Oil Spill- at least it doesn't interefere with my holidays

[Rob W 0]

tho I expect Tony Hayward is sweating at BP - the awful thing is everyone forgets the 11 lads killed on the "Horizon"

[Happy Face 29]

[Happy Face 29]

Hurricane season is looming.

[Rob W 0]

that'll break it up no problem

[Happy Face 29]

The BP/Government police state

 

Mother Jones' Mac McClelland, who has been covering the BP oil spill in the Gulf since the first day it happened, detailed how local police and federal officials work with BP to harass, impede, interrogate and even detain journalists who are covering the impact of the spill and the clean-up efforts. She documented one incident which was particularly chilling of an activist who -- after being told by a local police officer to stop filming a BP facility because "BP didn't want him filming" -- was then pulled over after he left by that officer so he could be interrogated by a BP security official. McClelland also described how BP has virtually bought entire Police Departments which now do its bidding: "One parish has 57 extra shifts per week that they are devoting entirely to, basically, BP security detail, and BP is paying the sheriff's office."

 

Today, an article that is a joint collaboration between PBS' Frontline and ProPublica reported that a BP refinery in Texas "spewed tens of thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals into the skies" two weeks before the company's rig in the Gulf collapsed. Accompanying that article was this sidebar report:

 

A photographer taking pictures for these articles, was detained Friday while shooting pictures in Texas City, Texas.

 

The photographer, Lance Rosenfield, said that shortly after arriving in town, he was confronted by a BP security officer, local police and a man who identified himself as an agent of the

Department of Homeland Security

. He was released after the police reviewed the pictures he had taken on Friday and recorded his date of birth, Social Security number and other personal information.

 

The police officer then turned that information over to the BP security guard under what he said was standard procedure, according to Rosenfield.

 

No charges were filed.

 

Rosenfield, an experienced freelance photographer, said he was detained shortly after shooting a photograph of a Texas City sign on a public roadway. Rosenfield said he was followed by a BP employee in a truck after taking the picture and blocked by two police cars when he pulled into a gas station.

 

According to Rosenfield, the officers said they had a right to look at photos taken near secured areas of the refinery, even if they were shot from public property. Rosenfield said he was told he would be "taken in" if he declined to comply.

 

ProPublica's Paul Steiger said that the reporting team told law enforcement agents that they were working on a deadline for this story about that facility, and that even if DHS agents believed they had a legitimate reason to scrutinize the actions and photographs of this photographer, there was no reason that "should have included sharing them with a representative of a private company."

 

These are true police state tactics, and it's now clear that it is part of a pattern. It's been documented for months now that BP and government officials have been acting in unison to block media coverage of the area; Newsweek reported this in late May:

 

As BP makes its latest attempt to plug its gushing oil well, news photographers are complaining that their efforts to document the slow-motion disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are being thwarted by local and federal officials -- working with BP -- who are blocking access to the sites where the effects of the spill are most visible. More than a month into the disaster, a host of anecdotal evidence is emerging from reporters, photographers, and TV crews in which BP and Coast Guard officials explicitly target members of the media, restricting and denying them access to oil-covered beaches, staging areas for clean-up efforts, and even flyovers.

 

The very idea that government officials are acting as agents of BP (of all companies) in what clearly seem to be unconstitutional acts to intimidate and impede the media is infuriating. Obviously, the U.S. Government and BP share the same interest -- preventing the public from knowing the magnitude of the spill and the inadequacy of the clean-up efforts -- but this creepy police state behavior is intolerable. In this latest case, the journalists were not even focused on the spill itself, but on BP's other potentially reckless behavior with other refineries, and yet there are DHS agents and local police officials acting as BP's personal muscle to detain, interrogate, and threaten a photographer. BP's destructive conduct, and the government's complicity, have slowly faded from public attention, and there clearly seem to be multiple levels of law enforcement devoted to keeping it that way, no matter how plainly illegal their tactics are.

 

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_gr...5/bp/index.html

 

Department of Homeland Security?

 

This wouldn't be anti-terror laws being used outside of it's purported intent, would it?

Edited July 6, 2010 by Happy Face

[Park Life 71]

Some estimates say it will end up costing BP 40 billion. Utter fuckin disgrace.

[Happy Face 29]

Some estimates say it will end up costing BP 40 billion. Utter fuckin disgrace.

 

I'd be surprised if they pay that much.

 

In the 77 days since the spill (11 weeks) it's only cost them $3 billion.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10505423.stm

 

7 days after the explosion first quarter (12 week) profits announced were almost double that - $5.6 billion.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/ap...oil-prices-rise

[Park Life 71]

Some estimates say it will end up costing BP 40 billion. Utter fuckin disgrace.

 

I'd be surprised if they pay that much.

 

In the 77 days since the spill (11 weeks) it's only cost them $3 billion.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10505423.stm

 

7 days after the explosion first quarter (12 week) profits announced were almost double that - $5.6 billion.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/ap...oil-prices-rise

 

The law suits ain't started yet bro.

[Happy Face 29]

Some estimates say it will end up costing BP 40 billion. Utter fuckin disgrace.

 

I'd be surprised if they pay that much.

 

In the 77 days since the spill (11 weeks) it's only cost them $3 billion.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10505423.stm

 

7 days after the explosion first quarter (12 week) profits announced were almost double that - $5.6 billion.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/ap...oil-prices-rise

 

The law suits ain't started yet bro.

 

 

The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, yielded $1 billion in restoration and restitution costs, although Exxon Mobil Corp. estimates it has so far spent $3.5 billion and faces an additional $2.5 billion in criminal penalties.

 

Can't see BP getting hammered for almost 7 times that amount, especially if they manage to pin the blame on Deepwater Horizon.

[Park Life 71]

Some estimates say it will end up costing BP 40 billion. Utter fuckin disgrace.

 

I'd be surprised if they pay that much.

 

In the 77 days since the spill (11 weeks) it's only cost them $3 billion.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10505423.stm

 

7 days after the explosion first quarter (12 week) profits announced were almost double that - $5.6 billion.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/ap...oil-prices-rise

 

The law suits ain't started yet bro.

 

 

The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, yielded $1 billion in restoration and restitution costs, although Exxon Mobil Corp. estimates it has so far spent $3.5 billion and faces an additional $2.5 billion in criminal penalties.

 

Can't see BP getting hammered for almost 7 times that amount, especially if they manage to pin the blame on Deepwater Horizon.

 

It's also set up a 20 billion reserve legal fund. This ain't like the exxon thing, the oil has been gushing for weeks and at a massive rate, not sure it still isn't actually. The impact will be massive and ongoing for generations. Plenty of legal action to come. Trust me.

Edited July 6, 2010 by Park Life

[Happy Face 29]

Some estimates say it will end up costing BP 40 billion. Utter fuckin disgrace.

 

I'd be surprised if they pay that much.

 

In the 77 days since the spill (11 weeks) it's only cost them $3 billion.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10505423.stm

 

7 days after the explosion first quarter (12 week) profits announced were almost double that - $5.6 billion.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/ap...oil-prices-rise

 

The law suits ain't started yet bro.

 

 

The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, yielded $1 billion in restoration and restitution costs, although Exxon Mobil Corp. estimates it has so far spent $3.5 billion and faces an additional $2.5 billion in criminal penalties.

 

Can't see BP getting hammered for almost 7 times that amount, especially if they manage to pin the blame on Deepwater Horizon.

 

It's also set up a 20 billion reserve legal fund. This ain't like the exxon thing, the oil has been gushing for weeks and at a massive rate, not sure it still isn't actually. The impact will be massive and ongoing for generations. Plenty of legal action to come. Trust me.

 

It's going to be gushing into August.

 

I wish i shared your confidence in corporate responsibility. BP have been turning people's heads with cash offers all over the coast...on condition of waivers being signed on any future pay-out. Lot's of people that have lost their livlihood get offered work assisting in the clean-up, on similar conditions.

 

Of course, a lot of it's covered by insurance too. The rig owners insured it for $560 million, of which they've already received $401m back to cover their loss of earnings.

 

Insurers and reinsurers are likely to be have to pay about $1.4 billion in connection with the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Insurance Information Institute (BestWire, May 5, 2010).

 

So BP's liability looks like half what's actually been paid out so far.

[Rob W 0]

It's also a joint venture operation with Anadarko and Mitsui who will be up for their share of the costs

 

I heard that one of them actually bought into the well when it was half way down.......

[Toonpack 7243]

BP are well ferked if the "word on the, Oil capital of the UK, street" is anything to go by.

 

Email's from suppliers (Haliburton for one) recommending certain things be done, ignored, because they were up against a $26 mill penalty to start production, and some common drilling practices willfully shortcutted. Alledgedly of course.

[Rob W 0]

not so allegedly

 

Haliburton of course were recommending sommat that would make them $$$$$$$ but I'#ve seen enough to suggest that there was a serious set of errors offshore

 

How much that is due to pressure from the beach we will no doubt discover

[ChezGiven 0]

This link may seriously affect your day. Read with care.

 

http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doomsd...d-killing-event

 

 

Awaits Parky's thoughts.

[Happy Face 29]

Fascinating.

 

Can't see it though...not until 2012.

[Park Life 71]

This link may seriously affect your day. Read with care.

 

http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doomsd...d-killing-event

 

 

Awaits Parky's thoughts.

 

Ok I have been discussing this quite heavily on another site (conspiracy ) , we have been aware of the giant gas bubble for about 3 weeks and it will cause a Tsunami that will wipe out millions if it goes off, that much is clear. We also have airborne evidence of the secret arrival of 100's of UN vehicles to a militayr airport int he gulf. I will start pulling some stuff over to this thread.

 

His face wracked by age and his voice rasping after decades of chain-smoking coarse tobacco, the former long-time Russian Minister of nuclear energy and veteran Soviet physicist Viktor Mikhailov knows just how to fix BP's oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

"A nuclear explosion over the leak," he says nonchalantly puffing a cigarette as he sits in a conference room at the Institute of Strategic Stability, where he is a director. "I don't know what BP is waiting for, they are wasting their time. Only about 10 kilotons of nuclear explosion capacity and the problem is solved."

 

A nuclear fix to the leaking well has been touted online and in the occasional newspaper op-ed for weeks now. Washington has repeatedly dismissed the idea and BP execs say they are not considering an explosion -- nuclear or otherwise. But as a series of efforts to plug the 60,000 barrels of oil a day gushing from the sea floor have failed, talk of an extreme solution refuses to die.

 

For some, blasting the problem seems the most logical answer in the world. Mikhailov has had a distinguished career in the nuclear field, helping to close a Soviet Union program that used nuclear explosions to seal gas leaks. Ordinarily he's an opponent of nuclear blasts, but he says an underwater explosion in the Gulf of Mexico would not be harmful and could cost no more than $10 million. That compares with the $2.35 billion BP has paid out in cleanup and compensation costs so far. "This option is worth the money," he says."

[Park Life 71]

If you`re living in the U.S., particularly within a thousand miles of the Gulf, you need to detoxify your body now. Here`s why: Crude oil is packed with a toxic chemical called benzene. Even in small amounts, benzene is associated with leukemia, Hodgkin`s Lymphoma and other serious blood and immune system diseases. The EPA`s "safe level" for benzene is 4 ppb (parts per billion) and benzene is being found in Gulf air at levels of 3,000 ppb. Crude oil is being smelled hundreds of miles away, and make no mistake, if you can smell oil, you`re breathing highly toxic benzene.

 

With the oil, numerous toxic gases are also gushing from earth and gases that everyone near the Gulf is being exposed to include hydrogen sulfide and methylene chloride. The EPA`s allowable limit for hydrogen sulfide is 5-10 ppb (parts per billion), but on May 3rd air levels of 1,192 ppb were recorded. A former oil company CEO says these levels pose serious, even fatal, risks to adults and unborn children. Hydrogen sulfide acts like carbon monoxide and cyanide gases - it inhibits cellular respiration and oxygen uptake, and causes cellular suffocation. As for methylene chloride, the body changes it to carbon monoxide - and it`s known to cause liver damage, skin damage and cancer. The EPA`s safe level for methylene chloride is 61 ppb - and it`s being found in the air at levels of 3,000 ppb"

[Park Life 71]

Sold % Total

Shares Held % Chg from

Prior Port % Total

Assets Date of

Portfolio Star Rating

 

Vanguard Windsor II Investor -1,371,785 0.31 -12.30 1.52 03/31/2010

 

Goldman Sachs Structured Intl Equity A -399,339 0.03 -32.97 2.07 01/31/2010

 

ING International Value A -194,100 0.01 -47.53 0.79 03/31/2010

 

Hartford Equity Income A -165,900 0.01 -35.69 1.81 04/30/2010

 

Oppenheimer Capital Income A -142,000 0.01 -37.87 0.73 02/28/2010

 

ING International Value Port I -111,400 0.00 -51.31 1.54 03/31/2010

 

Vanguard Windsor Investor -110,700 0.04 -7.49 0.58 03/31/2010

 

RiverSource Diversified Equity Inc A -110,394 0.04 -8.06 1.38 04/30/2010

 

RiverSource VP Diversified Equity Inc 3 -88,758 0.03 -8.06 1.31 04/30/2010

 

TCW Dividend Focused N -87,000 0.00 -78.66 0.16 05/31/2010

 

ICON Energy -85,100 0.01 -32.57 1.56 04/30/2010

 

Claymore Dividend & Income Fund -58,031 0.00 -48.15 4.56 01/31/2010

 

Hartford Dividend & Growth HLS IA -48,800 0.03 -4.32 1.09 04/30/2010

 

MainStay International Equity B -30,500 0.01 -8.70 2.41 04/30/2010

 

MainStay VP Series Intl Equity Svc -24,900 0.01 -8.60 2.38 04/30/2010

 

JHFunds2 Alpha Opportunities NAV -23,200 0.00 -43.78 0.19 04/30/2010

 

Consulting Group Large Cap Value Equity -20,000 0.02 -3.74 2.10 03/31/2010

 

Chestnut Street Exchange -18,400 0.00 -43.83 0.57 05/31/2010

 

JHT Alpha Opportunities Trust Ser NAV -18,400 0.00 -43.37 0.19 04/30/2010

 

BlackRock Global Allocation B -17,100 0.04 -1.30 0.23 01/31/2010

 

Name Shares

Sold % Total

Shares Held % Chg from

Prior Port % Total

Assets Date of

Portfolio

 

Goldman Sachs Asset Management, L.P. -4,680,822 0.19 -43.72 0.37 03/31/2010

 

Wachovia Bank National Association -2,667,419 0.00 -97.73 1.36 03/31/2010

 

Sanders Capital, LLC -1,371,785 0.31 -12.30 1.52 03/31/2010

 

Pnc Bank, National Association -1,177,413 0.17 -17.84 0.95 03/31/2010

 

OppenheimerFunds, Inc -837,330 0.01 -78.23 0.02 03/31/2010

 

Columbia Management Company -796,863 0.37 -6.42 0.55 03/31/2010

 

Eaton Vance Management -563,796 0.05 -27.05 0.17 03/31/2010

 

Institutional Capital Corp. -465,900 0.04 -29.60 0.53 03/31/2010

 

Argyll Research, Llc -425,000 0.01 -52.47 0.14 03/31/2010

 

Ing Investment Management Co. -312,754 0.01 -47.36 0.08 03/31/2010

 

Fidelity Management and Research Company -300,889 0.25 -3.70 0.10 03/31/2010

 

United States Steel &Carnegie Pension Fd -255,000 0.04 -17.88 1.22 03/31/2010

 

AllianceBernstein L.P. -238,897 0.09 -7.54 0.11 03/31/2010

 

Goldman, Sachs & Co. -212,206 0.02 -24.30 0.03 03/31/2010

 

Morgan Stanley Invstmt Management Inc -204,170 0.03 -15.97 0.11 03/31/2010

 

JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. -171,641 0.09 -5.92 0.65 03/31/2010

 

Geneva Inv Mgmt Of Chicago LLC -159,155 0.00 -82.61 0.11 03/31/2010

 

Delaware Management Business Trust -155,743 0.09 -5.22 0.61 03/31/2010

 

Boston Trust & Investment Management Co. -148,354 0.01 -30.93 0.80 03/31/2010

 

Bank of New York Mellon -147,906 0.12 -3.83 0.24 03/31/2010

 

Permissions/Reprin

[Toonpack 7243]

not so allegedly

 

Haliburton of course were recommending sommat that would make them $$$$$$$ but I'#ve seen enough to suggest that there was a serious set of errors offshore

 

How much that is due to pressure from the beach we will no doubt discover

 

From what I've heard:

 

Haliburton recommended 21 centralisers be used on the well (from what I've been told a centraliser is a "thing" put down the well around the drill to help the concerete set evently to reinforce the well itself) BP had 6 on site, they said fuck it, go ahead although another 15 were found onshore but drillmaster said it'd cost 10 hours and they went ahead with 6.

 

When drilling a well it's usual to circulate the mud full depth and check for gas as that effects the concrete setting, they only checked surface mud.

 

When a wells drilled they send a piece of sensor kit down which in essence checks the laid concrete to ensure it's solid and not fragmented (which is what gas can do to it), drillmaster again (glad I'm not him) said fuck it, it'll cost 12hours.

 

All to save $26 million, bet they wish they'd just lost the 26mill.

 

Evidently they also knew the blow out preventer had no back up (as it was knackered).

[Park Life 71]

There are other things to consider on whether or not this is assymetric warfare against BP...

 

"Unlike the Iranian/Arab government investors who are expected to come humbly to Washington to seek an implied permission to spend their oil money, the British demanded a piece of corporate America in 1969 — and got it. That was the year that BP, a gigantic integrated multi-national oil company, began the process of swallowing the Standard Oil Company of Ohio (Sohio). The Justice Department in a half-hearted gesture that marked the anti-trust actions of the Nixon Years had stepped in to block the acquisition. In reaction, British Foreign Minister Michael Stewart complained personally to Secretary of State William P. Rogers. The State Department subsequently relayed the Crown's concern to the Justice Department, which was a factor considered in permitting BP to proceed with the deal to buy into Sohio. Rogers, who left the Nixon cabinet in 1973, was elected a director of Sohio on April 24, 1975.

 

The chain of control can be summed up quickly: Her Majesty's Government owns 69.7 percent of British Petroleum, which in turn now owns 25 percent of Sohio. BP's grip on Sohio under the terms of the takeover agreement will expand to 54 percent as soon as the British oil in Prudhoe Bay begins flowing at the rate of 600,000 barrels a day through the Trans Alaska Pipeline. The Prudhoe Bay field section in which BP struck oil is now in Sohio's name."

[Park Life 71]

How the ultimate BP Gulf disaster could kill millions

 

Disturbing evidence is mounting that something frightening is happening deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico—something far worse than the BP oil gusher.

 

Warnings were raised as long as a year before the Deepwater Horizon disaster that the area of seabed chosen by the BP geologists might be unstable, or worse, inherently dangerous.

 

What makes the location that Transocean chose potentially far riskier than other potential oil deposits located at other regions of the Gulf? It can be summed up with two words: methane gas.

 

The same methane that makes coal mining operations hazardous and leads to horrendous mining accidents deep under the earth also can present a high level of danger to certain oil exploration ventures.

 

Location of Deepwater Horizon oil rig was criticized

 

More than 12 months ago some geologists rang the warning bell that the Deepwater Horizon exploratory rig might have been erected directly over a huge underground reservoir of methane.

 

Documents from several years ago indicate that the subterranean geologic formation may contain the presence of a huge methane deposit.

 

None other than the engineer who helped lead the team to snuff the Gulf oil fires set by Saddam Hussein to slow the advance of American troops has stated that a huge underground lake of methane gas—compressed by a pressure of 100,000 pounds per square inch (psi)—could be released by BP's drilling effort to obtain the oil deposit.

 

Current engineering technology cannot contain gas that is pressurized to 100,000 psi.

 

By some geologists' estimates the methane could be a massive 15 to 20 mile toxic and explosive bubble trapped for eons under the Gulf sea floor. In their opinion, the explosive destruction of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead was an accident just waiting to happen.

[ChezGiven 0]

If you`re living in the U.S., particularly within a thousand miles of the Gulf, you need to detoxify your body now. Here`s why: Crude oil is packed with a toxic chemical called benzene. Even in small amounts, benzene is associated with leukemia, Hodgkin`s Lymphoma and other serious blood and immune system diseases. The EPA`s "safe level" for benzene is 4 ppb (parts per billion) and benzene is being found in Gulf air at levels of 3,000 ppb. Crude oil is being smelled hundreds of miles away, and make no mistake, if you can smell oil, you`re breathing highly toxic benzene.

 

With the oil, numerous toxic gases are also gushing from earth and gases that everyone near the Gulf is being exposed to include hydrogen sulfide and methylene chloride. The EPA`s allowable limit for hydrogen sulfide is 5-10 ppb (parts per billion), but on May 3rd air levels of 1,192 ppb were recorded. A former oil company CEO says these levels pose serious, even fatal, risks to adults and unborn children. Hydrogen sulfide acts like carbon monoxide and cyanide gases - it inhibits cellular respiration and oxygen uptake, and causes cellular suffocation. As for methylene chloride, the body changes it to carbon monoxide - and it`s known to cause liver damage, skin damage and cancer. The EPA`s safe level for methylene chloride is 61 ppb - and it`s being found in the air at levels of 3,000 ppb"

 

This is seriously scary.

[Park Life 71]

In the last few months, a strange series of events has taken place surrounding the April 20th BP Gulf oil spill. The Intel Hub will attempt to lay out some of the seemingly unbelievable facts in a manner which can easily be understood.

 

Between March 22nd and March 24th, several drills involving an oil spill took place.“Spills Of National Significance” was a drill ran by DHS and the Coast Guard. The SONS documents were first broke by the Intel Hub on May 8, 2010. More than a week later, ABC News would of course take credit for the story.

 

We now know, through witness testimony, that there were cracks reported in the drill casing two weeks prior to the disaster. Goldman Sachs sold 44% of their total holdings, 4,680,822 shares of BP stock in the first quarter of 2010. Goldman Sachs earned about $ 266 million on the sale.

 

Apparently, Halliburton also had some psychic insight on what was soon to come. Eleven days before the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon, Halliburton purchased an oil spill prevention firm. Halliburton was the lead company in charge of cementing the Deepwater rigs as well.

Just hours before the rig explosion, The Bureau of Land Management took part in a surprise inspection aboard the Deepwater Horizon. A four man team quickly flashed credentials to a supervisor and was then allowed access to the entire rig. Zac Zimmerman reveals in this interview how odd this particular BLM visit really was. Not to mention,many rigs have burned for weeks at a time without collapsing"

[Park Life 71]

BP insider...

 

"There's also something happening about 100 miles southeast of the rig site with several navy and uscg ships. And Friday two serious looking guys arrive and started directing our sup. Apparently they showed Navy Intelligence ID when they arrived along with a dozen commando looking guys.

Rumor is that now they're going to call marshall law and all of us will be prevented from leaving the ships to see our families. Things are going from really bad to crazy.

Nearly everyone here is of the belief that the blowout was planned as a way to destroy a well that had too many problems to be ultimately profitable, and get two new wells drilled (the relief wells) that will be wildly profitable and the only way to do that was destroy this one. We calculated that even with paying cleanup costs the profit on two wells in this reserve will far outweigh the costs in less than a year.

I hope you get this and trust me enough to find a way to get it out as it will probably be the last time I have access to internet and might be the only way you hear a BP employee talk about this for some time.

And Im sorry I can't give you my email as I'm concerned for what might happen if this disclosure is traced back to me"