Reposting. Most of the posts from this day have gone missing.
May 28, 2010
DAY 39
–
State of the Union: Candy Crowley and BP Managing Director Bob Dudley.
He thinks there will only be a small increase in flow and that they will be able to collect the “majority” through the dome.
Vodpod videos no longer available.Effect on the flow:
DUDLEY: There may be a small increase. But we should not expect to see a large increase, if any….[W]e think we will be able to get the majority through this dome and then produce it up to the surface.
A small increase in what? Once that kink is gone nothing will be restraining the flow and they have to know what the maximum flow would be if the system was closed so why the pretense? What are barrypeople not asking?
You’ll be delighted to know:
And any of those barrels that we bring out, we’ll keep it out of the ocean.
After a month of uncontrolled gushing and oil reaching the shore and families losing their way of life – he still believes their cnn be a “good outcome”.
DUDLEY: If we can contain the flow of the well between now and August and keep it out of the ocean, that’s also a good outcome as well. And then, if we can shut it off completely with a relief well, that’s not a bad outcome compared to where we are today.
It’s way past ‘good’ and ‘bad’. It’s catastrophic.
And by August?
FULL TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS
MS CROWLEY: Good morning, this extended edition of “State of the Union” in the wake of a devastating word of another failure in the Gulf of Mexico. The so-called top kill procedure that has been the central hope for plugging the oil gusher didn’t work. The announcement came last night from BP executive, Doug Suttles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUG SUTTLES, BP: We have not been able to stop the flow. And after significant review with a what could only probably be called a brain trust of engineers and scientists from BP and the industry, the Minerals Management Service, the Department of Energy, the Department of Interior, and further reviews by Secretary Salazar and Secretary Chu, we have made the decision to move on to the next option.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: I am Candy Crowley and this is “State of the Union.” The big story this morning, another no-go in attempts to stop that gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. Joining us now is BP’s managing director, Bob Dudley. Mr. Dudley, thank you for getting up early and helping explain all of this to us.
We — I want to read something that caught our attention. It is from your CEO, Tony Hayward, from a statement last night after you decided that top kill was not working. He said, in part, “I am disappointed that this operation did not work. The team executed the operation perfectly and the technology worked without a single hitch. So I’m left with the question, so if the technology worked without a hitch and the operation was executed perfectly, what the heck went wrong?
DUDLEY: Well, Candy, we are disappointed. We didn’t wrestle the well to the ground last night. We are disappointed the oil is going to flow for a while, and we are going to redouble our efforts to make sure it is kept off the beaches.
What he is referring to there was at 5,000 feet, we did set up a technical operation that allowed us to pump these heavy fluids and bridging materials into the well. That in itself is what he is referring to as having been executed well. People did a tremendous job on the engineering and the many scientists, both from the government and BP, made that part happen. But we were not able to overcome the flow of the well. There was just too much flow out the top and we weren’t able to drive these fluids down. So we are immediately going to move now to a containment operation.
CROWLEY: So basically you have moved from trying to plug this gusher, which proved more powerful than the mud, and the next procedure tries to contain it?
DUDLEY: That’s right. We will put a cap on the top of this well. We will do a sophisticated operation with robots and make a clean cut across the top of a piece of equipment down there called a lower marine riser package, with diamond saws, and then we will lower down over that a cap to produce it to the surface. We learned some things from the previous cap that we tried that created these hydrates that made it — flowed, really. And this time, we will circulate warm seawater down around it to prevent that from happening, and our objective is to contain the majority of the oil and gas.
CROWLEY: Some of our reporters have talked to some scientists and some experts on this who say it is possible when you cut that broken pipe that’s on top of the blowout preventer that you could make the oil flow more, that it would just become a bigger gusher, at least temporarily, if not for a long time, if this cap doesn’t work?
DUDLEY: Right now, the oil is flowing out the top through a number of holes right there that your viewers will see sometimes right above the top of the well, and then down the end of the pipe. We don’t believe that that’s creating that great of a restriction. There may be a small increase. But we should not expect to see a large increase, if any, by cutting this off and making a clean surface for us to be able to put this containment vessel over it.
CROWLEY: And when you say containment, it is possible that you won’t be able to contain it all, that there will still be a leak, but hopefully a smaller leak?
DUDLEY: That’s right. It is not a pressure-sealed vessel. But we believe it will get the majority of the oil and gas. Because there is such a high concentration of gas, if there is some gas that leaks out, it will look like a lot, but we think we will be able to get the majority through this dome and then produce it up to the surface.
CROWLEY: And is it safe to say that with each new attempt to try to contain or control this gusher, the chances of success get less, assuming that you started with your best chance to begin with? But now we have an even less percentage of a chance that it will be successful?
DUDLEY: Well, I think the top kill operation itself was something that had a level of uncertainty to it, because it was just something that was so new. We weren’t sure we were even going to be able to pump that mud in and maintain those pressures. This is a containment operation that I think is more straightforward. It is certainly not certain at these depths. It will all be done by robots. So I think we moved to the containment, whereas before we were trying to, in an early way, shut off the well flow completely. Backstopping all this will be a relief well which will get down there by August.
CROWLEY: But we are moving toward the possibility as you try option after option that August and those more permanent relief wells may in the end be the only thing that works?
DUDLEY: For shutting off the flow from the well, that’s possible.
CROWLEY: But for stopping the gusher completely?
DUDLEY: Right now, we are going to a containment operation. And any of those barrels that we bring out, we’ll keep it out of the ocean, and then we will be able to refine this system and either further contain it, and the scientists and engineers who spent all of the night before looking at the pressure data may yet have another idea about how to shut off the flow as well.
CROWLEY: It’s just that after some attempts and they haven’t worked, you could understand there might be skepticism that we really are looking at August before this gusher can be shut down?
DUDLEY: But, Candy, if we can contain the flow of the well between now and August and keep it out of the ocean, that’s also a good outcome as well. And then, if we can shut it off completely with a relief well, that’s not a bad outcome compared to where we are today.
CROWLEY: It seems to me that looking at these various options that we have been through and the ones that you are now coming up with, that there was not in place any specific plan in case this happened. In fact, we know that BP said that you didn’t see this kind of catastrophic event happening. And in any case, you could control it. It now appears that you can’t or at least haven’t been able to do it for six weeks now. Do you think after this is all over that there are BP executives that ought to resign over the fact that there didn’t seem to be any contingency plans for this sort of thing?
DUDLEY: Well, Candy, this is an unprecedented accident in the oil and gas industry. There have been more than 5,000 wells drilled in the Gulf of Mexico alone at deep water, 500 or 600 of those below 5,000 feet. BP itself has drilled many of these wells. The failure of the blowout preventers, which is the ultimate multiple redundant fail-safe system, has not happened like this before.
CROWLEY: But still, shouldn’t you have been able to kind of foresee? And say, wow, we could — what happens if all of the sudden, the blowout preventer doesn’t work? I mean, things break down. Just because it didn’t happen before — I mean, Toyota didn’t have problems with its accelerators before. So I mean, it just seems like somebody somewhere ought to have been in the office of safety precautions and what are we going to do next? And it doesn’t seem that was there, was it?
DUDLEY: Well, these multiple redundancies in this blowout preventer — it’s more than just one fail-safe system. It’s layer after layer after layer. It’s used in the industry all around. And that’s why this accident is so significant, because everyone in the industry now has to step back, look at this piece of equipment that generally the industry regarded as fail-safe, go back, figure out what happens, understand it, disseminate that, make sure it doesn’t happen anywhere, anytime — anywhere in the world again.
CROWLEY: BP’s managing director, Bob Dudley. Certainly, despite the skepticism, I know everybody wishes you all well in the next attempt. Thank you.
DUDLEY: Thank you, Candy.
Citizens Against ProObama Media Bias 
Leave a comment