BP Exec: Gulf Oil Spill Stopping Is A 'Great Sight,' But 'Far From The Finish Line'

NEW ORLEANS — A top BP executive says the company's success in stopping the flow of oil for the first time since April is a "great sight" but not cause for celebration.

Doug Suttles, the company's chief operating officer, told reporters on Dauphin Island, Ala., Thursday that the effort to permanently stop the flow of oil is "far from the finish line."

Suttles said BP PLC should know more about the effort within 48 hours, as engineers perform tests on the new, tightly fitted cap on the blown-out well. The cap is designed to be a stopgap fix until a permanent plug is injected underground.

In the meantime, Suttles cautioned that the flow of oil may resume.

Comments

[anticapitalist1983]

08:19 PM on 07/17/2010

The oil spill was no accident. just another example of socialized risks and privatized profits.
This is the BEST article on the spill that I've read:
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=2010no-accident-bp
Every gulf coast resident should read this!!!!
It touches on economic ecological and political failings and compares the bp spill to the ongoing situation with oil companies in the Niger delta. A must read.
And, Finish line? They'll never be finished until we are all dead.

[PotomacOracle]

09:43 AM on 07/17/2010

They didn't actually show the cap being placed. So was it? Who knows maybe what we're seeing from the BP video is just a bunch of pipes with a "cap" they placed somewhere else in the Gulf? Since the ships over the original gusher are not now sucking up water and oil does not mean the oil has stopped.

BP has to do everything it can to limit its financial liability and a fake "cap" would be just the ticket.

The ships have stopped sucking up the oil and BP is allowing the oil to continue to gush and it is gushing at a lower rate parallel to the surface and not as detectable as if it were coming straight up.

[pirx]

12:35 PM on 07/17/2010

Facts? Documentation? Anything to show a connection between your fantasy and the world I inhabit? Just askin'.

[PotomacOracle]

10:42 PM on 07/17/2010

Here you go. Read and then send the same brainless response to to the author.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dk-matai/gulf-of-mexico-danger-of_b_619095.html

Ask someone to teach you how to Google words, phrases, etc. so that you can at least have some content before you resort to knee jerk reactions to information you don't understand.

[donbh22]

11:39 PM on 07/16/2010

Pipe as much oil away as soon as possible, which will reduce the back pressure.
Raising the pressure could do more damage to the suspected damaged area of the bore, 1000ft in the bore, possibly causing leakage up through the sea floor, then where are we.

Safty first. Keep the back pressure as low as possible. Stopping the leak around the cap has been accomplished, so why mess around with pressures.
l would like to know their reasoning, if there is any.
Progressing with presure increases chancy and foolhearty!!!!
he dumb 90 year old pipefitter.

[pirx]

12:41 PM on 07/17/2010

I share your frustration with the lack of evident logic in this exercise. We allowed the well head to gush uncontrolled for approximately 72 hours just to get this cap in place, in return we get 48 hours of no above grade release. The 48 hour period expires in a few hours. Any data that BP could collect has been collected. The Coast Guard must force BP to immediately return to 100% production (industry term for bringing the crude to the surface), and 100% capture and control.

[M Miles]

02:19 PM on 07/16/2010

http://www.associazionegeofisica.it/OilSpill.pdf

The above scientific paper based on recent satellite imagery, seems to show that our ocean is going to pool this oil in the gulf; and maybe send it toward California?

Had dispersant not been applied to the oil than it would have come up on the beaches cleaning the ocean of it, then what was left would have gone into the Atlantic as recent computer models have shown?

[tc399]

05:41 PM on 07/16/2010

How would oil get from the Gulf of Mexico to California?

[pirx]

12:46 PM on 07/17/2010

I'm guessing it would take the Amtrak Sunset Limited across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. A very nice ride. Probably negotiated a discounted group rate, since the government is part of this conspiracy.

[M Miles]

01:58 PM on 07/16/2010

http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/beitrag/video/1090554/Die-vergessene-Oel-Katastrophe-in-Nigeria#/beitrag/video/1090554/Die-vergessene-Oel-Katastrophe-in-Nigeria

Whew terrible! See why we need to take quick action; like the time the President went to the defense of his college friend when the police were about to arrest him.

This is of greater magnitude and needs that much of a greater response!

[walterblue1]

01:55 PM on 07/16/2010

Right now, there are tens of thousands of people-- our families and friends-- in the Gulf region whose lives have been destroyed and the general response from the public has been and continues to be pitiful. I was thinking there would be outrage, protest in the streets, benefits to help the poor fisherman and fishing communities, entire cajun ... See Moreculture now in jeopardy, benefits to raise funds to help the people who are down there rescuing wildlife. Those fisherman are all out there cleaning up OUR mess, OUR poisonous oil, cleaning up for US, and they will die for US eventually because of lung disease and other ailments from exposure to oil and dispersents, and we haven't given them an ounce of support. Well, maybe an ounce but no more. Instead we sit around debating the efficacy of a BP boycott (anything to avoid doing anything). The cap is temporary and maybe it will all work out as far as stopping the gusher, but there is still 200 million gallons of oil and 2 million gallons of dispersant floating out in the ocean, washing up on shore, suffocating the environment, entering the food chain, killing everything in sight, and we are doing nothing still, like it isn't even happening...there are 27,000 unmonitored and abandon oil wells in the gulf, 4,000 operating offshore platforms in the Gulf...what do we really care about in this country?.

[nexxtep54]

02:43 PM on 07/18/2010

It's worse than that . . . http://www.bpspillsolutions.com/BPspill/main003.asp?postref=329320241196168&postid=38

[walterblue1]

03:47 PM on 07/18/2010

i am not sure why people feel prone to believe in conspiracy apocalypse narrative when reality is bad enough

[mrJJ]

12:26 PM on 07/16/2010

Source: Florida Oil Spill Law

Rep. Markey says Congress unable to “PUBLICLY disclose” integrity of wellbore — More (VIDEO)

http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/just-in-rep-markey-says-congress-unable-to-publicly-disclose-integrity-of-wellbore-more-video

[M Miles]

01:31 PM on 07/16/2010

Excellent video! Many engineers are wondering why the well would be shut in just for the reasons that Rep. Markey states. Excellent!

[M Miles]

09:52 AM on 07/16/2010

On July 15, 2010 the well was contained? I am glad that they got the new BOP working!
However something else is going on, read two other, M Miles, posts.

Also listen to these Oil pro's from speaking about the spill two months ago and it seems the same thing applies today?

Play the video from May 26th . . .

http://www.examiner.com/x-33986-Political-Spin-Examiner~y2010m5d26-2010-oil-spill-update-BP-may-be-trying-to-stop-the-wrong-leak-Video

[M Miles]

09:45 AM on 07/16/2010

I am glad they contained the well! Did anyone else see this?

July 15, 2010 late afternoon watched BP live feeds, Ocean Intervention III- ROV-2 screen showed
ROV on ocean floor moving. Looked like clouds of dust in front of it, then all of the sudden a hugh black cloud came up from the floor and overtook the brown cloud.

All the BP live feed screens then went offline! I asked if anyone else had seen that and got several replies, yes!

Here is another reply . . .
Yes. I saw it too then I lost the feed. I waited for the noise of the explosion then my computer rebooted. Weird.

What I saw was a definitely oily looking cloud hugging the sea floor on the bottom left 1/4 of my computer screen. I wasn't dirt blowing around because the dirt has been sandy colored and this definitely was near black.

The only non-disaster idea I came up with the ROV shielded the light and was showing a dirt cloud in a shadow, ... perhaps, but it sure did NOT look like a shadow to me.

[PotomacOracle]

09:53 AM on 07/17/2010

They didn't actually show the cap being placed. So was it? Who knows maybe what we're seeing from the BP video is just a bunch of pipes with a "cap" they placed somewhere else in the Gulf? Since the ships over the original gusher are not now sucking up water and oil does not mean the oil has stopped.

BP has to do everything it can to limit its financial liability and a fake "cap" would be just the ticket.

The ships have stopped sucking up the oil and BP is allowing the oil to continue to gush and it is gushing at a lower rate parallel to the surface and not as detectable as if it were coming straight up. Moreover, there are large leaks from crustal fissures like the one you saw in the video yesterday. BP knows that these fissure-flows also travel parallel to the surface with the current rather than blasting through to the top and are difficult to detect.

We have been suckered again by BP who has manipulated Admiral Allen and the EPA.

[pirx]

12:54 PM on 07/17/2010

Go to theoildrum.com, and get an explanation of the live ROV video feeds. Be prepared for some abuse if you make these bizarre statements without doing your homework, i.e. educating yourself to what is actually happening. FYI - I saw the live feeds of the cap being placed, but then again, I actually care.

[M Miles]

09:41 AM on 07/16/2010

July 15, 2010 late afternoon watched BP live feeds, Ocean Intervention III- ROV-2 screen showed
ROV on ocean floor moving. Looked like clouds of dust in front of it, then all of the sudden a hugh black cloud came up from the floor and overtook the brown cloud.

All the BP live feed screens then went offline! I asked if anyone else had seen that and got several replies, yes!

Here is one reply. . .
Yes I did see it. The camera was showing what looked like a pool of oil. The ROV touched it with it's hand and all hell broke loose. I have been watching also the camera scouting the ocean floor and I see what appears to be small lumps with round black things in them. www.wewhowatch.com

[pirx]

12:57 PM on 07/17/2010

The oildrum.com can help you understand what the ROV feeds show. Actual professional ROV operators check in daily to answer questions like yours. And the site is not a front for BP, just a forum where interested individuals can exchange info and knowledge. If that kind of thing interests you.

[Longtimeliberal]

08:37 AM on 07/16/2010

They have 4 ships to collect up to 80,000 barrels a day if they switch to that. I personally think BP is crossing their fingers this will be so successful they won't do that as then the amt of oil leaking will finally be calculated. These guys won't end up paying for all the damage they did. They were in the uncomfortable position of having to step up but I don't believe they aren't looking for any way to cut expenses. They are not even paying the people in New Orleans now. What a group.

[Kevin Atlanta]

02:22 AM on 07/16/2010

Where is the equipment pumping up the sub-surface plumes and lakes of crude and CoreXit?
BP is not getting away with leaving this mess.
This toxic dump is killing the Gulf.
Make BP clean up their mess.
Bring in the tankers, pump it up and process the oil and CoreXit out and return the water to the Gulf.
If they claim the technology doesn't exist then too freaking bad; they'll have to come up with it.
Make them clean up the Gulf.

[rpr]

02:31 AM on 07/16/2010

You mean the cubic miles with a couple ppm of oil? Not going to happen. Bacteria will have to take care of that.

[pirx]

01:02 PM on 07/17/2010

Yup, the dispersed crude is pretty much surrendered to natural processes. No lakes anywhere, but a horrible, phytoplankton killing mass of polluted seawater.

[raydeanturner]

01:49 AM on 07/16/2010

Thank God. I hope the cap holds until they can get the relief wells finished and plug it permanently, or be able to siphon it off without more leaks. If it holds, BP can use the rest of the oil that''s collected to help pay all of the legal claims and clean up this mess. Maybe we can even see some people can get a chance to go back to work.

Now we should have a discussion on how many years we've been lied to about running out of oil, driving up the prices, and buying it from people who don't like us very much. This thing has leaked 20-30 Exxon Valdez size tankers, and it's still got a lot of oil left in it. Some estimated it could have spilled for years! So how much oil is really available in untapped American reserves? These super-deep wells are speculated to contain huge amounts of oil. Now, if we could just put some people back to work and build some more refineries, there's no reason why we should be paying for high gas prices now that we know the oil game has been exposed.
I still think we can burn it cleaner, but we still need oil while we develop other energy sources to make them a realistically viable alternative.

[nexxtep54]

01:31 AM on 07/16/2010

There's an interesting new website . . . not BP, not government . . . asking for and offering solutions.

http://www.bpspillsolutions.com/BPspill/default.asp

Good poll question on home page. . . 95% in favor of binding global drilling regulations.

[rongway1]

11:39 PM on 07/15/2010

Why now don't they put a pipe on top of the cap and pumping the oil out into a ship? this would also relieve the pressure... surely i'm the first one to think of this.... i'll take 10 million dollars for the idea please.

[rpr]

02:31 AM on 07/16/2010

What happens when the first hurricane hits?

[pirx]

01:10 PM on 07/17/2010

There is disconnect on all the 4 pick up points. The surface ships run for cover, the results of this test will no doubt be used to determine whether it is safer to close the valves again, or let the crude flow and avoid a major structural faIlure to the well head/bore.

[pirx]

01:07 PM on 07/17/2010

BP has the ability to do just that in matter of hours, once they are refused another extension of this 48 hour pressure test. $ different ships standing by with the combined capacity to handle up to 80,000 barrels per day.

In a few hours, we will find out if the USCG is really in charge, since BP needs their approval to keep the cap closed.