Gulf oil spill: Call to replace BP not an option

Replacing  BP as the leader in the cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico oil leak is not an option and such calls are just a metaphor,  Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said on Monday.

As complaints about the federal government’s response to the massive oil leak continued to grow,  Allen, the national incident commander, briefed White House reporters on the Obama administration’s efforts to deal with the spill, which began with the explosion and sinking of a deep-water oil rig last month.

As the oil has continued to flow into the gulf and onto some 70 miles of Louisiana coastline, the administration has upped the rhetoric on how the leak is being fought. Throughout, the administration has maintained that it is doing all it can and that BP, which operates the well, is the responsible party for the cleanup.

Over the weekend, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar complained about BP’s performance and threatened to have the federal government take over the operation, a possibility that the White House last week said could not be done. 

“That’s more of a metaphor,” Allen said Monday, when asked about Salazar’s comments. ‘We need to make sure that [BP officials] execute their responsibilities.”

Allen explained that the law requires BP to be responsible for the cleanup and that the federal government is responsible for making sure the company carries it out.

“To push BP out of the way would raise the question to replace them with what?” Allen said.

Allen explained that the company had the resources, skilled personnel and equipment that the government lacks to deal with the underwater flow.

--Michael Muskal

Twitter.com/LATimesmuskal

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Comments

[raziel]

WHY? is this solution to the oil leak in the Gulf being utilized?

Paul Neal "Red" Adair (June 18, 1915 – August 7, 2004) was a renowned American oil well firefighter. He became world notable as an innovator in the highly specialized and extremely hazardous profession of extinguishing and capping blazing, erupting oil well blowouts, both land-based and offshore.
His top employees (Brian Krause, Raymond Henry, Rich Hatteberg) left in 1994 and formed their own company, International Well Control (IWC). In 1997, IWC purchased the remnants of Boots and Coots and the company is now Boots & Coots/IWC. This company is located on the Gulf and has the expertise to solve the oil leakage in the Gulf. WHY? are they not involved? Why? have they not been contacted by BP or the Federal Government?
Clearly they have the expertise with a proven track record.
In the name of man's in-humanity to man and his eco- environment, PLEASE!!! , Somebody reach out, before it's really too late

[Hugh Robertson]

@ Chris, excellent thoughtful post. Thanks. The fact is the oil people are the ones with the equipment and expertise to take care of this. Already, in their haste to finish the job, they've done something stupid and we're seeing the results in this disaster. I don't think it really occurred to the higher ups at BP, when they were pushing for results and to get the job done that this uncontrolled blowout would be the result. All they were seeing was the costs rising to the moon. Now, the costs are past Uranus. Since they were being successful in drilling the well they got cocky and thought that all was under control. A mile of water is harder to work in than outer space. I am just hoping that they do not rush the fix and do something stupid again. The time to worry about the money is past, this thing could cost more than the value of all the oil in the Gulf. One saving grace is that oil is a biological product and there are bacteria that do eat it.

[chris]

There are a couple of reasons they do not put a charge down the well and collapse it. First, there are hundreds if not thousands of feet of damaged riser still attached to the BOP stacks above the wellhead. They were lucky to get the tube being used to collect oil shoved up inside the riser far enough to make a difference and I certainly would not expect they could manage to thread a charge of any sort through the twisted and kinked pipe all the way to the well below the ocean floor. Consider also that kinked and twisted pipe is restricting the flow rate so to cut it off or to remove the BOP stacks would open up a larger cross sectional area to flow thus allowing the flow rate to increase (though removing one of the BOP stacks and stabbing another one over the top is an option if all else fails--the risk being their ability to actually get a new BOP stack over the hole and flanged up without causing further damage).

Second, even if they could access the hole cleanly, blowing up the casing in the hopes of collapsing the hole is just not a good idea. The casing is there to keep other oil, gas and water reservoirs (in this case likely water reservoirs and uneconomic gas reservoirs) from flowing to surface. Purposely collapsing the casing could make a very bad situation even worse.

The classical use of explosives to control a blowout is on land wells where the hydrocarbons have caught fire thereby restricting access to the wellhead. The objective of the explosion in that case is to consume all of the oxygen so that the flames go out. No fire here anymore...

I know a lot of people want to believe BP is just trying to save their well, but reality is the cost to drill a new well is far less than the combined cost to drill two relief wells going to the same place, the cost of continuing cleanup operations, the lost revenue from all the oil lost to the Gulf and all of the money they will spend on claims filed against them for lost wages, etc. BP knows this. The only way to finally and fully isolate the reservoir that is currently flowing to surface and permanently fix the problem is to finish one or both relief wells and pump cement into the well at the reservoir. Any action that jeopardizes that permanent solution is a bad idea.

As for the cleanup, do you really want to wait until the leak is stopped to start cleaning up the oil? Of course it seems like a futile effort with oil still pouring out of the well, but just imagine if you let it all set out there being pushed around by the wind and waves for weeks on end.

There is no denying this is an absolute disaster but the sad reality is this is going to take time and, unfortunately, learning from failure, to fix. I can only hope we take the time to understand everything that went wrong to being with as well as what works and doesn't in the resolution of the matter so this never happens again.

[John]

Both Republicans and Democrats are in bed with the Oil (Beast of the Earth) and Banks (Beast of the Sea). You can not believe one thing they say or do. They have sold us all to the beast and only one president since the Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act has try to free us, and he was killed for it. That president was JFK. He tried to change our monetory system and bring our standard back. This is why oil is bought and sold in American dollars. They are both the same beast!

[Steve in WPB]

Coast Guard officer Allen says that BP has more and better resources than the US Navy and the Army Corp of Engineers. What world does Allen live in? THe Navy has robotic submarines that can easily operate at this depth and the Army Corps of Engineers has the know-how to effectively stop this leak.
How much more oil has to spill before our government does the right thing?

[Bill Carson]

BP is in the drivers seat ! We are now a third rate power and debtor nation ! The US government does not have the power to order BP to do anything !

The oil platform was built in Korea , it's flaged in Malaysia and owned by a foreign company !

The US has already been flipped off by BP on several situations !

We should nationalize all the U.S. BP gas stations like they used to do in Mexico !

[Gary Kavanagh]

A quote from the federal clean water act.

"(A) If a discharge, or a substantial threat of a discharge, of oil or a hazardous substance from a vessel, offshore facility, or onshore facility is of such a size or character as to be a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States (including but not limited to fish, shellfish, wildlife, other natural resources, and the public and private beaches and shorelines of the United States), the President shall direct all Federal, State, and private actions to remove the discharge or to mitigate or prevent the threat of the discharge."

[Theresa Right]

How come we do not have big tankers over this leak sucking it up as it happens?

[Evad the Slayer]

I thought he had to be out of his mind with that idiotic statement. Just goes to show what kind of ninconpoops run our government. Not to worry; he will probably retire soon and go to work for BP as a public relations expert! Boy do we have the government we deserve.

[chuck]

All I seem to hear is about the clean up. We need the oil leak fixed. A clean up now is a waste of time.

[Jason]

I am still wondering why they cannot put a charge down the tube and collapse the line .... or are they worried that doing so would mean no more money from that pipe?