Butch Femme Planet

Butch Femme Planet (http://www.butchfemmeplanet.com/forum/index.php)
-   Current Affairs/World Issues/Science And History (http://www.butchfemmeplanet.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=133)
-   -   Gulf Oil Slick (http://www.butchfemmeplanet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1379)

NJFemmie 07-02-2010 06:34 AM

*boom*




....... :seeingstars:

(don't do it.... it...... hurts)

dreadgeek 07-02-2010 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toughy (Post 143104)
awww come on..............just do it.........your head must need a little 'boom'...............

The crazy, it burns!!!

SuperFemme 07-02-2010 10:24 AM

please contact me via pm for photo's of me naked being doused with holy water.

have your credit card ready.

putting humpty dumpty back together again is not cheap.

praise farrah.

AtLast 07-02-2010 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperFemme (Post 143282)
please contact me via pm for photo's of me naked being doused with holy water.

have your credit card ready.

putting humpty dumpty back together again is not cheap.

praise farrah.

Damn, cards are tapped out!

LOL.... I have a bottle of holy water in my bathroom.... it just seemed right... Well, maybe it was about my childhood..... How I ever ended up with any kind of positive spiritual connection is beyond belief when I see things like this and remember the nuns and priests.

And for these nut-cakes to put crap out like this in the midst of such environmental horror is tooooooooooooooooo much!!! Put some energy in what we can do about it and prevent it!

UGA-DUGGGA-DOOOO!!!

Corkey 07-03-2010 10:25 PM

From the president.
 
Dear Friend:



Thank you for writing to me about the BP oil spill. I will stand with the people of the Gulf Coast until they are made whole, and I appreciate your perspective as we continue to do everything we can to address this crisis.



The Gulf is one of the richest and most beautiful ecosystems on the planet. For centuries, its residents have enjoyed and made a living off the fish that swim in its waters and the wildlife that inhabit its shores. The Gulf is also the heartbeat of the region's economic life, and this oil spill has upended whole communities.



My Administration will continue to leverage every resource at our disposal to protect coastlines, to clean up the oil, to hold BP and other companies accountable for damages, to begin to restore the bounty and beauty of this region, and to aid the hardworking people of the Gulf as they rebuild their businesses and communities. For information about response efforts, available assistance, or how to help, please visit: www.WhiteHouse.gov/deepwater-bp-oil-spill. Individuals affected by the BP oil spill can also find resources by calling the United States Coast Guard at 1-800-280-7118, and small businesses can find support by calling 1-800-659-2955.



Thank you again for contacting me. I encourage you to visit WhiteHouse.gov to learn more about my Administration or to contact me in the future.



Sincerely,

Barack Obama

Miss Scarlett 07-04-2010 08:04 AM

Am wondering, afraid to hope, that this skimmer "A Whale" will be successful. Certainly cannot hurt to try. It's a bit annoying when someone offers a suggestion or assistance only to have the powers that be (whoever they appear to be at the moment - BP, Coast Guard...) decline, delay or whatever then turn around and tell the public they are doing everything they can....blah blah blah...

It's almost like BP is afraid someone other than BP might profit from this. I heard a joke somewhere way back when this disaster was new...the punchline of which (my paraphrase) was that BP issued an announcement that any oil washing up on beaches was the express property of BP and they would prosecute any who collected such oil...

MsDemeanor 07-04-2010 02:01 PM

Miss Scarlett, a lot of the crap BP has been pulling is to avoid fines and royalties. EPA fines are levied per barrel, so the more barrels documented, the higher the fine. Oil companies also pay the government for each barrel, so BP owes the US $ for all that oil in the water. This is why they've been using the dispersants, to break up the oil so that it can't be counted. Also why they've been underestimating the flow, refused to put cameras on the leak for the first few days, burning oil, etc. Using ships that collect the oil means that there's a count of # of barrels.

Another issue, strangely, is that there are clean water standards for water that is returned to the ocean. Now normally, this makes sense; you tell an industry that "the water must be this clean after you use it and dump it back in the ocean". In the case of oil, though, any clean is better than it was. Still, there are hoops that must be jumped and agreements that must be made before something like A Whale can be used. Mostly, though, it's just BP being supreme asshats who's priority is the $ and not the mess.

Glenn 07-04-2010 02:43 PM

Sneaky motherf*uckers! If I was king, BP would be liquidated, it's assets used to restore all the damages, and the people responsible would be publicly executed without a trial, warrent, or judge's signature. If a serial killer can get the chair, so should the folks who murder and destroy on such A MASSIVE SCALE.

MsDemeanor 07-04-2010 03:36 PM

Liquidating BP would destroy the British economy and wipe out a fair portion of the country's retirement funds, which would devastate even more lives. As for execution (which always wrong, IMO), I'm thrilled to live in a country where we have things like evidence and trials and juries and stuff. They don't always work, but thet beat the hell out of the alternatives.

Glenn 07-04-2010 03:48 PM

Legal proceedings? You might see a few of the big ol boys go under internal investigations, get a slap on the wrist, or maybe even a couple of months in jail. BP has to be laughing at all this. Any justice we get will be served by us the taxpayers, through higher pump prices, etc. .

Glenn 07-06-2010 02:47 AM

Latest News
 
In the last few days there have been credible reports from Houston, New Orleans, Florida, Tennesee, Ohio, and South Carolina of an oily substance coming down in the air and in the rain. Crops are dying. It's not just in the Gulf water anymore. This chemical rain is not from Corexit in the waters of the gulf. It is coming from the aerial spraying by thr Air Force of Corexit and other dispersants. Also see Dr. Riki Ott on Utube.

dreadgeek 07-06-2010 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by popcorninthesofa (Post 146077)
In the last few days there have been credible reports from Houston, New Orleans, Florida, Tennesee, Ohio, and South Carolina of an oily substance coming down in the air and in the rain. Crops are dying. It's not just in the Gulf water anymore. This chemical rain is not from Corexit in the waters of the gulf. It is coming from the aerial spraying by thr Air Force of Corexit and other dispersants. Also see Dr. Riki Ott on Utube.

Credible reports from where? Do you have a link? A link that ISN'T a YouTube video? Do you have link to this on any of the following:

Scientific American
New Scientist
Nature
Science News

If there is a credible report--credible by what standard? Yours? Riki Ott's? The scientific community? If you are going to say that there's a credible report, don't you think that you would enhance your own credibility if you provided a link?

I recall you also saying that there were credible reports that any minute now, a giant methane bubble would burst under the Gulf creating a tsunami that would kill untold numbers of people living along the coast. No methane bubble, no tsunami, I presume that those hundreds of thousands or millions of people are still--on the whole--alive. So is there anything you can produce to corroborate this credible report? Thanks in advance.

Cheers
Aj

dreadgeek 07-06-2010 09:27 AM

Because I'm a relatively impatient AND because I have grown sadly accustomed to unsinkable rubber duckies* I thought I would Google Corexit rain to see if any *actual* credible reports were to be had.

The first two pages of results either link to Prison Planet (not exactly what I would call a reliable source) or Above Top Secret (also not reliable) or are references TO those sites. In other words, if this is happening there is not--in the entire community of chemists, geophysicists, physicists, material scientists or environmental scientists no one has reported on this. SciAm appears to be unaware of it, as does Science News, New Scientist, or Nature. Those four comprise the most reliable scientific reporting available to the general public. I find it absolutely incredible that the scientific community seems unaware of this.

Keep in mind that scientists from the various involved disciplines have been monitoring this incident from the moment it started and have been providing reliable--if not as exciting or breathless--reportage on the matter. Yet, here we have yet another breathless claim that the doom is upon us and yet there's no corroboration outside of conspiracy theory sites. The thing is, in two weeks, they (and the unsinkable rubber duckies that spread these rumours about) will move on to something else.



Quote:

Originally Posted by dreadgeek (Post 146201)
Credible reports from where? Do you have a link? A link that ISN'T a YouTube video? Do you have link to this on any of the following:

Scientific American
New Scientist
Nature
Science News

If there is a credible report--credible by what standard? Yours? Riki Ott's? The scientific community? If you are going to say that there's a credible report, don't you think that you would enhance your own credibility if you provided a link?

I recall you also saying that there were credible reports that any minute now, a giant methane bubble would burst under the Gulf creating a tsunami that would kill untold numbers of people living along the coast. No methane bubble, no tsunami, I presume that those hundreds of thousands or millions of people are still--on the whole--alive. So is there anything you can produce to corroborate this credible report? Thanks in advance.

Cheers
Aj


MsDemeanor 07-06-2010 09:46 AM

Aj, this might be the source. As best I can tell, folks are taking a local news story and weaving theories in to a new story.

linkyloo

Toughy 07-06-2010 09:50 AM

Aj.........there may be some credibility to crop damage, mind you I am saying may be.

go through the entire thing.....there is a UTube newscast from a local station about mysterious crop damage and dead birds....

http://s-data.current.com/1t0io4c#ixzz0s0PbLxgK

The thing I did not know about was the Air Force is spraying that crap........

http://s-data.current.com/news/92513...of-corexit.htm

Andrew, Jr. 07-06-2010 04:45 PM


On the news tonight, it was stated that the oil spill has leaked across all across the gulf states, and is in Louisiana's famous lake. Boaters are now pulling their sailboats and powerboats out of the water. There are 50 million migrating birds that are now disoriented due to the spill. BP is paying people to try to get some of the migrating birds to change their eating habits. This makes me sick. I hope and pray that BP goes bankrupt after all is said and done.


Ebon 07-07-2010 02:36 AM

Just Venting
 
I just want to vent about this Oil Slick or catastrophe going on in the gulf right now. It's ridiculous!! The earth is pretty fucked. Human beings that only care about profits can suck it and mean people suck. Can't they do something? All the technology in the world and they haven't figured out anything?! Golf Balls to cover up the hole?!! Are you dipshits fucking kidding me!!! Ugh I hate poeple...Ok i'm done. Thanks for listening. lol

AtLast 07-07-2010 07:38 PM

Available on EBay....
 
BP board game foreshadows Gulf disaster
eBay.com

In BP Offshore Oil Strike, the first player to earn $120,000,000 wins.
LONDON -- An obscure BP-themed board game in which players aim to avoid rig disasters has become an unexpected hit at a British toy museum.

BP Offshore Oil Strike was released in the early 1970s and allows up to four players to explore for oil, build platforms and construct pipelines. The first player to earn $120,000,000 wins.

Its "hazard cards" include "Blow-out! Rig damaged. Oil slick clean-up costs. Pay $1million."

BP announced Monday that it has spent $3.12 billion dealing with the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The game was recently donated to the House on the Hill Toy Museum in Stansted, Essex.

"The parallels between the game and the current crisis... are so spooky," museum owner Alan Goldsmith told Britain's Metro newspaper. "The picture on the front of the box is so reminiscent to the disaster with the stormy seas, the oil rig and an overall sense of doom.

"I was just knocked over by how relevant this game is, despite being made some 35 years ago, to BP’s troubles today."

Goldsmith said the game is worth about £75 ($115).

- By Jason Cumming, msnbc.com

http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/_new...ster?Gt1=43001


This IS eerie! Take a look at the box cover via the link!

Selenay 07-09-2010 05:04 PM

http://www.wpbeginner.com/digg/oilinfographics.gif

Just for a little perspective.

>Source<

>Found via<

Jesse 07-09-2010 11:37 PM

Yikes! I am thinking this type of leadership would be even more devastating and harmful than all of the oil spills put together!

Jesse

Quote:

Originally Posted by popcorninthesofa (Post 144717)
Sneaky motherf*uckers! If I was king, BP would be liquidated, it's assets used to restore all the damages, and the people responsible would be publicly executed without a trial, warrent, or judge's signature. If a serial killer can get the chair, so should the folks who murder and destroy on such A MASSIVE SCALE.


AtLast 07-10-2010 01:39 AM

Monday is when BP will be announcing its 2nd quarter earnings..... ought to be interesting!

Last week BP's Tony Baloney the CEO was attempting to round up new investers in the Middle East. This kind of gives me hope that BP might try to keep itself solvent which seems better in terms of it actually being in this for the long haul and making restitution.

I know, I know, I am probably being far too optimistic... Sometimes, however, I do think of what is at stake for big oil in this in terms of what BP does. This could prove to be one major blemish the industry world wide that it cannot afford.

Guess I am more of a glass half-full kind of person. Or I am really in deep denial! Just having a huge problem thinking about the people in the Gulf that really need BP to pay up.

So, do you all think we will finally get the message that alternative fuels must be developed and put the resources in this that are vitally needed?

MsDemeanor 07-10-2010 01:56 AM

The map seems to be a bit off....I wonder how old it is. Even the information in the 'found via' link says that the numbers on the map don't match to the widely reported numbers. The most glaring issue, and why I wonder when the map was created, is that the Deepwater spill has exceeded the size of Ixtoc, yet is substantially smaller on the map. Also, the Gulf War spill estimate seems high - although any 'official' estimate of a spill during a US war would, in my mind, be questionable and quite likely understated.

Selenay 07-10-2010 02:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MsDemeanor (Post 149415)
The map seems to be a bit off....I wonder how old it is. Even the information in the 'found via' link says that the numbers on the map don't match to the widely reported numbers. The most glaring issue, and why I wonder when the map was created, is that the Deepwater spill has exceeded the size of Ixtoc, yet is substantially smaller on the map. Also, the Gulf War spill estimate seems high - although any 'official' estimate of a spill during a US war would, in my mind, be questionable and quite likely understated.


The information for the iconograph comes from the ITOPF.

>ITOPF<


Yes and no, to the map being off (I'm doing further research to ensure that the statistical data on ITOPF is as accurate as people are implying it is.) because the source collects data from both published and UNpublished sources.

I know I hate wikipedia (and maybe you do, too), but this is a fairly well documented link to the largest oil spills in recent / reported history.

As for their actual numbers, the ones I have checked so far are not exorbitant, but they are the highest range of the projected spill amounts.

Comparing between measurements (metric tonne vs kg vs lb) all of their reported measurements (except the recent spill which, yeah, kind of hard to keep consistent...) is accurate to within twelve percentage points. Another possible explanation is that they have also added in a percentage for oil lost to the environment that cannot be accurately assessed. That, and there are discrepancies for almost ALL of the spills saying that the media underrepresented the oil spilled in... Well, given that we all know how much the gulf numbers have changed, I'm sure you know what I mean.

Even so; I meant the iconograph not as a factual basis for argument but more as a demonstrative comparison in scale to the disasters that have historically happened and continue to happen on a daily basis, and the issue in the gulf. I was really trying to make the point that this has happened before on smaller (though that isn't depicted on the graph) and much larger scales. . . And we don't hear about it. At all.


I'm going to continue researching the iconograph creator and the data and will keep you posted, if you'd like.

Edited to add: Oh yeah I forgot! The map's creator has an updated version of the map on his site, to reflect the increasing size of the spill, I just couldn't do a link to it at the time of my post for... some reason, I forget what, but you can check his website out.

Gayla 07-10-2010 03:05 AM

I heard something on the news on the radio on my way home tonight about potential containment by Monday. All I've been able to find about it is -

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/09/gul...ex.html?hpt=T1

Has anyone else heard anything about this?

Glenn 07-10-2010 08:24 AM

RIGZONE.com
 
BP just signed another record contract called the Caspian Project. A panel of only 3 judges rejected Obama's 6 month moratorium of offshore drilling..

AtLast 07-10-2010 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by popcorninthesofa (Post 149519)
BP just signed another record contract called the Caspian Project. A panel of only 3 judges rejected Obama's 6 month moratorium of offshore drilling..

As the money turns....

Last night I saw some actual scientific news about the long term effects we are looking at. What the hell is wrong with people? We should be putting billions into this research and demanding these people be part of the entire regulation processes for off-shore drilling.

My head spins when I think about the future tangle of suits that will come as the real long-term health effects of this become evident.

I also keep thinking about all the tangles of drilling pipes that are underneath the Gulf... that we really don't know about. There is so damn much we do not know that is out there after years of cover-ups.

MsDemeanor 07-10-2010 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gayla (Post 149450)
I heard something on the news on the radio on my way home tonight about potential containment by Monday. All I've been able to find about it is -

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/09/gul...ex.html?hpt=T1

Has anyone else heard anything about this?

MSNBC has been reporting all week that the cap is being removed and replaced by a better one this weekend. Guess I kinda assumed that all of the media had been reporting the story all week. BTW, CNN is doing a story on it right now.....



Selenay, thanks for the answers and your continued hard work researching the numbers :)

AtLast 07-10-2010 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gayla (Post 149450)
I heard something on the news on the radio on my way home tonight about potential containment by Monday. All I've been able to find about it is -

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/09/gul...ex.html?hpt=T1

Has anyone else heard anything about this?

Just pretty much the same. Oh, and possibly an additional tanker at the top for more oil collection with an additional pipe bring oil up to surface. Hummm.. don't know if this is one of the newly re-configured kind of tankers???

Quote:

Originally Posted by MsDemeanor (Post 149648)
MSNBC has been reporting all week that the cap is being removed and replaced by a better one this weekend. Guess I kinda assumed that all of the media had been reporting the story all week. BTW, CNN is doing a story on it right now.....


Selenay, thanks for the answers and your continued hard work researching the numbers :)

Yes, Thank you Seleny!

Yes, I want to be hopeful about this diffferent cap. Ugh, just when I am, a report comes along with info about everthing that could go wrong that might cause more oil (other than when the old cap is off and the new being seated) to spew. Or, things/pipes, etc. under everything exploding more and possibly making the relief wells non-functional when completed.


Touch and go....

Selenay 07-10-2010 05:24 PM

This is the other thing I meant to post, but got sidetracked with.

http://contexts.org/socimages/files/...14-500x162.png

Does it change your opinion to know that our biggest supplier is actually Canada?


>Source<


Toughy 07-10-2010 05:50 PM

I think one of the problems with numbers is all the different measurements.........

British tonnes
US tons
gallons
barrels

I do believe it's truth that the permanent solution to the gushing lives in the relief well (s).

I wish I could remember where I heard or read the following and will do some searching around maybe later:

There are something like 2000 abandoned wells in the Gulf that have been capped and never looked at for years and some of them decades. Talk about accidents just waiting to happen.

Apparently all the oil companies are continually spraying toxic shit dispersant at every active well head, because they all leak a little bit of oil all the time. From what I know about drilling oil on land, that is probably a true statement that all wellheads leak a little. They spray the dispersant so the leaked oil stays in the water column and doesn't get to the surface. Remember when some idiot said that oil tar balls wash up on the beaches fairly regularly, so just maybe the tar balls are not from the Deep Horizon?

AtLast 07-10-2010 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toughy (Post 149768)
I think one of the problems with numbers is all the different measurements.........

British tonnes
US tons
gallons
barrels

I do believe it's truth that the permanent solution to the gushing lives in the relief well (s).

I wish I could remember where I heard or read the following and will do some searching around maybe later:

There are something like 2000 abandoned wells in the Gulf that have been capped and never looked at for years and some of them decades. Talk about accidents just waiting to happen.

Apparently all the oil companies are continually spraying toxic shit dispersant at every active well head, because they all leak a little bit of oil all the time. From what I know about drilling oil on land, that is probably a true statement that all wellheads leak a little. They spray the dispersant so the leaked oil stays in the water column and doesn't get to the surface. Remember when some idiot said that oil tar balls wash up on the beaches fairly regularly, so just maybe the tar balls are not from the Deep Horizon?

Oh, this is something I think about! One of the more scary things in all this to me. I just don't believe that this disaster will be the last or the largest we deal with. I don't want to believe this, but do not see any movement in a direction of prevention going on that is getting much serious attention or funds. Just a whole lot of anti-tree-hugger type snarls from the usual sources.

http://eater.com/archives/2010/05/25...lf-coast-1.php

One of many links about the research by Philippe Cousteau. Also, I saw some new stuff by him and a woman he researches with today on CNN.


I also heard this (what I bolded in your post above) somewhere... thinking maybe NPR? I'll look too, I usually have NPR or Green Radio on when I am listening to radio. Just seems like I would of heard about this on NPR. Ugh.. but what program!

MsDemeanor 07-10-2010 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toughy (Post 149768)
There are something like 2000 abandoned wells in the Gulf that have been capped and never looked at for years and some of them decades. Talk about accidents just waiting to happen.

You're off by a decimal point - it's 27,000, according to an Associated Press investigation. I think that Rachel mentioned this on her show recently.

linkyloo

Toughy 07-10-2010 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MsDemeanor (Post 149774)
You're off by a decimal point - it's 27,000, according to an Associated Press investigation. I think that Rachel mentioned this on her show recently.

linkyloo

I originally thought it was about 20,000 but I just couldn't quite grasp that kind of number.....laughin.....I thought I must have misread or misheard....

thanks for the correction....

The sea bed must be just littered with well heads ...............shaking my head.....

AtLast 07-11-2010 02:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toughy (Post 150049)
I originally thought it was about 20,000 but I just couldn't quite grasp that kind of number.....laughin.....I thought I must have misread or misheard....

thanks for the correction....

The sea bed must be just littered with well heads ...............shaking my head.....


Really, huh? Craziness.... One big web of possible disaters without ways to deal with them! Sometimes I think about the magical thinking that continues on in adulthood. Or, just transforms into adult arrogance. Why would anyone believe that this mess would not lead to something like this? And now, what is it going to take to get people to realize this may be only the start of things like this? Well heads and miles of pipe un-checked, buried under what sustains human life!!

Glenn 07-11-2010 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AtLastHome (Post 150458)

Really, huh? Craziness.... One big web of possible disaters without ways to deal with them! Sometimes I think about the magical thinking that continues on in adulthood. Or, just transforms into adult arrogance. Why would anyone believe that this mess would not lead to something like this? And now, what is it going to take to get people to realize this may be only the start of things like this? Well heads and miles of pipe un-checked, buried under what sustains human life!!

The reason why the oil industry has'nt improved it's clean-uo technology in 50 years is because there have'nt been enough oil spills! I'm not kidding you Folks. This was their actual excuse! I could'nt make this up if I tried!

Toughy 07-11-2010 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by popcorninthesofa (Post 150466)
The reason why the oil industry has'nt improved it's clean-uo technology in 50 years is because there have'nt been enough oil spills! I'm not kidding you Folks. This was their actual excuse! I could'nt make this up if I tried!

I did hear a big oil guy (maybe it was BP or Haliburton) say that.............shaking my head............

AtLast 07-11-2010 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by popcorninthesofa (Post 150466)
The reason why the oil industry has'nt improved it's clean-uo technology in 50 years is because there have'nt been enough oil spills! I'm not kidding you Folks. This was their actual excuse! I could'nt make this up if I tried!

No, you are not making this up!Unfortunately.....

Rockinonahigh 07-11-2010 04:26 PM

Intresting..In my local sunday paper an artical by the AP said that in the gulf theire are 3000 caped and abandoned wells that are ticking time bombs for a blow out.These wells are owned by many companys,most havent been touched in a decade or more.Also they have been caped in salt water wich has/is corodeig the piped as I type this,mant leak a littls from presure from the oil or a leak somewhere.On land the artical stated that over 35,000 land wells do the same..tho on land can be delt with easyer.No maintainance has been done to near any of thise wells since being caped.This dosent surprise me one bit,I can count the caped wells driveing down the road hear near everywhere I drive,both gas and oil let me say its an ugly smelly sight.
The aritcal is in the sherveporttimes.com online addition.

Toughy 07-11-2010 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MsDemeanor (Post 149774)
You're off by a decimal point - it's 27,000, according to an Associated Press investigation. I think that Rachel mentioned this on her show recently.

linkyloo

Rockin...........take a look at Msdemeanor's link (above) to an AP article.

And I think you misread the Shreveport Times article because here is the link:
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/artic...bandoned-wells

SuperFemme 07-11-2010 06:55 PM

It seems Kevin Costner has been way ahead of the oil companies and his 15 year long $24 million dollar oil skimming boat is on the way to the gulf.


http://media.al.com/live/photo/kevin...ff61_large.jpg
Oil skimmer backed by Kevin Costner ready for work

Actor Kevin Costner, co-founder of Ocean Therapy, and BP COO Doug Suttles, right, talk during the announcement that the Ella G. vessel to will be deployed carrying Ocean Therapy's centrifuge system to separate oil and water,

Kevin Costner added a bit of Hollywood glitz, but it was the bright orange barge full of equipment counted on to scoop oil from the Gulf of Mexico that was the real star Thursday.

The Ella G, once an offshore supply barge, has been refitted to skim and separate oil spilling from BP PLC's blown-out well, making for a more efficient way to remove petroleum from the Gulf waters. It set sail for the first time Thursday.

"I know a lot of times you have been down on the ground and stayed down," Costner told workers and visitors who had come to see the latest in the fight against the oil spill. "But the machine I once dreamed of is here to help you."

The ship is now one of BP's "Vessels of Opportunity." It was retrofitted to receive oil and water from the skimmer, separate the oil and place it in storage tanks, and return the cleaned water to the Gulf, said Ed Dufrene, project manager for Edison Chouest Offshore, which supplied the barge and assembled the equipment on it.

The system was built in 10 days, and BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said it offers many advantages. For instance, it can remove more oil, stay at sea indefinitely and skim in seas up to 10 feet. Most skimming vessels can't work in seas higher than 4 feet.

"It can make a big difference," Suttles said.

The Ella G, along with the C Rover, will configure boom in a J shape between them, Dufrene said. That will funnel the oil to the bright, yellow skimmer, which floats out from the Ella G attached to tubing and can skim more than 1 million gallons of liquid a day.

The oil is sent through a centrifuge system on the ship that separates the oil and water. Normally, the oily water has to be taken to a receiving point for separation, so doing that at sea is more efficient.

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/07/oil_..._kevin_co.html


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 09:05 AM.

ButchFemmePlanet.com
All information copyright of BFP 2018