Alternet: 10 Shocking Facts About The BP Oil Spill You Need (But Don't Want) To Know

http://www.alternet.org/environment/147014/10_things_you_need_%28but_don%27t_want%29_to_know_about_the_bp_oil_spill

10 Things You Need (But Don't Want) To Know About the BP Oil Spill
How the owner of the exploded oil rig has made $270 million off the disaster, and nine other shocking, depressing facts about the oil spill.
May 27, 2010 |

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Though BP officially admits to only a few thousand barrels spilled each day, expert estimates peg the damage at 60,000 barrels or over 2.5 million gallons daily. (Perhaps we'd know more if BP hadn't barred independent engineers from inspecting the breach.) Measures to quell the gusher have proved lackluster at best, and unlike the country's last big oil spill -- Exxon-Valdez in 1989 -- the oil is coming from the ground, not a rig, so the amount that could continue to pollute Gulf waters may be infinite.

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1. Oil rig owner has made $270 million off the oil leak

Transocean Ltd., the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig leased by BP, has been flying under the radar in the mainstream blame game. The world's largest offshore drilling contractor, the company is conveniently headquartered in corporate-friendly Switzerland, and it's no stranger to oil disasters. In 1979, an oil well it was drilling in the very same Gulf of Mexico ignited, sending the drill platform into the sea and causing one of the largest oil spills by the time it was capped... nine months later.

This experience undoubtedly influenced Transocean's decision to insure the Deepwater Horizon rig for about twice what it was worth. In a conference call to analysts earlier this month, Transocean reported making a $270 million profit from insurance payouts after the disaster. It's not hard to bet on failure when you know it's somewhat assured.

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5. Clean-up prospects are dismal

The media makes a lot of noise about all the different methods BP is using to clean up the oil spill. Massive steel containment domes were popular a few weeks ago. Now everyone is touting the "top kill" method, which involves injecting heavy drilling fluids into the damaged well.

But here's the reality. Even if BP eventually finds a method that works, experts say the best cleanup scenario is to recover 20 percent of the spilled oil. And let's be realistic: only 8 percent of the crude oil deposited in the ocean and coastlines off Alaska was recovered in the Exxon-Valdez cleanup.

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7. BP is sequestering survivors and taking away their right to sue

With each hour, the economic damage caused by Deepwater Horizon continues to grow. And BP knows this.

So while it outwardly is putting on a nice face, even pledging $500 million to assess the impacts of the spill, it has all the while been trying to ensure that it won't be held liable for those same impacts.

Just after the Deepwater explosion, surviving employees were held in solitary confinement, while BP flacks made them waive their rights to sue. BP then did the same with fishermen it contracted to help clean up the spill though the company now says that was nothing more than a legal mix-up.

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10. No one knows what to do and it will happen again

MORE

80% of the oil. Why can't we deploy tankers to skim the oil NOW?

Here's a journal article outlining their procedures:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/f50w813122n2p31q/

4/23/10
Oil company BP, which had been using the oil rig, stated that it had at its disposal four planes that can disperse chemicals to break up the oil, as well as 32 vessels, which would be able to suck up over 171,000 barrels of oil a day from the surface.
more...
http://www.examiner.com/x-40861-SF-Top-News-Examiner~y2010m4d23-Top-News-Tackling-oil-rig-disaster-number-one-priority--Obama


But are they mistaking barrels for gallons? This blowout is leaking perhaps 25,000 barrels of oil per day equating to appx 1 million gallons per day.
(originally 5000 barrels or 210,000 gallons per day, 1 barrel = 42 gallons)

or
are those 171,000 barrels a combination of oil and water?

5/1/10
North Vancouver's Aquaguard is one of the only companies in the world that makes skimmers, remote controlled devices which suck in as much as one barrel of oil per second. "There are currently three of these systems being sent from Mexico towards the spill," Aquaguard's chief operating officer Cameron Janz said. "Next week we're going to be sending more skimmers down there for some of those smaller lakes or rivers or marshlands areas for sure." But good technology only goes so far, and Javadi says there are still challenges ahead. "Down in the Gulf of Mexico, there are many waves, which is pushing the oil over the booms, so the boom is put in place, but the oil is going over it and spreading further."
more...
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100501/bc_oil_spill_100501/20100501?hub=BritishColumbia

the other day on the Louisiana coast. He had been on the water off the coast that day. Oil was everywhere. He said there wasn't a boat of any kind in sight (visbility was 20 miles). So looks like skimming efforts are very limited.

Size, flow, no loop current.

That combined with the weather means it usually is as smooth as glass with little current or tidal action.
In essence the oil just at there waiting for giant slow tankers to suck up the oil over the course of months.

The situation isn't comparable to the Gulf where the oil has spread "thinly" across thousands of miles with rough seas, unpredictable weather, and major currents.

They have ecological devastation upon them, and there is no "cure" for it.. Only time will change it, and of course no one knows how long it will take, and how much it will improve.

10. No one knows what to do and it will happen again

It's the cowboy mentality of "Manifest Destiny"...the "Business of America is Business". The oil companies operate like the robber baron industries of a century ago. They are risk takers and if that means pushing the limits to make a profit or cut corners or both, "it's progress". This was especially the case during the booosh years where the oil companies knew they were in full control and push further and deeper with little regard to what little regulation remained.

This game also was helped along by the speculation games of the booosh era that drove up a gallon of gas from $1.50 to $3 a gallon in many places and made those once cost prohibitive sites a lot more lucrative. But even then, it appears BP was pushing to start getting a return in the 500 million it invested in sinking the well and other expenses in finding the oil dome. Hopefully we'll learn who was calling the shots here and that they'll be held criminally negligent for the death of the 11 workers and BP is held fully liable for all clean-up costs.

In fairness, Trans-Ocean appears to have a minor role in this tragedy...the 60 Minutes report with the survivor of the platform (who worked for Trans-Ocean) claims it was BP that pushed to rush the job that led to short cuts and the blow-out. It was truly reckless and appears no one knew or cared about what would happen if something went wrong.

Now we all are paying for it...

BP fired their Alaskan North Slope Medical Director for "whistle blowing."

In a sane nation, firing someone for "whistle blowing", (i.e. reporting crimes or other violations to the appropriate agencies), would lead directly to jail time, and a future in which one never held management power again.

They make billions yet too cheap to protect the environment they've invaded. And worse we allow them to. The appeals for claims will go on for decades.