Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

So very ready.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

“Alexa, change the president.”

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

You are here: Home / Interesting

Interesting

by | 25 Comments

This post is in: 

ProPublica:

In the months before BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig sank in a ball of fire in the Gulf of Mexico, the company had four close calls on pipelines and facilities it operates in Alaska, according to a letter from two congressmen obtained by ProPublica [2].

In that letter, dated Jan. 14, 2010, Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., noted that the company’s efforts to cut costs could imperil safety at BP facilities.

Between September 2008 and November 2009, three BP gas and oil pipelines on Alaska’s North Slope ruptured or clogged, leading to a risk of explosions, the letter said. A potentially cataclysmic explosion was also avoided at a BP gas compressor plant, where a key piece of equipment designed to prevent the buildup of gas failed to operate, and the backup equipment intended to warn workers was not properly installed.

Surprised I have not heard this on ABC, NBC, CBS or other networks. Probably because their serious journalists are busy successfully churning Drudge bait. In the beltway media- inconsequential tone deaf behavior that translate into easily promoted gotcha moments with anonymous internal sources infighting are far more important than causes, blame, and solutions. Because there is important and useful, and then there is SEXY.

But things will be better once we have a Republican congress!

Reader Interactions

25Comments

  1. 1.

    Dave Fud

    The oil will be sexy when all of the bikini-clad women come out of the gulf covered in black tar. Pictures in a few weeks.

  2. 2.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    Surprised I have not heard this on ABC, NBC, CBS or other networks.

    Oh you will. The Alaska angle means they’re currently locked in a bidding war over who gets to interview Halfernor Palin first.

  3. 3.

    AhabTRuler

    The WSJ says the shear rams on the BOP might not have been powerful enough to cut through the drill pipe used in deep water:

    Despite the study, the MMS didn’t issue any new regulations requiring that shear rams be beefed up. MMS spokesman Nicholas Pardi said the 2003 rules—which required operators make sure the shears were strong enough but didn’t provide guidance—were the agency’s last look at the issue.

    Also Zuzu’s Petals came up with this site, which seems to have some good technical information.

  4. 4.

    beltane

    There’s nothing remotely sexy about the things that matter to the overpaid, feeble minded little courtiers that infest the media. Skankey, yes; sexy, no. Too bad there’s never been an oil spill at one of Sally Quinn’s soirées.

  5. 5.

    Corner Stone

    This is an e-mail passing round certain professional service circles.
    Don’t have any provenance for it, so take it as you will:

    This well had been giving some problems all the way down and was a big
    discovery. Big pressure, 16ppg+ mud weight. They ran a long string of 7″
    production casing – not a liner, the confusion arising from the fact that all
    casing strings on a floating rig are run on drill pipe and hung off on the
    wellhead on the sea floor, like a “liner”. They cemented this casing with
    lightweight cement containing nitrogen because they were having lost circulation
    in between the well kicking all the way down.
    The calculations and the execution of this kind of a cement job are complex, in
    order that you neither let the well flow from too little hydrostatic pressure
    nor break it down and lose the fluid and cement from too much hydrostatic. But
    you gotta believe BP had 8 or 10 of their best double and triple checking
    everything.
    On the outside of the top joint of casing is a seal assembly – “packoff” – that
    sets inside the subsea wellhead and seals. This was set and tested to 10,000
    psi, OK.
    This was the end of the well until testing was to begin at a later time, so a
    temporary “bridge plug” was run in on drill pipe to set somewhere near the top
    of the well below 5,000 ft. This is the second barrier, you always have to have
    2, and the casing was the first one. It is not know if this was actually set or
    not. At the same time they took the 16+ ppg mud out of the riser and replaced it
    with sea water so that they could pull the riser, lay it down, and move off.
    When they did this, they of course took away …… hydrostatic on the well. But this was OK, normal, since the well was plugged both on the inside with the
    casing and on the outside with the tested packoff. But something turned loose all of a sudden, and the conventional wisdom would be the packoff on the outside of the casing.
    Gas and oil rushed up the riser; there was little wind, and a gas cloud got all
    over the rig. When the main inductions of the engines got a whiff, they ran away and exploded. Blew them right off the rig. This set everything on fire. A
    similar explosion in the mud pit / mud pump room blew the mud pumps overboard.
    Another in the mud sack storage room, sited most unfortunately right next to the living quarters, took out all the interior walls where everyone was hanging out
    having – I am not making this up – a party to celebrate 7 years of accident free work on this rig. 7 BP bigwigs were there visiting from town.
    In this sense they were lucky that the only ones lost were the 9 rig crew on the rig floor and 2 mud engineers down on the pits. The furniture and walls trapped some and broke some bones but they all managed to get in the lifeboats with
    assistance from the others.
    The safety shut ins on the BOP were tripped but it is not clear why they did not
    work. This system has 4 way redundancy; 2 separate hydraulic systems and 2
    separate electric systems should be able to operate any of the functions on the
    stack. They are tested every 14 days, all of them. (there is also a stab on the
    stack so that an ROV can plug in and operate it, but now it is too late because
    things are damaged).
    The well is flowing through the BOP stack, probably around the outside of the 7″
    casing. As reported elsewhere, none of the “rams”, those being the valves that
    are suppose to close around the drill pipe and / or shear it right in two and seal on the open hole, are sealing. Up the riser and out some holes in it where
    it is kinked. A little is coming out of the drill pipe too which is sticking out of the top of the riser and laid out on the ocean floor. The volumes as reported
    by the media are not correct but who knows exactly how much is coming?
    2 relief wells will be drilled but it will take at least 60 days to kill it that
    way. There is a “deep sea intervention vessel” on the way, I don’t know if that means a submarine or not, one would think this is too deep for subs, and it will
    have special cutting tools to try to cut off the very bottom of the riser on top of the BOP. The area is remarkably free from debris. The rig “Enterprise” is
    standing by with another BOP stack and a special connector to set down on top of the original one and then close. One unknown is if they get a new stack on it
    and close it, will the bitch broach around the outside of all the casing??
    In order for a disaster of this magnitude to happen, more than one thing has to
    go wrong, or fail. First, a BallS**tty cement job. The wellhead packoff / seal
    assembly, while designed to hold the pressure, is just a backup. And finally,
    the ability to close the well in with the BOP somehow went away. Also; I might add , everyone can be a monday night referee. This type of discussons on forums do no good to those who are fact finding and investigating the cause. I make no judgement, I just read news and postings..

  8. 8.

    slag

    This whole situation is incredibly infuriating. Businesses cut costs in order to maximize profit. It’s what they do. I don’t want to blame BP per se; I’m more interested in blaming the system that enabled BP’s behavior.

    We need to stop pretending to believe in “corporate citizenship”. We need to put much more tension into the system in order to limit these disasters. Sternly worded letters and Senate hearing scoldings are no longer acceptable repercussions. Far too many risks are being taken with our public resources. We’ve been too patient for too long. It simply has to change.

    As to the media: They’re gossipy assholes. It’s what they do. I’m tired of enabling them too.

  9. 9.

    Brachiator

    Surprised I have not heard this on ABC, NBC, CBS or other networks.

    Some BP problems are old news, previously reported, and studiously ignored (BP accused of ‘draconian’ cost cuts prior to Alaskan pipeline spill, Guardian UK 1 May 2007 )

    A US congressional committee has uncovered evidence of “draconian” cost cuts at BP in the run-up to the discovery of severe corrosion which shut down a key Alaskan pipeline last summer….
    …
    An inspection by BP following a minor oil spill in August revealed that the walls of a trans-Alaskan pipeline had worn dangerously thin, forcing the company to shut half of its Prudhoe Bay field. The closure cut America’s oil production by 8% and prompted anger about BP’s maintenance of the pipe.
    …
    The crisis followed other allegations of dangerous cost cuts by BP in America. In 2005, an explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery killed 15 people and was blamed partly on cutbacks affecting safety procedures.

    Not much came of the congressional investigations. But we all knew the ending of that story.

  12. 12.

    JGabriel

    Between September 2008 and November 2009, three BP gas and oil pipelines on Alaska’s North Slope ruptured or clogged, leading to a risk of explosions, the letter said.

    Hmm. Who do I know that worked for BP in Alaska?

    For eighteen years, [Todd Palin] worked for BP in the North Slope oil fields of Alaska. … He resigned from his job on September 18, 2009, with the stated reason of spending more time with his family.[11]

    Wow, right after Todd left, BP’s Alaska pipelines stopped rupturing.

    Correlation? Or… CAUSATION?!

    .

  14. 14.

    Brachiator

    @JGabriel:

    Wow, right after Todd left, BP’s Alaska pipelines stopped rupturing.

    Maybe they had been reacting to the sound of Sarah Palin’s voice. Also, too.

  15. 15.

    Douglas

    I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of BP’s leaks in Alaska on either Countdown or Rachel Maddow’s show… though it was more of an aside, IIRC.

  18. 18.

    mai naem

    What dontcha understand here? Obamaman deliberately let BP get away with this so that this would elephantize into a humongous ecological disaster so that he would not have to authorize any oil drilling. Also too, him and his CIA and FBI knew about this Shazad guy planning to bomb Times Square and this allowed the media to take the heat off the BP/Obama Katrina disaster. Jeez, do I have to explain everything to you people.

  19. 19.

    Zuzu's Petals

    @Corner Stone:

    Yeah, there are a few first-or-second-hand stories going around out there. Here’s another one:

    > Terry xxxxxxx, who works for ADTI, had a son who was one of the BP Company
    > reps on the Horizon when the incident occurred. Here’s what he sent me.
    __
    TALKED TO MY SON, HE IS AT HOME NOW, AND IN GOOD SHAPE, WHAT I WAS TOLD WAS THEY HAD SET A 9-5/8 TAPERED PRODUCTION LINER, DID THEIR CEMENT JOB, HAD POSITIVE TESTED, AND ALSO NEGITIVE TESTED, THEY WERE GOING TO SET A BALANCED PLUG AROUND 3000′ BELOW THE WELL HEAD WHICH WOULD BE AT ABOUT 8000′, THE SENIOR COMPANY MAN WANTED TO SET THE BALANCED PLUG IN MUD, BUT THE ENGINEERS; WANTED TO DISPLACE WITH WATER PRIOR TO SETTING BALANCED PLUG, SO THEY DISPLACED FROM 3000′ BELOW MUD LINE, AND WERE GETTING READY TO SET PLUG.
    __
    THE DERRICKMAN CALLED THE DRILLER AND SAID HE NEEDED HELP, HE HAD MUD GOING EVERYWHERE, AND ABOUT THIS TIME THE DRILL FLOOR DISAPEARED, THEN THERE WAS AN EXPLOSION, THEN A SECOND EXPLOSION.
    __
    THE FLAMES ARE NOW GOING STRAIGHT UP ALLOWING EVACUATION OF MEN, THEN YOU KNOW THE REST.
    —
    THE HANDS THAT ARE MISSING ARE THE ONES THAT WERE ON THE DRILL FLOOR AND PUMP ROOM. YOU KNOW THE RESULTS OF THAT. THIS ALL TOOK PLACE IN LESS THAN A MINUTE.
    —
    RIG WAS EVACUATED IN ABOUT 25 MINUTES.
    __
    IT IS BELIVED THAT THE SEAL ASSEMBLY AT THE WELL HEAD GAVE UP. IF THAT IS THE CASE AND THEY WOULD HAVE SET THE BALANCED PLUG IN MUD THEN DISPLACED THE RISER, IT WOULD ONLY HAVE DELAYED WHAT HAPPENED BY A COUPLE OF HOURS.
    —
    GAS MUST HAVE CHANNELLED THROUGH THE CEMENT JOB AND UP THE BACK SIDE OF THE 9-5/8 PRODUCTION CASING.
    —
    THIS IS ALL I KNOW AT PRESENT.

    How these comport with each other, or the account of the fisherman who saw the rig venting water and then methane just before the explosion, I don’t know. I’m guessing the guys at the mariner and drilling boards will have it figured out before the media.

  20. 20.

    Zuzu's Petals

    Sorry about the block quote fail @19. Somehow couldn’t edit it.

    Obviously the text in caps is all part of the linked post.

  21. 21.

    melmoth

    But didn’t you read the story? “eyebrows were raised.” EYEBROWS WERE RAISED!! dammit.

  22. 22.

    kay

    I think it’s amazing that media continue to treat a calamity caused by an oil company as a natural disaster.
    All of the bad reporting comes from that first ludicrous comparison. Once they all adopted that, they were off to the races, running in a pack in the wrong direction.
    As long as they focus on government’s response to BP’s failure, they don’t have to focus on BP’s failure, or drilling.
    I’m starting to love ProPublica.

  23. 23.

    satby

    @mai naem: I wish that was clear snark, but as I was gassing up the car yesterday some good ol’ boy at the next pump started to talk about the prices going up and that “some damn enviromentalists had sabotaged the rig so that all off-shore drilling would have to stop”. When I told him that didn’t make sense he was incredulous that I didn’t believe it was sabotage by “enviromentalists”.

    This nation is lost, I swear to FSM.

  24. 24.

    Dr. Benway

    @kommrade reproductive vigor: Insofar as FOX ‘news’ is concerned – it’s worth noting the largest stockholder outside the family of CEO Rupert Murdoch is Saudi oil tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who owns a 7 percent stake in Fox News’ parent company News Corp.
    FOX just rejected showing a VoteVets ad (youtube.com/watch?v=RbyWiFpDNXM) arguing that “a clean energy climate plan would cut our dependence on foreign oil in half and cut oil profits for hostile nations” on the basis of it being “confusing”

Comments are closed.