Showing posts with label spill. Show all posts

Thursday, April 19, 2012

[259] Mutaciones a Gran Escala en el Golfo de Mexico

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Los Fiascos de BP y CAPECO Nos Hacen Escepticos

Sobre ese tema de responsabilidad corporativa es normal sentirse esceptico. BP se pasa cantando cuanto valora la seguridad en su nueva politica, sin mencionar su propio record abismal de seguridad. Y de ese tema Frontline presento un excelente reporte investigativo con ProPublica. Brevemente, incluyo links aqui:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-spill/

Over the past decade, BP vaulted from an energy "also-ran" to one of the biggest companies in the world, gobbling up competitors in a series of mergers that delivered handsome profits for shareholders. But an investigation by FRONTLINE and the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica shows that BP's leadership failed to create a culture of safety in the massive new company. As BP took increasingly big risks to find oil and extract it, the company left behind a trail of mounting problems: deadly accidents, disastrous spills, countless safety violations. Each time, BP acknowledged the wider flaws in its culture and promised to do better. The FRONTLINE/ProPublica investigation shows that the rhetoric was empty. From the refineries to the oil fields to the Gulf of Mexico, BP workers understood that profits came first

http://bpoil.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/frontline-propublica-examine-bps-dismal-safety-record-and-gulf-oil-spill/

Tiene links de organizaciones ambientales contra BP y el derrame.

http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/frontline-and-propublica-detail-bps-corporate-culture-in-the-spill
http://www.propublica.org/article/years-of-internal-bp-probes-warned-that-neglect-could-lead-to-accidents
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/10/bps-dismal-safety-record-and-the-gulf-oil-spill.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-spill/bp-questions-answers/

Resumiendo. Crecer desmedidamente, sin invertir en ambiental y seguridad es una receta para el desastre. Combinando eso con el off shore drilling que se relajo en el area durante la administracion Bush y eventaulmente tenia que ocurrir un desastre de esta magnitud.

Ahora estamos con la via verde. Me gusta que diversifiquen la energia, pero porque es bueno ahora tirar un tubo que cruza la isla de Norte a Sur? (http://www.aeepr.com/ViaVerde/DIAP/Ap%C3%A9ndices/Ap%C3%A9ndice%203.2%20%20Biological%20Evaluation%20%20Raptors%20in%20Puerto%20Rico.pdf) Cuando corria el gasoducto del sur, por la zona industrial que se beneficaba del proyecto era malo. Ah, porque era un producto de Anibal Acevedo Vila y el PPD.

Las gringolas de la politica no deben usarse para evaluar el merito de un proyecto. Porque no dos gasoductos? Uno en el area de Manati Barceloneta y otro entre Guayanilla Guayama? Eso hubiese hecho mas sentido sin tener que romper por el mismo medio la zona karstica.

Uno piensa en proyectos innovadores como energia eolica, biogas, composta o aguas puras del caribe (http://www.slidefinder.net/a/aguas_puras_del_caribe_estrategia/3696307) y no logran financiamiento. Sin embargo le damos grandes exenciones contributivas a proyectos como CAPECO (solo por tener el favor de Cantero Frau).

Entonces BOOM explota (por la misma falta de BP) y se van a quiebra. Ni siquiera vienen a resolver la quiebra aqui, se van a Delaware. En fin, la basura nos arropa, y queremos resolver las cosas sin innovar, mientras le llenamos los bolsillos a unos pocos. Y lo dejo aqui...

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Modest Mouse, Moby Dick y BP

Interesante analogia. Comparar el desastre BP con Moby Dick. Donde Ahab es BP...Les incluyo el link de la discusion original debajo.. By the way estoy internalizando todavia el articulo de Rolling Stone sobre BP (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965?RS_show_page=0).

http://philosophyofscienceportal.blogspot.com/2010/06/fine-essaywhale-oil-ocean-oil.html

CITA:
In the weeks since the rig explosion, parallels between that disaster and the proto-Modernist one imagined by Melville more than a century and a half ago have sometimes been striking — and painfully illuminating as the spill becomes a daily reminder of the limitations, even now, of man’s ability to harness nature for his needs. The novel has served over the years as a remarkably resilient metaphor for everything from atomic power to the invasion of Iraq to the decline of the white race (this from D. H. Lawrence, who helped revive Melville’s reputation). Now, 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, its themes of hubris, destructiveness and relentless pursuit are as telling as ever.

The British petroleum giant BP, which leased the Deepwater Horizon to drill the well, has naturally been cast in the Ahab role, most recently on one of Al Jazeera’s blogs by Nick Spicer, who compared the whaler’s maniacal mission to the dangers of greed, “not just to a man such as Captain Ahab, but to all his crew and to the whole society that supports their round-the-world quest for oil.”

Andrew Delbanco, the director of Columbia University’s American studies program and the author of “Melville: His World and Work,” said, “It’s irresistible to make the analogy between the relentless hunt for whale oil in Melville’s day and for petroleum in ours.” Melville’s story “is certainly, among many other things, a cautionary tale about the terrible cost of exploiting nature for human wants,” he said. “It’s a story about self-destruction visited upon the destroyer — and the apocalyptic vision at the end seems eerily pertinent to today.”

Whaling was the petroleum industry of its day in the 18th and 19th centuries, with hundreds of ships plying the oceans in search of the oil that could be rendered from the world’s largest mammals. The 40-ton bodies of sperm whales could yield dozens of barrels, some derived from blubber and the rest, the most precious kind, spermaceti, from the whale’s head. The oil burned in millions of lamps, served as a machine lubricant and was processed into candles distinguished by their clear, bright flame, with little smoke or odor. In addition, whalebones could be used to stiffen corsets, skin could be cured for leather, and ambergris, the aromatic digestive substance, could be incorporated into perfumes. New England ports, the Houstons of their era, and fortunes were built with whale oil money.

Me vino a la mente este video de King Rat por Modest Mouse. El video es cruel. Y fue dirigido por Heath Ledger, antes de su suicidio y ganar fama con The Dark Night. Video y letra debajo.

King Rat - Modest Mouse
Well!
Well!
Well!
Well!

We spun like birds on fire
Right down towards the residence, and I
I took all that I desired
Even crooks have to pay the rent
We swam like rats on fire
Right, right down the reservoir
We took all that we could carry
But we tried to carry more

And you know, you know, you know it all went wrong
And you know, you know, you know it was all wrong

We choked on street tap water
Well, I'm going to have to try the real thing
I took your laugh by the collar
And it knew not to swing
Any time I tried an honest job
Well, the till had a hole and ha-ha
We laughed about paying rent
Because the county jails, they're free

And you know, you know, you know it all went wrong
And you know, you know, you know it was all wrong

Deep water, deep water
Senseless denial
I went down like a rag doll as you would, child
Deep water, deep water
Senseless denial
I went down like a rag doll as you would, child

Oh, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky me again.
I said it looks like I've got to use my feet again
Well I just spent my last one hundred dollars
God, I'll pay my bill again

Oh, I don't care
Oh, how I just don't care

Deep water, deep water
Senseless denial
I went down like a rag doll, shooken and shy
Deep water, deep water
Senseless denial
I went down like a rag doll rat of a child

Well, King Rat has me on his list again
I can never be on the fence again
I found out it's all loud
Open like an organ and it
Talk, talk, talk, talk again
He promised me that when I cheated him
But I could open my eye, well
Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky
Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky me again

Deep water, deep water
This senseless denial
I got fed like a fish, full of open smiles
Blue water, deep water
Oh, senseless denial
I got fed like a fish on the cardboard smiles

Well, well
What do you have to say for yourself?
I said, well, well
Well?
I said well, well, well, well!

Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky me again
I hardly knew I should use my feet again
What do you have to say for yourself?
What do you have to say for yourself?

Tags en Blogalaxia
king rat, bp, heath ledger, moby dick, environment, oil, spill

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Take Them While They Are Hot - BP Oil Spill

Oil Spill Related articles from several professional journals are being released on line for free for a limited time. Take them while they are hot!Many interesting articles on the Exxon Valdez spill. Will see if I get a few articles on liquid oil and gasoline spills for my roster file...Links below:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122678518/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
http://www.setacjournals.org/view/0/virtualissueoilspills.html
http://www.setacjournals.org/view/0/ieamfeaturedoilspills.html
Thanks to Futurity.org for the note:
http://futurity.org/earth-environment/journal-makes-oil-related-studies-available-free/

Talking of spills. There are finally indications that a mud plug seems to be controlling the spill from the broken well in the Gulf of Mexico. A nice technical discussion here:
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6509

Section through the BOP, showing the anticipated mud flow path (initially from BP)

Some background of mud drilling here. Water wells here use bentonite clay to seal wells. In essence the plug seems to be working.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drilling_fluid#Types_of_drilling_fluid
The news on the plug is here:

BP says tricky deep-sea oil plug plan on track

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100526/ts_nm/us_oil_rig_leak
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/05/27/tentative-good-news.html

By the way, here is BP Public Relations webpage:
http://www.bp.com/bodycopyarticle.do?categoryId=1&contentId=7052055&nicam=USCSBaselineCrisis&nisrc=Google&nigrp=Branded_Crisis_Management-_General&niadv=General&nipkw=bp_oil_spill

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/images/TopKill_05-16-10_1750xvar.jpg

The primary objective of the top kill process is to put heavy kill mud into the well so that it reduces the pressure and then the flow from the well. Once the kill mud is in the well and it’s shut down, then we follow up with cement to plug the leak.

For the top kill procedure we are designing equipment to pump the highest kill rate we can, irrespective of the flow rate of oil from the well, to force a downward flow of mud into the well. This, combined with the heavy drilling fluid is designed to eventually stop the flow. This has never been attempted at these depths. This is very complex – and involves several complex procedures coming together.

Detailed description of the procedure

We have the Q4000 vessel at the surface which has a crane for lifting heavy equipment and is a central part of the surface equipment for this procedure. We also have a number of other vessels: the HOS Centerline, with Halliburton pumping equipment; the HOS Strongline; and the BJ Services Blue Dolphin and Halliburton Stim Star IV pumping boats.

A total of 50,000 barrels of mud will be on location to kill the well – far more than necessary, but we want to be prepared for anything. Pumping capacity on location is more than 30,000 hydraulic horsepower.

The mud will be pumped down the 6-5/8 inch drill pipe (pipe is connected to the Q4000), then through 3-inch hoses, which go through the manifold on the seafloor. Then the mud moves through another set of 3-inch hoses attached to the Deepwater Horizon BOP choke and kill lines.

With the manifold, we can also pump the ‘junk shot’ if necessary to stop too much of the kill mud going out through the top of the BOP rather than going down into the well to stop the flow. By switching valves in the subsea manifold, we can inject the ‘bridging material’ (the junk), which will prevent such losses and enable the top kill to continue.

We’ve been testing the junk shot on-shore, looking at different configurations of what might restrict the flow out of the Deepwater Horizon riser and what types of materials would help shut it off. Materials in a junk shot can include well-known items such as pieces of tires, golf balls, and pieces of rope.

Most of the equipment is on site and preparations continue for this operation.

This page was last updated 23 May 2010

I hope this info is useful for all these amateur scientists. I hope this trend of available information continues. I hate paying $40 - $45 / article for pdf versions of published papers.

Tags en Blogalaxia
journal gulf of mexico oil spill top kill free articles mud plug environment