BP: We could've sealed Gulf of Mexico oil spill sooner

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

BP: We could've sealed Gulf of Mexico oil spill sooner

It took 87 days for the company to stop the pouring of oil into the Gulf of Mexico

Oct. 2, 2013 6:30 PM
Written by Michael Kunzelman | | Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — BP could have ended its Gulf of Mexico oil spill sooner if it had built a capping stack before the 2010 blowout of its well off the Louisiana coast, a company executive said under cross-examination at a Wednesday trial over the deadly disaster.

James Dupree, who led BP’s efforts to seal its Macondo well, said engineers didn’t have the equipment they needed to attack this particular well at the time of the blowout and had to formulate several possible solutions “on the fly.” After several other methods failed, BP ultimately used a capping stack to seal the well 87 days after the blowout.

During cross-examination by a plaintiffs’ attorney, Dupree said it would have been relatively inexpensive for BP to build a capping stack before the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

“We certainly weren’t as prepared as we are today,” Dupree said. “We didn’t have the equipment to attack a Macondo-type event.”








Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Gulf-of-Mexico-oil-spill-Appeals-court-gives-BP-a-win-in-settlement-dispute/articleshow/23436646.cms

[SunSeeker]

1. And this is why you can not trust business to regulate itself.

All those idiot Libertarians like Rand Paul who insist that the market will force businesses to implement safety measures need only look at the Exxon Valdes oil spill and the underwater oil volcano that was the BP spill in the gulf. 30 years after the Exxon spill, oil companies had not improved cleanup technology one bit. It is still the stone age in spill technology: paper towers and booms. Oh, and detergent/Korexit to dispurse it so you can't see it on the surface.

Yes, it would have been cheap to prevent both, but neither company bothered. And they aren't bothering to improve cleanup technology. They only live one quarterly bottom line at a time. Prince William Sound in Alaska is still soaked in oil, as is the bottom of the Gulf. And those corporate criminals at Exxon and BP are still making money hand over fist.

[rwsanders]

3. Even existing regulations are weak...

Companies are allowed (in exercises) 1 hour to deploy containment boom (around vessels and facilities). In many areas of the country there is enough tidal flow that 1 hour means any oil is now scattered over a couple of miles. If it is a large spill, the boom they deploy won't be strong enough to contain the oil during that tidal flow and it will entrain under the boom.
And you are very correct about the dispersants. Only a scheme to hide the impacts, because oil companies don't want TV scenes of oiled birds and wildlife.
Libertarianism has to be the most childish political philosophy there is. No rules is best? In what reality.

[Scuba]

2. Kick

[Uncle Joe]

4. That wasn't a spill, that was a gusher.

Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.

[KamaAina]

5. Read the full interview in this month's issue of DUH! magazine.

On newsstands now.

[Octafish]

6. It's OK. What BP did was cheaper.

For BP, not us, unfortunately.

[Sunlei]

7. when Obama made them put in the camera we saw it was not a 'spill' it was a gusher!