Today is 30 days since the disastrous blowout and massive spill that occurred on April 20 on BP's Mississippi Canyon Block 252 well. The well has been flowing uncontrolled since at a rate that is far in excess of the 5,000 barrels per day claimed by the US Coast Guard, MMS, and BP. We have been calling for BP to disclose the actual flow, or at least give the pressures in the BOP so others can estimate flow, but, so far, BP has not been forthcoming. In fact, BP announced that they are now actually siphoning 5,000 barrels per day through the riser insertion tool (RIT), and the live video feed shows the flow virtually unabated (the feed is overloaded, so you may not be able to see it until later tonight). Today BP reluctantly admitted for the first time that the flow is over 5,000 barrels per day. Talk about understatement of the decade.
I am beginning to pick up a lot of frustration surrounding the glacial pace of decision making and lack of transparency in BP's carefully controlled messaging, enabled by the MMS and Coast Guard. I have now heard that many of the people assigned to the task of killing this well are paralyzed, waiting for decisions from BP management and the MMS on procedures and timing. There has been apparently a lot of discussion about cutting the riser above the BOP (blowout preventer) in preparation to land another BOP on top of the failed one. I've also heard that the MMS is not allowing any moves by BP without permission, slowing progress even further.
Supposedly, the top kill will be tried on Sunday. I understand the technical complexity and risk in an incident of this magnitude in this depth of water, but, for heaven's sake, the kill manifold has been set for something like 2 weeks. There doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency in BP's management as was evident by Tony Hayward's tone deaf assessment yesterday when he said, "...the overall environmental impact of this will be very, very modest," even as oil came ashore in Louisiana marshes killing wildlife. I'm also hearing that the response center, fully staffed Monday through Friday, has only a fraction of the people working on weekends. Apparently, this disaster is only a crisis for management during regular work hours.
Surely, concerned employees of BP are doing everything they can to get this well shut in. But their leadership, along with the responsible government agencies, seem bogged down in bureaucracy and politics. The press briefings are mostly uninformative, and the "technical briefings" don't have much in the way of actual technical briefing. Congressman Ed Markey, chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, has begun to hold BP's feet to the fire, demanding, and getting, the live video feed of the leaking riser. The government, and the public, are also waking up to the facts that many of us have known since the first day...this disaster is much larger than BP has admitted. The MMS and Coast Guard have not publicly demanded more information be disseminated to the public. In fact, the Coast Guard has even assisted BP in withholding information by threatening the press with arrest for videotaping oil on the shore.
It's clear now that BP is not going to be forthcoming. I now believe that it's time for an independent group of engineers and scientists be inserted into the BP response center to assure that information being given to the public is more complete and accurate, and that decisions are being made more timely to get the well shut in, not simply protecting BP's legal position. This is not just BP's problem...
It's all our problem.
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