You are in the current Gulf Watchers BP Catastrophe - AUV #438. ROV #437 is here.
Bookmark this link to find the latest Gulf Watchers diaries.
Please RECOMMEND THIS DIARY, the motherships have been discontinued.
Gulf Watchers Diary Schedule
Monday - evening drive time
Wednesday - morning
Friday - morning
Friday Block Party - evening
Sunday - morning
Part one of the digest of diaries is here and part two is here.
Please be kind to kossacks with bandwidth issues. Please do not post images or videos. Again, many thanks for this.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's (WHOI) Dive and Discover’s Expedition 13 is currently taking a look at the impact of BP's black monster on marine life on the ocean's bottom. Their famous submersible, Alvin, will be doing six dives to collect samples and to document current conditions. They will also be sending out their autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry to map and photograph the sea bottom. The WHOI site is posting daily updates on their mission.
A new name, National Oilwell Varco, in the BP Deepwater Horizon is accused by Presidential commission as being uncooperative. The U.S. Coast Guard and Bureau of Energy Management joint investigation panel does have subpoena power but I don't recall National Oilwell Varco ever being discussed in their hearings. Perhaps the news story might inspire some curiosity on the panel's part in learning what type of data the dead oil workers had available to be able to judge the peril they were in. It's also curious that National Oilwell Varco's name hasn't come up before in the investigation.
National Oilwell Varco (NOV.N) is not cooperating with the White House oil spill commission's probe of the BP (BP.L) disaster, commission investigators said on Monday.
The investigators said they need National Oilwell's help to recreate the company's proprietary data displays as they attempt to determine what indications of hydrocarbon flow the crew on the doomed Deepwater Horizon rig could have seen prior to the rig's explosion.
…
National Oilwell, the largest U.S. oilfield equipment supplier, provided the rig's crew with proprietary data displays.
The commission's staff said that while a recreation of the displays on the rig would be imperfect, a basic understanding of the what information was available to drillers could "significantly advance our investigation."
The workers who know the exact answers to those questions died in the accident, commission staff said.
The National Oil Spill Commissioners and Commission staff met to discuss and deliberate draft findings of their report on the causes of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and options to guard against and mitigate the effects of future spills. CSPAN has the videos.
Dec 2, 2010
Morning, Dec 3, 2010
Afternoon, Dec 3, 2010
BP apologist, Barton, loses his bid to chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Deciding whether this is good news or not would necessarily involve a debate over whether a having a notorious big oil whore in charge is worse than having a less obvious one calling the shots.
Rep. Joe Barton failed Tuesday in his bid to lead one of the House’s most powerful committees despite an aggressive campaign that involved mobilizing the support of tea party groups.
Barton’s seniority placed him in line to chair the Energy and Commerce Committee, but he was weakened from the start by the fallout from his apology to BP PLC during a congressional hearing on its oil spill. He also needed a waiver of a term-limits rule to remain the top Republican on the committee for a fourth term.
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., won a vote of the GOP Steering Committee, a panel composed of party leaders. The appointment must be ratified by the full Republican conference on Wednesday.
Barton, R-Arlington, could challenge the decision by seeking a vote of the entire conference. It remained unclear Tuesday night whether he would do that.
NPR science correspondent Richard Harris tagged along with Samantha Joye and the WHOI team in November. It will be fascinating to learn what the brown guck is that Harris saw.
CONAN: And what did you find at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico?
HARRIS: We found, well, depending upon where we looked, on my particular dive, we found a fairly thin layer of brown material that was sitting on the bottom. In some places it looked thicker and fluffy, like cottage cheese but still brown. And I also saw it smeared all over a beautiful old, maybe 500-year-old sea fan, and it was a coral that was apparently killed by this brown material.
Exactly what that material is is still being investigated right now. Clearly, it wasn't there before the oil spill, as far biologists studying in the Gulf say they've never seen something like this before.
It's probably - almost certainly not pure oil, however. Oil has had a chance to get digested by microbes and sea life. There's probably some oil, though, still in it. It's clearly - the carbon in that material almost certainly came from the BP well. But exactly what the material is remains to be figured out in a lab.
…
And there, this mud layer, which sort of looks like chocolate pudding, was a couple of inches thick when they brought up these core samples. And we looked at it in the laboratory aboard the ship. The organisms in the mud had been killed off by this, either because they were maybe suffocated by the material, or possibly there's toxic materials within this brown, mucky layer, but worms that tried to get, you know, tried to get out were just essentially unable to keep surviving in that brown guck.
…
HARRIS: Yes, and this is potentially evidence that some of it was eaten by bacteria. The one scenario for where this brown guck came from was that the oil saturated the water, and there are oil-eating bacteria out there, and the consumed some of it, and then sort of - if you can think of an algae bloom causing sometimes serious problems in bays, you could sort of think of this an oil bloom, as one of the scientists on board told me.
And the bacteria, you know, expanded rapidly. The organisms that eat bacteria expanded rapidly and so rapidly that some of, you know, some of their fecal material may have ended up on the sea floor, some of their skeletons could have ended up, and their bodies, if they were killed by this sort of gorging of oil. And that may be a significant fraction of this brown guck.
BP, Transocean and two mud loggers will be testifying before the U.S. Coast Guard and Bureau of Energy Management joint investigation panel. The hearing started yesterday and won't be shown live. Taped testimony will be posted to the Deepwater Horizon Joint Investigation's site some time after the conclusion of the hearings tomorrow.
A federal panel investigating the cause of the rig explosion that set off the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill is set to question more BP and Transocean officials about the disaster.
The panel also was expected to hear from two technicians known as mud loggers, who use an assortment of electronic instruments to monitor the drill bit for traces of oil or gas and check for concentrations of hydrocarbons in the drilling mud. Mud loggers are supposed to notify other personnel on a rig when gas levels may be reaching dangerous levels.
Co-chair of presidential commission, William Reilly, now says that BP's management may be lacking. It's interesting that Reilly has had this revelation only after he allowed the committee's counsel, Fred Bartlit, to highjack the last hearing with a performance that would have put any BP defense counsel to shame.
"The series of decisions that doomed Macondo evidenced a failure of management, and good management could have avoided a catastrophe," William Reilly, a co-chair of the panel, said recently at the beginning of a final round of the commission's public deliberations.
A Presidential commission staff paper is very critical of the old Minerals Management Service. It's highly regrettable that Reilly lacks the same enthusiasm for criticizing BP that he reserves for underfunded and understaffed regulators.
"Federal regulators and inspectors have failed utterly to keep abreast of the profoundly sophisticated technologies involved in deepwater exploration and development," commission Co-Chairman William K. Reilly said at a Dec. 3 hearing at which the staff paper was discussed.
…
…the staff paper said the inspectors were victims of a lack of resources needed for thorough oversight. With only four or five employees in Houston overseeing BP's efforts, "one employee described his experience as akin to standing in a hurricane," working 80 hours a week but still missing key company engineering team meetings.
In addition, the staff paper said, one federal employee "asserted that BP, and industry more broadly, possessed 10 times the expertise that MMS could bring to bear on the enormously complex problem of deepwater containment."
…
Perhaps most revealingly, "the report added, when high-level officials at Interior asked two inspectors what they would do if the U.S. government took over the spill containment effort, "both said they would hire one of the major oil companies."
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement returns the only application for deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico since the BP catastrophe. Reading the response and containment plan the oil company in question submitted would make fascinating reading as the reality is that neither government nor industry have any demonstrably workable solutions.
U.S. regulators returned for more information the first application to drill in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, an activity President Barack Obama banned after BP Plc’s oil spill.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement received only the one application since the moratorium was lifted on Oct. 12 and turned it back to the operator, said Melissa Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based agency, in an e-mail today. She declined to identify the company or comment on what data were missing.
Canada is not prepared to handle a major oil spill. Neither is the US but at least Canada is discussing the subject rather than ignoring it.
OTTAWA — Canada is not ready to respond to a major oil spill from a tanker in its waters, its environment commissioner warned on Tuesday.
In a damning report, Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development Scott Vaughan said the Canadian Coast Guard's emergency response plan is out of date.
As well, he said the Coast Guard has not done a national risk assessment of oil spills from ships since 2000, and does not have a reliable system to track spills.
As a result, it cannot accurately determine the number of spills that occur each year, the size of those spills, their environmental impacts as well as how many required onsite responses, Vaughan said.
…
Environmentalists, Inuit groups and political factions have repeatedly expressed concern over the risks of ecological disaster caused by sinking tankers and exploitation of natural resources in Canada's waters particularly in the Arctic Ocean.
With the acceleration of Arctic ice melt, interest in the region has soared, as the shrinking ice has opened up sea navigation and could give oil rigs improved access to the sea floor.
Vaughan echoed those concerns, saying a spill in the Arctic would be devastating due to a lack of infrastructure to allow for a proper response.
There are fewer oil-related health complaints as the remaining oil weathers. However, it would be surprising if many don't suffer both physical and mental effects from BP's black monsterl long-term.
Health complaints from the BP spill waned this fall, but itchy rashes and headaches haven't completely disappeared. For uninsured Louisianans suffering from oil-related ills, medical services are available -- many of them established after Katrina. Affordable help for mental-health woes from job losses and other stresses exists too. And, health officials say, some residents may want to lend their medical experiences to future spill victims by participating in one of several institutional studies.
The state's reporting on health complaints dried up this fall, more than two months after BP's well ceased gushing. "Oil that remains in the water is weatherized and much less of a health threat than fresh oil was in the summer," said Dr. Jimmy Guidry, medical director at the Louisiana Dept. of Health and Hospitals.
"Fresh oil contains benzene, toluene and other cancer-causing compounds," Guidry noted. "But since the oil stopped flowing in July and the cleanup continued in August and September, the number of health complaints -- including respiratory ailments and skin rashes -- has dropped since late September, and Louisiana and other Gulf States have stopped reporting them weekly."
…
The Louisiana Dept. of Health and Hospitals runs Louisiana Spirit, offering mental-health services to coastal parishes and those suffering from job losses or other spill-related troubles, Guidry said. "Through that program, we let people know that medical services in place since Katrina are available to them, even if they have no insurance. I want to stress that people need to ask about these services because they are there." Callers phoning Louisiana Spirit's hotline at 866-310-7977 can speak with counselors.
…
Meanwhile, Ochsner Health System in the summer released its study on the mental-health impact of the oil spill, Scott said. That study, conducted by Market Dynamics Research Group, surveyed 406 residents 21 years or older in coastal areas in four Gulf states from June 25 to July 1. Findings were that young residents and those with lower incomes suffered the most psychological stress from spill. Of the four states examined, 18 percent of coastal Louisianans showed "probable serious mental illness" on a scale of psychological distress, with Alabama showing the least at 10 percent and Florida and Mississippi ranking between the two.
Photos of workers still cleaning up tarballs on Waveland, Mississippi beach.
Nearly eight months after the spill, oil remains along the shoreline of some of the barrier islands in the area and has killed off sections of marsh grass.
Perdido Beach, Alabama politicians rake in 96% of BP grant money for cleanup. The town also wants the state to let them keep the nearly one million dollars of unspent BP grant money.
Flush with BP PLC grant money, Perdido Beach officials gave one council member’s business more than $300,000 of the $520,000 that the town spent on oil-spill response efforts.
Almost $10,000 was awarded to a second council member’s business, while $98,000 went to the business of state Sen. Trip Pittman.
Under state law, small towns like Perdido Beach may purchase services from elected officials, but the cost “shall in no event exceed the sum of $3,000.”
…
She [Sheila Stone, town's attorney] pointed to another section of the law that allows elected officials to skirt competitive bid laws in disaster situations or what is known as a “state of emergency,” which the council declared on May 3. Gov. Bob Riley had announced a statewide emergency three days earlier.
In such a case, “contracts may be let to the extent necessary to meet the emergency without public advertisement,” the law states.
…
Another section of Alabama law says that elected officials must report their contracts with public bodies to the state Ethics Commission.
Neither Councilman William Kelley, whose business received the majority of the money, nor Councilman Ronnie Resmondo, who owns the only business within the town limits, reported their contracts with the commission, according to its general council, Hugh R. Evans.
“The law doesn’t give exceptions,” Evans said. “If you’re a public official and you enter a contract that’s paid out of public monies, it has to be filed with us.”
Alabama official in charge of selecting contractors picks himself.
AY MINETTE, Ala. -- Silverhill businessman Don White said this week that Fairhope unfairly shut him out of competition for thousands of dollars in oil boom work during the Gulf spill. He blamed a state senator who was helping oversee spill-response funds in Baldwin County and whose own company received more than $600,000 from the city for boom work.
“I showed Trip Pittman our absorbent barrier boom. ... Not only did he not forward this info to anyone weeks before any votes for boom were cast, but he never told me that he was in charge of the BP funds,” White said.
…
In the midst of the spill crisis in June, Fairhope paid $639,000 for boom work by its longtime emergency contract-holder Pittman Tractor Co., owned by Pittman, a Republican state senator from Montrose.
Pittman was one of two state lawmakers appointed early in the spill by Gov. Bob Riley to oversee the division of $15 million in BP PLC response funding allotted to Baldwin County. Fairhope got $1.5 million for projects to protect its shores.
…
According to Fairhope records, four companies submitted quotes on boom work. The city did not formally advertise for bids, officials confirmed. White’s company was not among the four that submitted quotes.
University of West Florida economist says BP should reimburse businesses based on projected increased revenues.
In June and July, bed-tax revenues alone fell between 40 percent and 45 percent in Pensacola compared with the previous year, said Rick Harper, director of the university’s Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development.
…
During the same time, the Destin-Fort Walton Beach market suffered a 14 percent decline in the number of hotel rooms rented and an 8.5 percent drop in average daily room rates, Harper said.
BP officials said they are willing to compensate businesses based on a comparison from 2009 revenues, but that doesn’t come close to what the actual losses are likely to be, Harper said.
…
Without an oil spill, Northwest Florida could have done better than the previous year as the economy slowly pulls out of a recession, Harper said.
…
Harper said Florida should send damage estimates to the federal government as soon as possible to keep pace with other Gulf of Mexico states that will be competing for restoration dollars.
BP considering North Sea asset sale to help cover Gulf spill costs.
BP Said to Weigh North Sea Asset Sales for $1 Billion (Update2)
BP Plc, seeking to cover clean-up costs from its Gulf of Mexico oil spill, is weighing the sale of some North Sea assets that may raise as much as $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Environmental groups band together to sue BP in Ecuador. I can't see how the suit will end up having much in the way of practical effect but the fact that Ecuador gives the environment constitutional status is interesting. h/t - Yasuragi
Chair of the Environmental Rights Action (ERA), Friends of the Earth Nigeria (FoEN) and Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), Nnimmo Bassey, is among a team of activists seeking justice from the court of law over alleged large scale environmental pollution by oil giants, British Petroleum (BP).
The case was filed recently by the group, jointly operating under a coalition tagged Defenders of Nature’s Rights, at the Constitutional court of Ecuador against BP and alleged crimes against nature.
Ecuador recognises the rights of nature in its current constitution adopted in 2008. The rights of nature are regarded as universal, thus providing the fundamental basis for the case.
…
The case was brought with regard to the massive environmental disaster caused when BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, 2010. Observers say the incident exposed BP’s drive to maximise profit with disregard of nature and its rights.
…
…the Defenders of Nature are not seeking financial compensation since the harm done to nature cannot be compensated for in monetary terms. He noted that some of the key demands in the case include that BP should release all data and information on the ecological destruction caused by the oil spill. Another demand, he added, is that they should also to refrain from extracting as much oil underground as they spilled in the Gulf of Mexico incident.
Brazilian approval of BP's plan for deepwater drilling is taking longer than expected. Given BP's atrocious safety track record it is scary that BP would be even considered by anyone to do deepwater drilling anywhere in the world. - h/t Yasuragi
On Monday, Brazil's state oil regulator, ANP, said it would wait until 2011 to decide whether to approve BP's proposed purchase of Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN - news) 's offshore oil blocks.
Haroldo Lima, director general of the ANP, told Reuters in an interview it was still awaiting specific information it had sought from BP, chiefly about its strategy and intentions in Brazilian oil as well as more details about the recent oil rig disaster in Gulf of Mexico.
Analysts said they had expected the deal, announced in March, to close sooner.
"Brazil is particularly significant for us as we are preparing to operate in the deepwater there ... I am hopeful that approval will be granted in the near future," Dudley said.
BP wants to expand in Brazil and has held talks with state oil company Petrobras (Madrid: XPBR.MC - news) about working together further and is considering participating in bidding for exploration rights, including some for very deep areas below the salt layer, Dudley said.
There are questionable financial transactions involving BP and the Pakistan government. - h/t Yasuragi
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has sought reasons from the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) on the purchase of British Petroleum (BP) assets at an exorbitant price on Monday.
…
The court expressed its concern that the government had earlier sold BP assets at a very low rate in 2002, but was now buying the same assets at a higher price, which is causing a loss of $800 million to the national exchequer, that did not make any sense.
PLEASE visit Pam LaPier's diary to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!
Previous Gulf Watcher diaries:
The last Mothership has links to reference material.
Previous motherships and ROV's from this extensive live blog effort may be found here.
Again, to keep bandwidth down, please do not post images or videos.