A scary scenario.

[Spitfire]

If this engineer is right, this is truly a scary scenario! Here's his story.
"Heard you mention the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico this morning, and you (and most everyone else except maybe US talk show host George Noory) are totally missing the boat on how big and bad a disaster this is.

First fact, the original estimate was about 5,000 gallons of oil a day spilling into the ocean. Now they're saying 200,000 gallons a day. That's over a million gallons of crude oil a week!

I'm an engineer with 25 years of experience. I've worked on some big projects with big machines. Maybe that's why this mess is so clear to me.

First, the BP platform was drilling for what they call deep oil. They go out where the ocean is about 5,000 feet deep and drill another 30,000 feet into the crust of the earth. This it right on the edge of what human technology can do. Well, this time they hit a pocket of oil at such high pressure that it burst all of their safety valves all the way up to the drilling rig and then caused the rig to explode and sink. Take a moment to grasp the import of that. The pressure behind this oil is so high that it destroyed the maximum effort of human science to contain it.

When the rig sank it flipped over and landed on top of the drill hole some 5,000 feet under the ocean.

Now they've got a hole in the ocean floor, 5,000 feet down with a wrecked oil drilling rig sitting on top of is spewing 200,000 barrels of oil a day into the ocean. Take a moment and consider that, will you!

First they have to get the oil rig off the hole to get at it in order to try to cap it. Do you know the level of effort it will take to move that wrecked oil rig, sitting under 5,000 feet of water? That operation alone would take years and hundreds of millions to accomplish. Then, how do you cap that hole in the muddy ocean floor? There just is no way. No way.
On the longer-term side of things, there are signs that this largest oil drilling catastrophe could also become the worst natural gas and climate disaster. The explosion has released tremendous amounts of methane from deep in the ocean, and research shows that methane, when mixed with air, is the most powerful (read: terrible) greenhouse gas — 26 times worse than carbon-dioxide. Our warming planet just got a lot hotter.


The only piece of human technology that might address this is a nuclear bomb. I'm not kidding. If they put a nuke down there in the right spot it might seal up the hole. Nothing short of that will work.

If we can't cap that hole that oil is going to destroy the oceans of the world. It only takes one quart of motor oil to make 250,000 gallons of ocean water toxic to wildlife. Are you starting to get the magnitude of this?

We're so used to our politicians creating false crises to fo rward their criminal agendas that we aren't recognizing that we're staring straight into possibly the greatest disaster mankind will ever see. Imagine what happens if that oil keeps flowing until it destroys all life in the oceans of this planet. Who knows how big of a reservoir of oil is down there.

Not to mention that the oceans are critical to maintaining the proper oxygen level in the atmosphere for human life.

Unless God steps in and fixes this. No human can. You can be sure of that!

[Martin]

This piece is all over the internet. I'm not sure who wrote it though.

[chops]

Typical, over the top American rhetoric.

The facts the BP present are enough alone to inform us of this unprecedented disaster, without this unvalidated froth.

[filmoss]

This is Americans saying this is it ? If so ignore it ! What gets me is the US crave oil so much that they employ subsidiary companies from all over the World to drill for it and when something goes wrong they have the audacity to blame the said companies for it ! As soon as the US stops craving the oil then maybe we can start to have a more peaceful World ! I like to call this latest debacle Karma !

[noel]

I'm heartily sick of Obama's ant-British rhetoric. They want cheap oil, this is the price they have to pay for it. And it's not them who are paying. It's the poor creatures relying on the sea for their survival, covered in oil, wondering what the heck they've done to deserve this.

[Spitfire]

If, as reported, there are undersea volcanic eruptions on an almost daily basis, I`m amazed that there hasn`t been a similar natural disaster before now.

[Gonzo66]

Makes a nice change to see oil invading America.

[muffers]

I am heartsick at the damage done to the evironment and to the animals and peoples lives. Perhaps the UK's love affair with Obama will now come to an end. He really thinks some windmills will supply the whole of the US with power. Oh I forgot solar energy. Never mind BP howabout him not knowing how to get going on the clean up. He has slowed down the clean up process for weeks many think he is doing it on purpose so it will become much worse.

[rocketmanjohn]

I find it very sad that some people on here think it's ok for this disaster to carry on, as though the USA deserves it. We hear about the environmental damage, all very true, but no mention of the thousands who've lost their livelyhoods. Gonzo66, Noel and Chops should be ashamed of their silly comments. I'm well aware of the anti USA elements on here, but to wish this disaster on anyone is ridiculous.
John

[Alan Marsden]

The initial posting suggestion of using Atomic closure is absurd !

However, there's certainly a conflict of interest within the ways companies are run, they have to cut costs to enhance dividends , quarterly and annual financial reports expect improved returns if that doesn't occur, share prices fall and hence value and many likely most of us are certainly displeased if our investments don't show reasonable increase in value. So it's the usual hypocracy of capitalism , wanting more out for less input and if the CEO doesn,t deliver he's out and is replaced.
I note that the US gets most of it's oil and gas from Canada but the bewildering aspect is that we here in Canada have to pay more than they for the same product ! Obviously the price of oil and gas in the US is far less than it should be, but politicians are reluctant to have the people face economic reality and so they continue to underprice and overspend by borrowing from abroad to support what they refuse but should be generating from the US tax base at home .

Of course over the years the US citizen has come to believe that it's his entitlement to cheap and bountiful oil and gas ,food etc etc. (the Walmart mentality, more for less, or at least the perception of such ). Facing and implimenting reality is not good politcs , people continue to 'want ' but are unwilling to pay for their 'want list'!

The current oil leak is indeed catastrophic , the only people to benefit will be the parasitical 'New York tort lawyers' who will shortly be pedling their class action suites and pocketing millions of immoral dollars at the expense of all !