Cap on Well Is Reported to Recover 6,000 Barrels of Oil

[gristy]

Source: NY Times

HOUSTON — A cap placed over a leaking well spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico has recovered about 6,000 barrels during the first 24 hours it has been in operation, Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard said Saturday morning.

With the broken well dumping as much as 19,000 to 25,000 barrels a day into the Gulf, Admiral Allen said that engineers hope to gradually increase the amount of oil captured into a ship hovering on the sea’s surface without jeopardizing the delicate recovery effort after so many other efforts have failed in the last six weeks. The admiral is commanding the federal response to the disaster, which began after the Deepwater Horizon drill rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers.

Oil is still escaping through four vents on the top of the cap, designed to relieve pressure and not overstress the containment system. Admiral Allen said that if the vents were closed too quickly, cold sea water could rush in and form the kind of icy hydrates that doomed a previous attempt to cap the spill.

The admiral had initially said that they hoped to begin closing the vents on Friday. But on Saturday he said that they had been unable to do so because the pressure inside the cap might become so great that oil would blast through its imperfect seal.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/us/06capture.html?ref=us

---

I find the "explanation" above to be misleading at best and more likely an outright lie. 6,000 barrels in 24 effing hours? 250 barrels an hour. No wonder the leak video is so disheartening. http://bp.isevil.org/

Why, oh why, do they not put a big-ass pump in line between the cap and the riser up to the ship?

[CountAllVotes]

1. well that would figure wouldn't it?

being the amount of oil gushing out of this evil in the gulf has now increased by AT LEAST 20%.

:puke:

FUCK YOU BRITISH PETROLEUM!!!!!

:kick:

[Donnachaidh]

2. some idiot on CNN didn't do the math, just heard 6,000 barrels and announced a SIGNIFICANT amount

of oil was being captured with this cap.

Should they test these talking heads for on the fly math skills before they put their asses in front of a camera?

[stray cat]

3. 20% would be significant if you do the math and statistics - so maybe CNN does the math

maybe it will prevent 20% of the long term damage. Is it still bad - yes.

[Donnachaidh]

4. yeah, that *80%* makes that 20 percent look like shit, don't it?

rah rah baby.... :rofl:

Depends on your definition of *significant* :sarcasm: :rofl:

[fascisthunter]

6. are you kidding? What about the other 80%?

what's that, a drop in the ocean

[Wizard777]

5. Is it recovering more than it's losing?

That should be the determining factor on how effective it is. How many barrels are still flowing into the Gulf?

[BelgianMadCow]

9. based on what we know, yes - 16800 instead of 19000 bopd in the GoM

estimate (upper lower bound :crazy:) of 19000 bopd out before this cap
+20% due to riser cut off = 22800
6000 bopd captured on june 4th
-> 16800 flowing in the GoM

If they manage to improve on the 6000 bopd (and that seems likely, reading theoildrum), I'd say it's a very "good" result.

Supposing what we're being told is the truth, of course.

on edit, thought i remembered seeing 8000 bopd recovery, wrong:

From BP's Gulf of Mexixo Response page (as of 9AM CDT):

Subsea operational update:

• The LMRP cap was placed on top of the LMRP at approximately 8:35 pm CDT on June 3.
• Gas first reached the Discoverer Enterprise at approximately 11:00 pm CDT on June 3; oil followed at approximately 11:10 pm CDT.
• On June 4, a total of 6,077 barrels of oil was collected and 15.7 million standard cubic feet of natural gas was flared.
• Optimization continues and improvement in oil collection is expected over the next several days.

June 5, 2010 9:00 am CDT

[jazzelle]

20. i hope they do better

interesting info

[lark]

29. I wonder if the increase in flow was more than 20%?

It looks worse than that in the film, but of course very difficult to judge.

[DFW]

7. 6,000 down, 33,994,000 to go........

Should be done by next weekend, I expect....NOT

[meow mix]

8. cant close the vents = fail

also means they are still groping in the dark its much bigger than they bargained on

[Owl]

28. Exactly right. They haven't a clue how to solve this disaster they've unleashed.

[joanmj]

10. Did this increase the amount....

of oil gushing? earlier they said there was a chance of 20% increase in the oil that was coming out...

[ladjf]

11. I've seen a couple of interviews on TV with people who are in

the business of sucking up the spill and putting into tankers. They say their process is to lower a large umbrella shaped dome over the spill,even down to the well head and pumping it out. BP won't talk with them or comment about that procedure.

[2Design]

12. they have no intention of stopping this thing - they are still trying to figure a way of getting the

oil - it is all smoke and mirrors of lies and deceit

[gristy]

13. I've seen this ludicrous opinion posted elsewhere. Maybe even by you.

But I've never seen it backed up by an economic or political argument. Do you want to try?

[w4rma]

25. BP refuses outside expert advice from those whose jobs it is to clean up after mistakes like this.

There is your proof.

[gristy]

30. Do I have this right?

Because "BP refuses outside expert advice from those whose jobs it is to clean up after mistakes like this" (or at least you say they do), then this proves that "they have no intention of stopping this thing".

Maybe you want to take another stab at this?

[boppers]

33. Interesting logic chain, there.

Following the cameras, and #theoildrum IRC channel on freenode, the general consensus seems to be that the latest cap is a success in comparison to previous efforts, and it's meant for damage control, but the oilcano will keep spewing until a relief well is completed.

[Systematic Chaos]

14. + infinity

:banghead:

[freebrew]

26. I tend to agree w/you.

If they really wanteds to stop this thing, they would have used a plug and not tried to cap it.

[2Design]

37. why a cap with sieve holes - just they do not seem concerned

about the life or environment they are destroying - only their precious image and stockholders - typical corporate mindset - and as this moves forward you will see more corporate lies - the exxon valdez originally was going to pay for everything - three days later - new ceo and new words

[KoKo]

15. I've been looking for Pic's of the ship and the crew pumping the oil...but so far..

nothing. Maybe I missed it though.

Or, more likely it's not true what they are saying.

[sasquuatch55]

32. Live feed has been down for two days!

nt

[CountAllVotes]

38. I found it last night somewhere

and it was gushing and blasting out some sort of red colored crap! It was MUCH worse than before the sacred cap! :scared:

:wtf: :wtf: :wtf:

[CountAllVotes]

39. I found it!!!!!!!

on my other computer right now and here is the link to it LIVE. It is a god awful nightmare!

Scroll about one-half of the page down and you'll see it - coming LIVE from NPR.

http://www.zuerst1.com/index.php/more-news/

:dem: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[SkyDaddy7]

16. To those who say our President is not doing enough...

Well, BP wanted to do the cap thingy first and he told them no, use it as a last resort because if it fails them even more oil will be spilling into the ocean...Guess what, OUR President was right again!

When it comes to preventing landfall there only exist around 1300-1500 miles of boom and that is not nearly enough to cover all the shoreline between Louisiana and the Florida Keys. I do not think people realize the vast distances this oil spill covers! And especially how many miles of shoreline there is! Just like a hurricane it will be impossible to prevent all the damage that will be done. Of course the press will focus on the areas were the oil makes landfall and not cover where it has been successfully blocked from coming ashore...That does not have SHOCK VALUE!

What is important is knowing our President is doing all he can to minimize the damage, care for those who have had their entire lives stolen from them and especially how he holds BP accountable!

This is an ongoing process and so far i am proud of OUR President!

[LisaL]

17. The president told them not to use the cap until last resort?

Where on Earth did you get that idea?

[SkyDaddy7]

23. ABC's GMA, CNN & FOX "News" were all reporting it...

before hand like Obama delayed an almost sure way of collecting most of the oil.

If those 3 sources were lying then I was wrong and I apologize!

Of course, no one is reporting Obama was right...Why would they start now?

[LisaL]

31. I've watched plenty of news and haven't heard anything of the sort.

[SkyDaddy7]

36. I will see if someone uploaded a clip on YouTube.

I first saw it on GMA either the morning before BP started the cut & cap or the morning of. I then saw basically the same thing repeated on CNN & FOX...FOX went into a big rant about how Obama has allowed millions of gallons of oil to leak out when cut & cap could have been done to begin with.

[kirby]

18. Inaccurate.

Obama never said that. BP tried to cap the well using the initial concept of a 'top hat'. The problem was that the natural gas coming out was causing the oil/gas mixture to freeze and become a slurry. The slurry mix clogged up the pipes and that concept had to be abandoned. They then shifted to trying to shut the thing off but are now back to another 'top hat/cap' that includes something to prevent the freezing/slurry effect. (The pump nitrogen, methane, and sea water to warm it).

[SkyDaddy7]

24. NO NO NO!

If ABC's GMA CNN and FOX "News" were all lying then I was wrong...Other than that all 3 were reporting this before they cut the riser off!

I have the luxury of watching the news all day due to a spinal cord injury and this is what I saw! It made me mad at the time just like it makes me mad now they are not talking about it after cut & cap has obviously failed.

[nsd]

35. I think Kirby's right about this.

Three or four weeks ago BP tried the "Top Hat" approach of putting in a containment dome. After that failed, they tried "Top Kill" followed quickly by "Junk Shot". Now, they're back to containment.

[pauldg0]

19. I understand this that the system is working.....

...and more oil will be delivered to the ship as the vents slowly close. You don't want the pipe/cap to blow so a vent is added fully open in the beginning. As the vent slowly closes an increase by volume of oil will be pumped to the ship.....that is an increased volume of oil will be pumped every day. Example: first day= 6000 second= 12000 third= 18000 and so forth.

I feel success will come with more tweeking. Now the next massive project will be the clean-up and BP will be under great preassure to pay..

So it looks like we have taken over the reigns here? I thought BP still had the task in their hands still.

[LisaL]

21. They have not been able to close the valves so far, and

I fail to share your optimism.
And I also see no evidence that reigns have been taken from BP.

[gristy]

22. No, the issue is not how they have to slowly close the vents.

I don't know what the issue is, but the time constants in this mechanical system are not days.

[IcyPeas]

27. I think the time has finally come for this....

the only hat they haven't tried SO FAR is a a DUNCE CAP.

[eilen]

34. I've heard and read different numbers

in fact, earlier today, it was 6,000 barrels in 12 hours....