The Oil on the Surface is Just the Tip of the Iceberg...

Scientists from several universities recently reported the discovery of massive plumes of what appears to be oil suspended in clouds stretching for miles and reaching hundreds of feet beneath the Gulf's surface. Those findings — from the University of South Florida, the University of Georgia, Southern Mississippi University and other institutions — were based on water samples taken in the Gulf over the last several weeks. They continue to be analyzed.

Yesterday, however, BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward categorically denied these findings. Hayward claims that BP's own sampling has shown "no evidence" that oil is suspended in large masses underwater but he did not elaborate on how BP's testing was done. "The oil is on the surface," Hayward said. "Oil has a specific gravity that's about half that of water. It wants to get to the surface because of the difference in specific gravity."

Hayward is correct that crude oil in its natural state will generally migrate towards the surface and form somewhat homogeneous slicks BUT BP has injected massive quantities of Corexit dispersant into the leak at the bottom of the Gulf to try to break up and disperse the oil preventing it from forming slicks at the surface. Nobody (not even Tony) knows exactly how this has effected the oil's trajectory to the top of the water column.

BP has a vested interest in preventing the oil from reaching the surface where it can be quantified. As long as it can be kept deep under the surface, the public can be kept in the dark and everything will "look" OK...

Some Ridiculous Quotes From BP Reps

• British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward, May 13: "The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume."
• British Petroleum Rep Randy Prescott, May 26: "Louisiana isn't the only place that has shrimp." Here's Randy's office phone number: (713) 323-4093. Give him a call and tell him that BP is not the only place that has gas!!
• British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward, May 30: "There's no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back."
  
• "Gulf Coast ecosystem, We don't need no stinking Gulf Coast ecosystem." While nobody at BP has stated this publicly, their actions make it pretty obvious that this is what they are thinking...
• UPDATE - Another one from British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward, June 3: "Considering how big this has been, very little has got away from us." VERY LITTLE? HOW ABOUT UNTOLD MILLIONS OF GALLONS OF THE STUFF (not to mention the 1.8 million gallons of chemical dispersants) AND AN OIL SLICK THAT IS 3,850 SQUARE MILES???? THE PELICAN DOES NOT THINK THAT "VERY LITTLE HAS GOT AWAY".

BP’s Oil Spill Response Plan Nothing More Than a Sick Joke

If you are up for some light reading, you might just want to read some of the 583-page text of BP's Oil Spill Response Plan for the Gulf of Mexico that was submitted in June 2009 to federal regulators at the Minerals Management Service. These government officials must either have not paid much attention to what they were reading, were paid-off by BP, or were simply incredibly incompetent when they rubber-stamped BP's application to drill in the Gulf. BP's plan includes the following red flags that indicate that they obviously had no idea how to stop a catastrophic leak once they had created one:

• In the plan BP promises to protect sea lions, seals, sea otters, and walruses even though NONE of these animals live anywhere near the Gulf of Mexico.
• A Japanese home shopping site is listed as one of the "primary equipment providers for BP in the Gulf of Mexico Region for rapid deployment of spill response resources on a 24 hour, 7 days a week basis."
• Requires that BP's representatives shall never make "promises that property, ecology, or anything else will be restored to normal."
• States that in a "Worst Case Discharge" situation, BP has the "personnel, equipment, and materials in sufficient quantities and recovery capacity to respond effectively to oil spills from the facilities and leases covered by this plan, including the worst case discharge scenarios."

As stated in the first sentence of this post, BP's Response Plan is merely "light reading" with no concrete or detailed planning on how to prevent an ecological disaster if a spill should occur. All that BP wanted was to DRILL, BABY, DRILL and unfortunately our government was only too willing to oblige...

BP Horizon Oil Reaches Louisiana Marshlands

The BP Horizon oil spill is beginning to make itself apparent onshore. Until yesterday the vast majority of the oil was offshore and out of sight - much of it apparently still deep under the surface. The environmentally important and extremely sensitive Louisiana coastal marshlands were the fist areas to be impacted by large quantities of the oil.

This was not the light sheen or scattered tar balls that have been witnessed up and down the coast but heavy oil that is the consistency of latex paint. This oil has coated much of the marsh grasses and is seeping into the soil prompting Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to lament, "The day that we've been fearing is upon us today".

While the environmental destruction and the damage to the local Gulf Coast fishing industry will certainly be evident for many, many years to come, public outrage will probably not hit a crescendo until this gunk starts washing up on the white sand beaches now covered by tourists and lined with soon to be empty condominiums.

Apparently BP Prepared For This Disaster by Making Shrewd Political Contributions

Who will finally take the blame for the massive gulf oil spill is still to be seen but according to OpenSecrets.org (the Web site for the Center For Responsive Politics), BP's lobbying arm extends deep into the pockets of Washington, D.C. In fact, the top recipient of BP related donations during the 2008 cycle was none other than President Barack Obama himself, who collected $71,000.

Some interesting facts that could affect the outcome of the ongoing "Blame Game":

• In 2009, BP spent a massive $16 million to influence laws relating to such issues as oil drilling safety and environmental regulations.
• During the first quarter of 2010, BP spent $3.53 million on federal lobbying efforts (you can expect this number to rise dramatically in the coming weeks).
• During the 2008 election cycle, individuals and PACs associated with BP spent half a million dollars on political candidates, forty percent going to Democrats.
• Last year (when BP spent $16 million), the most active environmental lobbying group, the Nature Conservancy , spent a paltry $2.2 million in comparison.

AND THE WINNER IS...

BP Horizon was Operating at the Outer Limits of Today's Technology

When the accident occurred BP was operating the Horizon rig at the outer limits of the industry’s technology. The wellhead was in water with a depth of 5,000 feet and the well extended another 13,000 feet beneath the ocean floor. At this depth, only remotely controlled robotic arms can be used to make repairs to damaged equipment since the deepest scuba dive ever recorded was only 1,044 feet deep (which greatly exceeds the the normal working depth for any commercial diver). In fact, more people have been on the surface of the moon than have scuba dived below 800 feet.

In their exploration plan and environmental impact analysis filed with the federal government in February 2009, BP said it had the capability to handle a "worst-case scenario" at the site, which the document described as a leak of 162,000 barrels (8.8 million gallons) per day from an uncontrolled blowout. At the current estimate of 5,000 barrels per day one has to wonder, given BP's ineffective handling of the situation, were they lying or just stupid when they made the statement that a spill 32 times larger than the current one would be "no problem".

Lawyers Quickly Descending on the Gulf Coast

Just as expected, teams of lawyers are quickly descending on the Gulf to extract their share from the devastation caused by the sinking of British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and the resulting unstoppable oil spill. Multiple lawsuits have already been filed which could dwarf the half-billion dollars awarded after the Exxon Valdez disaster in March 1989.

This reminds me of a joke that I heard many years ago:

Q: What is the difference between a lawyer and a catfish?
A: One is an ugly, scum-sucking, bottom feeder and the other is just a fish...

Plaintiffs in the cases already filed include:

• British Petroleum PLC - The owner of the leaking well.
• Transocean Ltd. - The owner and operator of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
• Halliburton, Inc. (Dick Cheney's company) - The contractor that "capped" the well.
• Cameron International - The manufacturer of the well blowout preventers.
• Lloyd's of London may also be financially on the hook as Transocean's insurer.