I don’t know about the rest of America but I can’t get enough of watching the live feeds from BP.
There is something about watching all theses underwater robots I find fascinating.
But watching has left me with a very bad taste in my mouth for BP’s efforts.
I watched as the diamond saw robot began to do its job. The hope was to get a smooth cut so that their cap could fit snugly capturing the flow of oil. After a bit of cutting the saw got into a bind (stuck) and I watched patiently until they got it unstuck and brought it to the surface for repair.
As a person fairly knowledgeable about how saws work, I know there are two causes for a saw getting in a bind. 1. The weight of the object you are cutting is leaning into your cut (pinching your saw) or 2. You are applying too much pressure. Both problems are easily fixed by either adjusting the position of your cut, your feed rate (pressure), or both.
So I was really surprised when they abandoned the saw cut with the diamond saw after only one attempt and decided to go with the brute force method of using a pair of sears. By their own admission this would leave a jagged edge on the riser pipe making for a poor seal.
If a smooth surface is the goal I don’t understand why they just didn’t unbolt the flange?
I still however, figured they could still get a good enough seal if they made the cap correctly. I am no engineer but I would have thought that the inside of the cap would have been a rubber funnel shape just big enough so it sealed around the outside edge of the pipe flange with some kind of clamping mechanism to apply pressure and to hold it securely.
As I watched the robots guide it into place, it looked as I thought it would. There was even some fin shapes at the bottom that appeared to be clamps of some sort.
Once in place I watched as the oil seemed to flow out from under this thing freely. I was flabbergasted when I realized there were no clamps. That the fins were just that, fins! I could even see the cap sway from the force of the oil coming from beneath it.
Then it dawned on me. Of course! It is so simple.
They don’t need to have a great seal. All they have to do is start pumping out the oil at the surface as fast (or close to) as it is exiting the hole at the ocean bottom and the oil would be under little or no pressure at the cap. If it leaked at all it would be minimal.
Once again I was shocked as I listened to the descriptions of relief valves on the caps and chokes at the surface. I realized in despair that they used a soft hose instead of solid piping to connect the cap to the surface (the solid piping seemed a no brainer to me), that the plan was to let the oil come to the surface under its own pressure. Of course with this scheme, anything but an absolutely perfect seal would leak horrendously.
I was dumbfounded at this realization. How could teams of BP’s top engineers possibly come up with such a lame doomed to fail scheme? They had to know that this would only capture a very small percentage of the oil. A child sucking on a soda straw would come up with a better plan.
It was then that one of my last remaining brain cells fired. We were duped.
I believe that BP wants to oil to stop. But they can’t do that so the only remaining option is the capture the oil. One would think that would be the best option for BP. Capture all the oil, collect the revenues.
BP has one tiny little problem. If they capture it all there will be an indisputable measure as to how much oil has spilled and that is a figure BP would rather not get out.
You see they not only have to pay royalties based on how much is spilled but they may also be fined as much as $4300.00 a barrel. So it is in their best interest to keep people guessing at the amount.
With the configuration they have now they can claim that whatever amount they capture is the “vast majority” of the oil when in actuality it is only a small fraction.
There will be those who will dispute the numbers but without definitive proof BP has the upper hand and they know it.
We are being scammed yet once again.
Update:
I just learned on Keith Olbermann’s Countdown that BP has announced plans to replace the cap with a bigger better fitting version next month. This new cap will be equipped with clamps to hold it firmly in place (sound familiar?).
I have to wonder why they didn’t use this cap in the first place and why take a month to replace it.
Could it be that BP never wanted the cap to fit well? That after seeing the oil still gushing, pressure was exerted to do better? Could it be that they are putting off replacing the cap as long as possible hoping the flow rate will slow?
