Juan Cole over at Informed Comment has this Fun Fact about BP:
BP, by the way, is British Petroleum, a descendant of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The Iranian parliament asked for a better deal from the AIOC in the late 1940s and early 1950s (they wanted a 50/50 cut of the profits, which was what ARAMCO offered Saudi Arabia). The AIOC absolutely refused. In response, the Iranian parliament nationalized the AIOC holdings in 1951. It was in order to restore Western Big Oil to its Iranian holdings that the CIA overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953, putting the shah back on the throne as a megalomaniacal capitalist dictator and puppet of Washington. The enraged Iranian public overthrew the shah in 1978-79, establishing the Islamic Republic that has been a thorn in Washington’s side ever since. So, BP’s earlier arrogance helped produce our current crisis with Iran, just as it’s current incompetence has produced the massive Delaware-sized oil slick now devouring Louisiana.
As you can see, it is all part of the circle of life.
Cheers
dengre
Noonan
And thus the stupidity of Drill Baby Drill and Bomb Bomb Iran come full-circle.
MattR
Interesting history. I don’t mean to go off on a tangent, but is there any actual evidence that shows that it was BP’s incompetence that lead to this spill?
zenster666
Don’t forget the North slope pipeline spill in 2006 and the refinery explosion at Texas City in 2007. These guys have a terrible record and should be excluded from doing business in the U.S.
aimai
Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. Over and over and over again. But we knew that.
aimai
stuckinred
Giant oil-services provider Halliburton may be a primary suspect in the investigation into the oil rig explosion that has devastated the Gulf Coast, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Though the investigation into the explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon site is still in its early stages, drilling experts agree that blame probably lies with flaws in the “cementing” process — that is, plugging holes in the pipeline seal by pumping cement into it from the rig. Halliburton was in charge of cementing for Deepwater Horizon.
AhabTRuler
My understanding is that this was Transocean’s gig, BP only leased the block where the where the well was being drilled.
Breezeblock
I love Outrage at Happy Hour.
Hmm, that could be a good name for a band…
Fwiffo
Overthrowing Mosaddegh is one of the greatest US foreign policy blunders of the 20th century. Ranks right up there with going against a Sicilian when death is on the line and getting involved in a land war in Asia… oops.
Sue
Wasn’t BP the owner of the refinery that had that deadly explosion a few years back (I know, I know, which explosion)? The refinery held together by on-the-cheap maintenance while BP raked in record gas profits?
Oops, sorry, Zenster beat me to it!
Fergus Wooster
@MattR: Ahab beat me to it, but it was a Transocean rig. If Transocean is operating BP’s lease, the operational fault may lie with Transocean. And by extension, possibly Halliburton for botching the cementing process.
If it were just a matter of Transocean vs. BP, I can see going after BP since they have deeper pockets. But if the Big H is involved, I think we’ll be hearing a lot more about it in the days ahead. . .
licensed to kill time
This means just one thing. More mojitos!
Zifnab
@stuckinred:
Nonsense. I heard Obama Greenpeace Black Ops SWAT teams did it.
AhabTRuler
And let’s be clear: this spill didn’t occur because of the lack of another safety device. This spill happened because we are drilling oil wells a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf.
Omnes Omnibus
@stuckinred:
Why am I not surprised?
Zifnab
@Sue: As a Texan, yes. I do remember that.
Fergus Wooster
@Sue:
Yes. They have been working hard on the PR front since that, and had made some headway. Of course, the Alaska pipeline leak put a dent in the PR campaign, and now this. . .
Don’t forget BP tried to pin the blame on workers at the refinery, until the inspectors’ report blamed BP for shorting on maintenance and safety capex.
zenster666
BP says they’re going to pay for the clean-up. Their deep pockets are open for drilling.
asiangrrlMN
@zenster666: How mighty generous of them. BP may or may not be directly responsible through negligence for the spill itself, but it’s not hard to think about how the aftermath could have gone better if they had followed some of the precautionary measures available instead of trying to cut corners on costs.
Linda Featheringill
I’m looking for a site that is monitoring the oil spill. Right now I’m on The Lede at NYT.
Are there others?
Fergus Wooster
They have to at least appear to step up.
“Beyond Petroleum”, their whole green image just circled the bowl. If they act all douchey like Exxon, they’re done.
maus
@Fergus Wooster:
Why? This is today’s journalism we’re talking about. Exxon happened at a different time, and one episode of Undercover Boss or something can right them in the public’s mind. Taking a side or shaming through coverage is too “partisan”.
Fergus Wooster
In the US, true, but they’re a global brand that marketed itself as environmentally-conscious and science-friendly – the anti-Exxon.
Europe and emerging markets don’t suffer from the United States of Amnesia’s sickness, at least not to the same degree. Especially after they’ve taken three strikes (Refinery, Prudhoe Bay leak, now killing the entire fucking Gulf of Mexico). I don’t think they’re first in line for offshore concessions in the rest of the world right now.
Bob K
“White Man’s Burden” This is a Compassionate Conservatives way of “Giving Back” while raping his date. Irish are “white ni$$er$) but that’s a lesson for another time. WHATEVER you do don’t go to the Urban Dictionary and look up “Mud Shark” which is what Mikey $teele called Obama’$ Mama. Or he would if he wasn’t such an oreo though there’s nothing wrong with that. After all you have the KKK African American Auxiliary and the Kosher Hitler Youth Movement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man's_Burden
AhabTRuler
I don’t mean to be an asshole, but: ow’d that Exxon boycott work out, again?
BP will pay clean up costs and probably fines as well, but the toothpaste is out of the tube in regards to the enviromental damage.
And if you think that BP is going anywhere, well, you’ve been smoking some bad granola, hippy!
El Cid
But… but… they told us they overthrew Iran’s government because of Communism, and for Democracy, and that they were really, really well intentioned, and that there was just so much they didn’t know…
ThinkBlue
Reuters is reporting that a second rig has overturned in Louisiana.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63T55Q20100430
racrecir
Michael Ledeen: “Consider the case of Iran, the world’s leading sponsor of terrorists. The Islamic Republic of Iran declared war on the United States in 1979, and has waged war against us for 31 years.”
Catsy
@Bob K: What in the fuck are you talking about?
Bnut
I wish Obama had gotten the entire National Guard in all affected states activated, and all sent the Gulf. Then he should have put out an ad for all-expenses paid trips to the region to help if you have any expertise at all. Make the pay amazing. Then send the entire fucking bill to BP. After that, start imposing a 1cent per gallon tax on gasoline that gets sent straight into an emergency fund for when this shit will invariably happen again. If people want their gas, then make them show it.
slippy
@MattR: They were the ones drilling, and now they’re the ones spilling.
Responsibility is so quaint a concept . . .
Bnut
BTW, this tweet just showed up:
http://twitter.com/huffingtonpost/status/13149896442
Looks like another oil rig is having problems as we speak.
JGabriel
@Bnut: Reuters: Second Drilling Rig Overturns In LA
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RS
Apparently they can smell oil in Mandeville/Covington now. For those unfamiliar with Louisiana, thats pretty far inland.
AhabTRuler
Slippy@30: …and we are the ones who are buying.
So what’s that about responsibility?
Martin
@MattR:
Do you think God caused the spill? Otherwise, yes, BP is at fault. That’s sorta the whole point of the discipline of engineering to make sure this kind of shit doesn’t happen. They failed either to properly design it, approve the safest design, properly fund the construction, construct it properly, or provide adequate contingency measures for any known defects that they couldn’t fix. Either God did this, or BP management did. You pick.
gnomedad
@ThinkBlue:
Hey, God, I really appreciate your efforts to embarrass the Republicans, but you can stop now.
cleek
i’ve known wingers who only use BP gas because they think it all comes from the North Sea. “no Saudi oil fer me!”
idiots.
twiffer
wait, were we expecting competence from british engineers?
[grin]
JGabriel
@gnomedad:
Faster, Pussycat! Drill! Drill!
Okay, under the circumstances, I guess that’s really not funny.
.
DBrown
And the average stupid American says “What possible reason does Iran want Nukes? It’s not like we are their enemy …”
Only in America.
Brachiator
@JGabriel:
Isn’t this the part where Bobby Jindal and the GOP congressional leadership come out and explain why they don’t need the federal government’s help in cleaning up the spill?
Or Sarah Palin explains how the spill isn’t really bad, but is just God’s upchuck?
Martin
@cleek: That’s not even relevant as it turns out. There’s an open market for crude and an open market for refined gas. BP may not even touch their own drilled crude and just sell it on the open market. The gas they sell may not be refined by them, and what they do refine they may sell to others. One of the more expensive parts of the refining chain is distribution. Why pay to tanker your shit all the way from the north sea to California when it’s much cheaper and easier to buy from Venezuela or Canada instead? It’s all the same stuff – the company that drilled or refined it has fuckall to do with who is retailing the final product.
That’s why the Exxon boycott was so stupid. The retail channel is the least profitable. So Exxon just sold all their crude and refined gas to Chevron, and still got your money when you bought from them.
Sue
@gnomedad: You’re right. Embarrassment doesn’t work. It’s time for some individual smiting, starting now.
AhabTRuler
Send rig is ‘mobile inland rig’ that overturned in a shipping channel
ThinkBlue
And, as if on cue, Sarah Palin releases a “Drill, Baby, Drill!” post on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=384560338434
BethanyAnne
@zenster666: My brother works at the Texas City plant, and was there when it exploded. He was showing the plant to a new employee, and they had stepped into one of the latest “bombproof” building to pee. He said he barely noticed the explosion – they just wondered why a couple of ceiling tiles in the hall had fallen.
Martin
@Brachiator: This is a mobile inland rig. Sounds like they were probably moving it when it overturned. I doubt they’d be drilling in a navigational channel.
Oh, I should add I’m pretty sure Obama’s SWAT team will have been seen on the rig moments before it overturned.
JGabriel
cleek:
I don’t see why the BP disaster should change their mind. It’s American workers in American waters producing American oil! Who cares that it led to an American oil spill? Those are the risks of Capitalism, boy-o!
(/wingitation)
.
JGabriel
Brachiator:
“It’s just God’s way of sayin’ Obama is to America as Oil is to Water!”
.
Brachiator
@DBrown:
Probably just as dumb are the Americans who believe that the world revolves around them, that other countries don’t have national interests, but just react to whatever the US has done.
Iran wants the bomb for the same reasons that Britain, France, Israel, South Africa, India and Pakistan wanted the bomb.
Martin
@Brachiator: Subterranean Jesus is just splooging on the hard working people of Louisiana. A good patriot would baptize themself in His potent slick of capitalism.
zenster666
@BethanyAnne: He’s lucky. 15 were killed and 170 injured in that explosion at the Texas refinery.
burnspbesq
@stuckinred:
Please tell me that Halliburton is insured by AIG. Would be nice to see the shareholders of the company that fucked up take it in the shorts for a change.
Brachiator
@Martin:
Alternative names for the oil spill reminds me of this clip of WNYW news anchor Rosanna Scotto trying to come up with an alternative name for “soy milk.”
Bob K
@Catsy:
Iraq was all about the oil. Or proving that Jr. was able to do what Daddy didn’t that is – take down Saddam Hussein. Or maybe just making boatloads of money for KBR/Halliburton. Guess who was CEO of Halliburton after he got booted out of the White House when Clinton was voted in? Dead Eye Dick.
Who get’s the last laugh? Does this sit wrong with anyone? The U.S. has been stuck in an open ended war with thousands of casualties for years and the Russians get the prize??!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism
Davebo
Actually it would be more accurate to state that Transocean, the operator of the rig has produced the oil slick.
They operated and maintained the rig. They chose the BOP.
Regardless, considering the massive number of E&P efforts worldwide, this kind of thing is fairly rare.
South of I-10
@Linda Featheringill: The Times Picayune has great local coverage at Nola.com
JGabriel
@Davebo:
Because it’s heavily regulated. I doubt the US safety record will match global statistics if we expand off-shore drilling. Republican administrations, in particular, are too irresponsible and besotted with deregulation.
.
Xenos
@ThinkBlue: Have you seen the comments to that facebook post by Palin? It is a really weird combination of irrational, malicious and generally incoherent nonsense.
eg:
Davebo
JGabriel</a?
Actually it's more self regulated, and for good reason.
Anyone in the industry will tell you the most powerful person on an offshore (or land) rig is the safety guy.
It's a matter of weighing the options. A rig accident such as this one, and this is a huge one, generally doesn't produce a spill nearly as large as a Valdez event. And deepwater semisubs have a pretty good track record to date.
MMS certainly overseas operations on US issued leases, but the downside to drilling contractors like Transocean is really the ability to get new contracts for their rigs.
Do you think BP won't think twice before awarding a 400,000.00 a day contract to TransO in the future?
Nylund
Of course, Rush Limbaugh is saying this is all the fault of Obama. Its his Katrina, rush says.
Yes, the “Drill, Baby, Drill” crowd is blaming liberals for the results of drilling.
Midnight Marauder
@Davebo:
Not particularly, no.
Ripley
I’m almost tempted to friend Palin so I can comment on that Facebook note, because there’s no way in Hell she wrote that herself.
Svensker
@Brachiator:
That is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. What WAS she thinking?
South of I-10
So I just read some more about the second rig, it was headed to the demolition yard on a barge when it capsized. Probably not the best idea to be moving much in this high wind. Wind has been out of the south at 20 to 30 mph all day.
arguingwithsignposts
nola.com:
Mark S.
@ThinkBlue:
Jesus, Sarah (or more accurately, whoever updates Sarah’s Facebook), now really isn’t the time for your oil drilling cheerleading. If this thing is half as bad as I think it’s going to be, you’re going to eat these words.
Chuck Butcher
@Davebo:
Jumpin jesus on a flatcar, WTF?
Every damn system has failures and with enough repetitions something bad is going to happen. Rare means shit to the Gulf Coast now doesn’t it. It isn’t rare it is happening.
Pretending that because you’re pretty good at something means nothing bad will happen is childish – big fucking surprise – and that’s how these shows are run, including by fed regulators. Accurate assessment of risk and the inclusion of pallitive measures for failure are a different thing. I’m tired of magical thinking.
Chuck Butcher
@Mark S.:
She does kind of ignore her comments to the effect that “studies” and such horseshit weren’t needed just DBD!
Garrigus Carraig
@Svensker: Um. What do you think she was thinking?
ImJohnGalt
No recent open thread to post this in, but it *is* Friday and I thought Tim F. might appreciate this.
http://artofmanliness.com/2010/04/29/a-beginners-guide-to-craft-beer/
burnspbesq
@Chuck Butcher:
Normally your comments here are pretty smart. This one is an exception.
Yes, it sucks to be an animal or a plant in southeast Louisiana right about now. That doesn’t change the fact that offshore drilling disasters are few and far between, when viewed in the context of the overall global level of offshore oil exploration and production.
What comments like yours illustrate is something about the way the human mind works: we tend to vastly overestimate the probability of very bad things happening (especially immediately after one of those very bad things happens).
There is a conversation that can be had about whether the downside of offshore drilling is so bad that it should be prohibited. Knee-jerk reactions like yours don’t make a positive contribution to that conversation.
Pasquinade
@Zifnab
http://twitter.com/andilinks
JGabriel
Jury convicts Palin’s e-mail prankster/hacker (depending on your POV) on two charges: obstruction and unauthorized access.
Sarah pulls a Hoekstroika:
Really, Sarah? Your password was wasillahigh, which is like leaving your housekeys in the doorlock, but this was like WATERGATE?
.
freelancer
OT- (again, sorry) This is the best thing I’ve read today, and it gave me chills. The city of Seattle goes all out for 13-year old’s Make-a-wish request.
I love this country, wingers be damned.
Bob K
@aimai:
Aimai – The 3rd Enlish Civil War took place from 1642 – 1651.
The Puritans (round heads) ran King Charles to ground in 1647. The – Puritans – Parliament Forces wanted the king to take back the throne. Buy they wanted him to do A. B. and C. just like Rush Hudson Limbaugh III would say to you. I AM YOUR MASTAH – KNEEL AND RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH!!!. I is king you is peasant I tell YOU what to do. GOD annointed me. So the Roundheads said whatever and the Cavaliers (Royalists) said “We is so screwed now”. Two years later (1649) they chopped off King Charles head. It took two more years before the civil war was officially over. Now here in this country we are still fighting the civil war (or at least there are some south of the Mason Dixon line think that we are)
Brachiator
@freelancer:
A break in the madness is quite welcome.
Here’s video coverage of The Adventures of Electron Boy.
LD50
@racrecir: Thank goodness Ledeen understands that only America haters and terrorist sympathizers try to understand why so much of the world is so mad at us. They hate us for our freedoms!
JGabriel
via freelancer:
I wanna call on the powers of Moonshine Maid!
.
AhabTRuler
@Chuck Butcher:
OK, Chuck, here is the realism: As long as we drill deep-water wells, these accidents are going to happen. Guaranteed. No matter how many ASDs, no matter how regulated the industry is, no matter how much money you throw at the problem, these accidents are going to happen, period.
WereBear
@freelancer: Yeah, I cried. What an amazing thing to be a part of.
colleeniem
@freelancer: Thanks for that, I need it today.
Chuck Butcher
@burnspbesq:
Rare doesn’t count shit right now, does it? The fact that it is rare doesn’t mean shit about the consequences of it happening and doesn’t mean shit to the value of having in place the means to control and mitigate the inevitible failures. Rare doesn’t mean that it won’t goddam happen, it means that it will goddam happen.
Knee jerk my ass. I don’t have million dollar insurance policies on my cars because I’m going to have an accident at 12:01 AM 5/3/10, I have it because it will most likely happen and I can’t afford to not cover that likelihood. There is no current stopping of the well, is there? Do you think that it is reasonable behavior to not have such a means directly at hand rather than months of developement away?
I work in a dangerous industry and I use good practices and despite my best efforts somebody will manage to get hurt – so I am ready for it. Ooopses in my work mean real problems for workers and customers – you propose BP/etc are different?
Linda Featheringill
@South of I-10: Thanks.
Chuck Butcher
@AhabTRuler:
No shit? If you deal with oil near water there will be water problems. I worked Chevron Oil Refinery – Richmond, CA on the Long Warf off and up loading crude and product. Chevron didn’t say it, but they expected spills despite extensive means to prevent so they had extensive means to correct and mitigate.
Large quantities of oil and the presence of a body of water mean you better be ready to deal with it, 10 feet above water or 5000 feet below.
AhabTRuler
@Chuck Butcher:
That’s the magical thinking. You can never be 100% ready for everything. It is human nature. So if you are operating in an environment where than can be no mistakes, well, be prepared for a bad time.
So it doesn’t matter how angry you get, it doesn’t matter how much you invoke your own experience in construction, none of it matters.
AS LONG AS WE DRILL FOR OIL IN 1 MILE DEEP WATERS THIS WILL HAPPEN.
That’s it. That’s the reality.
And talk to Zuzu’s Petals about her (IIRC) son’s experience on the Horizon, go to the gCaptain post she linked to. Transocean has a really good reputation for safety, and despite the inferno that the rig turned into, more than 90% of the crew escaped. We don’t even know what the direct cause is, so maybe Transocean did everything right.
I am not trying to defend wrongdoing or oil pollution, but this was the bargain we made all along. It’s what we get for blowing off Jimmy Carter to blow Ronald Reagan.
abscam
@Bob K: Hey there, Brick Oven Bill. Thought you’d gone galt.
Joe Bauers
Cheap energy isn’t cheap. This is what our way of life costs us.
AhabTRuler
And don’t think that I am trying to minimize the damage. 11 people are dead and the environmental damage is going to be beyond imagination, especially if the whole wellhead goes (as some have been speculating might happen).
If that happens, and the formation vents unchecked for 3 mos., the Gulf Coast could be effectively destroyed for generations.
I am literally horrified. But then, as I have mentioned before in association with this disaster, I am equally horrified at how likely a major LOC event will occur at a nuclear reactor near a highly populated area, resulted in mass casualties.
Since I have given the link to the Wikipedia page, I will note that the article has been sanitized to read:
What really happened, according to a GAO report on the incident, is that the Boric acid had eaten entirely through the pressure vessel head, and reactor integrity was being maintained by the stainless steel skin of the reactor, which was not designed to withstand operating pressures. And had the vessel given way, it would have resulted in a full meltdown, not “core damage”.
Now the company that was operating this power plant was notable for cutting corners in the name of profits, but again, as far as I know, Transocean was not.
So in the end, we are horribly, horribly fucked when in comes to energy supply, we are decades behind were we should be in conservation and alternatives, and we are not at all prepared to face the deep sacrifices it will take to transition to a sustainable path.
And, as always, this is only one of the existential problems facing us that we are not prepared to deal with.
AhabTRuler
More can be read about Davis-Besse, and other ways in which we are seriously fucked, in Charles Perrow’s The Next Catastrophe. I Have flogged him and his works before, and he is quite good.
ETA: Happy Friday Everybody!
Chuck Butcher
@AhabTRuler:
If you don’t know how to cap the god damned thing, don’t do it. I don’t know how to make plainer to you what I stated. I said this will happen and you need to be able to deal with it. You want that to mean something else.
I give a rat’s ass what you do for a living, in what I do fucking it up means very bad things are the outcome. These people weren’t failing at being ready for “everything,” they can’t shut the fucking oil off. Get that? The most basic damn consideration cannot be addressed.
Magical thinking is that you don’t need to be able to do such a thing and asshole thinking is your assertion that it means everything. Condescend to me while being stupid at your own risk .
AhabTRuler
@Chuck Butcher: I am not trying to be condescending, and you are being pissy and argumentative, as is your want. I am saying that whatever conversations about what people should or shouldn’t have done don’t fucking matter. It’s done. This is the fucking world we live in.
Wake up. I don’t give a fuck what you do for a living, although I know well enough. You may be an honest, upstanding guy, and I think that you are, but there is a whole world of people out there that aren’t you. There are a bunch contractors who will fuck you over and get people killed.
There is a world of people out there that will fuck you and everyone else over in a heartbeat, and they are in charge. So you can yell at me and everyone else if you want, it doesn’t make one good goddamn bit of difference to the world we live in or anything.
Its still just fucking balloon juice.
ETA: I mean, you do realize that there are god knows how many deep sea oil wells operating and more continuing to be drilled right now? And they they will continue to exist? And that anyone of them could blow at any time?
Chuck Butcher
It is my wont to not like being misrepresented and accused of some other dumbasses stupidity.
Your point about contractors is exactly what? You seriously pretend I need you to tell me about the industry I’ve spent most of my adult life in? That at age 57 I’m unaware that there are unscrupulous people in life? Use a fucking dictionary and find out what condescending means then.
In point of fact I’m pretty damn unsure what it is that you decided to argue with me about other than it is your wont.
AhabTRuler
@Chuck Butcher: Really I am just trying to make a point similar to the one you made about the wikileaks video: although we might disagree, even strongly, with a policy or action, we are not absolved of the responsibility for the outcome of that policy or action.
AhabTRuler
I am arguing with you because you said:
I think that a) we have no fucking idea what went wrong yet, and b) I don’t believe that we can drill at such depths safely. I don’t believe there are reliable enough safety devices, I don’t believe there are containment procedures that are feasible. And I think that even if you have everything that you can think of taken care of, something is still gonna come up and bite you in the ass.
If I had my druthers, I would discontinue deepwater drilling. But that isn’t the world we live in. If we tried to stop that drilling, it would crush the economy. So the drilling will continue.
Chuck Butcher
@AhabTRuler:
Maybe not why the thing blew up, what is going wrong right the fuck now is they can’t cap the damn thing. If you intend to poke a goddamn hole in a pressurized oil field knowing how to shut the thing off is a primary consideration – I’d say especially if it is in the goddamn water. If you don’t get that concept, I have no idea how you manage to connect to the intertubes.
I may not run a fucking oil extraction company but I do happen to know that oil fields are very frequently pressurized and spray like busted fire hydrant if the cap is lost.