation when the lives of 600,000 Iraqi civilians made us yawn.
we are all to blame for what comes next.

[SoCalNick]

09:24 AM on 05/25/2010

““Acronym for TEABAGGER: Totally Enraged About Blacks And Gays Getting Equal Rights.””