Oil rig explosion

Deep water Horizion exploded about 10:00 pm last night and the situation is critical. This rig is a large production floater in several thousand feet of water. I always thought they had about 50 people on them. Man was I wrong! at the time of the explosion there were 126 people on it. So far there are no deaths but the injury list is going up as things start to settle down. 2 have been transfered to a special trauma unit in critical condition.

The pictures I have seen show it leaning and it may sink by the end of the day. The water around it is also burning.

This rig had a lot of 35-50 pound yellowfin on it this week. They also hold a lot of other fish and when the rig is moved from one place to another many of them follow. With all the commotion and changes in the water they may get scared away.

This disaster may become another tool for the tree huggers to use against further development. With all the danger and activity in this field the safety factor is always at the top of the list. They have a good record. It is a shame that such a drastic thing had to happen.

I am praying for no deaths and the few missing will be found on a raft somewhere or are already on a boat and have not yet been reported. There was a report of a raft sighting last night by the Coast Guard and they are searching for it at this time. One report is 11 missing and another report is 15 missing. Very confusing at this time.

At this time NO deaths!

Hopefully everyone survives........ Wonder is gas prices will shoot up??? There always looking for a reason to spike it, wouldn't be surprised if they use the T word....

Ditto what Todd said. Sounds grim.

Hope all missing are found alive. What is the water temps out there now?

Hope the fishing doesn't get effected too much especially with my trip coming up in 6 weeks.

This is one of many out here. The loss of only one of this size will have a great impact on everything around here all the way down to the service sector. I hope they can seal off the oil wells quickly. Do not know the exact depth but I believe it is in about 3,500 - 4,000 feet. It is located 52 miles SE of Venice.

Latest info all 11 missing have been found. All 126 accounted for. Prayers have been answered!

Hope they find them but does'nt sound good. I did some time on a rig off La. in 1974. It's no place to be if there is a blowout. On our rig the closest jump to the water was about 60' , not good plus it always seemed to be about4 to 6 ' seas.

Got bad information. Even the news had it wrong in the confusion. 11 still missing.

This oil rig is worth over 100 billion. It was leased by BP. There is still the problem of shutting down the well after the fire is out. There is a possability the fire may be able to be put out and the rig salvaged prior to sinking. It is listing badly.

Once again 11 still missing. Fire still burning. Rig still floating.

Best I can tell you at this time.

Water temp is 70 give or take. The seas are flat calm and will be that way untill Friday. That floater is huge and high 60 feet would be easy for them but unfortunatly it ia a lot higher than that for the closest jump. Early reports are they had a blowout and the it was too big for the system to handle. That is just hear say at this time but sounds reasonable.

Craig

The gulf is huge. We will have a lot of room to fish. It would not look good for our enviromental people if they could not contain the oil within a reasonable area. We have some of the best systems in the world designed just for that reason. I have to say this will be THE BIG TEST for them and their equipment.

See you soon buddy.

Rig was in over 5000 feet of water. My depth finder is never set past 400 feet because that is all I am interested in. Estimated closest height from water about 100 feet per the news media. 7 specialy designed spill vessles on the way to the sight.

Wow, hope they find the men and are able to contain the spillage.

La. oil rig survivors back on land; 11 missing

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100422/ap_on_bi_ge/us_louisiana_oil_rig_explosion

Even while the fire is burning they have a robot trying to cap off the well head. Although oil is burning most of the problem is from the natural gas coming up. Once the well is capped they should be able to control the situation and salvage the rig. Looks like it will stay up at this time.

CNN is reporting the rig has just sunk and still no word on the missing workers. Intital estimates of crude releases are about 8000 barels per day ongoing.

I'm not sure about that hoop. So far, the hydrocarbon energy infrasturcture is looking pretty bad in 2010.

Feb - 5 dead in Middletown CT LNG explosion.
April - 29 dead in West Virginia coal mine explosion.
April - 11 dead in Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion.

All the info I have gotten has gone south. The confusion has been unbelievable. The crude slick was 1 mile by 5 miles this afternoon. The seas are starting to build and the weekend will be hell out there. If I was booked I would be canceling for sure 21 mph winds late this afternoon with gusts to 25.

I will try to keep you posted on the effects of this disaster. It looks like the 11 missing may have not made it off the rig. There is a massive push to contain the oil wit 500,000 feet of booms within the next 12 hours and 500,000 feet already there. I think 3 skimmer ships and several storage barges on the way or already there.

What happens to our fishing remains to be seen. This happened 40 miles out to the south east so we have the east or south all the way to the west to run. A lot depends on mother nature. I hope the fishing is not hurt too bad by this.

The growing slick as seen from space.

42,000 gallons per day . . . . . ongoing.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/04/27/Oil-spill-smaller-but-worse-than-1979s/UPI-31961272389351/

HOUSTON, April 27 (UPI) -- The oil spill from last week's oil rig explosion near Louisiana is smaller than a huge 1979 spill near Mexico, but potentially more devastating, experts said.

The oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon's well explosion and fire in the Gulf of Mexico April 20 is worse than the 1979 Ixtoc 1 leak, if for no other reason than that 11 oil worker's lives were lost, the Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday.

The Deepwater Horizon oil slick currently is approximately 80 miles long and 48 miles wide, the newspaper said.

The Ixtoc well poured about 140 million gallons of oil into the Gulf for 295 days before it was capped. The current spill is an estimated 42,000 gallons per day. It would take nine years for the Deepwater Horizon spill to match the 1979 spill, the Chronicle reported.

The April 20 oil spill is closer to the U.S. Gulf coast shores, and there is concern that it could damage the coastline more than did the 1979 spill, scientists said.

But marine biologists say the clean-up system is better now than it was more than 30 years ago.

"We're better prepared now. If they're able to clean it up out there in the open water, that's the best thing they can do," said Wes Tunnell, a marine biologist with the Corpus Christi Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico studies.

There were 30 serious car accidents reported in CT yesterday.
Probably a good idea to ban driving.

Everyone ride your bikes to work please.

Well John, that would sure reduce the demand for oil now wouldn't it.

Best of luck, Capt. Hoop.

Yes - Best of luck Hoop.

I understand some controled burn off is going to be attempted today.

Ironically - The DOI approved Cape Wind today.

Still hanging on and waiting.

There is a lot of confusion about "THE BURN". They are not going to set the entire gulf on fire. It will be confined and controlled. Much of our land has already been boomed. This is above and beyond the million plus feet of oil skimming booms out there working on the actual spill. Just have to take one day at a time.

At least at this time we have a nice home to stay in. This will be a cake walk compared to what we went through in 2005. Worse case sinerio I could let them know I have a 100 ton license and run a crew boat for anybody down here. There are not enough captains to run the boats needed for this. The days straight and hours required do not look like what I would want to do at this time in my life.

There is a use for boats like mine just to move the media around and it looks like I will be doing some of that. Not realy getting involved right now. Tomorrow may be another story. Kind of on a wait and see.

Life is Good!

Fishing ain't right now. The inshore fishing is still going full bore at this time. Specks and reds doing well.

Sucks that they've found another leak thats dumping 5k or 50k barrels a day still. I realize thats an order of magnitude difference but I can't remember what I just heard.

The ongoing flow is now projected > 200,000 gallons per day - 5 times original estimate. The slick at its present size is nearly enough to cover the whole of our Long Island Sound + 200,000 per day ongoing.
_____________________________________________________

New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- The U.S. military may be called on to assist authorities scrambling to mitigate a potential environmental disaster posed by an oil spill expanding toward the Gulf Coast, the Coast Guard said Thursday.

In addition, another controlled burn of the oil slick may be conducted, Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Erik Swanson said.

"We're preparing as many resources as possible," Swanson said, "and we're considering many different options."

Those options include bringing in the Department of Defense, he said. The military could be enlisted to drop or spray more dispersants on the oil, although specifics are still being developed, Swanson said.

Officials said late Wednesday the estimated amount of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from three underwater leaks after last week's oil rig explosion has increased to as many as 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, a day -- five times more than what was initially believed.

I think it is a third leak that they found, which is dumping 5k barrels, and BP is now looking for help from the military. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100429/ap_on_bi_ge/us_louisiana_oil_rig_explosion

I've read that BP is willing to take any help offered. Some correspondence comes across somewhat passive.

BP should be breaking their huge piggy bank and pay to get this done!!

From the pit!

This is world wide news......

Today I escorted a news team from Gremany and was not only interviewed by them but by the AP out of Houston, Texas while I was waiting for the German crew to show up. Late tonight we have a news team flying in from France and will be landing in Miami at 10:00 pm. They should land in New Orleans about 1:00 am. They are scheduled to stay here and I will most likely be running them on my boat sometime tomorrow.

Every body is scrambling for help. My 100 ton masters license will put me on a boat yesterday. I can almost pick what I want to do at this time. I am content at this time.

A few captains ran out on a fun trip because every one of thier customers canceled and came back with a cobia, some nice mangrove snapper, a few gag grouper, and a bunch of scamp grouper. The fish are here but the media are scaring away the customers.

P.S. The oil is also here but not the heavy stuff like that in Alaska.

Life is Good!

Hoop,........SO sorry you guys have to go through this Now,...Like yal and the area haven't been thru enuff..........What a BRILLIANT effort this government has put forward,....... SHAMEFUL,...good luck to you and all the other fisherman,...Each and everyone of you are in our thoughts......

Good to hear that it's not a critical mass, CAPT.HOOP.

They better get that well capped!!!!!!!!!!!!

I suspect HOOP has been enlisted to fight the spill and thus is not able too post. I would love to hear his thoughts.

Keep fishermen (recreational and commercial) in that region in your thoughts, becuase they may loose the resource for a long, long time.

It would be interesting to see how those oil skimming boats suck up the oil and water. How is the water filtered? What happenes to the oil that is retrieved?

Craig,

I have seen skimmimg boats work with great effectiveness in flat water and contained spills. There are various approaches, like old school oil water separators, filter media etc. The effectiveness of all the approaches drops dramatically with sea state.

The problem here is now scale. The amount of oil is getting so vast that even if every boom in the gulf is deployed you could only contain a small fraction of the oil.

I hate to say it brother - but your trip is toast. IMO - best case, book the same dates for 2011.

Here is a good site for updates - http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/

I suspect Hoop has been recruited into the "vessels of opportunity" program. How they have the balls to use the word "opportunity" in that program name is beyond me.

This is the area closed to fishing already. As we all know it may be weeks before the leak is controled.

They'll probably mix it with a little ethanol and then mandate its use for recreational marine vessel fuel.

beautiful...what a great idea

Just out of curiosity for someone more educated on drilling than myself, why would they use redundant hydraulic shut offs and not have some sort of electromagnet "dead man's switch" on there? I would think in offshore drilling a catastrophic rig failure would make those hydraulic shut offs pretty difficult to use and you'd want something that doesn't require manual triggering.

Good luck Hoop, hope this thing can be contained soon.

Just got the NOAA notification of immediate fisheries closure in the Venice LA area. I'm so, so, sorry for you Cap'n Hoop. As if you guys haven't had enough to deal with down there in past few years, now this.

I've attached some photos from better days, when Gulf oil rigs served as gathering points for gamefish.. not as mass extinction ecological destroyers.

Now, I look at these photos from our trip out with you, with nostalgia and a tear in my eye. Probably the last of their kind for a very long time to come.

All my best to you Larry..

Russ~

If BP wants to pay for my trip I will go down and help the cleanup!

They need to CAP THAT WELL! Stop the bleeding for crying out loud!

I hope Hoop gets to post soon. My guess is that BP has put him to work as much as they possible can. I am anxious to hear his thoughts and hear about what he has seen.

Far be it for me to be the voice of optimism right now. But if they can get it 75% capped in 10 days, I think the pelagic sport fishery might be back within a year. I wish I understood more about how the dispersants work.

The coastal and inshore fisheries will be hit much harder - I suspect that will take years to rebound.



BP spent approximately $16 million lobbying Congress in 2009

Hopefully they can get the well capped soon. The deepwater fleet provides employment for a lot of people around the country and it'd be a shame to lose it overseas. It's just too bad there hasn't been much talk about the men that died who very well may have died on the floor trying to shut it in.

The yellowfin are still lively down here 40 nm south of the wreck chasing bait 24 hours a day as far as the eye can see. We haven't had any fishing boats come out to us for a while so I guess they aren't even trying to navigate thru or around the slick.

Found this over at TheBassBarn: Bluefin Spawning Grounds Under the species tab select Bluefin and under the Lifestage select Spawn. We knew that they spawn there but seeing it in graphical form really makes it sink in. It's going to be decades before we see the total impact of this thing.

The drilling in the Gulf can have a 99.99% safety record but all it takes is that one problem and you have a complete disaster.

Keep your fingers crossed - today and the next 4 or 5 days are HUGE. If the containment tower works and contains >80% that will be an incredible difference, it could make all the differece.

If it does not work - I dread the potential long term implications.

CNN has some good video's and animations of how it is intenden to work.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/07/gulf.oil.spill/index.html

Fishing ban expanded & Breton National Wildlife Refuge closed

Updated area of fishing ban


The begining of the landfall nightmare !

Breton National Wildlife Refuge Closed to Public Entry
LOUISIANA -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has closed the Breton National Wildlife Refuge to public entry. This closure covers all of Breton NWR, which includes the Chandeleur Islands chain (Chandeleur, Grand Gossier, Curlew, New Harbor Island, North Islands, Free Mason).

The refuge closure is important to keep the public safe, to minimize disturbance to nesting colonial sea birds, and to allow personnel conducting cleanup operations and recovery efforts to work safely and efficiently.

The first shoreline impact of oil from the spill was confirmed late Wednesday afternoon at Breton, with oil on both sides of the southern half of the Chandeleur Islands. Overflight information indicated sheen and emulsified oil were observed around the islands.

Service personnel and oil response teams have been deployed to conduct and manage cleanup operations. Recoverable oil will be removed, impacted areas cleaned and protection efforts continued.

Another press release will be issued when cleanup operations are completed and the refuge is re-opened.
________________________________________________________

Except for the 11 lost men - now the real damage starts. Now that the oil is making landfall in these amazing wetlands the really unfortunate and serious ecological damage starts to set in. So sad.

This whole stituation is just horrible!

I'm still here and still fishing. It has been nuts down here. I will post something tomorrow if I get a chance. I have almost 80 e-mails to catch up on. Most of them are from the authoritys about the things going on. Some days there is a large area closed and then the wind changes and the fishing opens up again offshore. The inshore fishery is being hit bad. The news media is killing our business.

Hope to get something up on this site in a day or 2. I am doing O.K.

Life is Good!

Thanks for the update CAPT.

Hope things are going better than they are being portrayed in the media. Stay up Capt.

One of my buddies who I fish with and post here who just joined CTF (Chris/"cgraves") is in the environmental business (owns his own company)and has worked on other oil spills before (Maryland).

He has been in touch with the large cleanup companies servicing this Gulf spill. There's quite an effort going on.

Plans change daily on where they want him.....on land in Alabama control center, out at sea on a skimmer boat, ...but as of yesterday they want Chris in Tampa, FL to help run their decontamination operations.

With the winds and tides they expect the oil spill to hit the Florida Gulf coast......the decon will also include deconning boats contaminated with the oil.

It is quite a spill. I wonder what the short and long term effacts will be.

The short term is ugly. The long term is a "BIG QUESTION?????" I am going to put up a seperate post on this and include my fishing report.

WE ARE FISHING!!!!!

The spill has shut down shrimping, oysters, the pogy (menhaden)plant, crabbing, and our general day to day living. Our offshore and inshore fishing is NOT shut down just closed in some areas.

The dominant winds are from the east down here as yours is from the west in the north east. This and the eddy from the Mississippi has been holding a lot of it in the pocket caused by the finger of land and the pocket formed along Alabama, Mississippi, and the panhandle of Florida. The cleanup Effort is massive. They have an armada of shrimp, mullet, crab, jackups, air boats and many other types of boats all manned by locals working around the clock to stop it fron getting into our bayou (marshes). My boats are not desired because of the oil being hard to clean off the white fiberglass.

I am not involved in the spill because I have been fishing. The East side is closed. This leaves us the south and west to fish and we have a lot of area to still fish. I can not see the entire gulf being closed any time soon. I lost my camera so untill I get into the city I will have no pictures.

We did an overnighter and had a little trouble finding the yellowfin. The blackfin were in good numbers but not as heavy as in previous years. The Yellowfin have been shutting down at night as they did last year also. We did manage a few yellows in the 40-50 pound range and a good bunch of blackfin. On the way in we stopped and got some nice amberjack to 60 pounds to add to our box.

2 interest things happened.

(1) We caught a swordfish on a diamond jig. It was only a pup and went back after a quick picture. What a surprise that was to see a bill coming at us. You never know in these waters.

(2) About 4 in the afternoon, over fifty miles offshore, a cormerant swam to our boat and came aboard. First thought was oiled bird or sick bird. The cormerant was smaller than standard and it was more brown than black. As I was taking in a live bait to make a move he ripped it off the hook and devowered it. He stayed with us all night and the next day all the way to the dock. I gave him 2 more fish during that time. Because of the oil spill we have an audabond (SP) wildlife set up at Fort Jackson. They came and got the bird. On the way home I stopped and they told me that the bird was lost and starving. It is not from here. It is not found north of Brownsville, Texas. I will spend a night or two in the vet clinic and most likely end up in the audabond (SP) zoo here in New Orleans. By the end of the second day the bird was domesticated and he came right up to us. It also got very comfortable on the boat. I know will go there because it may not survive in the wild again.

Yesterday we ran in a different direction due to the closed area. The seas drove us to the edge of the closed area as we found out the place we wanted to fish was not closed so we went there. We got there late. The bait was hard to get but the boats already there had a few yellowfin. The bite was slow. The fish were busting but not hitting topwater baits. We lost 2 on chunks and got one. Late in the day the blackfin and bonito came up. This provided us with some good topwater action. As we were drifting and casting I ran a live bait out and it was hit. It wound up being our best yellow of the day. Nothing big but a 50-60 class fish is always welcome.

We are still fishing. I am looking forward to red snapper season opening. Unfortunatly the place I Want to fish may still be closed but that is too far down the line. The open water places change as the wind blows so we will see. The marsh (Bayou) is the disaster that can break this whole parish.

Life is Good!

well needless to say Larry you and all the guys and gals don there are in the thoughts of everyone.........LOVE THAT MEDIA don'tcha... BEST OF LUCK HOOP!

Hoop, hope life remains good for you. Best wishes for improvement in conditions.

Best of Luck Hoop.

I hope they get the thing capped soon.

swwind Craig's trip is still a go at this time.

Conditions are changing and the winds are not only going to keep us from going out but they will blow the oil in the wrong direction. Looks like the situation will worsen. This has the potential to go as far as Texas before it is over and also to the west side of Florida. They better close that hole soon we are done.

The oil has pushed much further south now as well. It showed up around my rig yesterday. It's not what you think of when you hear crude oil. It looks like baseball size lumps of oil with almost a bright orange color. The sheen gives off the appearance of an almost sparkling or glitter like surface. The reef fish keep going up to eat it like they do with the seaweed. Not a good situation at all.

One of the Captains has gotten the attention of the BP company after some boats hired have had problems. We now have 3 inshore boats for the shallow marsh (BAYOU) and 3 offshore boats for the other areas. These boats are on stand-by 24-7 to take BP reps, goast Guard, (Yep they ran aground in the bayou) specisl news people, and other people directly associated with the oil spill. The basic setup is 7:00 am to 5:00 pm. Anything else will be by request and the response time has to be there.

I just pulled a 7 day hitch starting tomorrow. That should be it for me for about a month. Seeing I live down here and am retired I may be used more. If not I should fare well at this point. I am glad Capt. Peace Marvel made this happen. It was almost a given after the second day of operations down here. Not like looking at a chart and navigating. Many people went out and never were found. Different kind of area and also very delicate.

Congrats Hoop! Make this work out for our country's environment.

For those that saw the birds on TV at Ft. Jackson the deep diving bird was from the north and a litle late to leave. He was the first to get oiled. The Pelican I think there were 2 so far are now clean. The cormerant was on my boat for 2 days and 1 night. It came on the boat 55 miles offshore. It is not found north of brownsville texas. It is smaller than the ones we know and brown. By the time we came to the dock it had free run of the boat. It was not oiled just starved and needing fresh water badly. My bird made world news. It is now in great shape but loves old blond fishermen.

Life is Good!

...and you make a nice buck at it too!

Thanks for keeping us informed Capt. You never know what to believe in the media any more.

Best of luck Hoop - but don't sign a release of BP in the future for your lost fishing income.

There were some some news reports indicating that BP was seeking such waivers prior to hirinh local fishermen.

All is covered at this point. No papers signed with out having all bases covered. They realise it is better to pay the up front man than give it all to lawyers and toss us a bone. It costs them much more that way.

I was one of two boats that went out. The others got paid for waiting for something to be assigned to. I will be going out with the same group tomorrow. Cool dudes. An FDNY ff on a 60 day coast guard duty assignment and another airport ff from Mississippi also on C.G. assignment.

This is a day by day assignment and can be ended at any given time. I am on for 7 days but that can change at any moment. We are trying to fit in as many charter captains as we can while we can.

Good Luck Hoop, and be safe.
I'm praying for you all down there.

Good luck, Hoop ! PM me if you need any PPE stuff

Paul

BP is supplying everything. If you can get in thier back door you would retire next week. Simple items like tyveck suits and gloves are being trucked in one item per tractor trailor with the trucks lined up. This is massive and has grave potential. (SO FAR) all is well.

When my shift of 6 or 7 days is done I will enjoy the rest.

Life is Good!

Soak every friggin dime out of them!! They soak it out of us.

I will be done Wednesday and go under a different program. I will be paid for this hitch within 14 days of the day I submit the trip tickets. That will be done Wed. night.

This type of payment is hard on many down here that live from day to day or week to week. Some are having trouble getting adjusted to a new way of life. This is not the way things have been done down here and a lot of things are done on a cash basis. When contracted with BP you can not do other things and that is also causing other problems as many want to shrimp, oyster, crab, and fish when they get a break. If they can do this they may be able to cet a little cash to keep things going while waiting for the big check or automatic deposit.

Hoop, I'm happy you have work. Please explain on your comment "Many people went out and were never found" ???

Our Bayou is a vast marsh with no given direction of in or out so to speak. You can even get lost trying to follow the courant. All the vegitation is the same and you can not see over it. Everything here is flat so no trees or high peaks to use as landmarks. Some people got lost and died and others were brought into the bayou and never found.

We do not live near the water we live in it.

Life is Good!

Life could be better if they cap that freakin well! Hope this tophat thing puts a dent in the leak.

What are the fisheries prospects from your perspective ?

I thought the last one was pretty good.

Late tonight will coment on (life is good) (getting adjusted) and (the new job) tomorrow. Should have some other info for y'all then.

Thanks for the on then scene reports. That was a great cormerant story!

Hang in there Capt!

Reefdrifter

"Life is Good!

Still going strong but Life as I had it before 4-20-10 may never be the same.

Adjusting to a new way of life in a different atmosphere could be disasterous.

The last job I had was every man's dream. Being in good (almost Great) health I had an opertunity to go to the best fishing place in the world and fish about 120 days a year offshore. This was to be my 7th year down here and things were going great untill big money cut corners and caused a major disaster. As it stands now I am doing work for BP and the promise of pay to equal our charter or for hire vessles sounds good but We have yet to be paid. I have one day to go on my hitch and we will see how long it takes to produce the payroll.

The fisheries prospect is not good at all. Oil is already in the marsh and we are loosing our ability to clean it up once it gets there. Another bump in the road

Best of Luck Hoop , Thinkin' of ya.

This situation is really disturbing - I saw this article and thought it might be of interest - there is technology available to deal with this - why are they not even considering this?


http://www.examiner.com/x-49657-Philadelphia-Science-Examiner~y2010m5d17-Gulf-oil-spill--Is-BP-ignoring-a-green-solution-Part-I

Yes - best of luck Hoop.

I am thinking of you and all the fisherman in the Gulf.

Amen too that,.....I'm SICK every time I turn the news on and see that thing gushing 5 weeks later,............TOTAL BULLSH!T

and BTW it's nice to hear from the scene(not really cuz it never should have happened) but,..the media sucks when it comes to allround info.........good luck Larry,..the world is watching in disbelief...........so friggin sad!

Re: Keep Chins Up
by capthoop on Wed May 19, 2010 9:37 pm

Today I was assigned to go to the west looking for oil with Chief Evans aboard. We ran out of tiger pass and made a large loop covering many rigs about 15 miles offshore looking for any trace of oil. We asked a captain that works a crew boat in that area and he said "A little came through a few days ago but nothing since". That may have gone tothe west and been found west of Grand Aisle. After running several rigs and looking hard for a trace we found no trace of any oil. On some of the rigs large schools of fish came up to greet the boat. I saw angle fish and trigger fish as well as an occasional mangrove snapper. We then went into the Empire jetties and found about 3 to 5 rocks with a (possable trace) of residue oil. If it was it was already captured and was of no threat to anybody or thing. From there we worked the coast west untill we could see the buildings on Grand Isle. We were not given any coordinates so we made sure we at least covered the parish boundaries. We saw several specks and reds being caught as we edged our way along the shoreline looking for the elusive west side oil. The state waters are opened to fishing on that side of the river to the parish lines. We had a close up look at the National Guard sandbaging the breaks in the land in the Scofield bay area. Wish we had more choppers to get it done faster. What they are doing is very effective. That area has to still be built up higher but it is a good start. We continued down the shore untill we were once again close to tiger pass. We came in red pass.

There is NO oil in the area we covered today and I expressed the fact that the area being closed to fishing should not be set at federal and state lines but at a more realistic Lat/Lon coridinate giving us a fair way to control our livelyhood. The Empire loop area may be a place that oil will never reach.

I am in favor of a charter captains fish testing group that catches and marks location of fish caught so they can be tested for the safety of the public. This can be done on the days they are not tasked by other groups.

Would like to see an area about 20 miles from shore opened from south west pass to close to Grand Aisle.. The area is clean.

Life is Good!

Capt Hoop
Our Freedom

good to hear!

That sounds like a good idea - is anyone pitching that ?



Hoop - IMO - one of the huge challenges the gulf region will face after the leak is stopped is the understanding of what is clean. I suspect the pelagic species will be back in heartbeat. Clearly the dispersants have worked very well in limiting the damage from the mechanical impacts caused by the oil slicks.

The tricky part will be figuring out the fate, transport and food chain accumulation dynamics (if any) of the oil (and dispersants) that is sub surface and getting into the food chain through plankton and bait species (if any). This will be a huge challenge for the shrimpers and inshore guys.

Good luck - your posts are much appreciated.

Without getting political - I hope everyone understands that if we as a nation want to get away from these risky drilling practices - it all starts with the person in the mirror.

The palegics are the ones being hurt the most as the oil kept below the surface is being dispersed by a chemical that if depleating 30% of the oxygen. This dead zone is beibg created in the place they call home.

They are doing a study to see if building up the barrier islands is enviromentaly safe enough to do. DUH??? We have a bullet flying at our heart and they are doing a study to see how soiled the flack jacket would get when the bullet hits it. O.K. you can put the jacket on. What? you died last week??

Funny they waved a study and granted the oil company permission to use the dispersant. Now a month later they are saying it is highly toxic and they have to find something else to use.

Looks like everything is not enough and too late.

What a world we live in . . . we can stream live video of the leak to the world over the internet . . . . . . . . . . we just can't stop it !

As Old School says . . . "We have really spit the bit"

What they are not showing you is the size of the oil they have hidden below the water with the """DISPERSANTS""" that are taking 30 percent of the oxygen out of the water. What kind of fish is able to live in that? That was 3 days ago What we have now is anybodys guess. When they discribe the oil as 4 miles by 15 miles they are not telling you it is a 300 foot bubble of the stuff.

LArry it was GREAT to talk with you last night,...the circumstances couldn't suck anymore,..but still nice to hear the actual story,...as always,..in our hearts and minds.........

Hoop - FWIW - when Long Island Sound gets really low oxygen (hypoxia) every summer the swimming species do seem able to swim to areas where the O2 levels are ok. Its the shellfish and crustations that can't get away.

This is a totally different situation - so who knows. Noboby is even thinking about food chain uptake yet.

Hang in there brother and we will all keep our fingers crossed for tomorrow. (the "Top Kill" procedure)

From what I can tell - the Gulf should now be considered a crime sceen. Its time for some TransOcean, BP and Haliburton exec's to don the orange jump suits and do the perp walk.

If tomorrow fails . . . . . and the only solution is the relief well which would be done in August , this disaster's impact will be felt for generations.

Sure BP and its sub contractors are to be blamed, but what about the colossal failure of our federal government to something (anything) other than investigating and laying blame? This is getting ridiculous. 45 days in (roughly) and we announce that we are "not sure" BP can handle this problem? No ***** sherlock.

If tomorrow fails - we could be looking at another 90. Can anyone imagine that ?

I agree - why we don't have the Navy assets in place is a mystery to me.

I think the problem is that in terms of expertice, the assets of BP, TransOcean, Mobil, etc are probably better in terms of stopping the leak. They should deploy the Navy & National Gaurd to try to protect the coastlines as much as possible.

The secretary of Energy was on televison last night and he did not seem optimistic that the "top kill" would work and there are risks that the attempt could backfire and make the leak larger. Thad Allen (USCG) the PIC for the government was equally pesimistic about what other alternatives would / could be tried if the Feds were to take charge of trying to stop the leak.

we are so screwed. big oil has dicked us over so hard on this, and where the hell is the fix?

we can put a man on the moon, but cant stop an oil leak?

i dont see this stopping this year....

I can't even fathom this not stopping sometime soon. The amount of damage that has already been done is something I have a hard time comprehending.

This rig had 3 consecutive tests fail, shut down operations for 40 minutes, and then resumed operations. I doubt an executive called out to the rig and forced operations to resume. I've got to believe that was a local decision.

The executives are, however, resposnible for not ensuring that a disaster like this would be able to be resolved in a timely manner. I am sure they had their safety and risk representatives claiming that they could handle things of this nature, but the responsibilty for followup should fall on the higher levels of management's shoulders.

The jackass that called for operations to resume, despite the safety test failures, really needs to be hung high.

I don't know how BP is expecting to be able to clean this up as they claim they will- in the end we will foot the bill for this too.

This maybe a stupid question but why couldn't astronauts go down there in space suits and cap that effing thing? They train in water and do repairs in outerspace. Why can't they do something down on the ocean floor?

Space is a vacuum. Totally different type of pressure.

That makes sense.

Top Kill effort underway now.

On behalf of our brother fishermen (and everyone) in the gulf - keep your fingers crossed and dare I say pray this works !

I hope so...whats left to try, how soon before oil comes up the gulf stream and ends up here?

Some amazing photos here:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html

Hoop, thanks for the updates from ground zero.

Yes Hoop - please keep posting !

Site members who remember the Broadwater matter will remember how nuts these things make me. I never believed that the Broadwater facility would or could ever blow up, but with the LNG explosion this spring and now this, I feel reminded that worst case situations can and do happen and the public underwrites the risks.

My heart is breaking for the people and the ecosystem in the gulf.

All we can do now is learn, more regulation . . . less regulation . . . its all bull$hit. Unless WE THE PEOPLE accept that our addicion to cheep petroleum forces us into these silly risks and expenditures we will not be able to avoid them.

If this is a situation makes you angry . . . use less pertoleum !

BP CEO just announced on CNN. They pummed in drilling mud all day yesterday and last night they did the "junk shot" to try to clog up the blow out preventer. It was not clear how well it worked. But he said "most of what we see flowing now on the video is drilling mud"

I hope that is true.

More drilling mud will be pumped in again today.

Keep you fingers crossed ! ! ! !

Hoop, we feel for you buddy. Hang in there.

amen to that.....

hah nice avatar

My God, what a mess.

absolutely horrible!!!!!!!

The spill is now the size of South Carolina which is about three Connecticuts. I can't believe this thing is still pissing out oil!!!!!

A quick hellow.

I am on a 4 on and 4 off under contract with BP. I will be off tomoprrow but will be taking out a journalist from Japan. There is a lot going on here from day to day. I was interviewed by many publications from around the world about the attempt to top fill the leak. They said 60-70%. I knew that was as political a statement as the sham Obama tried to pull off in Grand Isle. The most sucessfull one like that was at 670 feet and 7 attempts at doing this in much shallower waters have failed. For some reason they thought we would believe them.

Wil try toupdate tomoorrow.

Thanks Hoop, keep the updates coming.

Hey yal to add insult to injury,.....I'm on the phone as we speak with Larry and he had a 15 minute inteview with CNN today and told his story,............back to the insult to injury,...his house got struck by lightning last night and blew up his computer,and his truck died today.....he called me and asked me to post............again I'm on the phone with hi typing this(multitasking!!)


He will add to this post with updates but he asked me to put it up as he has no internet...his spirits are high somehow..........hang in ther Larry we all think about you and all involved daily!!

direct TV people should see it on chl 202..... CNN on cable for the rest of us,.....as of 9:55 not on aor yet...

redfish and trout are still open,.......oysters, shrimp, and crabbing still open in his area.......offshore is shut down for 120 miles away......

far from TV coverage BP is down there and doing EVERYTHING POssible everyday,..putting these guys to work,,.......Larry's words........

wow very interesting! sucks about the truck and house, UGH! sometimes you cant win for losing i guess. i was telling one of the owners of the company i work for about capt. hoop and how he used to fish the oil rig and how he has been giving us updates from the 'real world', not the tv world. the interview must be online somewhere i would think?

I hate to say it ,but i think this is going to turn out to be OUR Chernobyl!

I agree - except . . . . "that is it going to turn out to be"

I would say - this IS OUR Chernobyl. Its a done deal.

That said -I do believe we will see the Gulf rebound - it will take years, but nature is resilient.

We want our < $3.00 gas at no risk to the environment ! Sorry to say this is not possible.

If this situation makes you angry . . . . use less petroleum - ultimately that is the only route away from these crazy risk/reward choices !

Just saw hoop on Cnn 5.15 pm WOW a hole 30 sec did not even let him vent a little

BP sucks, profit over safety. Never will fill up there again. Now it too late to do anything possible-why they didn't do it before?

Capt. Hoop:

Wish you the best of luck in this disaster situation.

God Bless.
WG

What A BUNCH OF BS!!OBAMA HAS BEEN IN CHARGE FOR HOW LONG????SO MUCH FOR LEADERSHIP AND TREASON

hooper has an interview in one of the videos on this page, the 2nd one down on the left side titled "frustration mounts". He is at the very end of the clip, and only in the clip for a few seconds. Looks like he is on his cat in Venice harbor with Eddie Burgers boat (bill collector) in back.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/31/louisiana.oil.frustration/index.html?hpt=T1

I dunno. I dont want to seem to negative for the guys supporting BP for helping fisherman like hooper by generating work down there. Its a confusing topic. But even if BP is helping employ them and make it through today.. what about next year, and the year after, or say 5 or maybe even 10... Can he sell his house and move back to CT? I dunno.

and yes conrad. Politics can be silly. They need to find a way to make horrible punishments for people that make decisions that cause catastrophes, regardless of laws being broken or not. There just seems to be endless problems in the last 5 years, enron, home mortgage crisis, ponzi schemes. It seems to just be getting silly. I dont want to get political, just saying I hear ya. As for obama, in my opinion, he needs to utlize federal resources like the army core of engineers or nasa or someone to come up with backup plans to the half effort jobs BP is doing.

Army cor of what ,they gave us NEW ORLEANS, remember the dikes that failed

The army corps had been recommending levee repairs/rebuild for more than a decade prior to Katrina.

well there is our brainless post of the week...

There has been a colossal failure from the federal government in "handling" this crisis.

So that means that is our foult? BS big time. Keep watching fox news. Learn to think for yourself and be resposnsible for your acctions.

To date, the government has done nothing but point fingers. That has gotten us nowhere, and we risk losing some of the ocean environment up the atlantic seaboard at this point. You go ahead and keep watching Katie Kouric, I will continue to think for myself. Sheeple please

Political ideology means nothing here and lets not kill this thread with non sence.

This is failure of LEADERSHIP that goes back 20 years for both parties. It was only a matter of time until this happened.

For too long, despite the overwhelming national interest of reducing our demand for oil, our leaders have tip toed the line of off shore drilling and middle east imports to keep gasoline cheep and voters placated.

We have stood by while the greatest international movement of wealth in our lifetime has taken place and countless fragile ecosystems put at risk.

When will a leader, inside or outside of government, lead American's to an honest understanding and acceptance THAT WE CAN NOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS.

Hard choices need to be made and Americans have always answered the bell when asked - but our leaders never ask.

We need a leader like John Muir to rise from this mess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir

Why not John Gault?

Petroleum is the life blood of the global economy. Gasoline is not where the majority of Crude oil goes, despite what we often think.

It's used to make many products we all need to live our lives, whether we like it or not.

Less drilling in the U.S. means more dependency on Foreign Oil. A very dangerous option that puts the Middle East in a more important light than we may want.

Just because one of the 3500 Oil wells in the Gulf has failed, it doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to pursue deep sea drilling as an option. The other energy options are Nuclear, Coal, Wind and a few others, but we all know how popular these are.

Why don't we ban all Automobiles when there's a fatal car accident? We don't because we know we need them, and it's the same situation with Crude Oil. Statements to the contrary are wrought with misinformation and demogagary.

Agreed on that but when does one take responcibility??When there is obvious evedence of paying off goverment inspectors and the leadership does noting, yes they need to be blamed...Obass, get real, The guy works for the oposing team!!!!

There lies much of the problem. But American's are held hostage by petroleum demand.


A great set of choices . . . but the most disappointing part. We could see this disaster developing in 1990's. Twenty years of failed adjustment & leadership.


I think it does - we should expend the resources to get off the petroleum treadmill or we will find ourselves even deeper in the same hole in 2020


John - this analogy you frequently use just seems silly. Its not the same - not even close

How is my analogy different?

As for viable alternatives, I've not heard ANY that make sense. What do you think should replace Crude Oil?

Becuase when you click the seatbelt and turn the key you accept the risk.

But when you are gulf sea food vendor who's lifestyle has just been crushed by BP, you had no say in exposing yourself to the risk.

Thats why they are different.



Wind, Solar, Tide, Nuclear, Smart Grid, Fuel Cells, Lifestly Changes, Algy, there are a host of other evolving zero emissions alternatives.

The choice is simple - keep digging ourselves into a deeper hole or face the music and do the hard work to change our national energy mix.

The transition will take at least 20 years - so we best get started.

You can't say it any better than that swwind, solely because its true. The "digging ourselves into a deeper hole" is literal. I don't think most people understand the depth of this problem. It is just the beginning I fear.

Flash report..........We are a long way from changing over to an alternative fuel. I would say 25 years before we make any major changes from fossil fuels.

As usual it does not take long for one individual on this site to bring his political rants into a discussion where it does not belong .... Before this thread gets shut down I just wanted to wish Hoop the best it can't be easy for anyone down there that relies on the gulf for their income. Hopefully this mess can get cleaned up.

Anyone who can justify more off shore drilling or defend BP has neither love or respect for our oceans.

Craig - big changes are underway now, examples are everywhere. I think we agree its a TRANSITION that will take at least 25 years, but we need to increase the momentum of the clean energy transition.

Fail

"In the United States in 2007 about 70% of petroleum was used for transportation (e.g. gasoline, diesel, jet fuel), 24% by industry (e.g. production of plastics), 5% for residential and commercial uses, and 2% for electricity production."

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/pecss_diagram.html

Then look at how the US stacks up on global consumption:

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/country/index.cfm

There are plenty of alternatives that need to be developed. swwind named a few and there are plenty more. There may not be one silver bullet, but we need to get our heads out of the sand. Petroleum is a technological dead end. It is not renewable, It is not infinite. It is not sustainable.

But it sure lines the pockets of big oil and they will do anything to convince us that we can stay on it for as long as possible. Oh no, wait. We trust big corporations do do what's in our best interest. Never mind what I just wrote. Go Exxon Mobil, Go Shell, Go BP! We love you. You will always take care of us. May we have some more master, please?!

...They are akin to crack dealers and we are junkies. It is not in their interests to ween us off...ever.

That being said, there will always be a need for it in some capacity, but we need to change our behavior...our consumption. Yeah, that sucks. We like our big trucks and our big 250hp bass rockets. Yeah, it will cost us more money. We love cheap gas. Yeah it will hinder the economy. Change never comes easy. Pay now or pay later. Let China, India and Russia continue to be addicted to oil while we INNOVATE new technologies. Then when the spigot runs dry or oil gets too expensive, we will be the economic superpower controlling the "new" lifeblood of the global economy = Energy Technology.

.
.
.

Nahhh...just kidding! Just keep drilling. That's been working great so far!!!

Agreed Lead Head!

I think some of you need to relax and have some respect for the person who started this thread. Go find some azzhole political finger pointing forum. From the sounds of it, some of you know the way already. No politics means no politics.

Our friend Larry is living this bullsh!t while you bicker about nothing that will make a difference. Have some respect and allow him to use it as a communication point to us instead of some retarded soapbox for your own selfish views.

No your wrong Colonial Sanders. Gasoline is 42% of all Crude oil refined. Therefore, it is in the minority. You lumped Diesel and Jet fuel with Gas, which is wrong.

I really wonder how many of the Anti-Petro crowd are going to ride their bikes to work tomorrow.....or better yet, give up their gas powered boats.

Todd: What about the pedestrian walking down the street. If he gets t-boned by a car, how is that different than the fisherman in the Gulf? Everything we do has risks/rewards. We all know we can get in a car and get killed or kill others, yet we are all willing to take that risk. Same goes for riding on airplanes, buses, etc etc....

If the risks outweight the rewards, then you should look into a switch, but very often it's not that clear.


All the technology you mention may have some opportunities and I know private industry is looking at ways to make them work because whoever invents a way to make they cost effective, they'll be very rich.

The problem is..............those who are the most anti-Petro are also the same people stonewalling alternative technology. Most Libs are against wind-farms in their area since the deem them unsightly and they'll chop up birds. Underwater tide technology seems to make sense but i already hear the uproar about people saying, NIMBY !! It goes without saying what they believe about Nuclear.

We definetly don't want to do as Brazil has with their Sugar Cane to Alcohol process. Brazil has clear cut millions of deep forest and rain forrests in order to have enough land to plant their cane.

Not sure why you need to resort to name calling...but if you do, at least spell correctly. I'm not even sure I get it. Kentucky Fried Chicken? Have you tried the new Double Down? I heard it's unbelievable! But, I digress...

42% is still the largest "chunk" by usage segment by far, even if you exclude diesel and jet. So please don't split hairs.

Anyways, why exclude them? Burning diesel and jet fuel is demand driven. It goes to the same core behavioral issues. Change behavior. Use less. Break the cycle.



Did I mention I have the only geo-thermal heating and cooling system in my town...close to 30 grand. The equivalent of taking 1.5 cars off the road per year. In addition, my payback rivals any investment I would have made over the past 3 years with the same dollar for dollar.

Yes, I put my money were my mouth is. Have you?



You are correct. Just like the pedestrian...We all just got flucked, big time.

The only short term solution is using natural gas for transportation. This takes the pressure off of drilling for oil and would for the most part eliminate the reliance on foreign oil and the transfer of wealth issues it brings us.
This transition has started. Many major cities like Los Angeles are already on natural gas powered vehicles. There are hardware companies that sell conversion kits to convert conventional cars right now (FSYS) and another company that has the distribution and filling station issues solved (CLNE). If you have natural gas piped into your home the equipment to convert your car and fill up at home from your gas utility exists right now.
Cars can run on propane or natural gas. Any hardware store has propane. The logistics of putting in a liquid natural gas pumping island in a present gas station are not difficult.
And the country has a known 200 year supply of natural gas already available to be drilled and piped and there is plenty more to be discovered in the West where the Feds own 50% of the land and don't allow much exploration.
Natural gas burns much cleaner than oil fuels.
So we:
--improve the environment with natural gas vehicles.
--reduce or eliminate foreign oil.
--stop the balance of payments drain that puts a huge burden on our deficits.
--no longer fund our enemies.
--energy purchases stay within our borders funding our economies.
--it exists now and can be combined with hybrids.
--it leaves the U.S. energy independant.
The cities are doing it now and the suburban areas should be next. It will be one of the major growth industries in the next 20 years. This is the only practical known technology with the resource available domestically that can offer a transition plan.

My brother-in-law has an Audi that he converted to use propane. The technology is out there for conversions and has been in use for years now...just in other countries where there was enough demand for it to be practical. Question is, how bad are we willing to let it get before we get in gear in this country? We need leadership, motivation and momentum, else it's going to be a very painful road ahead.

Oil and gas are usually found together, you still got to drill. Some of the wells I worked on were good natural gas producers. Using gas in cars is fine but not a solution. Vinman, by geo thermal do you mean heat pump?

Lets hope so !

I agree, it is going to be a private person or company that comes up with this stuff - not the federal government. The government should just get the hell out of the way. Maybe provide some incentives, but don't wack the taxpayer to make that happen.

Yes, it's a reversible heat pump (meaning it will cool and heat) that uses the ground instead of the ambient air like a normal heat pump...and it's upwards of 400% efficient.

M.C., why is natural gas as a transportation fuel not a solution?
Because you have to drill? Because it is only a by-product of oil drilling?
The fact is most natural gas comes from wells that were drilled only for natural gas not a by-product of an oil well.
Take the enormous gas field in our own backyard, the Marcellus Shale formation stretching across the multi-state areas of NY, Pa. and further south. No one thinks of this region as an oil producer though nearly 90% of the worlds oil for lubricants comes from this region due to its high parafin, low sulphur based oil deposits. What is drilled for is natural gas. Where I hunt in western Pa. there are gas wells drilled all over the Allegany National Forest. Most of the roads built through these vast tracts of land are for gas exploration not logging.
New technologies for drilling have improveed the yield of a traditional natural gas well many times over with horizontal drilling. You drill vertically into the Marcellus Shale layer and then horizontally through it cutting through the vertical fissures that exist to allow gas to move through to the pipe. You can further fracture the formation with water. Hydrofracing increases the fissures and channels for gas movement. This releases billions of cubic feet of gas previously deemed unrecoverable.
There are major shale formations all over the country that now offer natural gas drilling opportunities. Areas like the Barnett Shale in Texas, the Fayetteville shale, the Hayneville Shale and others.
Hydrofracing also opens up the huge 3.65 billion barrels of undiscovered oil reserves estimated to sit in the Bakken Oil Formation of North Dakota and Montana.
And we don't drill in most of the 50% of the West that the federal government owns.
So when you look at offshore drilling and wonder why we take that risk and spend that kind of money it is because there are huge deposits, it is cost effective, we need the oil and getting the oil that is on land is blocked by the government and environmentalists. It could be more cost effective and safer if we focused on what we have under our country's land mass.
The idea of not drilling is a fantasy. We will drill because we have to for national defense and economic reasons. But if the country transitions to a different fuel for transportation it will free up all of that oil requirement to either be used for an alternate use or not be needed at all and we reap the benefits mentioned in my post above. This is the only practical solution to weaning ourselves from foreign oil and becoming energy independant. As alternate sources of energy become more practical we use more of wind, solar, geo-thermal and battery power and become less dependant upon fossil fuels. If we are energy independant it will free up hundreds of billions of dollars that now go to our enemies for oil and this money would be reinvested back into America. Some could even be used for the social programs about a third of the country seems to want which currently are on a course to bankrupt the country in twenty years.
What will trigger this move is the economies of scale. When natural gas as a vehicle fuel becomes nation-wide people will start to use it. Right now gasolene is cheaper and easier to get but we are in a global economic slowdown and oil demand has lessened. In a few short years when we get back to free market economics and the world booms again a barrel of oil will be $200 bucks and natural gas will look like a good alternative.
Remember diesel? Huh?, what about diesel? When I was a kid diesel was only available at truck stops not gas stations. Now you can buy it anywhere. The same will happen with natural gas and propane vehicle systems.
With coal, oil and natural gas plus all of the alternative energy solutions like wind, solar, geo-thermal, tidal, nuclear and hydro we have all of the energy we will ever need right here in North America. No place on earth, including Saudia Arabia, has more energy at its disposal. We just need an intelligent approach to not only getting it but how to use it.
Drilling through a mile of water without having the proper cut-off technology to cap a well instantly was insane. This is the fault of the deep water drilling industry and our federal government who has the licensing and over-sight responsibility to insure the safety of the workers and the environment. This disaster will set back our energy initiatives for a long time.

Some good discussion around Natural Gas !!

Gee, I'm wondering if we'll regret keeping Broadwater LNG terminal out of our area?

Nat gas doesn't transport well, so you need to liquify it to transport easily. Hence the need for large LNG terminals, like Broadwater was supposed to be.

The Anti-Broadwater people said it was going to explode and wipe out CT. This of course was not at all factual, but I'm just wondering if any of these same anti-crowd would rather have local NG stocks versus an offshore Oil well.

Are you kidding ? This BP spill and the explosion in Middletown this spring, make me sure that Broadwater was a bad idea.

Regret . . . . . . more like rejoyce !

Commercial enterprise enjoys all profits and the public underwrites all the risk. . . . it doesn't seem like that model has worked out too well for the public recently. Maybe Hoop has some perspective on that.

The Middletown explosion was only left over NG in the pipes, and people felt the blast in Rhode Island. Broadwater was billions of cubic feet.

I have not read all of Buck's post yet - but with the NG finds in NY, PA and out west, import capacity is even less important than it was in 2005 when Broadwater was a red hot debate. Domestic NG has its place thats for sure - it will be needed as a transitional fuel in the mix of other energy solution.

I think it's very different, in your senario, the car t bones one person, but in the Gulf the car continues driving down the sidewalk smashing life after life, towns, businesses and causing un measureable damage to the eco system.

The scale and the distribution of risk is just not comparable.

Well said, Trouper Bri.
Best wishes, Hoop.

When it really comes down to it, most people are against change, and of course progress.

Todd: If you're against a LNG terminal 10 miles from land, that would mean you are against any NG terminals, piping, and drilling on land, right?

So how do we take this great idea of using more NG when you're unwilling to take some risk? You're afraid of NG and it's explosive properties, yet you would allow a family member to sit on a tank of it in a car?? We want it in our buses, to heat our homes, etc etc...... Why aren't they dangerous ???


I guess my point is..........there are risks with everything. Everything we do different has a calculated risk. Nothing is without risk or inconvienience. You simply can't have it both ways.

who...the hell....would...want....Broadwater.....at....this.....point.....John?

seriously? personally im all about building another nuke plant, but the last thing i want is another fossil fuel anything in state.

middletown plat worked out great a few months ago? didnt we remember that?

conrad, i love ya but you gotta get off the Obama crap here. its old, its tired, and at this point it makes no sense and has little to do with this situation, if anything at all.

this nonsense will leak til Christmas, thats my prediction and im sticking to it.

I'm all for Nuclear. It's my #1 choice, however, nobody will allow one to be built near them.

Are we all in agreement that Nuclear is the way to go?

Hey yal,..don't get yourselves all riled up,......whatever we do we do,.........unfortunately Mexico and Japan,..yes Japan will be drilling VERY soon on the other side,...with much less regulation to boot,....this could be the a picture of a future,prominent disaster scenario........thinkabout it,..it's happening!

Jeez Buck, don't get all kung fu and discovery channel on me.

I think it will take more than 25 years, maybe never. fuel prices have dropped and large truck sales are up 25%. With 400 years of NG, we'll all be driving 3/4 tone pick up trucks and heating with the windows open in no time.

I'm in !

I hate the waste, but I see it as the best option to suport zero emmissions renewables.

M.C., you said natural gas was not a solution for a vehicle fuel and I wanted to know why you would say that since you seemed to have worked in the industry. Nothing "kung fu" with that question.
As far as "discovery channel", it is true I do my homework on these kind of issues especially when I am investing in the technology.
The sad thing about nuclear is right across the Sound in LI they spent billions building a nuclear plant and then spent more billions tearing it down due to what happened with safety issues. But nuclear is the best solution for electric utilities.

OK, so we're all in agreement................Nuclear Reactor in Killingworth.

There ya go. I "seemed" to have worked in the industry. Sorry I'm done with this topic .

They Both have been drilling all along, Mexico however requires remote BOP's as do almost all other oil producing countries.

thanks for the clarity red,.....I was just going by what Hoop told me the other night........

He knows more about this crap than we do He is living in it.
I wasn't trying to get into a pissing contest, I am just so frustrated with this hole mess, it makes me sick that short cuts and bad judgment can ruin peoples lives and destroy the environment, and now they cant cut the pipe clean so it will be a dome not a cap on the pipe.
I am not sure who said it on this board but I to think this thing will flow till Christmas.
God help those people down there, it seems every time they get up something kicks them down again.

oh believe me I'm not getting into a pissing match and didn't take it that way,.........I'm with you on the whole friggin mess,...sickening.....and Like i've said,...they can put a man on the moon but they can't stop this??????? Seems awfully fuked up,..and is truely,.......awfully sad.....I think about them every morning I wake up.......

Bp began drillinga relief well not too long ago.
If a relief well was the only viable solution to the problem why would BP have begun drilling one at the beginning of this while simultaneously trying other approaches?

Canada requires relief wells for drilling. BP, as recently as March, protested this regulation there as being an unnecessary aversion to a situtation similar to what we are currently seeing. The reasoning was that all of the safety systems on the rigs should be adequate enough to prevent this type of thing. The overlooked part of this is the human error factor.

WFN has a web page dedicated to the spill

http://www.wfn.tv/news/oil-spill/

Sorry to get off topic here (or the topic you guys changed it to)............... ANYONE HEAR HOW HOOP IS DOING??????

C'mon M.C., working on oil and gas wells gives you a view that no one else has and helps answer questions on this thread. Dropping off of the topic doesn't help. People are interested in what you have to say.

On the first page of this thread the topic is "Oil rig explosion"
Started by Hoop. Where is it going off subject?

Sorry Buck, I'm frustrated by this mess. My first thoughts were those guys missing are dead, no doubt about it, then I can't believe they lost the whole rig.After that I can't believe they had no good backup plan to stop the flow. Nobodys talking about what happened to cause this because of liability.Even when they do there will be some spin on it. Basically blowouts are caused by not controling the pressure of the gas you drilled into. This is done by the drilling fluid (mud) that contains ground up barite to make it heavy.This wt, is varied to meet the demands. Last resort is the blowout preventor which will seal off the casing even with the drilling pipe still in the hole. This certainly isn't the first time one has failed. The first line of defense against a blowout is to anticipate a possible gas reservoir be fore you hit it.This was one of my jobs.I would draw the charts of the rock strata and plot the gas if any. This data came from the rock chips pumped back up and sepparated from the drilling mud as well as gas samples from the same mud run through a gas chromatigraph. This would show all the different gases. I would also plot the specific gravity of the shale which normaly increases with depth. If youre near gas the sp. gr. starts a reverse trend showing its getting lighter and more porous. The gas ppm will start to go off the charts and its time to weight up the mud. If you don't the fluid starts rising at the drilling floor and things get a little hairy. Sometimes a blowout is triggered when you pull the entire drill string to change the drill bit if you don't keep the hole completly full.Nobody wants a blowout, the pressure can push the drill pipe out of the hole and smash into the top of the derrick and its not long before the big diesel engines set the gas on fire. Nobody wants to die and nobody wants to loose many millions of dollars in equipment. This is what I did in the mid 70's.People will never look at drilling the same after this. As for the future of enery, thats another topic. I think we need a miracle there. Oh yeah, that top shot to me was just a pr stunt.I didn't think it had a chance of working, wish I was wrong.Also I think I heard this well was completed and they lost control trying to cap it, not sure.

.

Thank you for your incite M.C.

we agree in full, John.

M.C., thanks, that is the first time I have heard an explanation of what went wrong. I did not know whether it was a blowout or a failure in the rig or super structure. Nothing was ever explained.
I am still astonished that there is nothing to cap a well with after a disaster like this. You would think there would be some kind of concerete dome or something that would cut off the flow immediately.
That could potentially cap the blowout and save lives.
How can a design like the one BP used here get passed by the Interior Department who signs off on the technology? What should the technology be to cap a blowout?

I hope natural gas works out. My only concern about natural gas for vehicles is that I recall reading something about Exxon recently buying a company that had the patent for the process needed to cleanly refine natural gas for vehicles. If my memory is correct, it doesn't take too much of a leap to predict those friendly folks at Exxon will use their monopoly to jack up the price of natural gas at the pump once it becomes available nationally. Great for Exxon and people who own their stock, but terrible for the rest of America. Wondering why the Obama administration didn't prohibit that Exxon purchase?

Do you mind if I ask a few questions?

Why is it that private enterprise shouldn't profit from their investment?
If this company didn't have the resources to exploit the technology won't we benefit by Exxon bringing it to market?
Is it the governments role to decide who is allowed to sell various technologies?
Is profit bad?
Who is John Gault?

Excellent questions. I hope to hear some answers

Your right - that is the way it needs to be . . . . but I recently agreed with JFM to have a Nuc plant in my town of Killingworth.

I know its not the way it could ever work . . . but in my heart . . . I would rather the US Navy run that plant than a publicly traded global energy conglomerate. I would feel safer.

Another day to hope and pray. It looks like the latest "top hat" is in place and they will start to close some of the relief valves today.

Fingers cross. - even a 50% capture rate would be a big step forward.

There is actually competition within the natural gas industry for vehicle fuels including some smaller companies like Clean Energy (CLNE). Boone Pickens now has a big share, maybe controlling interest, but the company is small and Pickens is an out-of-the-box thinker.
Clean Energy has contracts with many cities for their vehicle fleets to run on natural gas. They make the conversions to the vehicles, set up the filling centers and do other logistical requirements. They also have been getting contracts with servicers that have big vehicle fleets like utilities and telcom outfits. I believe Verizon is switching over to natural gas vehicles soon.
There are a few equipment companies that make the conversion hardware. One is FSYS, can't remember the actual name, I go by ticker symbols mostly. They are just one of a few and not only are they profitable but they have a relatively low PE with good fundamentals. CLNE is not profitable since their positive cash flow is pushed back into the business for continual expansion which creates write-offs and losses but it is a going concern and other financial measureables show tremendous growth.
Exxon did buy into the industry in the past year because they see the handwriting on the wall. Using oil for transportation is probably a low margin business because the consumer is always pushing on pricing and a lot of the price is in taxes. Look at the refiners who have to buy oil, like VLO, TSO, FTO, WNR and the others, their margins get crushed with high oil prices. The integrated oil companies like Exxon, that drill and produce product, run cracking processes and market end products are much more profitable because they control their business from exploration to end product.
Oil used in products such as the plastic industry would likely have better margins due to the ability to functionally price the end product versus the cost-plus pricing of transportation fuels.
There is a surplus of natural gas now and the price is way down. As oil goes up so does natural gas in a somewhat linear relationship but since we control our own destiny with natural gas produced in North America, and we have an abundance of it, using it for critical applications frees us from global demand for oil, oil pricing monopolies and the problems of political unrest. Plus we keep the dollars here instead of sending them to our enemies.
To me, this is the only short term practical way to get out of our dependance on foreign oil. The positive impact to our Federal balance sheet would be enormous.

Buck: The relationship of Crude to NG is not really linear. NG is far more volatile. Today we're dealing with NG in the $4.50/MBtu range. It wasn't that long ago that it was over $10/MBtu, but it hit $15+ in the height of the market.

NG historically was $2-$2.50/MBtu for several decades, but once controls came off the trading of NG, it went absolutely haywire.

Since NG is a "domestic" product, it is much more capable of these spikes. NG from around the world needs to come into the U.S. on a much larger scale in order to flatten those price spikes.

In order to do that, we need much more LNG infrastructure. The U.S. NG infrastructure is probably the biggest stumbling block to increased usage of NG as a transportation fuel and in other applications. But we all know how popular that is today.

Everyone wants it cheap....plentiful....and with no infringement on any part of their life. You can't have it all.....

John & Buck,

Curious about something. If NG can be harvested in upstate New York and could be effectively/profitably sold in the American market at (hypothetically) $5 MBtu, but in Japan this winter they are willing to pay $8MBtu. Is it possible the US could become a net exporter of NG ?

I am on a BP conference call briefing with the international press right now - the top cap was landed on the BOP around 8pm last night. They have started to recover "some" oil and gas on the surface ship Enterprise. They are starting to very slowly close some of the relief valves, but it is a delicate balance of too much presure in the top cap vs. maximized recovery.

BP will not give recovery rates - but they will give a daily total every 24hrs. The first number is due tomorrow morning.

"Never done at this depth" . . . ."we will keep you informed" bla bla bla . . . .

By the end of next week, they hope to have yet another supplemental strategy. This one is starting to work and next options would be supplemental - They seem optimistic that within two weeks they could be near 90% recovery rates.

The Enterpise can handle about 15,000 barrels/day and they anticipate that would be the limiting factor if this works as expected. Obviously they can and will bring in more ships if recovey rates are as successful as they hope.

I think I just saw COnrad on CNN shaking hands with that Obama guy,......CONRAD???????

The problem with exporting NG again is our infrastucture. You need to liquify it, and transportation costs are approx. $3MBtu, so if it's $5 here and you add the transportation costs, sell at $8, then there's no profit. Nix that idea.

We also compete against middle East NG which is often burned off as a waste product, or sold at under $1 MBtu.

Put in sufficient LNG infrastruture and you can turn NG into much more of a Global product.

WE NEEDED BROADWATER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Signs in Lafourche Parish LA

The pricing is linear in the sense that when oil goes to $145 a barrel it creates an umbrella and if you think of NG as an alternative fuel then it now has a much higher upper range into which it can be priced. Whether NG competition allows this rise or not is another thing but typically when there are oil pricing spikes the NG producers will manage production so that they can price under the oil umbrella. Remember, oil pricing was just as volatile over the past three years. Look at its range. Anyway, maybe linear was not the right word but you get the point I was on. Both fuels rise and fall based upon country economics and global demand.
On the question of selling NG to Japan the answer is yes, we will sell into the market with the best margins if those are better than domestic sales, though NG into Japan may be a bad example. For example, some North Slope oil is sold into Asia. It is cheaper to put it on a huge tanker, one that can't navigate the Panama Canal, and send it off to Asian refineries than to navigate around South America and bring it into the Texas refineries. To offset this oil export we will import heavy crude into Texas from Venezula. On balance, the domestic oil company makes more money doing this.
The main economics of LNG terminals in Long Island Sound is that there is very poor NG infrastructure in the Northeast. There just isn't the piping around here whereas when I lived in western NY everyone burned NG and there were literally few oil burners in homes.
So there is a lot of work to switch to NG from oil for heating and transportation but this transition will either start now or will be forced on us. That is what Cap & Trade is all about, make energy so expensive there are no other options but to go green but green can't produce the energy that is needed in the forms we need it.

yeah.... the cap today produced numbers equivelent to containing about 10% of whats actually leaking.

this is disgusting.

Sportfishing Industry Urges President Obama to Provide Immediate Financial Assistance to Businesses in the Gulf

Recreational fishing-dependent businesses will not survive without immediate financial assistance

June 4, 2010 - Alexandria, VA – Today, representatives from every sector of the sportfishing industry sent a letter to President Obama urging the administration to make federal financial assistance immediately available to recreational fishing-dependent businesses impacted by the Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe. The industry also recommended that the administration develop a long-term compensation plan for these businesses to cover losses for the duration of the economic impact resulting from the current crisis.



The full news release from ASA: http://asafishing.org/newsroom/news_pr060410.html

It's such crap. There should be more legislation and safety netting in place to force companies like BP who reap the rewards of these things when they're functioning properly to be the ones who have to fulfill the monetary obligations that come with this type of disaster.

NOT IN LONG ISLAND SOUND!!!!

Yesterday was a bad day for the NG industry.

Texas
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i3fQFROi7EjjP1ifzux9UOPWFP8AD9G75JOO0

West Virginia
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/07/AR2010060704791.html

Pennsylvania
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10159/1063980-455.stm

The industry is going to need to step up its game if NG is really going to be a widely used transportation fuel.

T Boone Pickins is pitching it hard. I saw him on Friday (Mad Money with Krammer) say that crude oil would be $300 to $400 a barrel inside the next ten years.

OFF TOPIC HERE BUTTTTT HOW IS HOOP DOING???? I thought this thread he was using to keep us updated on his take of how things were going down there.

I am sure there are other boards out there to discuss energy alternatives and the political crap that seems to go with it! NOW you guys are bringing up BROADWATER WTF this guys livelyhood is gone and your using this thread to spew out your political ideology give it a rest!!!!

Hey how about this .....http://www.alternativeenergyforums.com/ SEE there are forums where you can have your rants!!! For the two CTF's mini Limbaughs here is a place for you....http://www.republicanforum.com/

Redfish in response to your post about me going off topic earlier Hoop started this thread to let us know how he was doing and how this disaster was affecting the people in his community. For some reason it seems no matter what happens in this world their are two individuals on this site that love to bring politics into the issue as fast as they can.

This disaster is not a liberal or conservative disaster its an American disaster in one way or another WE ALL will be hurt by this spill.

He called me the other day just to check in.
Seems like he is still in good spirits in spite of taking all the fishing gear off his boat. It won't be used anytime soon, he says.
As for now he is working ferrying around workers, folks from NOAA and journalists.
Also said there are still fish in close but it's all off limits now so he really wants to go and catch something but can't.

Thanks for the update Mike glad t hear he is still hanging in there at another tough time.

Chill out !!!!

If you look at the 7 or 8 biggest posters on this thread, you will see a total approaching 50,000 posts.

I know Hoop, do you ? My heart is breaking for what he is going through. I know John from Madison feels the same way. If you ask me, this thread is the perfect place to bat this around. Its a sign of respect to Hoop!

A ***** storm is coming in our energy future and FISHERMAN will be in the center of it. More off shore rigs, less access to off shore rigs, NG rigs, rock fracking, nuclear cooling, off shore wind farms, wave farms and tide farms. No matter how you look at this the implications for fisherman are very real.

So rather than go home and kick the dog, I will vent my horrible frusrtation about this whole F*^$ing mess by blogging on CTF and every time I do, I will wish Hoop and all the fisherman of the GOM good luck in weathering this disaster.

Sor far it has not crashed off the political cliff (which is ALWAYS a risk) but not so far.

(CNN)this morning

The morning the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, a BP executive and a Transocean official argued over how to proceed with the drilling, rig survivors told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview.

The survivors' account paints perhaps the most detailed picture yet of what happened on the deepwater rig -- and the possible causes of the April 20 explosion.

The BP official wanted workers to replace heavy mud, used to keep the well's pressure down, with lighter seawater to help speed a process that was costing an estimated $750,000 a day and was already running five weeks late, rig survivors told CNN.

BP won the argument, said Doug Brown, the rig's chief mechanic. "He basically said, 'Well, this is how it's gonna be.' "

"That's what the big argument was about," added Daniel Barron III.

Shortly after the exchange, chief driller Dewey Revette expressed concern and opposition too, the workers said, and on the drilling floor, they chatted among themselves.

"I don't ever remember doing this," they said, according to Barron.

"I think that's why Dewey was so reluctant to try to do it," Barron said, "because he didn't feel it was the right way to have things done."
______________________________________________________________

This screams of negligence on a massive scale - I feel nothing but anger.

Swwind,

To be honest with you I dont really give a flying ***** how many post the top 7 or 8 people as you put it on this thread have!!! Post count makes no freaking difference, that crap stopped when this became a paysite if i have 1 post or 10,000 my sixteen dollars does the same as yours. Lets not start the "clique" ***** again that was on here years ago when this was a free site.....THAT was a idiotic statement you made bringing up post count.... Do you think you have more of a right to be on here because of your post count????? WTF!!! I think most people can read back and see this whole thread was based upon political rhetoric once the "few" political finatics got on. The few of you that always have the answers should run for office and give it a real shot in November. Some people (IN A POLITICAL FORUM) may actually want to hear your ideas on how to fix the worlds problems. God knows you guys think you know how to fix the worlds problems.

NO I DO NOT KNOW THIS MAN BUT THROUGH THIS SITE AND READING ALL THAT HE HAS GONE THROUGH DOWN THERE BOTH GOOD AND BAD I FEEL FOR HIM!!!! ONCE AGAIN I GUESS YOU ARE BETTER THAN ME BECAUSE YOU KNOW HIM PERSONALLY MUST BE NICE TO BE ON YOUR HIGH HORSE!!!!

You guys lost the reason behind Hoop starting this thread. You turned it into your own thread to express your own ideology and political biases.

Hoop I do not know you personally but I wish you and your family well through this nightmare. You have seemed to perservere through many tough times down there and I am sure you will come out on top this time as well. I wish you the best of luck once again..

SWwind I wish you and the rest of the guys the best of luck fishing this year. In the end I think we all hope the leak is stopped as soon as possible and we can start cleaning this mess up. As humans it in our nature to have differing viewpoints but in the end I truly think we all have the same hopes and goals.......

stand by...

welp just got off the phone with Hoop(interrupted by a BP guy I think) and here's the deal,......When our fearless leader(also known as Nancy Pelosi's spokesperson) shows up down there,....it is a 1000% staged operation............people from all walk of life are given white suits for media purposes.........
Here's some of our converation,......has anyone ONCE seen the president take questions after a "breifing to the press" NO

the oil has infiltrated Larry's backyard to soak birds, then gone another day but the marshes have been contaminated....they are still trut fishing in some marshes and Pontrechain is still open for fishing.....
Shrimpers use to get paid .45 a lb for 16-20's now that price has gone up to 4.oo + so get redy at the market if it doesn't come from Thailand....

his boat is running everyday so he is hanging in there but 25 miles offshore in 1500' of water he could not see a jig more than 3' where he use to kick back and enjoy the birds and tuna busting on a dail basis,..and I quote" I was interviewed by numerous news staions ,....but what could I say.....I don't know what to say".....this all coming from his mouth as he is almost back on line after a lightning strike...he should be up in2-3 more days.........it's looking pretty bleak but again he stressed that BP is doing in his eyes an admiral job of getting people to work and paying them,...he is FULLY disgusted in the circus show that comes to town when Mr. Obama shows up.............anyhoo.... thought you might like to know../....Larry should be chiming in here with once again media-proof on-scene updates....rather than the crap you see on TV.....Be well Hoop.....al are in our thoughts and prayers .......and thanks for calling....

Good luck Hoop. If it gets really bad, you have lots of friends up this way.

I have been sick of the circus since inauguration day. This disaster with an inability to lead ,or more likely complete incompetence, has only sealed the deal for me.

my sentiments exactly Jon,....truely sad to hear him speak.........it really Is,.......It's NOT a good situation down there......"it will be MANY MANY years(his words) until we really know the scope of this...." what the fuk can you say about it......Hearing the Circus show stuff really put some things in perspective......

Well said, and words to remember.

I think you can turns years into....decades. Having worked in the Gulf for years on all aspects of deep and shallow water trophodynamics (200-3k+) feet, we don't know anything. No one has a clue what the impacts of the oil will be on species and systems that we really don't know much about to begin with. What about the pelagics that spawn in the gulf, what about all of the ichthyoplankton from lots of commercial species (fish and crustaceans), what about the overall ecosystem functions and transfer...

Even if they get it all cleaned up on the surface, the long-term implications are so unknown. It's unfortunate, especially when you find out why things happen and what we could have been doing proactively to help prevent these things.

Can't look back now though, just have to keep looking forward and get it done.

Great Post !

The newest data looks like potentially as much 40,000 barrels a day. Only a fraction is on the surface. With the instream injection of dispersants, this spill is like none other. As Mycept says, nobody has a clew of the implications in the mid water and pelagic habitats.

I am simply dumfounded that they had no solution to cap a deep water well in a situtation like this. Or to insert a sleave within or outside of the existing pipe once they cut it off. I would never have believed that they would be so helpless in this situation.

think its bad now, just wait until the first good hurricane comes into the Gulf.

why do they not have to have a shut off on that pipe???????? say every 100ft or so i dont think that would be hard to do

ditto, we can clone animals...heck probably even humans, we can put men on other planets....... but we cant plug a hole???????

Hoop was on channel 3 news last night. They were showing a boat coming into the marina and I said hey that looks like Hoop's boat. Then they showed a close up and it was the "Our Freedom" and Hoop. Anyone else see it?

Anyone hear from Hoop lately?

I was watching the RI news over the weekend and saw a short interview down there by the TV crew and it was Hoop I believe.
The bite was a short one. Am I right Hoop?

Yep, that was Hoop... He was on locally here in CT too.

My initial evaluation of what potentially happened appears to have been way off.

A lot of shortcuts and poor decisions made from the top and questioned at the bottom, but still carried out.

Maybe it's incredibly naive, but I can't believe these execs would take this kind of rick with their employees and equipment. My company has a hard time accepting that office employees might get a papercut and tries to prevent against even the most menial risks at all costs. 'Kind of makes me happy to work for them.

(CNN) -- Government scientists Tuesday increased the estimate of oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico to between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels per day, up to 50 percent more than previously estimated. That translates into 1.5 million gallons to 2.5 million gallons per day.

A million here, a million there. Who's counting. It's a lot of freakin' oil.

Anyone watch the congressional hearing yesterday? Very interesting indeed.

No doubt, there is blame to go around, but bear in mind that many of the oil companies where forced to go deep to drill because of moratoriums on drilling shallower.

Obama said, "we have run out of places to drill on land and shallow, thats why we are forced to drill deep."

What a lie.

He forgot to mention that the Enviro Wacko's are the one's who, to protect the environment, have forced companies to drill deep. Now, thanks to that stupid policy we have the worst environmental disaster in our history. We reap what we sow!

Part of God's judgment on a nation that turns its back on Him is to let leaders come to the top that are like children.

Isaiah 3:4
And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

On the quick, downward slide of nations, America has certainly arrived at that milestone. And we continue our decent...

I'm sorry but religious interraction with this natural disaster has no place........It was intentional corporate over sight and not giving a sh!t,.....that created this tragedy................Nothing Personal................

BP was negligent.

DAmn,...that was the word I was thinking of......

I've seen first hand the suffering of chidren, The destruction of churches by tornadoes & the exploding Christ in Columbus Ohio. There is NO GOD.

And the answer is simple....If I were God....Would I allow this???......The answer is NO....that is one evil mean spirited invisble man up there pal. And dont go giving me that "free will" crap either...cheeezus


This is our heaven or our hell.....this is our chance to enjoy this incredible journey....the Bible's god was mean in the old testament and a nice guy in the "New" WTF....all those that think there is any more than what we were given here are in for a big surprise.

But if there is....how we treat others will determine our fate...not some dying devotion to a man made book to keep humankind that were 4 hairs short of being monkeys from fornicating with their families.

The Chairman of the Board at BP just announced they (BP) will not be paying ANY stock dividends this year.

Eddie,...hear THAT!!!!! :shoooooo: :gooddamnthing: That was a topic of conversation yesterday.....

This whole oil spill deal scares the crap out of me..... what next??

does anyone really know???

Wind, Tide & Fusion Power

If we had the Politicians to make a committment (Like Kennedy did with the Moon race) to say...Our goal as a nation by the end of 2019, we will be totally oil & coal free......


Is the way to go....think of what trickle down jobs were created by the moon race and the technologies it brought to us.....we need to be the leaders folks.....but there aint no gumption anymore

The lights go out because the power plants stop running. There is NO viable alternative right now.

there was a tide project in Maine that just left.... sometimes back in the late 50's maybe early 60's " Quaddy tide project" I always wondered why it was dropped?

It was dropped becuase oil was $25 barrel. Oil at $100 per barrel makes tide power looks a whole lot sweeter.

There are all kinds of tide enery pilot projects testing now - and in the Netherlands there are tide plants which are totally operational.

Nonsence ! Maybe not that we can change to next week or next year, but there are dozens of great alternatives.

Soundsfishy - I won't add to this for obvious reasons other than saying BRILLIANT !

Obama, PLEASSSSSSSSE.......He is just trying to push another of his treasonous agendas.... This spill will blow over like the one in 1979 that went for 10 months and things were back to normal within 3 years, sure it`s bad but he wants it to be bad...What a bunch of crap!!!!! How`s that for fuel

Wow Ed, you are on a roll today.... My aunt devoted her entire life to church, her priest was recently brought up on charges of molesting alter boys, wouldn't god prevent people who would do this to children from representing him and the church???

As far as the oil spill, someones going to profit big, the worse it gets... Other countries are saying they can stop it and there help is being refused, doesn't make sense unless ........hmmmmmm

WELL THERE YA GO.............I`d say that's leadership What a piece of shttttt......

Ok, I'll bite. Name the dozen alternatives that could replace oil now, or even within the next decade.

My house in VT is powered by cow sh#t... Not kidding!!!

you gotta be shittin me

Bull Sh#t is more like it .

I am not an expert on the subject of alternative energy, but a friend of mine has been in the industry for a few years now and business is a boomin.

He took a pay cut and a risk by going to work for a solar energy company three years ago with the expectations of growth and being involved in something meaningful.

He was right. He started at the bottom climbing ladders and such installing the solar systems on residential and commercial locations. Now, as of seven months ago he has relocated and is now an the operations manager in a new location he started from scratch in the Philadelpia area. The location is extremely successful thus far, he is very happy and less people rely on oil for their source of energy.

My point is that this is an example of growth and success, not only as far as employment, but also a positive step in the right direction for alternative energy sources. It is already in the process of happening.

This discussion definitely took off on a few tangents.

Although this is major issue that involves a lot of issues intertwined, leave the politics and religion out of it.

Rather than nuke specific comments, here is a link to Part II, where we can start fresh and hopefully things can stay on track:

http://www.ctfisherman.com/ubbthreads/ub..._II#Post1222972