BP oil spill, are we all going to die?!?

[Daywolf]

Originally Posted by Toony [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Drilling at 5k feet presents problems shallow (500') drilling doesn't.

Any guesses as to why they were drilling at 5k?

5k? The avg on land is 2k and goes much deeper. This one is something like 20k feet.

Originally Posted by Taxi [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Theyre running out of Oil along shorelines and on land. Thats not a scientific affirmation, thats what i could muster from reading recent articles about the spill here and there.

Sorry, no. We are running out of places that we are allowed to drill on land. They are drilling in the gulf because there are no insane restriction nor millions and millions of dollars in fees just to explore a site to find if it does have oil.

Originally Posted by Eyry [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

More oil leaks naturally out of the earths crust and into the ocean every day than what the Oil spill is doing right now. The only reason people are complaining about it is because its noticeable in one area.

There were tar balls before the spill and there will be tar balls after the spill. Deal with it.

True. I've even seen oil pools on land that have come up from oil caches below. This stuff is always coming up, not going down. It's more than likely a natural byproduct of the earth. Lets see you get a trillion "dinosaurs" 5 miles down where pressure is like 10000psi [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] Oh yeah edit: problem is though that it's concentrated in one area. I'd probably go for the nuke option even though....

Originally Posted by smokiing [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

But have no worries, we might just have one solution to save mankind. Drill down a nuclear bomb and blow that sucker up or... make it much worse human style!

Problem is, who is going to pay for the damage from the tsunami? In the US, we can't even seed our clouds in most places, because of the impact resulting in lawsuits. This would make for international lawsuits on a big scale after shores get wiped. Jones is an ass btw, shock jock radio. Wait until he smears you, he has it against everyone... unless you buy gold from him.

[Excision Rottun]

Originally Posted by Daywolf [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

5k? The avg on land is 2k and goes much deeper. This one is something like 20k feet.

It is 35,000 ft or 10km.

The water there is 5,000 ft deep, I assume that is what he meant.

[Dantes]

And after the apocalypse, $10 says Kevin Costner has to have sex with a hot girl for breeding purposes.

Originally Posted by Excision Rottun [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Daywolf]

Originally Posted by Excision Rottun [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It is 35,000 ft or 10km.

The water there is 5,000 ft deep, I assume that is what he meant.

Ah yeah that is probably right, I was going to say 40k or 20k feet slipped my mind the exact depth it was. 5k below the ocean surface because it's not under environmental regulation. I've done drilling (for a season) and have family that does full-time for many years, the regulations on land are absurd. Like most industries, they are pushed outside our borders.

[Excision Rottun]

Originally Posted by Daywolf [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've done drilling (for a season) and have family that does full-time for many years, the regulations on land are absurd. Like most industries, they are pushed outside our borders.

Most of my friends either drill or work in the oil industry.

Some are pump-jack operators, crackers etc.

A couple drill in either Mexico or Saudi Arabia....serious $$$ there.

[Daywolf]

Originally Posted by Excision Rottun [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Most of my friends either drill or work in the oil industry.

Some are pump-jack operators, crackers etc.

A couple drill in either Mexico or Saudi Arabia....serious $$$ there.

Pumpjack. That’s the pumping units they install after the well is in. Maybe they set those up? That’s good pay. On drilling you have ropeman (or worm), cahinman, motorman, derrickman and mud pit or mudman (mud pits you see the steam rising from rigs). Off the rig you have one guy hiding in a trailer or room monitoring the drill angle on a computer. Then a company man moving from site to site handling any issues, taking people to the hospital etc.

Outside of the company you have Haliburton that comes by once or twice to probe the hole with radioactive sensors, checking integrity. Then you have all the support crews like welders to attach the well head and truckers to move the rig. This is probably beyond that reality tv show most likely, I watched a little and thought it was a riot, made for tv etc.

When they blow out, it sounds like a jet engine, super sonic, usually everyone dies. But not always, depends on the pressure from the depth. Running doubles (derrick height for 2 pipe connects) we usually went 2k feet which isn’t bad, and is pretty avg on land, takes 3 or 4 days actual drilling. We had a 200 lbs cap for the well if it blew, that we would pick up by hand and screw in lol. Blow outs are very rare though, like what happened in the gulf. Mud rigs are singles and go pretty shallow, only need 3 in the crew maybe. Mud because they are not on a platform but in the wet mud on the ground doing their thing, and covered in it. Not as common these days.

Natural gas is the major hazard, silent death. Die in under 3 seconds. A big problem with the gulf blowout right now as natural gas is everywhere. They don’t even allow anyone into the area any longer, I mean like reporters or public etc. Have helicopters falling out of the sky lol. Does not take many natural gas particles to kill, I mean the deadly stuff in it.

Anyway, for this gulf blowout, no idea how they are going to stop it. Probably won’t be able to until next year unless they nuke it. Problems with using nukes though, like tsunami potential and then radioactive water seeping up in time. They would need to write off drilling that deposit again of course, probably shut down adjacent rigs. They should lighten up on land exploration restrictions though, it’s stupid how intensive the restrictions are. Wells are not that dirty, cleaner than coal really. It’s just politics, really-really screwed up politics. But in the end those hyper-aggressive regulations only make for bigger screw-ups as we are seeing.

[Taxi]

Originally Posted by Daywolf [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

But in the end those hyper-aggressive regulations only make for bigger screw-ups as we are seeing.

lol so the screw-ups are really because there are too many safety regulations?

[Daywolf]

Originally Posted by Taxi [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

lol so the screw-ups are really because there are too many safety regulations?

Driving them into the gulf, yeah. When you have a screw-up under than much water, makes it harder to fix. They are out there because there are little to no restrictions. Not sure what your "lol" means, I only tell the truth in this. Restriction on land are just overwhelmingly stupid on a major scale. They are not made to save the environment but to drive industry away. Just like all the other industries the politicians have driven away to their own benefit, or taken over.

edit: Oh and I didn't say "safety" regulations, I'm speaking of environmental regulations. Save the grasshopper etc...
Takes years and millions of dollars in fees to count those grasshoppers before you can even explore 1 inch of land on a hunch their MIGHT be oil there lol

[Taxi]

Originally Posted by Daywolf [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Driving them into the gulf, yeah. When you have a screw-up under than much water, makes it harder to fix. They are out there because there are little to no restrictions.

I see, the results are convincing me we should ease up regulations on land as well...

[Daywolf]

Originally Posted by Taxi [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I see, the results are convincing me we should ease up regulations on land as well...

Yeah safety is not an issue really. Training is extensive and there are a lot of precautions on the site. It costs a little extra for training, but that is normal in most industry. When something does go wrong, it can be fixed in a day in most cases. Even off-shore isn't bad, but deep water provides a lot of problems.

One of the big problems with the high cost and time involved in environmental impact reports, as they are, is that it easily prevents start-up companies due to the heavy funding on a pure gamble. So we now get monopolies and market manipulation by a few rather than what would occur with more competition. Companies should run clean, we should definitely take care of the environment, but this seems to be more than that.

And even worse, don't want to even get into it really, is the environmental regulations on refineries. So it comes to profit loss to ship our oil to other countries to have it refined (as we need it here), as we buy refined fuel back from other countries, and in some cases hostile countries. There was talk from the government to allow an additional refinery, but really who would want to take on such a venture? If I had the money I sure wouldn't, may as well just hand all the money over to the government and break even.